Saturday, June 23, 2012

SDCC Costume Reveal: Nausicaa

Well, I've been writing a final all evening and for the time being, I've had enough. This is kind of a shame, there's a lot left to do.

Oh well. Instead I'd like to do the "reveal" of my second primary costume for San Diego Comic Con. I put "reveal" in quotes because it's not quite done. But, it's wearable. There are just some props that aren't complete yet, and I'll share those when they are.

For those who aren't familiar with Nausicaa, here's some back story. When I lived in Japan in college, one of my professors told me to read this classic Miyazaki manga. I LOVED it. It's the story of Nausicaa, the princess to a small fringe kingdom called the Valley of the Wind in a post apocalyptic world. A thousand years ago humans destroyed their world through war, and polluted the planet. Now, the giant forests of mold and insects work to cleanse the world of the human's folly. This 'sea of corruption' produces a toxic miasma that is slowly killing off the last of the human race. Nausicaa works to save her people, but also has an amazing relationship with the very forest that's killing them. Drama ensues.

Read it, seriously. This is a watercolor splash page from one of the 7 books just for reference:
She is a wind Rider. She flies on a small powered kite called mehve and she primarily wears a flight suit of sorts.

Here is my rendition so far:


The close up on the bottom is the closest approximation of color. Each piece is handmade except the leggings, shoes and belt. I still need to create her ceramic sword, and a belt buckle. In the first image I just painted on the bandage on my arm because I didn't bother to tie one on for these pictures (I'm allowed to be lazy sometimes right?).

It's made mostly of felt, as described in the books. And it has been brushed with fabric paint to perfect the color, and mottle/dirty it up a bit. This is supposed to be covered in blue blood after all!

I am a little worried about being hot at the con, but I'll live! Only 18 days to go, I'm really excited!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

SDCC Costume Reveal: The Other Mother

Well, so much for a blow-by-blow of progress as I worked on this. Along with my affair with that hussy Domestic in Detroit, these last few months have been INSANE. I've been taking some extraordinarily difficult classes, work has been very busy, and we added a deck onto our house. (pics later, I'm still finishing the details).

In my spare time (HA!) I've been working on costumes for San Diego Comic Con in July. As of last night, the first costume has been completed so I thought I'd share.
 
It's the very costume I showed you the research on 3 months ago, the Other Mother from Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

The pictures aren't very good, they were taken on my phone at night and I was kind of rushing.

Front View:


Blurry Side View:


Being a Creeper View (aka hide yo' kids):


I will post some additional and detail shots when I take them. The wig is a decent synthetic number I found online at voguewigs.com. The button eyes are molded plastic, and even have molded thread so they look stitched on. I can see through the holes, not perfectly but well enough. I'll post the vendor where I got those when I dig up his info.

Any thoughts? I'm a little worried about this one because I feel like my other costume is way cooler. My husband said it just kind of looked like a suit but with weird eyes and a bustle... the other costumes I've found online are intimidating!