Which meant we had to kick it up a notch. Or, actually, more than a notch. This time, more than half the costume had to be hand-made. And nicely made at that. This is not a
Thrifty, Non-Crafty costume, people.
Muffin Man worked hard practicing his stage routine, to a soundtrack Mr. Spock put together. And Mr. Spock and I spent about 40 hours over several months on the costume.
Mr. Spock does the sewing in our family, and he went above and beyond on this costume. The purple leotard, the belt (including the device on the belt), the cuffs and devices on the gloves, and the cuffs on the shoes are all completely hand-made. He didn't even use a pattern. Engineered from scratch, folks. All the grey fabric you see is that color because he dyed it, It was all originally plain white cotton. The black body suit is an Under Armor compression suit. Mr. Spock added stirrups to the sleeves and leggings to keep them smooth and tight.
I'm particularly pleased that Mr. Spock was able to design this so it wouldn't need a zipper to spoil the line front or back.
I was, as always, responsible for the make-up. Which included painting the boots. For this performance of Beast Boy, the boots are played by a pair of Rugged Outback shoes from Payless. These were darn near perfect. They've got beautiful outlines right where I needed them. We removed the laces, I taped over everything I wanted to stay black, and then painted them with
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| After |
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| Before |
For Muffin Man's own make-up, I tested out the routine a couple of times at home, and found out that the ears and neck are tough spots to do, and that one should leave the nose for last unless one is going for a Rudolph look. Also, I realized I needed to brighten and widen the eyes, and that a base of chapstick on the lips does wonders.
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| First attempt at makeup. Including hair gel. |
For the contest, we gave ourselves 90 minutes for hair and make-up. First, we pretty much swathed Muffin Man's body in plastic wrap, paper towels, and my own over-sized bathrobe to protect the costume. Then, I put gel in his hair to get that messy look. Next, I did his ears. I've never done
prosthetics before, but I watched a lot of videos and did a pretty good job for a first timer!
Then, I used up a can of green hairspray, and deliberately got it on the ears and neck, see tough spots, above.
When I was satisfied with his hair, I began on his face. I used a base of
Nyx green primer, all over his face and neck, covered by
Mehron green pancake (next time, I'll try their liquid instead. The powder doesn't really last long enough). Because Mehron's green was a tad too dark for what I wanted, I did a highlight layer of
Nyx green primal color (not eye safe), which is much lighter. Then I blended in the bright green on his ears with a mix of the two powders. When everything else was green, I put a thick coat of chapstick on his lips and then covered them with Mehron alone, to keep them slightly darker than the rest of his skin.
I used a
Super Fat Eye Marker on his brows, and for that little crease between the brows. I brought his brow line out just a bit beyond where it naturally ends.
Through all this, I left his eyes alone. When I was happy with how the rest of the make-up looked, I used a green
Jumbo Eye Pencil on his upper eyelids, and a thin darker green pencil next to his upper lashes, bringing the line out beyond his natural eyes. Then I used a
white slim eye pencil on his lower lashes and a
white jumbo eye pencil on his lower lid. Again, I brought the line out beyond his natural eye. I finished his eyes with a
black Super Skinny marker just under where I'd drawn the white.
Then I put a boatload of transluscent fixative powder over the whole thing, and finished it all off by spritzing fixative spray over that.
Finally we unwrapped him and put on his gloves. And went down to be judged, and do the performance, and walk around getting photographed. Not necessarily in that order.
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| The Beast Boy team, admiring our handiwork |
We didn't win the contest this time, but we sure got a huge amount of
audience approval and people wanting to take pictures. It was a blast! Plus, we got to see a
wee little Dalek (won Best Overall), the
cutest little cosplayer EVER (she won the children's division), and a
Steampunk Buzz Lightyear.
I'll post a link to the performance video once they post it.
