make it yourself
Plywood Bigfoot
A six foot four inch Bigfoot cut flat out of one sheet of plywood and painted dead matte black, mid stride with its arms swinging. Stood at the back of the yard with a light behind it, it is the best fifty seven dollars in Halloween.
- $57 ish
- 5 hrs start to finish
- confident beginner
- 6' 4" tall when done
grab this stuff
What you need
- 1/2 in. exterior plywood, 4x8 ft sheet $44
- Exterior flat black paint, quart $9
- 1x3 furring, 8 ft, for the spine and stake $4
- 10× 1-5/8 in. exterior screws you have these
- All in $57
Tools, and that is it
- Jigsaw
- Drill
- Chalk line or a long straightedge
- Chalk or a pencil
- Sanding block
before the saw
How it comes off the sheet
Everything fits on 1/2 in. exterior plywood, 4 x 8 ft sheet. Draw the whole layout before you cut the first piece.
One figure off one sheet, standing up the length of it. The scrap down the side is a 14 in. strip nearly 8 ft long, which is a second smaller cryptid, a set of footprint plaques, or the braces if you would rather not buy furring. Do not cut it up until the Bigfoot is out and standing, in case you want to widen a foot.
shapes
Stencils
Print these, cut them out, draw around them. Anything bigger than a sheet of paper prints as large as it fits with the scale written on it, so you can enlarge it at a copy store or copy it square by square.
Set page scaling to 100 percent or "actual size", never "fit to page". Every sheet has a ruler on it. Measure it before you trust it.
Or buy a reusable one
Mylar stencils survive paint and last for years, which is worth it if you are making more than a couple. These are searches rather than specific listings, because the good sellers rotate.
here we go
How to make it
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Grid the sheet, then copy the shape square by square
The figure is 33 in. by 76 in., which is taller than any sheet of paper, so the stencil prints at one eighth size and every 1 in. square printed on it is 8 in. on the plywood. Snap a chalk grid of 8 in. squares over the whole 33 by 76 in. box: four full columns and a 1 in. sliver across, nine full rows and a 4 in. strip up. Then work one square at a time, marking where the outline crosses each line before you join anything up.
oops-proofingCount the squares twice before you start drawing, and check the printed sheet says the same 8 in. the step does. Getting the grid wrong is the one mistake here you cannot sand out, and you find it when the head runs off the top of the sheet. Freehanding from the picture instead is how you end up with a bear.
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Check the three things that matter before you cut
Stand back and look at the chalk and check it against three numbers off the drawing. About 24 in. across the shoulders against about 19 in. at the hips. No neck at all, the head sitting straight down onto the shoulders. Hands hanging the whole length of the arm, down level with the hip. Fix any of those on the chalk now, because they are what make it read as a cryptid rather than a man.
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Cut the outline
Jigsaw around the chalk with the good face up. Nothing here is an enclosed hole, so you never need to drill a starter hole. For the two notches under the arms and the one between the legs, cut in along one side, back the blade out, and come at the other side from below. The drawing already gives you 4-1/2 in. ankles and an 11 in. foot, so do not thin them down chasing a line.
oops-proofingSlowing down to follow a fine curve exactly is wasted work. Nobody sees a quarter inch from the sidewalk, and a smooth line matters far more than an accurate one.
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Round every edge and paint it matte black
Knock the sharp edge off all the way round with a sanding block, then two coats on both faces and every edge. Flat or matte, never satin and never gloss.
oops-proofingGloss black under a spotlight turns into a mirror and the shape vanishes. Matte is the entire point: you want a hole in the light, not an object.
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Brace it and give it a stake
Screw the furring strip up the back through the middle of the body, running it 14 in. past the bottom of the feet to drive into the ground. Add a second strip from the back of the shoulders down to the ground behind as a kickstand.
oops-proofingA 6 ft flat panel is a sail. One stake and no kickstand and you will find it in the road after the first proper wind.
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Put it at the back and light it from behind
Set it as far back as the yard allows, half behind a shrub, a tree or the corner of the house, and turn it maybe 20 degrees away from the street. Put the light on the ground behind or beside it, never in front.
oops-proofingLit from the front it is a piece of painted plywood. Lit from behind it is a shape you are not certain about, which is the whole theme in one object.
Flat and one sided, so it wants a yard with one main viewing direction. It is deliberately taller than a person, because at the back of a lawn everything reads shorter than it is: built at 6 ft it looks about 5 ft 6 in. from the sidewalk, which is a tall man rather than a cryptid. Check what your city says about anything this size near a corner before you set it up.
where it goes
Layouts this one lives in
Same build, any yard shape. Here is where it lands.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a Wide Shallow, No Porch Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a Narrow Shallow with Porch Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a L-Shaped with Projecting Garage Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a Deep Narrow Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a Corner Lot Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a Split-Level or Raised Ranch Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a Sloped or Terraced Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a Small Urban Postage Stamp Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a Circular Driveway Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.
- → Cryptid Crossing on a Long Driveway, Rural Frontage Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.