For a long while I’ve had an idea for a Halloween decoration to sit atop my fireplace mantle for the month of October. In the same way people display Mary, Joseph & Baby Jesus in a manger for Christmas, I wanted to make a somber zombie uprising at the graveyard for Halloween.
Unfortunately my religious mother did not love Halloween as much as I. “Why do people want to celebrate evil, death and ugliness??” she’d exclaim. Reasons could be given but her stance was unwavering, and my idea remained only an idea. But now the mantle is mine, and over this last month of September I began work on my Zombie Uprising Halloween Display – “A Nativity Scene for Halloween.”
My concept was to design several different zombies, have them printed on foam core, individually cut them out out, and propped by little wooden stands. Behind them a black background of gravestones, creepy trees and boarded up houses cut from matte board. The background backlit by a string of red lights to create an ominous horizon. In front, zombies lit by a string of orange, green & purple Halloween lights. I could picture it clearly.
Drawing the zombies came easy. The first one, Sawhead (above), came to me while I was driving to the coffee shop. A couple hours later he was complete, along with the background concept, and their style was established. After that inventing and drawing zombies and other spooky Halloween ideas came easy. The pencil sketches were inked in, later to be filled with Autumny colors in Photoshop.
My first issues came with my attempt to cut the matte board with an xacto knife. Almost impossible! Especially for the size I had in mind. There was no way I was going to be able to carve the details I expected with an ordinary xacto knife. For a moment I found myself doubting whether or not I could make this happen at all. But after looking online I discovered they’re making xacto knives that vibrate now! NeoBlade’s the one I bought, and it’s amazing. It cuts through the matte like butter! With it I made a miniature version of what I imagined. One piece of board cut and folded so it can be displayed and stored easily. My vision was coming to fruition.
Cutting out the giant piece of black board was actually fun! This NeoBlade, at first, I found kinda terrifying. It vibrates at 40,000 times per second (so says their website), which obviously can’t be seen with the naked eye. It only makes a quiet high pitched hum when it’s on. DO NOT TOUCH BLADE! the warning strewn across the instructions. But once I got comfortable with it, I found myself looking for excuses to cut more and expand my idea.
Each zombie, after having them printed and mounted on foam core, was designed so I wouldn’t have to cut around each claw, fang and nose hair. Each had its own unique shape, with simple straight lines, and a black background I hoped, when lit properly, would blend seamlessly into the background I’d prepared. The NeoBlade cuts through foam core with ease. And for each of them I made little wooden stands, painted black, so they could stand on their own.
I got little plastic stick-on hooks that attached to the back of the black background for the red light horizon I imagined. I also cutout grave stones in a separate piece of matte to sit in front to hide the lights illuminating the zombies.
It was October 1st I finally got the entire thing set up. After adjusting the lights and the zombies, my creation was complete. The Zombie Uprising is now haunting my fireplace mantle for this and many more Halloweens to come. I wonder what mom would’ve thought of it?
