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Tuesday, December 25, 2018

The Anthropomorphic Theater Presents - Death Comes to Call

The inspiration for this project came from a series of shadow box lids with cutouts of various shapes and sizes.  I thought it would be fun to put them together to construct a theater.
Wanting something unusual, I decided to create a new collage sheet, “Strange People #2” (further below in the post), filled with anthropomorphic characters and decided on the macabre theme “Death Comes to Call.”
In this theater, multiple scenes are taking place at the same time.  The crocodile and unicorn vie for the attention of the giraffe.
In another room, the stork pines for the crocodile who is fixated on the giraffe. While in another scene, the crow maid quarrels with her fop of a master.
Lurking at the top is Death sensing the tension between the characters while the stag plays his fiddle.
This collage sheet contains 15 anthropomorphic characters.  To purchase this sheet, click on the image below.

THE DETAILS
The theater is made from 4 different shadowbox lids and their corresponding shadow box kits.  I decided to make the opening larger (at the top and bottom) on the largest shadowbox lid, which is arched.
I marked cut lines on the top and bottom of the lid and then drew lines along the arch to help guide where to expand the top of the arch.  I used a stencil to help me mark the new arch line.
I covered the lids with damask style paper.

To give the lids the look of a theater, I added curtains with fringe (2 different colors).  These are digital images, so they can be sized to fit the project.  I also used architectural elements from the Mini Gothic Architecture Collage Sheet.  At the top of the large box is the theater sign, which you will find further down in the post and can download for your project.
I painted the shadow boxes on the inside and outside with a combination of yellow shades of paint and added yellow paper to the inside bottom of the box.  I chose this color as it is bright, and whatever I added to the inside would not get lost in the shadows after the lid was in place.
Next, I added furnishings from the Mini Gothic Architecture Collage Sheet and the Step into My Parlor Collage Sheet.  All of the images are popped up from the back (using double-stick foam tape) to give the impression of dimension.  Lastly, I added the characters (also popped up from the back).

Once I was satisfied with each of the scenes, I slid the lids over the boxes and then glued the boxes together, positioning the side boxes slightly in front of the center box.
FREE IMAGE
Feel free to download this image and use it in your artwork.