R&J & John Green

Author John Green makes the case for Romeo and Juliet. Perhaps one of my least favorite Shakespeare plays but possibly because it is so often presented as a simple love story. It is beautifully written and yet I always want them to die... Here is John's version of it;

Best in show...

So earlier this month I posted what I thought were the worst of the worst... this week I present some awesome and creative costumes I've gleaned from the interwebs...

Well done Halloweenies, I doff my cap to you.

Olde Timey research

1927; Men's underwear.

Amature season again...

Ah October.  The month when everyone feels that I should help them with their Halloween costume.

"I don't know what I should be, I bet you've got *lots* of ideas" 

" I don't know how to sew but I have a pattern and some fabric, wouldn't you love to help me out?  It'll be *FUN*"

meh...

Anyways I thought that this month I would post some of the more awful costumes from the internet I've seen... Today I give you the funniest "sexy" costumes I've seen;

"Marvin the Martian"

"Oscar the Grouch" (Obviously)

"Flamingo"  Really... This one is supposed to be a flamingo.

"Fox" Ha ha word play...

And finally my very favorite "sexy clownfish"

Oh good times.

I am art.

 

Sometimes this happens. I probably should wear gloves, but it makes painting other gloves very difficult.

THE Wrestling Belt... a behind the scenes for Chad Diety

Working with Roma Plastilina for the first time in over a decade. The good news is that now they make a non-sulfur version (because the stuff I used in high school smelled to all high hell)

Today I made this large buckle, tomorrow I make the small side buckles, a mold for it and then from that a positive out of plastic.

...and then I paint it and mount it onto a belt... yes, this stuff is not exactly easy but it is enjoyable. Pray that the foam mold and plastic steps go well since I haven't done that before... but we follow directions and with a little luck it will all work out.

 The foam mold portion of this process went well.  Perfect on the first try... but then the liquid plastic portion of this adventure kicked me down a peg from my feelings of success.
The plastic filled and overfilled the mold until I was left battling an ever expanding amount of sticky plastic goo that thankfully had a plastic container collecting the excess rather than the kitchen table.

 Eventually I discovered that positioning pencils under the mold would keep the flow inside.

 The plastic was supposed to dry in about 15 minutes but the next day I was still left with soft and sticky shapes that began to bubble and expand like cancer had taken a turn for the worse.

This is when you try again. Plastic pour #2... neater... actually started to solidify when it was supposed to...

Primer.

Black detail. (a little gaudy at this phase but hold on, it's just a step in the process)

Oooh... more gold... (I'm not going to even get into how much of a fight it was to mount this thing onto a belt)

Victory!!!

Photo shoot!

I normally loathe doing promotional photos but this last week I had a good time. We're doing a Wrestlelmania style show and needed a get up for the photo shoot... this is what I came up with.

Makes me wish I were designing the show too, but alas, another day.

Nods to good costuming

I had to recognize the Glee costumer for throwing in this little gem of millinery humor. This screen capture shows a look that was on screen for maybe 8 seconds... it made me laugh to see the Royal Wedding hat joke.

Here are the originals worn to Prince William/Kate Middleton's wedding;

Brava/o Glee costume designer.

Brain Crack (Where do you get all your creative ideas?!)

Creating things for a living isn't for the faint of heart. No it doesn't just flow out of our brains turning into magic... There are a lot of bad ideas that we just never show anybody. This guy gets it.

The Back Row

The secret to Shotgun's back row is that those are the most comfortable seats inthe whole house... lots of leg room, no hard pews. I request to sit there... shh.

The original pronunciation of Shakespeare fascinates me. To me it sounds closer to Scottish and American than it does to modern English, but you tell me;

Pink

Pink is one of my least favorite colors, but sometimes it is appropriate for the stage.  Sometimes big pink fluffy dresses need to be bigger, pinker, fluffier.  I present my case;

Scrambled.

I made a meme... let's see if it spreads.

Brevity-Princess dresses

I am reaching the finish line here and the dresses I'm making for the ladies are coming together. I am making what may be described as 'poofy cupcake princess dresses'... it makes my inner 6 year old go "SQUEE!"

-It makes the sleep dep fun.

Insert obvious euphamism here...

Shopping on the internet...

Oh the things we find...  and they're all sold out.

Promo Photos

I hate promo photos. They always look contrived. The actors usually don't have the proper hair or make up, the costumes have typically been thrown together at the last minute.  Often the designer doesn't even get the chance to put the costumes together and the actor or director does the 'styling' of it. The actors are often whoever is available and they create scenes that don't really exist in the play... what I really hate is when the someone says "I want it to be organic", yea like we're hiring Pirkle Jones to come and document this event that will just be happening.

That said... I did these. I pulled the costumes, I took the photos, I posed the actors... I chose the two actors with the best hair, and actually I don't think they are ever in the same scene on stage.

I guess they look at least as good as the normal last minute stuff I see.