The Uncanny

Text:

I based this project on the ghost story “The Man With No Face” by G.M. Shadows. I created two of the main characters from the story. The characters were the husband and the ‘ghost’ that was following him around.
The husband, Shirley, is described as:

“… a heavily built man, about 35 years old. He was rather handsome, in a rough-hewn way, but without his wife’s air of distinction”
“… but his eyes were cruel.. or relentless… or was it only dauntless?”

The ‘ghost’ is described as:

“It was there yesterday standing behind his chair. It is very horrible, for where its face ought to be is only a mass of scars.”

I took a few liberties with the design of the characters but based them and the concept of the project on those two characters.

 

Final:

 

‘Funnier’ final documentation:

 

Finished paper tape head:

‘More fun’ work in progress:

Work in progress:

Research:

-Googling disturbing psychological experiments (many were more depressing and serious than scary so I decided to go with a ghost story)
-Reading some of the ghost stories in “Great Ghost Stories: 101 Terrifying Tales”
-Looking at different types of puppets (Barnaby Dixon’s hand puppets, Adam Kreutinger’s muppet-esque puppets)
-Looking at Bunraku doll hands and then deciding that isn’t what I want to do
-Looking at lots of pictures of ventriloquist doll heads
-Looking at the Timon puppet from The Lion King on Broadway and how it moves
-Looking at online puppet tutorials and taking puppet books out of the library