LokiFenris
New Member
So this year I have a list of projects to complete, personal and client based. The last post was on my own interpretation and upgrading of the Green Goblin.
This post is about a costume I created for a client. A take on the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. I had free reign over the design, the brief was merely to make a twisted/dark version of the smiling cat.
For references I used pics of real world felines, the Cheshire cat from "American McGee's Alice the Madness Returns* the video game, and of course the Disney cartoon version.
First step was to create the mask/removable head. I looked at pictures of Sphinx cats for the skin folds/wrinkles but based the head shape more on the fat Tabby cat. I didn't have to add the wrinkles in the sculpt as I know from experience these can become lost under the fur, but I added them just in case they could be seen through the fur. As I wasn't sure which areas on the head would be hand laid/patch glued.
The sculpt was done in water based clay and then moulded in Herculite as the mask base was going to be run in Latex.
Next step the furring! I have a love/hate relationship with this stuff. It's amazing what you can create and I really enjoy creating animals and fur based creatures, but I always end up with a furball in throat for the duration of the build....and there's nothing worse than fur in your cup of tea!!
The fur was laid two ways on the head. In large sections/patches and then hand laid on the edges or where i needed the fur flat and thinner. I didn't hair punch simply down to the thickness of the latex. The amount of fur that was lying around the workshop was quite bad but it got a whole lot worse when i moved onto the next step.....the shaving!
So that's one floofy looking cat!
I extended the ear tips to create a fluffed point. Similar to a wild cat I was looking at and to channel a bit of the McGee cat.The ears had wire installed inside to keep their height and prevent a floppy ear syndrome. The teeth were cast in latex. Here in these pics the cat's fur has been trimmed down and hand laid where needed.
So another challenge was the eyes. I have tried back painting in the past but I just can't seem to get to grips with it. So instead I sculpted an eye blank that I could paint on. Once painted this would be installed into the plastic eye blank Can be seen in photo above.
All ready to paint!
So after nearly choking on all the fur I had shaved off, it was time to airbrush. I decided to go with the colours from the Disney cat. I wasn't particularly taken with the blue and grey from the Tim Burton film. I always felt that Wonderland and it's inhabitants ,whilst based on real life animals/elements , were meant to be trippy and bordering on scary. I also have a soft spot for the Disney cartoon version. I didn't want block colours I wanted a more natural feel to the colour flow. More a blend rather than sharp blocks. I also wanted the stripes to have some realism to them so I looked up cats that had strong striped markings. and looked for an element of the unusual.
Head and body airbrushed!
I coloured the eye areas and the cheeks by hand for a softer colour.
Some areas were quite dark so I needed to create more of a gradual fade between the two colours. I took some IPA on some Q-tips and carefully wiped over the fur. This helped lighten the colours in the areas I wanted.
He was missing some essential items..... eyes, whiskers and drool!
I actually used hot glue for the drool. I have a fine tipped glue gun allowing for nice precise drool drops. It needed to be robust with the costume being worn frequently and the hot glue is nice and robust yet still quite clear. I have done a fair few experiments with all sorts of materials some resin based, silicone based but found this simple one by accident. Plus silicone had to be ruled out for this as latex and silicone do not get on! The whiskers were fishing wire. It was quite a thick one so that 1; You could see them, 2. so that they could hold their shape. The thinner stuff was too flimsy and just hung limply. At the start I had painted the eyes pale yellow/green/blue. But when I placed the eye with the mask after airbrushing, it didn't have a twisted enough look. So I went for a bright menacing yellow. This just made the whole thing come to life and contrasted nicely with the fur colours. I also altered the eyelids so that they narrowed the eyes a bit.
I made some foam hands and feet that had simple latex claws, which were stitched to the costume. The hands were stitched on in a way that the person wearing the suit could slip out of them when needed. The feet were also designed as a shoe cover and were elasticated underneath. Also stitched at the front to the suit. Tail has a wire inside to allow for posing for pictures.
And voila!
View attachment cat2.jpgView attachment cat1.jpgView attachment cat3.jpg
This was quite a tricky project as the Cheshire Cat is quite iconic and I feel hard to create your own interpretation. Like reinventing the wheel. I found the purple and pink quite tricky to get looking right and at times I did feel it wasn't working. But I must say I would love to own a cat in these colours! Note: I know cats don't drool,i added that for more twisted artistic license.
Thanks for checking out the Cheshire Cat.
This post is about a costume I created for a client. A take on the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. I had free reign over the design, the brief was merely to make a twisted/dark version of the smiling cat.
For references I used pics of real world felines, the Cheshire cat from "American McGee's Alice the Madness Returns* the video game, and of course the Disney cartoon version.
First step was to create the mask/removable head. I looked at pictures of Sphinx cats for the skin folds/wrinkles but based the head shape more on the fat Tabby cat. I didn't have to add the wrinkles in the sculpt as I know from experience these can become lost under the fur, but I added them just in case they could be seen through the fur. As I wasn't sure which areas on the head would be hand laid/patch glued.
The sculpt was done in water based clay and then moulded in Herculite as the mask base was going to be run in Latex.
Next step the furring! I have a love/hate relationship with this stuff. It's amazing what you can create and I really enjoy creating animals and fur based creatures, but I always end up with a furball in throat for the duration of the build....and there's nothing worse than fur in your cup of tea!!
The fur was laid two ways on the head. In large sections/patches and then hand laid on the edges or where i needed the fur flat and thinner. I didn't hair punch simply down to the thickness of the latex. The amount of fur that was lying around the workshop was quite bad but it got a whole lot worse when i moved onto the next step.....the shaving!
So that's one floofy looking cat! I extended the ear tips to create a fluffed point. Similar to a wild cat I was looking at and to channel a bit of the McGee cat.The ears had wire installed inside to keep their height and prevent a floppy ear syndrome. The teeth were cast in latex. Here in these pics the cat's fur has been trimmed down and hand laid where needed.
So another challenge was the eyes. I have tried back painting in the past but I just can't seem to get to grips with it. So instead I sculpted an eye blank that I could paint on. Once painted this would be installed into the plastic eye blank Can be seen in photo above.
All ready to paint!
So after nearly choking on all the fur I had shaved off, it was time to airbrush. I decided to go with the colours from the Disney cat. I wasn't particularly taken with the blue and grey from the Tim Burton film. I always felt that Wonderland and it's inhabitants ,whilst based on real life animals/elements , were meant to be trippy and bordering on scary. I also have a soft spot for the Disney cartoon version. I didn't want block colours I wanted a more natural feel to the colour flow. More a blend rather than sharp blocks. I also wanted the stripes to have some realism to them so I looked up cats that had strong striped markings. and looked for an element of the unusual.
Head and body airbrushed!I coloured the eye areas and the cheeks by hand for a softer colour.
Some areas were quite dark so I needed to create more of a gradual fade between the two colours. I took some IPA on some Q-tips and carefully wiped over the fur. This helped lighten the colours in the areas I wanted.
He was missing some essential items..... eyes, whiskers and drool!
I actually used hot glue for the drool. I have a fine tipped glue gun allowing for nice precise drool drops. It needed to be robust with the costume being worn frequently and the hot glue is nice and robust yet still quite clear. I have done a fair few experiments with all sorts of materials some resin based, silicone based but found this simple one by accident. Plus silicone had to be ruled out for this as latex and silicone do not get on! The whiskers were fishing wire. It was quite a thick one so that 1; You could see them, 2. so that they could hold their shape. The thinner stuff was too flimsy and just hung limply. At the start I had painted the eyes pale yellow/green/blue. But when I placed the eye with the mask after airbrushing, it didn't have a twisted enough look. So I went for a bright menacing yellow. This just made the whole thing come to life and contrasted nicely with the fur colours. I also altered the eyelids so that they narrowed the eyes a bit.
I made some foam hands and feet that had simple latex claws, which were stitched to the costume. The hands were stitched on in a way that the person wearing the suit could slip out of them when needed. The feet were also designed as a shoe cover and were elasticated underneath. Also stitched at the front to the suit. Tail has a wire inside to allow for posing for pictures.
And voila!
View attachment cat2.jpgView attachment cat1.jpgView attachment cat3.jpgThis was quite a tricky project as the Cheshire Cat is quite iconic and I feel hard to create your own interpretation. Like reinventing the wheel. I found the purple and pink quite tricky to get looking right and at times I did feel it wasn't working. But I must say I would love to own a cat in these colours! Note: I know cats don't drool,i added that for more twisted artistic license.
Thanks for checking out the Cheshire Cat.
