This week on Sketchy Details @Home, we take a look at Face Off Season 5, Episode 7. The contestants had to take a modern art style and apply it to a makeup. Laura's look was arguably one of the greatest to ever appear on the show (torn between that and Gage's twisted Hansel & Gretel finale design). She did a two-tone Cubist design where half of her character was one orange/yellow and the other half was blue/green. I wanted to play with the split color tonality and do something very iconic to Halloween. I sketched out a bat flying over the moon onto a dark and light gray sheet of plywood, then filled in the shapes with red and black (flipping on the panels) and detailed with white. There are parts that even resemble Cubism in the end. The effect is more stained glass spiderweb than Cubist, but it's actually my favorite prop ever.

Behind the scenes after the jump.

• The intro was filmed in my car because I did the bulk of the project yesterday afternoon/evening. I primed the boards on Sunday night to paint on Monday afternoon.
• I don't know what caused the feedback issues on the audio. I have to get that straightened out. At least it's only a small portion of the video. I'm not happy.
• This is how I paint from scratch. Big shapes, thick details, refine shapes and detail with original colors. It's why I prefer to work in acrylic. When in doubt, slap on another coat. You can rework it forever if you want to, so you just need to walk away eventually.
• The stage is going to be raked to add a little more dimension to the haunt. The characters--Frankenstein at the drums, the blue faun horn player, the Earth mother lead singer, and at least one more (a bass player)--will all be mounted to the boards with PVC fittings.
• I could see this mural becoming part of a permanent haunt theme, or at least a less variable haunt theme than new from the ground up each year. I definitely will not be chopping this up to build other props in the future. I'm too enamored of it.
• I've always wanted to do an art gallery/painting inspired haunt. This could lead to that being the permanent framing device in the future. The bar, ticket booth, etc. were all designed as the permanent framing device in a smaller yard and don't read as well in such a wide space. A huge canvas like this will read well.

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