I’ve been doing these Peep collections for several years now, and it might be time to explain myself. Friends have generously called them art projects, which feels a little ridiculous given that I’m making tiny clothes and weapons for seasonal marshmallow candy. However, it does take some effort, creativity, and photo editing skills to get the results I want, so I’ll take it. Basically, adulthood has not included as many Arts & Crafts as I would like, so I make my own opportunities.
“What did you do this weekend?”
“I made a teensy sniper scope for my Peep-sized rifle.”
This is weird. Why do you do this?
Because I think it’s really funny. That’s the main driver, although I love when other people also enjoy my work. In the last few years, I’ve started posting them to fan groups of whatever media property I’m peeping, which has been largely positive but also does generate some questions about my process.
This whole thing started with an office prank where I took a bunch of photos of Peeps gallivanting around our workspace, making a mess of our supplies, microwaving each other during tragic games of Truth or Dare, and playing with the toys and games on my coworkers’ desks. The first time I put them in a movie, it was Mad Max: Fury Road, and I can’t even remember why I thought the world needed a Furiosa Peep. I just loved the movie and wanted to do something with it, and from that, an annual tradition was born.
It seems like every year there’s at least one film or TV show that catches my attention in a big way. It’s a bit like the Thunderbolt from The Godfather when I come across something that’s going to eventually be Peeped… I’m immediately entranced and spiral into consuming as much peripheral content as I can find: Behind the Scenes vignettes, interviews with the writers, directors, and actors, podcasts, fandoms, everything I can find. Making Peep images of a show or movie allows me to immerse myself in the details that make it beautiful. I always intend it as a show of respect, even though it’s absurd and meant to be funny.
I only Peep what I love.
Casting Call
Peeps can be a bit divisive as food, but I assure you that if they must carry backpacks, wear clothes, or face off against a giant sand worm, it’s better to let them get a little stale first. As soon as Peeps show up on store shelves, I keep an eye out for good packs. Centered face placement, even sugar coverage, well-shaped ears, and bodies that aren’t too poofed. I can fix a lot of problems in post-production (Photoshop), but I try to support Peep body positivity when I can and just keep ‘em natural. The month of March generally means a corner of my kitchen table is covered with neat rows of Peeps drying out and firming up, all hoping to make it into The Big Show.
Bunnies vs Chicks
Peep chicks are clearly prey animals, with their low, skittish crouch and eyes on the sides of their head for a wider field of vision. They’re tough to photograph, though, and a challenge to dress well, so I mostly focus on the bunnies. My style has evolved over the years, but the blank stares and chubby, limbless bodies just make the bunnies ideal for situational comedy.
Set Design
Once I’ve chosen something to Peep (or it has chosen me, which is what it feels like), I think about the most iconic moments, scenes, and characters. I also search for what images the media associates with the content, and notably, which scenes I can find in a decently high-resolution photograph online. I start collecting images and evaluating them for Peepability.
Before I can insert a Peep, I need to remove the actors (Peeps are much shorter than people), so I check out the background to figure out if I can Photoshop the humans away. Scenes focused on hands, feet, or facial expressions tend to not work well either, as Peeps are completely lacking in those areas. I try to find more shots than I expect to use, because inevitably there are some that don’t work out, either because the humans are too hard to erase, or the starting image isn’t crisp enough, or the costume/props end up being too difficult.
Costumes and Makeup
Once I have some scenes chosen, I start cruising craft stores looking for just the right colors/textures to make the tiny outfits. This part actually takes quite a while, but I love craft and fabric stores, so it’s leisurely fun. Modeling clay also works as a pinch hitter when I can’t get fabric to behave on the scale I need. For example, Peep pants are tough because Peeps have no legs and no waist. A thin clay wrap around the bottom half of that little sugary lump not only stays in place, it also helps with getting them to stand up when it’s time to photograph.
Because of the size and nature of Peeps, I have to distill a character to find the simplest identifiers that will translate (especially when placed in the scene). Peeps have no expressions, no hairstyles, no limbs. There is less than one square inch of real estate on the front of the body, so whatever I use needs to read easily.
I love the practical side of cutting, gluing (there’s just no way I could sew three-dimensional clothes this small), resizing, adjusting, and then grabbing my tweezers to add those littlest details that fellow fans will recognize. One year I created Avenger Peeps, but I relied almost entirely on editing Peep faces into the real costumes, and it just wasn’t as entertaining. Somehow, the more effort I put into this ridiculous goal, the funnier it becomes.
Lighting and Camera
Once I’ve chosen the Peep model and refined the wardrobe, it’s time for the photoshoot. I look at the real image and make note of the body position and angle of the actor, and especially of the lighting in the scene. There’s probably a way to adjust a directional light source in Photoshop, but I don’t know how to do it, so it’s easier if I capture the lighting in the photo. When there’s firelight in a scene, I use candles to get that warm amber glow on the sugar faces. The more accurate I can make the source photo, the less work I’ll have to do to blend it into the scene.
Post
The first time I ever saw Photoshop in action, I was watching a friend paste Bill Gates’ face onto Darth Vader’s body/helmet in 1997, and it blew my mind. “They just let random people use this software?! It’s so dangerous!! So easy to deceive people!!” And here I am, decades later, using it to cast shadows from an opium fire onto marshmallow bunnies dressed as hatchet men for a Chinese tong in the late 1800’s. What a world.
I paste my disembodied Peep characters into the scene and begin adjusting the color, saturation, and light to make them match the surroundings. I always keep the original image on a hidden layer so that I can click back and forth between the actor and the Peep and try to match the look and details on my lil marshmallow buddy. It also gives me the opportunity to clean up my own work, like blurring my fingerprints out of clay pants and smoothing/shaping the edges of a leather backpack.
With necks that don’t articulate, Peeps tend to only look straight into the middle distance, which doesn’t always work for the scene overall. I occasionally nudge those little carnauba wax dots a few pixels one way or another to make a Peep gaze in a particular direction. The best part of the Photoshop work is that I zoom way in and focus on pixels and shadows and layering and kind of lose track of the forest for the trees. Then when I zoom back out to look at the overall image, I crack up again and remember why I’m doing this.
I put them out into the world because I hope they make you laugh, too. Even if they don’t, though, I’ll do it again next year for the simple joy of creating them. And sometimes a really beautiful, heartbreaking TV show about a post-apocalyptic zombie world full of loss, suffering, and fear just needs some levity. And sugar.
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