My Current Distraction

Current Music: Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson

I realize that I have not been very consistent in my posts and I blame that partly on my current project. I know that it is more than two months away, but I thought that it would be a good idea to get started on my...taadaa! Halloween Costume!

For the past two years I have put a lot of effort in creating elaborate Halloween Costumes. Don't ask me why, cause I don't know. The artsy bug has some really strong poison if you ask me. And it tends to lurk.

The first cut (2008) was a wolf where I constructed the mask of cardboard and plaster in about two weeks--faux fur is kinda hard to work with I found. On the side as part of the costume I made a velvet cape which was easier that I had thought when I began--go figure.

The next year (2009) I went a little farther and more elaborate in my "Shadow Tiger" outfit that had a mask (with teeth), a half body fur suit, and an articulated tail. This costume took me a solid three weeks of late nights and long weekends to get together and even then it came to the wire. A good friend of mine helped me with the jewelry on the mask which was nice.

This year though I will not be pulling something together in the final few weeks prior to the night of happy haunts. THIS year, I am going all out with a full suit, mask, tail and...wings! I am pulling a bit of personal cosplay and will be going as my character Summerbreeze Firefall, who is a dragon and the main character for my novel (currently still in progress).

I started this costume about three weeks ago and I think I am making some solid progress. The real time consumer in preparation for this endeavor is the scales. If I use just the scales that I have cut out at this point the costume will have more than 1200 individual scales, in five separate sizes. and yes, they were all cut out by hand.

This picture is my improvised worktable in my room with the six bags of scales, organized by size. That small patch of scales on the table are size 4, where the size 3 are the main body scale size and are the full bag on the right of the picture. Yeah, that is two weeks of late nights right there.

Before I even made the scales I had Jason help me make a tape dummy of my legs. Tape dummies are simple: you wrap your body with plastic wrap, then wrap layers of tape over it. The only way out of it is to cut your way out. After repairing the cuts I stuffed it with newspaper and put the pants on it that will be the foundation of the scales I will glue on eventually.

To be entirely frank, I find the legs to be more than a little disturbing. It is almost like I have half a body lying around my room. At the moment they are collecting dust under my craft table as I have not yet started gluing on the scales. I avoid looking at them when I can.

Next I started on some of the detail pieces. The costume will be as accurate to the Summerbreeze character as possible without actually walking around on all fours as she does. In the process of creating these detail pieces I have learned a great deal about modes of artistic creation that I was not aware of before. Such as plastic resin casting.
This is my first try (the colors done quickly with some sharpies) at a resin cast eye. In virtue of how these pieces are made, the eye has a tracking effect where it appears that the eye follows you. The mask's eyes will be green and I will paint them with enamel so they stand out better.

I do not take credit for the discovery of this really nifty trick, that credit goes to another avid costume-maker who is kind enough to post "how to" costume-craft videos on Youtube: Monoyasha. (Thank you Monoyasha!) This eye is just a test I threw together to see if I could pull it off. The resin pieces that will eventually be the final eyes are sitting in a jar above my table waiting for paint.

These pieces are some of the other detail bits. They are the Shi'thara'ben model, the unbaked Sculpey model for a set of resin cast claws, and the glazed model for the green accent stone that will be a part of the Shi'thara'ben pendant. For scale the claw model is about as long as my index finger (three inches or so). Eventually I will get around to ordering the OOMOO Silicone model making mixture so I can cast these bad boys in transparent dyed resin. So those are still waiting in the wings for me to get my butt in gear.

My most recent step completed is the tail. Or at least the foundation that will be the tail. I have changed my tactics a bit from last year in the materials I am using. Last year I used thick wooden dowels as the tail vertebrae with eye screws and elastic for the joints. While that worked for a thin feline tail doing the same thing for a thick dragon tail would be both too heavy and cumbersome to deal with for an extended period of time. So this year I am using rings of craft foam to give the tail structure. This configuration is both very light and relatively stiff. (The red you see on the inside of the rings is where I glued a second layer of foam sheets for support.)

Eventually the rings will be secured to one another, probably by strips of elastic so the tail can move and bend somewhat. Depending on some tests I'll do later to ascertain its strength and durability while under stress I may add discs of furniture foam into the larger rings for additional support.

The next on my list of little details is to start working on the mask. The one part that both frightens and excites me the most. Frightens because I will be using entirely new techniques this time around. and excites because of that very same thing. With these new techniques I think I will get the best results of all of my costumes so far.

I'll keep you posted.

Current music: Yo Vivo Perle by Andrea Bochelli