How to make a human puppet

Intro

This is one of the most regular web searches (that pop up my website), and it really gets on my nerves. Why? Because it’s such an ambiguous search term…. For instance, are you looking to make a human puppet using strings as the method of operation? Or are you seeking a muppet-type design? What about a rod puppet? They can also be costume puppets… And so can glove puppets! What about marionettes?

Clockwise from top left: Human rod puppets by Damph. Human wayang golek by Micro.cosmic. Human muppet-type puppet by me. Human marionette by Sister72.

As you can see, it’s not so much about the ‘human-ness’ of the puppet that matters, but the method of operation. Any puppet can be made to look human: but not every puppet will suit your performance styles or techniques. And trying to use the above search term will not give you very specific results; furthermore, the ambiguity of the term does not help us bloggers and puppet makers, who would love to give you some help and directions. The fact is that there are just too many types of puppets that can be made to look human, and posting an article or how-to on all of them would be impractical.

So, if you want to make a human puppet, first figure out what type of puppet you want to use. Here’s a list of puppet types [link to be added], which link off to their explanatory posts. Then you can go about making a character design that uses ‘human’ qualities. Follow that with a reading of the rest of this article (realism, building the body and face, gender differences) and a look at my basics of puppet design [link to be added], or my post on creating puppet characters [link to be added].

Armed with that information, you can then go ahead and find out more about how to make a puppet for your needs.

(And next time, you can search for ‘human muppet’ tutorials… or ‘human marionette’ tutorials… or ‘human glove puppet’ tutorials… or… no, you get the idea now, don’t you?)

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Realism

So many people do searches on making human puppets, or ‘realistic’ puppets, that I just can’t resist writing more about it. There are a few things that are important to note:

A puppet is not going to be ‘realistic’, no matter how much you try. Unless you are using animatronics (heck, even those people out there building humanistic robots are having trouble getting them to look ‘realistic’) or something similar, it’s still going to look like a puppet. Why? Because:

1.  A puppet is made out of non-flesh materials. Special effects makeup and prosthetics go a long way towards making a human look like an ape (as in Planet of the Apes), but those same concepts can hardly apply to foam, antron fleece and a bit of glue. If we’re talking about animatronics, then yes, it’s quite likely you can get something looking ‘realistic’… Obviously, different puppet types lend themselves better to realism than others: marionettes for instance, can be quite realistic looking, whereas sock puppets probably won’t. But then we move on to further concepts that hinder this a little more…

2. A puppet used onstage is going to require some caricaturishness. Why? The same reason the Greeks used overly-exaggerated masks in early theatre. People at the back of the theatre don’t see the level of detail that people at the front see. It’s therefore necessary to make certain features of the puppet ‘highlighted’, whether it be enlarged or made smaller, in order to get the best effects. Making everything as detailed as possible, or as symmetrical, etc, may work for puppets seen in close-ups on TV or by very small audiences, but in a large theatre, exaggerated features actually appear quite normal-sized, because of distance and sightlines.

3. Following on from this, puppet makers may find it necessary to exaggerate certain features in order to make the character of the puppet easily accessible across language barriers or other difficulties. For instance, if I were to make a woman who is a boisterous opera singer, the best way to get this character across visually is to make her a large-figured lady, with perhaps small ankles and tiny feet. In this way, the character of the puppet is universally understood.

4. There are many other stylistic reasons to ignore ‘realism’ in puppetry. Puppets, for the most part, are excellent to use in plays where to use a human actor would not be as visually interesting. Puppets, as mentioned in this article [link to be added], can be used to express ideas that are more abstract. Therefore, style and content of the script (blacklight puppetry for instance) may not be best served using realistic puppets. In fact, half the fun of puppetry is getting to do stuff that is not realistic.

Having said all of this, there are also plenty of reasons why you might want to use realism. Using puppets side by side with actors for instance… So exactly what do you do to make a puppet look human?

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How to build

We continue where we left off from realism. From this, we get a basic idea that no human puppet ever looks entirely realistic, but that it is possible to get it close (like with caricature puppets).

So now we move to facial features, proportions and other necessary characteristics of human puppets. Basically, in order to make a puppet look like a human, you have to have human features: all humans have noses, so human puppets should also have noses; all humans have ears, so human puppets should have ears. And so on. The more human features you have, the more ‘realistic’ you are; this applies to making animal puppets too, only with animal-like features, such as snouts, hooves, or tails. So let’s make a list of the features a human puppet should have:

• Nose
• Ears
• Eyes (eyebrows, eyelashes - see gender differences for more info on eyelashes)
• Mouth (and tongue, and lips)
• Hair (unless bald)
• Arms and hands
• Legs and feet (sometimes optional, especially in making muppet-type puppets, where legs can get in the way of the performance)
• Body (for women, inclusive of breasts) and neck

The best way to start, especially if you’re new to making puppets, or human puppets, is by learning about proportions. By learning the proportions and placements of each of the facial features, you can make sure your puppet doesn’t come out looking like a Picasso painting - unless of course, that’s your aim! Any decent book on drawing cartoons, sketching, or life drawing, will help you learn the basics of proportions. If you don’t want to buy a book, I recommend checking out Learn to Draw and The Mad Blog (it’s more cartoonish, but has some very good explanations of shapes and placements of facial features) here and here. 

From here, all of the features must be created, whether they are made separate to the puppet and then glued or sewn on, or carved directly into the materials. If you want to be as realistic as possible, then use materials that create the best realism. For instance, using acrylic eyes like what is used in toy dolls or on animatronics, can provide a ‘glassier’ eye than a polystyrene ball. Real hair or wigs are more realistic than using wool. Fake nails can be added to the fingertips of a female puppet. And so on.

My first attempt at doing blinking eyes on a muppet-type puppet wasn’t so great in profile. The puppet ended up looking like it had no eyes if viewed from the side.

It’s important to remember: human features can be used or not used as per your wishes. If you don’t need eyelashes on a puppet, then don’t use them. In most cases with puppets, less is more. In fact, just by having a few facial features (mouth, eyes, and hair for instance), you already suggest the idea of the puppet being human to the audience. All you need to do is make the audience believe the puppet is of human character, and amazingly enough, we people are smart enough to join the dots. So don’t feel like you have to have some feature if you don’t like it or if the puppet doesn’t look right with it.

I also think it’s important to remember that a puppet will be seen from all sides. It’s very easy to forget this when you’re sitting down at your table and adding facial features; and generally only looking at the puppet from the front. If you add flat facial features, then from the side, the puppet’s face looks incredibly flat and dull; if the eyes disappear from view on the side of the face, then the audience will suddenly lose an important characteristic of the puppet. So at all times, think about how the puppet will be viewed from all sides. Remember, humans aren’t exactly ‘flat’ from the profile; the nose sticks out, the eyes bulge, the eyebrow bone gives shape, along with the chin and cheeks.

Whilst we’re here, it’s also a good idea to slightly exaggerate facial features. This is especially true of any puppet that will be performed live, instead of recorded on film. Cameras and close-ups have the added benefit of providing more realism to any puppet, and features don’t have to be exaggerated to be seen; but audience members sitting 10, 20 or 40 rows away from the stage will have difficulty seeing features if they are not exaggerated (again this harks back to the issue of realism). Cheeks, eyebrows, and noses contribute greatly to making exaggerated features, and fuller lips are noticed more easily than thin ones. By using cartoon principles, as described above at Learn to Draw and The Mad Blog, you can figure out which features to exaggerate and which ones to minimise.

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Gender differences

Really there’s not much to be said about gender differences than the obvious: female puppets usually have eyelashes and breasts, whereas male ones don’t. See, eyelashes tend to make anything feminine (I always thought Nermal in Garfield comics was female, because of those darn eyelashes!), especially long thick ones. As for breasts, you can simply add two foam ball halves to the puppet’s body.

One thing some puppet makers do to differentiate between the two genders is to shape the body: an hourglass shape for the woman, and an upside-down pear for a man. The hourglass creates the impression that the female body has a tight waist, but wider hips and shoulders. The upside-down pear keeps the hips and waist the same width, but broader shoulders. Of course, it entirely depends on your character too, since there are skinny tall blokes and short stockish women, and so forth.

For the most part, everything after that is simply how you accessorise the puppet, with clothes, hair, or actual accessories. And, of course, the personality you give it when performing - such as the tone of voice.