Little Old Men

Let's Go!

Take 4 sheets of newspaper, folded, to give you 8 thicknesses. This will form one leg. Repeat.

4 sheets of newspaper

Forming the legs

Roll the sheets with the grain, starting with the fold. Wrap masking tape around each tube approx ¾ of the way up.

Place the two rolls together and wrap masking tape round the ends not yet taped, to join them together. You will now be able to bend open the legs slightly.

Joining the legs

Forming the head

Attach a sheet of crumpled newspaper to form the head. Tape securely in place.

Using your choice of pulp recipe, pulp over the whole armature and leave to dry. For detailed instructions on making pulp, please refer to my Bird Houses tutorial.

Covering the armature

Sculpting the armature

We now have our basic armature ready for your creative fingers to take over. I like to put on a rough foot first and let it dry. This way I can stand the item up while working on it. I also like to work in sections, head first.

Here the face is being roughly worked. The eyes on this one are beads inserted. Eyelids are sculpted out of papier mache.

Modelling the face