Costume Basics

Welcome back, more notes for class.  Hopefully the images are self explanatory, I don't feel like writing out a bunch of text.  Biggest unsaid thing is to keep your characters simple for now, too much detail will make it hard for someone else to translate your drawings.  KISS Keep it Simple Stupid! I used some concepts from current students to show simplification.  I will post their examples here when I get the chance.  I mention folds here as wrinkles are the little random "cracks" that happen to cloth when it's left in the dryer or on the floor for too long. And so, cloth when it's just hanging makes pipe folds.  Cloth tends to move outward in accordance to the number of folds.

When material is fixed at more than one point; pinned to the a wall, draped across knees or breasts or held by the fingers etc. the material seems to favor diaper folds and folds tend to radiate diagonally until they hang back in pipe folds.

 

Though there are many types of folds, a group that you see on a daily basis is known as compression folds, most notably the zig zag folds.

 

No matter what type of fold, if they are happening as part of costume, remember there is is something under the material to support it.  Cylinders, boxes, wedges, spheres and cubes make up the construction underneath the material and effects its action.  Note: Folds generally radiate from the joints.  Look at how the the joints effects the flow of the material.

 Those forms, when put together make up the figure and you are essentially 'dressing' your figure or character.  I would suggest against trying to just draw the costume without underlying construction because the costume will always seems to "float".

  

Remember, the fewer folds in your drawing, the neater it will look and not give the impression that your character has been wearing it to bed for the past three months.  A nice neat, sports coat below with untidy example next to it.

 

Well dressed big guys.  Max!

 Cloth does what the body tells it to do, often you get many examples of folds at once.  The spiral folds of tight or thing material of the undershirt with a t-shirt that makes (basically) a giant pipe fold at the bottom hem. this guy is happy because he's got his coffee and a choice team shirt...add your own favorite logo here.

  

Don't be intimidated by hats.  We will cover those in the next post.

 

Contemporary characters?  How about some Spidey?

Now that you have an idea of what goes into drawing costume, you can start putting clothes that make your characters.  BUT, keep it simple for now.  Look at this guy's Hawaiian shirt, what would you do to simplify the designs?

 

Without fail, every semester at least one student comes up with a space warrior/assassin (thanks video games) so what would happen if you changed out of teh Hawaiian shirt and strapped on a handy blaster? Bucket top boots, woot!

  

 I love "Ghost In The Shell"  A great futuristic assassin...or ladies in spacesuits...

Or a viking character is another at the top of the list, keep that maile simple!  Don't draw every ring in the armor or you'll go crazy and push anybody who has to draw it off the brink.

  

Animation vikings! Fur needs to be simple too or else it will look like spaghetti, that's in the next post.

 Here's a wonderful viking (even though liberties were taken with the horns).

 Pilots, whether in human form or as an anthropomorphized animal, should be streamlined here.  Leave out the buttons, buckles or patches (if possible).  I am including model sheets for these examples to compare.

 Ah, here we go, an anthropomorphized pilot. Awesomeness!

 Another pilot with and "animal" face.  I love you, Porco.

Samurais and ninjas and other historical warriors are extremely cool but find something about them that is new and hasn't been done already....unlike the guy below with the same old, same old going on. I need to check all my Samurai sheets.

 Ah the spirit or ghost form.  The most often line I hear from students is, "I don't need to show weight, it floats." Floating is a huge animation problem and makes the character difficult to believe.  Suggestion: make your character touch the floor and give it weight, and we will believe it's ghostliness even more. Again, I have to post some model sheets that fit this but here's a totally awesome link to compare.

 

But here's a ghost character with lots of weight:

Cowboys.  Not many of these being done anymore, which is a little sad, but hats make figure eights.

Grim Natwick!

And Yosemite Sam, my favorite cowboy.

Uptight 1770's guy. That's a trope isn't it?  I guess I'm glad I'm not from the 1700's (even though my students think I am) because I would have had to be uptight (which my students think I am).

 Nifty story art for Beauty and The Beast:

A lot of bird characters this semester.  So...here's a guy in a bird costume. KISS! Quack!  Maybe it will fly over the ocean carrying an elephant by the truck...maybe...

 

Hmm...Maybe a little Tex Avery?

 Monsters.  They always seem to be sort of like therapods, So here's monster guy.  Soft fabric...you just wanna give 'em a hug. I think this should be made into a costume. If I wore it, would you hug me?

 Cool monster(s) from Art Adams.

And trench coat guy.

My favorite guy in a trench coat, Inspector Gadget.  This fan's site is pretty cool if you're into the Inspector, Penny and Doctor Claw.

A hula hooping fire dancer.  Never been done in class before.  I cannot hula hoop to save my life but here's my attempt at such a thing - from the rear of course, because big fat guys hula hooping...
Looking through my model sheet collection, I can't find a hula hooping character (which means I need to look harder) but I did find this link.

Thanks for stopping by.

Costume: Armor!

Just a note to say; the included image should be considered an example of...

Nice pauldrons, though.  Really, it's -in a word- IMPRACTICAL.  I know I am alienating all of you gamer folks who follow this blog (probably not...because gamers don't follow it), but a boob window??  And a cape?  Or should I even mention the obvious? She would do better with some serious beach time or a new addition to Jabba's palace.  I know, I know, "But she has a sabatons" Okay, you win.  Because that would totally deflect any arrows or pikes or katanas or yaris or cannon balls.  Armor is about protection.  No, not that kind of protection, protection from sharp pointy things, or blunt things or fiery things or any dangerous things.  Going into to battle dressed this way, may get the enemy's attention, but this young lady certainly won't last long no matter how good a warrior she is.  Besides, it's the freakin' ENEMY, who wants to KILL you - and rape your freshly dead body, so who gives a crap how sexy you look fighting him/her/them? War ain't pretty and arming yourself like this is just stupid!  Try this: tear off all of your clothes (right now) run head long into a cactus patch, a series a plate glass windows, a metal foundry or just fry up some bacon. I will wait....back? Okay let's talk armor!

In review, the above is not armor but we should start here. Feminists, don't turn away in spite (yet) the above drawing will be used to get across my above point. This young lady is vulnerable due to the fact that she is only 'armed' in a one piece and she hasn't a of drop of sunscreen on.

Here, she is stepping back in time to days of the Hoplites, strong Greek soldiers, who wore the linothorax as armor.  Note the bare arms, thighs and sandals.  No matter how strong a force they were, I can't help but to curl my toes at the thought of wearing sandals into battle...I mean, there was a lot of sharp stuff that was sharp sharp stuff hurts exposed toes and... and SANDALS?! Yeesh, no wonder those dorus were so long.

A little later into the 13th century (all you guys who know all about this stuff, feel free to correct my time placements and naming conventions for the sake of making stuff correct for these poor folks who follow this blog.  At least we have covered her feet with boots and now instead of strips of cloth basically glued (with animal fat or other stuff) together (ptergus) with a layer of bronze scales around the chest in Greek armor.  Knees and hands are still in danger and the head, though protected, will suffer the impact of a major sword or mace strike.

So we move on to the 15th/16th century when soldiers of all sorts resorted to better armor made of metal plate.  A knight or warrior would start with the above to make comfortable the plate and also to absorb the impact of weaponry which may glance off the armor but the blow would still be quite deadly without the soft multilayer cloth underneath.  Chain maille would be laced to the doublet to protect those spots not covered by the plate armor. 

Large pieces of plate would then be tied to the doublet with cords called points to secure it.  Shown above the chest piece, the tassets to protect the hips and loins, which were attached to the fauld, the lower out-turned portion attached to the bottom of the chest piece. Upper and lower arm pieces connected by the couter or elbow piece.

Legs would be protected (at least on the anterior side) by the tying or belting on of leg pieces-a lot of armor protected the front of a fighter but not the back.  Because the fighter may be riding into battle on a horse so not needing the weight of the armor covering the back.  Thighs were protected by the cuisse, lower leg protected by the greaves which sit over the sabaton (the vented "shoe" which covers the top of the foot. The knees are made safe by the poleyn which connects the cuisse and greave.

Finally, the helmet is added (the pauldron at this time were actually attached to the chest plate, I added them here to show the chest armor better.  Look at the above.  Very hard to tell this warrior is a woman (though they did exist; legend has it that a custom suit of armor was commissioned for Joan of Ark by the King) and not very likely to sell games geared toward adolescent males hungry for bloodsport and female bodies.  But the reality is, battle is dangerous and anyone engaging in it would have taken precautions. Warriors, being less concerned with attractiveness on the battlefield, would do what they could to cover themselves completely rather than suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.   A real battle would be short lived if fought in a bikini.

Now, on the other hand, if you want to make your young lady attractive and still seem 'bad ass', dress her in a bliaut. Mmm....bliaut. Ladies do a lot for this piece of (generally French) costume. Ceremonial sword (note severe lack of weight in how she wields it.

Back to armor.  Using the information including the terms mentioned above, you can start to see how even made up armor is based off what has come before.  The above stormtrooper is labeled with the correct components (even if those components are referred to as something else in stormtrooper land).  I know quite a few people who still call pieces of this armor "leg thingies" and "shoulder do-dads". This will make you seem much more intelligent if you refer to these pieces by their proper names.  Notice that in putting on the white plastic armor, the wearer usually will need a black body suit, gloves with a bit of the armor on teh back of the hand taken from half gauntlets called demigauntlets. The head can also be covered with a racing or cranial sock but look at the presence of the gorget. The next step allows for the leg pieces and arm pieces and a large piece at the middle that covers the lower abdomen which in armor terms is called the plackart.  This piece was designed to sit around the lower abdomen under or near the chest plate, sometime attached to chain maille or leather studded chest armor.  In this case, according to my geek and some research, the plackart and cod piece is all one piece and the utility belt is simply strapped over the plackart.  Were this actual armor from certain periods, the cod piece and plackart would be separate pieces to allow for a greater range of motion.  The helmet follows as do the spaulders if you are regular Imperial forces.  Sand troopers have an additional spaulder attached to a mantle as well as extra ammunition pockets.  They also get to wear a backpack and larger range weapons. Now have a look, the sex of the wearer is completely obscured by the armor in any case.  What makes the armor 'sexy' is how it's worn in battle and the fighting capabilities of the wearer.

I admit, I have always loved storm trooper even though it is (apparently) completely useless as it can't even deflect a single blaster bolt and seems to impair the vision of the user so much that it's difficult to hit an enemy across a hallway (Despite all that, I would TOTALLY have one myself if I didn't have other stuff like kids, or a mortgage to spend my money on.)

So here's a little test.  Look at the fictitious armor above and label the parts without refer to the above images.  Or, even better, go see Pacific Rim and yell out the components of the armor you see on screen, you will be surprised how much you've learned and the people around will really appreciate you help.  More later, thank for stopping by.
Special thanks to the great Craig Shira for bringing his collection of armor and weapons to wear, show off and discuss with my students and to my colleague, friend and fellow dad; Owen "Shut up, I'm a VIKING"Aurelio for his knowledge on this subject.  Also I recommend this great book.

Go draw armor! Be sure to make ping, clang and explosion noises while drawing because they make drawing this stuff cooler. Thanks for stopping by.