Sunday, September 30, 2007
orange contacts!
Got my contacts today! They look really cool without the mask but with the mask on they just look good...not great. They don't pop like i hoped they would, they sort of look like mildly freaky brown eyes. I did have a thought to buy a pair of yellow ones since i got them for so cheap anyway..but i think i may just buy one yellow lens and have different colored eyes..one yellow one orange. i thought it would be a cool way to give this costume a little more personality and make it a little freakier. If it looks dumb, I'll just buy another yellow lens.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
one arm finished!
Taken in front of the mirror so excuse angles, wierd crops or crappiness! I used an opera glove to make the base for the fur and foam to glue on to. There is a little bit of foam in there to beef up my skinny forearms.The paw is now permanetly attached to the arm fur, making it all one piece that pulls off. It will attach to the body's arm via velcro.
Har, har. That sign is on our bathroom mirror. I also have one over the toilet that says " safety first:wear googles" because god knows what i do to that toilet requires eye protection.
So there you have it, one arm done. The fur pieces still need some trimming to line up and blend together better...but it's pretty much done. Now to do the other paw!
I also found an event to debut the suit at. The tattoo shop that i started getting work done at is having an art opening with "costumes encouraged" on the 13th. If the werewolf isnt ready by then, i may just wear the demon....but i'll be shooting for then!
http://www.revolutiontattoo.net/home.html
Next, refining the suit and adding some different fur lengths :D
Har, har. That sign is on our bathroom mirror. I also have one over the toilet that says " safety first:wear googles" because god knows what i do to that toilet requires eye protection.
So there you have it, one arm done. The fur pieces still need some trimming to line up and blend together better...but it's pretty much done. Now to do the other paw!
I also found an event to debut the suit at. The tattoo shop that i started getting work done at is having an art opening with "costumes encouraged" on the 13th. If the werewolf isnt ready by then, i may just wear the demon....but i'll be shooting for then!
http://www.revolutiontattoo.net/home.html
Next, refining the suit and adding some different fur lengths :D
Saturday, September 22, 2007
full test!
CLICK the photos to see the full view!
I hate and love this part...trying it all on for the first time. I love it because I get to see it all come together and I hate it because alot of things end up needing some changes. All that hard work and I have to redo things! Ah well. For the most part it is a success, but there are a few changes that will be made.
Here's a pic of the foam test i did before furring the torso. The neck went up way too high and was fixed.
The chest being furred.
Everything put together! It looks super crappy since alot of glaring things like seeing the shoes needs to be fixed. This is just a loose test for me to figure out what needs to be fixed before I put any work into making this polished and ready to go.
I have a few issues with the legs. They look great, as a digitigrade illusion, when I stand with a totally straight leg. But once I bend the leg, it looks plantigrade ( flat footed). The reason for this is that I did not make the top thigh foam go over my knee enough so when the knee bends it pops out and ruins the effect. This can be fixed by adding a foam piece over my knee. I also have a problem with the length of the foot. I want a stubby dog like paw, not a floppy cartoon foot. So I need to remove the toes and reset them further up on my shoe. I may redline this to show what im talking about.
Straight leg:
Bent leg. Ick.
I think the side view looks fantastic. The chest goes up a little too high into my neck and I need to add velcro to the undershirt (to fasten to the body suit) so it doesnt pop out ( as seen in the front) I might trim down the back hump a little, since im adding really long fur to the middle of the back and neck and the foam has a wierd angle by the top of the head. The front of the chest needs some trimming on the bottom....needs to be narrower going toward the stomach ( it also need to wear a de-boobing bra....not that mine are huge but boobies sort of offset the foam a little)
This is some of the fur that will be added to the wolf. This is a sample from National Fiber Technology http://www.nftech.com/. I will be using grey and black course long fur to accent his back and neck, back of arms, chest and where ever it needs it. I dont want just a solid black blot of fur for the whole thing.
NFT is a great place. Thier fur is high quality and so is the treatment of thier customers. I'm just a small fry, they are used to dealing with big clients but they have been totally helpful and cool and really went the extra mile to get my samples to me. How refreshing!
The mask needs a little tune up as well...it sits too low on my face now that a little wieght has been added to it. I think a sliver of foam in the nose bridge will help. i also made the elastic WAY too tight. After wearing this for 5 minutes it felt like the top of my head was going to pop off. Still more comfortable than the demon mask but not quite ready yet.
the front view of the wolf isnt too hot. One critique i got from boyfriend and roommate was that the chest, waist and hips were too aligned and needed to "V" out at the top. I think they are right. Ugh it pains me to even post the photo of the front view but I want people to see what i did and...try to avoid it the first time around:
Pretty awful! Ick.
So as for the rest of the costume, I still need to add more fur to parts, build the forearms, fix some holes and sew the fur seams together. I think it needs a tail after all, too.
So, next is making the forearms, and applying the NFT fur after fixing the foam mistakes! Today i'm ordering my contacts. I think im going to go with solid orange ones, yellow would be cool too but it's kind of been done alot. Hey and orange eye and black fur = halloween colors!
I hate and love this part...trying it all on for the first time. I love it because I get to see it all come together and I hate it because alot of things end up needing some changes. All that hard work and I have to redo things! Ah well. For the most part it is a success, but there are a few changes that will be made.
Here's a pic of the foam test i did before furring the torso. The neck went up way too high and was fixed.
The chest being furred.
Everything put together! It looks super crappy since alot of glaring things like seeing the shoes needs to be fixed. This is just a loose test for me to figure out what needs to be fixed before I put any work into making this polished and ready to go.
I have a few issues with the legs. They look great, as a digitigrade illusion, when I stand with a totally straight leg. But once I bend the leg, it looks plantigrade ( flat footed). The reason for this is that I did not make the top thigh foam go over my knee enough so when the knee bends it pops out and ruins the effect. This can be fixed by adding a foam piece over my knee. I also have a problem with the length of the foot. I want a stubby dog like paw, not a floppy cartoon foot. So I need to remove the toes and reset them further up on my shoe. I may redline this to show what im talking about.
Straight leg:
Bent leg. Ick.
I think the side view looks fantastic. The chest goes up a little too high into my neck and I need to add velcro to the undershirt (to fasten to the body suit) so it doesnt pop out ( as seen in the front) I might trim down the back hump a little, since im adding really long fur to the middle of the back and neck and the foam has a wierd angle by the top of the head. The front of the chest needs some trimming on the bottom....needs to be narrower going toward the stomach ( it also need to wear a de-boobing bra....not that mine are huge but boobies sort of offset the foam a little)
This is some of the fur that will be added to the wolf. This is a sample from National Fiber Technology http://www.nftech.com/. I will be using grey and black course long fur to accent his back and neck, back of arms, chest and where ever it needs it. I dont want just a solid black blot of fur for the whole thing.
NFT is a great place. Thier fur is high quality and so is the treatment of thier customers. I'm just a small fry, they are used to dealing with big clients but they have been totally helpful and cool and really went the extra mile to get my samples to me. How refreshing!
The mask needs a little tune up as well...it sits too low on my face now that a little wieght has been added to it. I think a sliver of foam in the nose bridge will help. i also made the elastic WAY too tight. After wearing this for 5 minutes it felt like the top of my head was going to pop off. Still more comfortable than the demon mask but not quite ready yet.
the front view of the wolf isnt too hot. One critique i got from boyfriend and roommate was that the chest, waist and hips were too aligned and needed to "V" out at the top. I think they are right. Ugh it pains me to even post the photo of the front view but I want people to see what i did and...try to avoid it the first time around:
Pretty awful! Ick.
So as for the rest of the costume, I still need to add more fur to parts, build the forearms, fix some holes and sew the fur seams together. I think it needs a tail after all, too.
So, next is making the forearms, and applying the NFT fur after fixing the foam mistakes! Today i'm ordering my contacts. I think im going to go with solid orange ones, yellow would be cool too but it's kind of been done alot. Hey and orange eye and black fur = halloween colors!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Finishing the feet
PLEASE CLICK PHOTOS FOR FULL VIEW.
Painted the Tandy bear claws to look a little more real. Varnished with polyurethane...will be adding clear epoxy for more durability since these will be close to the ground and likely to get chipped.
Add fur!
Trim it up! I left a little longer fur at the top to blend in the with leg fur that's going to attach at the top.
Repeat!
Flash makes things look awful. Argh. These really do look pretty good in real life im just a terrible photographer. I added fur all around the sides of the shoes, making sure not to cover the velcro. I'm going to add an extra sole over the bottom of the toes and foot too...
Feet. The left's toes came out a little different from the right....might have to fix that.
Next: Figuring out how to attach arms and front paws... getting close to being done!
Painted the Tandy bear claws to look a little more real. Varnished with polyurethane...will be adding clear epoxy for more durability since these will be close to the ground and likely to get chipped.
Add fur!
Trim it up! I left a little longer fur at the top to blend in the with leg fur that's going to attach at the top.
Repeat!
Flash makes things look awful. Argh. These really do look pretty good in real life im just a terrible photographer. I added fur all around the sides of the shoes, making sure not to cover the velcro. I'm going to add an extra sole over the bottom of the toes and foot too...
Feet. The left's toes came out a little different from the right....might have to fix that.
Next: Figuring out how to attach arms and front paws... getting close to being done!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Starting the feet....
Was naughty and took the night off to work on werewolf feets.
AS USUAL PLEASE CLICK TO SEE THE WHOLE PHOTO! Blogger cuts off photos that are too big and im too lazy to make thumbnails. Sorry. It will just link you to my flickr account!
First get some goofy shoes. I got platform types shoes because platforms i used with the demon costume work really well to enhance the digitigrade illusion. Plus they make me taller and scarier! I made sure to buy tennis shoe versions, not mangle-your-foot-dance-club-strappy-highheeled-hoochie versions like last time.
I added velcro around the top to hold 'em on...then some around the sides for the end of the fur legs to velcro on to...
I riveted AND glued the velcro on...dont' want it going anywhere! Some velcro from the demon is starting to rip off after two years of use...so this needs to stay put. Plus rivets are fun to install...
Toes! Basic block of foam, carve with scissors to round them out a little:
In this photo, the toes are longer than I'd like but that was fixed easily. I dont want these too big since I want to look like im up on my toes and therefore the foot should short. Too long and it might look like a flat foot or too cartoony or just dumb. I dunno.
I ended up shaping these a little better. Didnt bother too much with making it super smooth...it's going to be covered with fur anyway :)
Best part! Adding scary claws! I used Tandy plastic claws, which I will repaint to look a little more real. I used glue to get these on and sandwiched them in the foam.
Hahaha, the coolest part is that they make a fantastic scratching noise when I walk on the hardwood floor. Spooky! The foam bends nicely with each step without falling off or tearing. I added alot of support underneath to make sure they last. I'm also going to add an extra sole with good traction over the toes and foot bottom.
They arent too pretty now but fur and a claw paint job will fix that! They are really comfortable. If I can walk for 5 hours in that hot, painful demon costume I bet I can go for a long time in this werewolf. Too bad I can't drink beer in it though( Probably for the best...)
Oh man and they are putting out Halloween decorations in stores now. It just makes me want to work on this even more. Argh, I love halloween!
Next up: adding feet fur! I also asked for some samples from National Fiber Technologies to see what they might have for the longer hackle/neck/back of the head fur....im excited to see it! They do awesome stuff:
http://www.nftech.com/
More soon!
AS USUAL PLEASE CLICK TO SEE THE WHOLE PHOTO! Blogger cuts off photos that are too big and im too lazy to make thumbnails. Sorry. It will just link you to my flickr account!
First get some goofy shoes. I got platform types shoes because platforms i used with the demon costume work really well to enhance the digitigrade illusion. Plus they make me taller and scarier! I made sure to buy tennis shoe versions, not mangle-your-foot-dance-club-strappy-highheeled-hoochie versions like last time.
I added velcro around the top to hold 'em on...then some around the sides for the end of the fur legs to velcro on to...
I riveted AND glued the velcro on...dont' want it going anywhere! Some velcro from the demon is starting to rip off after two years of use...so this needs to stay put. Plus rivets are fun to install...
Toes! Basic block of foam, carve with scissors to round them out a little:
In this photo, the toes are longer than I'd like but that was fixed easily. I dont want these too big since I want to look like im up on my toes and therefore the foot should short. Too long and it might look like a flat foot or too cartoony or just dumb. I dunno.
I ended up shaping these a little better. Didnt bother too much with making it super smooth...it's going to be covered with fur anyway :)
Best part! Adding scary claws! I used Tandy plastic claws, which I will repaint to look a little more real. I used glue to get these on and sandwiched them in the foam.
Hahaha, the coolest part is that they make a fantastic scratching noise when I walk on the hardwood floor. Spooky! The foam bends nicely with each step without falling off or tearing. I added alot of support underneath to make sure they last. I'm also going to add an extra sole with good traction over the toes and foot bottom.
They arent too pretty now but fur and a claw paint job will fix that! They are really comfortable. If I can walk for 5 hours in that hot, painful demon costume I bet I can go for a long time in this werewolf. Too bad I can't drink beer in it though( Probably for the best...)
Oh man and they are putting out Halloween decorations in stores now. It just makes me want to work on this even more. Argh, I love halloween!
Next up: adding feet fur! I also asked for some samples from National Fiber Technologies to see what they might have for the longer hackle/neck/back of the head fur....im excited to see it! They do awesome stuff:
http://www.nftech.com/
More soon!
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