Mini-(up)date

Here's a WIP. Currently stuck on the skirt pattern. The whole design started when I thought of a skirt with that pattern but I'm not sure if I like it with the rest of the outfit.

Inspirations - Art nouveau, Victorian clothing (no period specifically), the pattern on the skirt, harlot characters, fans

Sept 15-16

Started with the skirt pattern and colours and got stuck. Ho-hum. Definitely one of the most complex designs thus far and not normally me. I'm liking it but need to get the skirt to work. Ideally her ankles would show, but I do love how Victorian skirts hit and lightly touch the floor. Choices, choices. 

Bit of a joke: If this was for a movie, this would be such Oscar bait. Vaguely Victorian inspired theatrical costumes for sexually active and angsty women! How could the Academy not fall madly in love and declare them the best costumes of the year! Iamahorribleperson.

So, have you figured out that I like tutus yet?

Hello all, sorry for the lack of updates. In my weeks off from class I had my summer's life condensed into a few very packed days of constant interaction. Class has started again so I should have a more structured schedule again soon and hopefully I'll get out of my funk that I've been in over the past couple of weeks. I feel like my work's getting really repetitive and drawing from too few concepts and styles. I need to nest myself in the GT500-1500 section of the library again soon (costume history section). I'm getting very anxious since grad-school applications are soon and I need my portfolio to be excellent. If anyone has any suggestions I'd greatly appreciate them, I like criticism.

On a happier note, I've begun work on a costume for Halloween (which is very serious business). I started draughting pattern pieces the other day and hope to get a mock up and possibly the beginnings of one piece of it done this weekend. *fingers crossed*

Anyways, as promised in the title, tutus:

Odile - Swan Lake

Inspirations - Black Swan, feathers, gold

Aug-Sept 2011

Please excuse the horrible background and complete lack of a single light source - I got carried away and I feel like I lost the design behind the rendering. Not much to say. I like this one but would like to draw it again in watercolour so it works better with the VonRothbart illustration done a few weeks ago.

V. 1 updated

I changed the base top-plate colour to work with the rest of the tutu better. I had V. 2 as my background on Haydee (laptop) for the longest time. V. 2 was far more balanced, but I felt like V. 1 had a far stronger top, so I balanced the top-plate better to suit it. I think this works a bit better (I hope you agree).

New Orleans

Been down South visiting the 'rents for the past week. I finally had some time to draw today on the flight back after a long exam period following by visits. We went over to New Orleans for a few days and I found the atmosphere to be quite beautiful. This is one of three designs that popped into my head while there.

Family Vault

Inspirations - Lafayette Cemetery 

August 29th 2011

We stopped off at Lafayette on our way out. I spent a long time wandering through the old vaults that were breaking apart and over-grown with moss or plants. I fell in love with the form, the cracks and breaks, and the plants growing out from the walls and roofs. This is more or less a combination of those things.

Swan Lake

One of two illustrations I'm working on right now from Swan Lake. The recent essay on Black Swan that I've been writing all summer can totally be blamed for this (and all the tutus I've been drawing).

Rothbart - Swan Lake

Inspirations - masks, birds

August 13th

Watercolour; finished illustration from the sketch previously posted. I don't have anything to say about this I guess. If it wasn't obvious by now, I really like masks and birds. Also puffy sleeves and pants. I really need expand my designs in different directions.

I know kung-fu

Busy writing papers, but I worked on this between classes and on breaks.
We can totally ignore the proportion issues and off-balanceness of everything. Yes. Most definitely.

Inspirations - monk lady from previous entry, various East Asian monks, geometric designs, parkour, inadvertently, Tony Jaa and Stephen Chow

August 2011

Came up with a sort of spiritual successor to the monk lady from a month ago one night and decided he needed an epic action pose. Somewhere along the way he took on a look more akin to a modern martial arts star than a monk, funny how different faces and hair styles do that, but I couldn't bring myself to erase his face. Definitely more of a hollywood kung-fu style than originally intended. I'll post the little thumb nail sketch I based this off of in my next sketch post.

Sketches

Some more sketches from my sketchbook. I kind of forgot about it this past week and a bit (and the various drawings I'd done in it), whoops. Things discovered today: my favourite pen hates the paper in my sketchbook and my scanner hates scanning my sketches well. All sketches about 5-10 minutes.

Snow White and Rose Red - "Snow White and Rose Red" from Grimm's Fairytales
Inspirations - lace, bloomers, frilly things
Today
Been thinking about this one for quite some time. Even though I got the bear character down fairly quickly the twins caused a lot of trouble. I experimented with a large number of designs, mostly girly dresses, for the innocent Rose and Snow, but nothing worked. I knew I wanted to have them in something where both would be wearing the same outfit with a palette swap or an addition of red on Rose Red's clothing. Today, while in Early Mod Phil (like always), I began playing with the idea of something lacy, but not a dress since I feel that 'innocent child in a dress' is way to over done. I like the outcome of bloomers with a lacy top. Lots of cut-work at the hems of the shirt, bloomers, and sleeves, with lace sewn in layers at the collar. Ribbon at the knees, elbows, neck, and around the waist (only showing in a small bit on the front and tying in the back). Better illustration to follow at a later date.

Inspirations - birds, Atlantis, saris
summer 2011
Counterpart of the woman from my first post. Not much to say. The scan lost the images of her mask next to her. It was a long, angular, and skeletal bird mask.

Major Kusanagi - Ghost in the Shell
Inspirations - Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)
Tonight
I'm a big fan of cyber punk films and a moderate fan of the Ghost in the Shell films and series, mostly because of the Major, the setting, and the philosophy behind it (I'm actually tempted to say that the philosophy of the mind and machines seen in many cyber punk works is what drew me to philosophy). This isn't really a costume design, or at least I feel like it's a cop-out to say it is, since I was just sketching something based on a pre-existing design and character. Mostly just feeding my love and desire for the cyber punk style. I'd love the opportunity to collaborate on a cyber punk project in the future, but I feel as if the genre died with The Matrix.

Roaring Girl

Took the weekend off after (and between) paper hell. Been on a Hans Zimmer craze; I have nothing but love for his music. Spent much of it in a Dark Knight and Inception fuelled drawing spree to get Moll done before heading back into the depths of libraries and Microsoft Word.

Moll (modern version) - The Roaring Girl

Inspirations - Jeffery Kurland's designs for Arthur in Inception

July - Aug 2011

Modern design for Moll; I think that despite its age, The Roaring Girl would make an excellent play set in modern day. The play itself is a social commentary of the early 17th century treatment of women in England and Moll, the protagonist and titular Roaring Girl, is a cross-dresser who stands up for women while dressing in very stylish men's clothing. Originally I wanted to have her pallet at a set of warm neutral tones and beiges, but using browns and beiges in my drawings is one of my greatest weaknesses. I must have gone through about 15 colour schemes before settling on the one seen here. Basically her clothing is just men's clothing fitted for a woman's form. Dark grey vest with gold lining and back, white shirt with English cuffs, a thin black tie, and lighter grey slacks. There are small, matching details throughout her outfit, like the small gold orb buttons at her wrists, as her tie pin, and on front and back hips. Buttons on men's side (left over right) with hand stitched button holes because they look so much better and are much classier. Dark grey men's shoes with a flat, long, and slightly curved toe. Also, I put a small shell clasp on her hair to add the slightest touch of femininity.