I knew that getting the head right would really sell the puppet. I saw huge variations in quality of the heads in the pictures on the web. I gathered a few pictures of movie stills with close-ups of the head as a reference.
I've used foam before and thought it would be the easiest medium for me to work in. I bought a 4'x8'x6" piece of foam to use for the legs and head. Based on my measurements, I figured that three 6" x 18" x 18" pieces of foam could form the major block of the head, and a 10" x 18" piece could form the front snout..
I first made the jaw out of 1/8" melamine board with duct tape serving as the hinge. I attached some PVC pipe to accommodate the pole for holding the head up, as well as a pole coming out of the back for connection with the spine. From there I glued together the rest of the head pieces using Great Stuff spray foam. I carved the basic shape with the drywall saw, then continued to shape with the rasp and the saw. I focused on getting the cheek ridges, top of the head, and snout right.
Note that carving foam like this makes a HUGE staticy mess.
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