Me and my wooden friend; together again.

While studying Costume design in school I was flummoxed by how many designers are terrible at rendering (that's designer speak for drawing and painting your ideas in a semi-technical manner).   Now I understand.  Honestly it is something that isn't necessary all the time.  Last night I sat down with my watercolors and my little wooden model and painted the first full color rendering I've done all year. Often directors are intimidated by completed drawings, as though the ideas were in stone. Often it just takes too long to complete a set of drawings for a show. Sometimes clippings from catalogues and research books are plenty of information. Usually the only reason to actually sit down with your pen and ink is because you are fortunate enough to have a shop building your show. Mostly this is not the case and it is just lil' ol' you (and maybe an assistant) doing the show by rubbing two pennies together hoping they will make a nickel. This rendering was done to help my collaborators visualize what I've been telling them I'm planning. Sometimes it's hard to have somebody show you three pictures and tell you "we're using this jacket, this hat and these pants, only this will be tailored in and this will be painted like this..." in this case it was easier to sit down and draw... like a real artist! I wish I had more drawing and less shopping in my work(sigh). Forgive my reluctance to post my work online. I am happy with the drawing, but it is my professional work and I don't need to give it to the world for free.

Costume Fittings

In Costuming a play we go through a process of "fittings" where we try everything on actors and make adjustments as needed. Getting there goes like this;
As I approach fittings I become a tightly wound ball of antici...pation. I get anxious about every choice I've made and actually seeing it on the actors. I spend hours putting every sequence of choices in order, rearranging them, getting rid of some things before bringing them into the fitting. I lay out scenes on the table to see what draws attention or if I've chosen things that are all too similar... I think this process of pre-fitting selection is more intense on modern shows where there's not really the option of making drawings in advance.
What I really hope for in a good fitting are the following;
1. the actor looks 'good' ('good' meaning; the way that their character should look)
2. the actor is happy and sees how the clothes will support the action&character
3. the director likes it
4. everything is close to fitting (nothing is worse than having a whole fitting where you've shopped everything too small, too short or whatever there is to make the actor feel like a physical freak)
As I get more adept at sizing people up these fittings do go much more smoothly than they did when I first started out. However experience is not a panacea for perfect fittings and every show is different. Eras, brands, characters all change how clothes do or should fit on a body. Once you get a garment on a person it changes completely, thus as I approach fittings I become hypercritical of every garment I encounter. I judge everything about it including how it feels, looks, how it will look under stage light, stitching quality, where the darts are, how the colors will look on the performer, pleats, buttons, lining, what historical eras or people it reminds me of... yea there's a lot of thought going into the decision between "blue jeans with a dark rinse vs. blue pinstripe dress pants". As the fittings get closer, getting myself dressed in the morning becomes more of an ordeal than it should be.
Once I've been through first fittings I'll be able to breathe a little. I'll at least have a better idea of how effective my choices have been, how my actors wear their clothes, any ideas the director and I have missed... A wealth of information awaits me on the other side of fittings, but for now I must rearrange the costume rack again and make another trip to the mall as I face the unknown before me.

the dress complete