Wesley's Weekly HOW TO: Shrunken Head

POSTED BY Wesley Scoggins, 20 February 2008

This week, I am covering a recent request from the forums, Shrunken Heads!

Start with a foam ball same as with the ends of the fake bone from a few weeks ago.

Begin forming it into a vague human facial structure, it helps to maybe look up a few reference photos of shrunken heads and skeletal structures so you can start to get the basic anatomy right. But push in the sides, and the eye sockets, and pinch for the nose, and push in a little for the mouth, and you've got the basic shape ready.

I then coated it with a layer of liquid latex to give it a fleshy texture and look, then...

I went over it with some flesh colored paint, and some brown paint for the eye sockets and ear holes, and mouth. I also took this time to put a slit up the back because REAL Shrunken heads are created by slitting the back of the persons head and peeling the skin off from the back to the front, and then shrinking and leathering the skin and stiching it back together. If you wanted to make a particularly realistic Shrunken head, knowning details like this could come in handy.

Next, comes the hair, you could use yarn or fake hair for this, but I found the cheapest option (and I like how it looks) is tape. So take a strip of tape and...

Roll it between your hands forming it into a kind of tangled strand. Keep on doing this until...

You've got a nice handful of them. Then, start...

Begin pushing the tape rolls into the head similar to how you'd but hair into a Dolls head, start from the front and just work your way to the back, distributing them kind of organically on the head.

Use some glue or extra liquid latex to keep the hair sticking into the head, and kind of pull it back. Next..

I darkened the head a little with some dark greys and blacks adding in some extra detail, and and painted the hair black. I then...

Add in the "stitches" on the mouth by getting some rolled up tape, and pushing them in above and below the mouth the same way you pushed in the hair. Three is the traditional number of stitches, something else to know if you want to make a "realistic" looking head. It's also a good idea to put stitches up the back, and also the eyes if you want.

A little more detail with on the stiches and face and there you have it, a really simple, rather cheap fake shrunken head for all of your horrible black magic needs.