Tiger, First Version: Costumes I've Made
Dennis' Lair
Details
Tiger costume fashioned in the style of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats
Conceived: June 2003
Completed: August 2007
Debuted: August 2007
Composition: Nylon spandex unitard, with acrylic paint airbrushed on it; yarn braid tail; face paint (Ben Nye cream cake); half wig
Makeup, Wig, and Tail design: Katie Lipton, Feast of Dreams
Airbrush work: Stalking Cat (yes, THAT Stalking Cat! =^_^= )
The initial concept of this costume was had in summer of 2003, when I got the idea to have such a costume made. The trick in this case was to attempt to locate somebody who could do airbrushing on a unitard. Unfortunately, due to funds lacking, the long and short is that it did not get completed until 2007.
The basic character concept for this was that it would be the tiger character I conceived of for the furry fandom - basically, a long haired bengal tiger. It is, in a nutshell, more or less a reflection of me in real life: blue eyes, long curly blond hair, and, well, a little bit foppish, preferring ren faire garb to mundane clothing. =^_^= It's more or less a stylized version of the real life Dennis.
The pictures here show the creation of the unitard, as well as some specimens from the original concept of this particular project.
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Concept sketches
This was actually created by Leinir, who was going to do a white tiger version of this. I'm not clear as to whether he actually did do such a thing. He did, however, make a wolf costume in the same fashion. |
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Sample from one airbrush artist I was going to use
This is the part that never came to fruition for the simple reason that I just never could get the money together at the time (this was back in 2003). I had him show me this for a sample of his work, for all intents, and would have gone with it - if I didn't move out of southern California by the time I was ready to have this done. |
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First layer done
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More going on
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More paint has now gone on the front
That intent look is kind of there. One thing about being airbrushed is that you can't sit down while doing this because it obscures the surfaces you're painting - yet you cannot move, in some cases even slightly. Doesn't make it easy. |
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A few final touches on the orange layer, and...
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...hey! I could be a fox! =^_^=
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First striping going on
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Applying a stripe up toward my neck
It was at about this point that Cat had gone and found another reference - an artists reference of an actual tiger.
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Looking up front...
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...and going for the back
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Showing progress on the back
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...and now on the front.
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First phase of the finished product. At this point, it had been through the wash once to see if the paint would hold.
We went after it twice more - the first was some more touchup, the second was to replace a layer of paint that had actually come off in the wash, despite our efforts to set it. It's now a bit darker accordingly, and the paint has actually been driven into the fabric to prevent fading.
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© Dennis Carr - all rights reserved
Last modified Sat Jul 29 2017 01:18:46 PDT
