Angela Quinton

Made-to-order werewolf masks, cheap

My wife and I are members of Latex Mask Central, a Facebook group where mask-makers of all skill levels can show off their work, ask questions about techniques and processes, and do a little buy-and-sell. Most of the work posted there seems to reflect an interest in zombies and evil clowns, but last week I got tagged in a post that was nothin’ but werewolves. A mask-maker named Jamie Routley sculpted a mask inspired by The Howling and is now turning out made-to-order copies on Etsy, for $225 USD / $300 CAD. Here are the details:

This is a full size 1:1 scale Howling bust. Made from a thick pull latex with custom paint, hand laid fur, acrylic eyes and resin teeth, gums and tongue. Each one is made to order. Each bust can be made as a wearable mask.

A lineup of werewolf masks, ready to be shipped to their new victims

If you want your own made-to-order werewolf mask for less than the cost of a cheap mobile phone, it looks like Jamie has you covered!

Angela Quinton May. 3rd 2019

“What We Do in the Shadows” TV series trailer has werewolves, supermarket fires, psychic vampires & more

The folks behind one of the only good movie about vampires (and a little movie about Ragnarok that you might have seen a few Thanksgivings ago) are back at it again.

Based on the feature film of the same name from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, What We Do in the Shadows is a documentary-style look into the daily (or rather, nightly) lives of four vampires who’ve “lived” together for hundreds of years. In Staten Island.

I’m thrilled that Clement and Waititi have turned that “good vampire movie” franchise into a new TV series for FX. Like the movie it’s based on, the series focuses on the exploits of vampires, but they chucked in a little lycanthropy action for werewolf nerds like us. I really like the werewolf design, although the one depicted in the trailer (and shown in the feature image on this post) really needs to stop skipping leg day at the gym.

Take a look, y’all:

What We Do in the Shadows season 1 premieres March 27th on FX. Visit the official site or Twitter account for more media and info.

Angela Quinton Feb. 6th 2019

Sculpting one of the many Immortal Masks werewolves

In the world of werewolf fandom, this is a widely agreed-upon pair of facts:

you can never have too many werewolf masks
the good werewolf masks cost more than a new computer

To wit: California’s Immortal Masks sells not one, not three, but five silicone werewolf masks of varying anatomy, coverage, and style. Each one starts in the Chromebook price range, and as you add options like fur and custom paint, the cost quickly ascends to MacBook territory.

Anyway, all of this preamble is just to set up my sharing this throwback photo from the Immortal Masks Instagram account, showing Andrew Freeman in the middle of sculpting the Immortal werewolf mask. Andrew popped into the comments to credit fellow creature sculptor Charlie Hernandez with “a lot of the heavy lifting”.

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A post shared by Immortal Masks and Immortal FX (@immortalmasks)

Paying four figures for a werewolf mask is a wild luxury, but I’m the owner of a custom painted and furred Hellhound mask and sleeves, and as someone who cares very much about detail and quality, the scrimping and saving and credit card debt was worth it to me.

Angela Quinton Feb. 1st 2019

“Update On Werewolves” by Margaret Atwood

This morning I noticed that one of the most popular posts on this site is, oddly, about a poem. That got me thinking about werewolves in verse, which sent me back to a poem by acclaimed writer, teacher and essayist Margaret Atwood, whose work you may have most recently seen adapted on Hulu.

Update On Werewolves
Margaret Atwood

In the old days, all werewolves were male.
They burst through their bluejean clothing
as well as their own split skins,
exposed themselves in parks,
howled at the moonshine.
Those things frat boys do.

Went too far with the pigtail yanking –
growled down into the pink and wriggling
females, who cried Wee wee
wee all the way to the bone.
Heck, it was only flirting,
plus a canid sense of fun:
See Jane run!

But now it’s different.
Now it’s a global threat.
Long-legged women sprint through ravines
in furry warmups, a pack of kinky
models in sado French Vogue getups
and airbrushed short-term memories,
bent on no-penalties rampage.

Look at their red-rimmed paws!
Look at their gnashing eyeballs!
Look at the backlit gauze
of their full-moon subversive haloes!
Hairy all over, this belle dame,
and it’s not a sweater.

O freedom, freedom and power!
they sing as they lope over bridges,
bums to the wind, ripping out throats
on footpaths, pissing off brokers.

Tomorrow they’ll be back
in their middle-management black
and Jimmy Choos
with hours they can’t account for
and first dates’ blood on the stairs.
They’ll make some calls: Goodbye.
It isn’t you. I can’t say why.
They’ll dream of sprouting tails
at sales meetings,
right in the audiovisuals.
They’ll have addictive hangovers
and ruined nails.

“Update On Werewolves” was first published in 2012 on Atwood’s Wattpad site, and has circulated since. I’m taking the liberty of reposting the whole poem here because I want some of its powerful, sneering, Jimmy-Choo-and-blood energy to permeate this site.

Angela Quinton Jan. 24th 2019

Hyper-realistic 1/6th scale werewolf figurine by Imge Celepci

Last year, sculptor and painter Imge Celepci (aka Rusty Blonde) was commissioned to create a 1/6th scale werewolf, and the result is incredible. Followers of her Instagram were able to watch her progress as she sculpted the head, hands and legs, hand-laid and punched the fur (it’s grey yarn!), and painted the display case. You can see a compilation video here:

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A post shared by Imge Celepci (@imgecelepci)

And here’s a selection of photos showing the finished figurine, from the clawed hands to the digitigrade legs. These photos are also available on Imge’s Facebook page.

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A post shared by Imge Celepci (@imgecelepci)

If you’d like to commission Imge for a sculpture or painting, you can reach her through her Etsy shop or by email at [her first and last name]@gmail.com. If you’re hoping to get a quote on a werewolf like this, though, I’m sorry to say you’re probably out of luck. “This was a very challenging and time consuming piece,” she wrote in a comment on a Facebook photo of this werewolf, “and I do not plan to make another one in the future…”

Angela Quinton Jan. 18th 2019

HoOman Raad created this amazing werewolf model in two weeks

Happy Wolfenoot / Friday! It’s been a busy week, so here, like a furry oasis for your eyes, is a very good werewolf image. The artist is HoOman Raad, a 3D character / creature artist from Iran, and the werewolf is a creation of pure mathematics, containing over 33,000 polygons, including 23,000 for the hair alone.

Animated turnaround of Werewolf model by HoOman Raad

Here is a Werewolf I did for Kunoichi studio.
it took around 2 weeks and I’ve done the Concept, Model, Texture and Material setup in UE4.
These images have captured from Unreal engine.
Hope you like them.

“Kunoichi studio”, near as I can tell, is Studio F.O.W – not a company whose products you should Google while you’re at work, if you know what I mean.

I try to avoid reposting full artwork these days, but I hope HoOman will forgive me for dropping this amazing animated GIF turnaround in here. I encourage you to click through to the ArtStation detail page, which has many more images, including a bloody variant, static turnaround images, and some hairless versions to show the sculpt off. HoOman also answers many questions in the comments, including the number one query: “how did you do the hair?” I’ll leave the discovery of the answer as an exercise for you, the reader.

Angela Quinton Nov. 23rd 2018

Wolfenoot is nearly upon us

This Friday kicks off a holiday weekend, and I’m not talking about American Thanksgiving, although you can certainly celebrate that too – your roasted bird will work for both events. I’m talking about Wolfenoot, the wolf-centric holiday invented just a few months ago by a 7-year-old in New Zealand.

“My son has invented a holiday called Wolfenoot,” goes the original post, which appeared on Facebook, making this the only good idea to ever come from that place. “It is when the Spirit of the Wolf brings and hides small gifts around the house for everyone. People who have, have had, or are kind to dogs get better gifts than anyone else.”

And how does one actually observe this holiday? According to the gospel:

You eat roast meat (because wolves eat meat) and cake decorated like a full moon.

A holiday to the spirit of wolves that celebrates people who are kind to dogs? I can 100% get behind this. So we will be celebrating Wolfenoot. It’s on the 23rd November if anyone else is moved to celebrate it. 😉 If you do, please post pics, so he can see how his idea has spread.

If you’re posting publicly about it, use #wolfenoot.

I don’t care what kind of blood-soaked moon-crazed snarling horror hellbeast of a werewolf fan you are – if you can’t see the sweet appeal of this idea, you’ll get no full moon cake or sympathy from me.

I was initially cautious about spreading the Wolfenoot word, because this is the Internet, where even the sweetest concept can hide something bad, but this idea really did come out of nowhere in September of this year, and the anonymous mom and son duo behind it are keeping things legitimately wholesome.

According to the FAQ, vegetarian and other adaptations are welcome, donations to “shelters/wolf sanctuaries/dog based charities” are encouraged over other kinds of gift-giving, and if you do want to give a little support to the family, you can buy merch with the slogan “No hate, only snootboops” on it. You can find out more on the Wolfenoot web site, Twitter account or Facebook event (which has over 10,000 people involved as of this post).

Wolves aren’t werewolves, I’m not in New Zealand, and I don’t know where I’m going to find a ketogenically suitable full moon cake on such short notice, but it doesn’t matter. This Friday, I’m celebrating Wolfenoot.

Angela Quinton Nov. 21st 2018

Time lapse video of “Lycan” digital painting by Kirisute Silvermane

Sometimes when you’re feeling under the weather, it’s nice to indulge in that classic trio of self-care staples we all know and love: chicken soup, a blanket on the couch, and watching time lapse videos of people painting werewolves.

Here’s a time lapse video by UK artist Kirisute Silvermane, who wrote to me with some links to his work a few days ago… almost as though he knew I’d be laid up sick, wearing a hoodie with the hood up indoors, and craving the meditative experience of watching a pencil drawing fill out with fur, fangs and drool.

You can see the finished artwork in his DeviantArt gallery, and more time lapse videos of his art here.

Angela Quinton Nov. 18th 2018

Mask & costume maker Magpiebones brings her incredible werewolf to life

She calls herself a mask and costume maker, but with all due respect to her astonishing mastery of craft, I’m going to refer to Briana Barber (aka Magpiebones) as a supernatural shapeshifter, because her latest personal project has transformed her into an utterly believable werewolf.

This werewolf costume, created over several years as a lycanthropic labour of love, features several types of synthetic fur, including NFT fur on the tail and hackles, detailed paint work, a moving jaw, hidden-heel digitigrade feet, a wire and foam-core tail, and a bespoke bodysuit to give the correct monstrous shape.

Check out some selected images from her recent photoshoot below. You can also see more of her astounding work on DeviantArt and Instagram. If you’d like her to work her magic and turn you into a mythical creature, be prepared to pounce when she re-opens for commissions in January.

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A post shared by Magpiebones- A Costume Artist (@magpiebones)

Angela Quinton Nov. 17th 2018

Werewolf News editor’s 2012 short story “The Librarian” now available as a PDF

Hi, werewolf pals! My 2012 short story “The Librarian” is now available as an e-book. For $2, you can read about Alexis LaPierre, a murderous werewolf who tries hard to be a good person, and succeeds… for a while.

Reformed werewolf Alexis LaPierre is doing her best to make a normal life for herself. She has a good job, a comfortable apartment, and a fridge full of raw steak. She has a friend, some reasonable hobbies, and she hardly feels like killing anyone anymore.

Then she meets Rick, and her normal life begins to unravel.

This 5,000-word short story was originally published in the Hic Dragones anthology “Wolf-Girls”, and is presented here as a PDF e-book, with exclusive cover and endpaper illustrations by Tandye Rowe.

Angela Quinton Nov. 16th 2018