You said you made models. Just try making gruesome models.
I don't know your techniques, but they're probably better than mine. But here's mine anyway.
(I recommend that you plan on making a creature 18-22 inches tall, with the head, chin to crown, being about four or five inches alone, the neck to the feet only being 11-13 inches).
(1) Start with wirey implements such as a wire-handled fly swatter(s) or fish nets. It's the cheapest source of flexible but sturdy wire that's about the right length. Twist them into a rudeamentary skeleton/frame (of wire) with arms, legs, spine.
(my original models included tails for balance, but I've gotten better with this and tails aren't necessary.
(2) Fully cover the wire with masking tape, first aid tape, or cloth, forming the body roughly in the shape you want.
(3) At this point, even though the bodies are mere chasis, I usually go ahead and make the hands and feet. I've had best results by taking the handles of plastic forks or spoons, after trimming and snipping to the shapes I want and taping together with masking tape, using a candle lighter (flame) to "weld" the plastic and the tape/adhesive together. Use a spray-bottle of water if the fire won't go out. For the feet, it is usually better to have something flat on the bottom surface.
Good hands and feet, even at this early chasis stage, will already look like hands and feet, if you've arranged and shaped the peices right. You will later finish them with acrylic paint and glue.
(4) Go on and make/finish the body of the thing -- I use Crayola Modeling compound along with large amounts of glue and acrylic paint. But the cheapest (yet effective) material to use on the body is caulking material. Save the modeling compounds for areas requiring more detail.
(5) Once all this has dried (give it at least 24 hours), paint the whole thing with acrylic paint. I recommend dark browns, dark blood reds, and slimy yellowish greens. Keep them looking dark and nasty and gross. One coat won't be enough. Two is more like it, but you may find yourself using much more than that, as acrylic paint is a good modeling medium in itself.
I used to apply 'matted hair' by using black doll's hair (crumpling it in my palms and mixing with epoxy), but I've found that dark "foodservice" hairnets (cut the elastic from around the edges) are MUCH less expensive and easier to work with.
Apply it to the exterior and apply clear epoxy or other glue that's been disolved with yellow or umber acrylic paint (makes a slimy-looking but fiberglass-hard coating).
For the head, you might find an adequate halloween skull for a chasis, but I've merely molded the head out of crayola modeling compound. Use rhinestones for eyes because they glow with little light, day or night. Or, I've even used colour photocopies of my own eyes (copied from a photograph).
The feet, hands, and head must be attatched to the limbs and neck usually by screwing the parts together and/or using generous amounts of epoxy after holding them in place with tape.
Halloween and costume businesses and similar businesss have all sorts of eyes, demon ears, Billy-Bob teeth, etc that you might want to use. You will, of course, paint them the colors of your creature and meld them together with glues and slimelike paints.
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The results are sturdy, lasting, photographable, CONVINCING creatures.
I don't recommend that you worry too much about the demon tails and cloven hoofs because they can be very crudely formed, or carefully added as you go along. What is important is that the flesh look really gross -- if it makes someone recoil, it's done it's purpose.
Filthy, mucosmal Slime, matted fur (or muscle fibers), weeping drainage and seepage is more authentic than, say, making a snakelike creature.
Whether or not you're interested in rotting flesh or impacted colons, they are my inspiration for the TRULY horrid creatures and make people recoil.
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And 'cause' never was the reason for the evening,
--Or the Tropic of Sir Galahad.
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