Ok so this is a tutorial to make the dragon-head of Terezi’s dragon cane using cardboard and papermache. You could probably also use like Friendly Plastic or something to cover the surface and make it a bit smoother, but I think it came out ok the way it is.
Dimensions are about 4cm at narrowest, 13cm at widest, and about 28cm in length.
Note: use what you’ve got first: all of this stuff can be substituted for other materials, take with a grain of salt
for the cane: just get a stick of some sort. I painted a bamboo cane red and white, and painted the black joints over the lumpy nodes of the cane. This is all you really need to know, I’m not making a tutorial for the staff.
approx 3 letter-size sheets worth of cardboard
Download this pdf file for template (alt)—it’s made for letter-size paper, but it should work for A4? I think I made the designs thin enough on the page, I dunno
Scissors; exacto knives are BRILLIANT, but you could probs manage without
a few sheets of paper; newspaper is your standard paper mache material, but I used a sort of heavy duty plain paper sitting in my basement.
Flour (half a cup or less, not much)
A biggish bowl so that stuff doesn’t drip everywhere
scotch tape or some other light tape that won’t rip apart the cardboard you’re using when you take it off again
red and white acrylic paint (you can also use cheaper water-based paints or whatever, but it won’t protect the cardboard as much. This is fine if you don’t mind it not lasting forever)
optional: pva glue, white craft glue, whatever you call that stuff
optional: a spray-on protective coating; I used an “acrylic sealer” that dried on matte. Not sure if it was really necessary, but I figured I may as well.
