Thursday, October 28, 2010
A Weak Start... Head and Shoulders...
Speaking of the seat of my pants, I sliced open an old jumpsuit from waist up to middle back and across the back, in a plus-sign shaped cut for stress relief, then plan to patch the jumpsuit tonight and use it as the underlayment of the Venom costume. I stitched out my first "rough draft" at making a muscle-suit chest out of an old pillow that, despite my dog's wishes, is otherwise destined for the city dump. I will need to pick up some super strength Velcro for attaching one half of the muscle chest and for other certain parts to work right, as well as a good bit of black fabric, but I plan to do that at Hancock Fabrics on the way home. Tonight is build night... Hope this goes well.
The baseball cap and coat hangers idea seems to be working out pretty well, so far. I plan to add in some black foam core board I have left over from another project, to keep it light while providing some rigidity, but it will need to be painted with a plasticized paint when it's in place.
I also need to stop by some place for my paints on the way home. I have some black dimensional fabric paint (puff paints rule!), but I need some black gloss, white gloss and black gloss paints... Maybe Vinyl? Perhaps Latex? There's a Rustoleum Vinyl made for fabrics, but I don't know if I can source it locally... we'll see...
(Pictures to be added later this evening.)
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tongue! (But not on the first date...)
I found a suitable rubber snake! After searching around Baton Rouge and finding snakes that were either not rubber, too expensive, too small or too flimsy, I found nearly the perfect thing at Party Time on Bluebonnet. This snake is not as thick as I was originally looking for, but it is three feet long and is made of a very "springy" rubber, such that a slight motion will start if bouncing and oscillating, giving it a generally "lively" appearance. Best of all? It was around a buck and a half. Can't easily beat that...
Monday, October 25, 2010
...And I'll Form the Head!
Venom's head, like his body, is larger than a human's, with an exaggerated, over-sized mouth. To create this head, I plan to incorporate a baseball cap (as the upper half of the mouth and a custom made jaw made of a metal coat hanger that hangs from the cap, forms the outline of the jawline and serves as an infrastructure for the jaw.
This image (Created by Andre Holzmeister) is what inspired me to go with a baseball cap-based mask. Note the baseball cap brim-shaped upper mouth. If you fill out the area above the brim a bit, and cover the entire thing with black, shiny fabric, you have half of Venom's head. (Well, you'd want to add the eyes, too.)
I don't know how well you can tell in this sketch, but I quickly sketched out a form-up of that idea, and I think it could turn out quite nicely.
The tongue is an interesting challenge. My first thought was to use (part of) a rubber snake. Find a rubber snake tail that had a good curve to it, paint it appropriately and you're done. Surprisingly, sourcing a decent rubber snake (considering size, curve and reasonable cost) proved to be a bit difficult. I am considering other possibilities, such as making one out of fabric and painting it with black vinyl paint, but I've not yet got a single solution that I am dead-set on. We'll have to see how things turn out, I suppose.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Almost Halloween...
This year, I've decided to take a similar approach to a costume I've wanted to try for a while: Venom. I kicked around the idea of making this costume before Spider-Man 3, so I'm not trying to replicate the Venom from the movie. I'm more interested in the somewhat amorphous, hulking "Eddie Brock" Venom from the good - ole days of Marvel. However, I'm willing to draw inspiration from, well, pretty much anywhere, so I'm looking at the old comics, Spider-Man 3, anything I can see from the upcoming Venom movie, as well as other universes and even fan pics online.
As I see it, there are a few targets to hit with the 80% Venom goal, here:
1) A mouth full of teeth. Venom has a disfigured, over-sized maw full of mismatched horror-teeth - think shark, crocodile, canines... very primal.
2) Hulking size, musculature. I will need to build upward and outward from my own physique, making a "muscle suit" of sorts. I will need to especially build up chest, shoulders, back, arms and calves.
3) Tongue. Venom has a long, nasty, prehensile tongue. We're talking 2-3 feet of nastiness here. Bonus points if I can get it animated. Toying with different ideas on that one.
4) Black, shiny coloration. I am planning to build up the costume with whatever I can find laying around, then skin it with something cheap (probably muslin fabric), and then, finally, coat the outside with shiny black vinyl paint. I am toying around with the idea of doing some sort of hex-like or muscle striation pattern on top of the paint, but that will be one of those "if I finish this thing and find myself bored with lots of extra time on my hands" things. Basically, not likely to be done.
5) Claws. Venom has large, pointy claws. I plan to modify some gloves for this purpose, but I'll have to remove them to get any work done.
6) Feet. Actually, one thing that will be difficult to accomplish is some decent Venom feet. There's not a lot of detail, just large, muscular feet, but since footware is typically more detailed than that, it's going to be interesting trying to get the right look. I've considered cloth over boots, but if it covers the bottom, you lose all of your grip and you will tear up the cloth pretty quickly.
Also, it's probably worth noting that the above list is a list of major items in order of importance. If I can't solve the feet problem, most people would probably forgive simple black boots without a second thought. If I can't get to the claws, black gloves would suffice. The teeth, the tongue... those are pivotal. The shiny black will help to sell the look. Mind you, not everything is listed above; this isn't a checklist of everything to do. I would have to use some shiny white vinyl paint for the spider emblem and eyes, as well as some red for the tongue and mouth, but that's sort of assumed to be part of the other parts.
This is the costume I plan to wear to work for the costume contest on October 29th, as well as while helping to run the ACM programming competition at LSU on the 30th. Who knows, if it goes well, perhaps I'll find some party or competition to go to for the 31st.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Trek Wars?
The Millennium Enterprise, anyone? - At TeeFury... , but Gone in 24hours! | TeeFury
Friday, October 8, 2010
Nigh to Knight-Fall...
That's right it's time again for the Renaissance Fair. Time to dig out my Tunic and hat, and, perhaps, whip up a dress for the missus.
Anyone in my area that is considering going to the Louisiana Renaissance Festival this year might want to check out the coupon deal I just got in my email:
$14 for Two Adult Admissions to the Louisiana Renaissance Festival in Hammond... that's half-price! I'm on their mailing list and get coupons every year, but they're not nearly this good.
So, Psibabe, J.R. Nip and myself(Geck0) will be going this year. Not sure when, yet, but these tickets are pretty much good for any single day they're open, so that's not a big deal.
I think this Groupon thing may just be worthwhile... :)