Research:

(initial Ideas)

For image 4 I have gone for the legendary horror myth, Mothman. Mothman is a human and moth creature that’s been spotted and sighted in Point Pleasant, West Vaginia since 1966, Mothman has become the main attraction for Point Pleasant with visitors coming from all over the world to try and spot this creature. Mothman is has been to chase people out of the woods, staring people down with his blood red eyes before chasing them away or hunting them down, no one knows. The creature is said to keep to its self, but have a dark energy around it. (Horning, 2025)

Going further into my research I have chosen this myth to be the one I will focus on for my Primary research, having being able to get an interview with the owner of the Mothman Museum themselves though for that to go ahead I need my ethics form approved, to make sure everything is confidential and okay to go ahead with, I sent it in for the submission in early December so I should be hearing back from that soon hopefully! 

I have heard so many stories about Mothman growing up but have started really getting into the history and the details of the creature going into a rabbit hole just before starting at York College and University Centre. I always fall asleep watching creepy stories or horror stories and have been really getting into the Mothman ones and have been finding them quite enjoyable. Below I have attached some of my favourite ones if you want to delve deeper into that:

(Photo Research)

like the previous images I am going to look at photo inspiration of past sightings or what other people have seen. I want to gather as much information as possible as this is going to be the grand finale of my Major Project, I am wanting to create a facial prosthesis, prostiche, realistic wings and I have a few more ideas I am not to sure on at the moment but I am hoping my primary research will come into clutch when I will be needing that inspiration. Below I have created another MoodBoard which should spark some creativity when it comes to to creating my design plans and face charts:

Just like the previous blogs I am going to create a list of what I want this image to include. I know for definite I want to push my limits with this image, I want to create silicone wings and a full facial prosthetic. For this image I am going to have to research ways of creating things as a lot of what I am planning is going to be very specific. Down below is the list:

• facial prosthetic
• silicone wings 
• dark
• in the woods 
• short video
• red glowing eyes
• facial PROSTICHE
• claws?

now that I have got a list of what I am planning on doing I have chosen to draw up a few design plans/ face charts to give me a starting point of where I want to go with this image.

down below are the few sketches i have managed to get done at the moment: 

Design:

(Face charts/ Designs)

                    Figure 11: prosthetic wings design (Rutter. C, 2025)

(Design Research)

To further my research a bit like I said above I have been looking into how to make different aspects over my image. I have mostly looked into some videos right now which I will pop below. The things I am most trying to figure out would be the facial prosthetics and the wings. I think after looking into it I will tackle making the wings out of wire encased in silicone, building it on a plastic sheet and colouring it with alcohol based SFX paint pallets. If i can find a way to make them move would be ideal, but since there is a time frame I need to keep in with if I can’t do that then it would be okay. 

                 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Aqj7wzjPk                                                 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIbr2eM5GXY&vl=en  

For the facial prosthetics I have decided to create a ‘mask’ that’s not really a mask? My plan is create a wig base for the head past covered in feathers and fluff and attaching that to a facial Prostiche which can be stuck to the face like a regular prosthetic, it sounds a bit confusing but I am going to trail and error it after the Christmas break. Below I have attached some more videos that have helped me come to my sort of conclusion for now:  

(Design - Costuming):

for costuming I went with simple black clothes where I added fluffy boot covers on the bottom of the feet, and used some fabric I had used to create the spine of my wings (which is in the section Design - Prosthetics and Wig) to create some arm covers. To top everything off I have a feathered belt in which was strapped around the waist and shoulders to add more texture to the look. 

(Design - Prosthetics and Wig):

Originally in my design plans I wanted to create a four fingered hand for my image though because of timing I opted to create a mould of the models hand using alginate and creating just a regular hand. Once the mould was made silicone was poured into it and it was tapped on the work surface to get rid of any air bubbles, this was repeated twice once for each hand.

To create the nails I sculpted, cast and made a mould of the nail, to help shorten the wastage of products I just created a singular nail in which was ran with resin to create the hard feeling of a nail. Down below are the images of that process. 

Figure 12: process of creating the hands (Rutter.C, 2026)

The next step was to create the beak which I sculpted, cast and made a mould out of silicone. I then ran it using resin just like I did with the nails, . One the resin had cured I then cut it out of the mould and sanded it down. Down below you can see the picture progress. 

Figure 13: process of creating the beak (Rutter.C, 2026)

I then decided to tackle the wig in which I made a template of the modes head and put it into place on my wig block. To create the cap of my wig i used the measurements to create the foundation of my wig with wire and fabric which I sewed together. One the base was created I started sewing the wefts of hair onto my wig and sewed strings of feathers throughout the layers also. I strayed from the design plans slightly and used mainly black and brown for the wig instead of of red and brown. 

While working on the wig I started to work on my wings too. To create the spine I used wire in which I bent into shape and paper mashed around and taped it up. I then sewed fabric around it in which I used a cuts from a fluffy jacket I found from the charity shop! I strayed from the design plan slightly and used a brown and black colour scheme instead of the red I thought of first. Once all sewn together I started creating the wings, I wanted them to be skin like so I mapped out on a sheet of plastic the shape of them and used a mixture of acetone and baldise and started painting it on the template, in which I did five layers on each of the two I made. To remove them from the plastic I used baby powder and slowly peeled it off. Down below you can see the progress of both the wings and the wig!

Figure 14: progress of wig and wings (Rutter. C, 2026)

The finishing touches I have made to these elements are hair punching the hands, adding the nails to the hands with gorilla glue and using alcohol paints to paint them. I also used the alcohol paints to paint the wings after adding wire to the top edges gluing that together with hot glue along with gluing the wings onto the spine and sewing straps onto the wings so they can be worn along with gluing some feathers onto it also. For the wig i sewed an extra peice of fabric under the top of the wig where I then glued the eyes I made from some packaging and painted red. Also gluing feathers on the top of the wig to look like antennas. 

Figure 15: final details on all look pieces (Rutter.C, 2026)