Monkey King - original design

[Temperance]

Gosh, I do love Sun Wukong. I have been wanting to make a Monkey king for years, and finally got the inspiration to make one when a friend of mine made a really amazing monkey sculpt for a fursuit base. Crystumes made a monkey costume for a customer a few years ago and kindly sold me a cast of her monkey sculpt: https://crystumes.weebly.com/
There are so many great Monkey King designs out there that I could not settle on a favourite, so I took a bunch of images from various movies/games/historical paintings/theatre and designed my own.
I cleaned up the resin sculpt and covered it with Antron fleece from Puppet pelts and NFT hair from Hairymann's closet, then gave him an airbrush to add some depth to his face and blend the hair and fleece.

 

[kerrymartin]

This is really amazing and beautiful. I appreciate your work. But I think some more changes are required in the face because it pretty resembles in Lion too. Do something like that it perfectly looks the monkey.

 

[McCarthy83]

That is mega.... love it....

 

[Temperance]

Boots were made built on a purchased shoe base. I wanted a slight pointed toe look on the boots, so I added a small triangle of foam to change the overall toe shape. The shoes were then covered in duct tape to draft a pattern (of the shoe itself and to add length to make the boots mid-calf height).

I then transferred the pattern to a thick wool suiting fabric for the base of the boot. The fabric was cut, sewn and glued to the shoe base. Gold trim and other embellishments were added to the boots, along with purchased embroidered appliqués. Plastic boning was installed to the front and back of the boot to prevent the boots from sagging, and finally seed and bugle glass beads were hands sewn to the boots to finish.

 

[Temperance]

Hands!
Hands were made sewing a glove pattern with Antron fleece. Cuffs of NFT fur was added to the wrists to give a plume of fur. False nails were glued to the gloves to make the monkey nails, and the hands were airbrushed to add some depth and blend the hair better into the fleece.

 

[Temperance]

Belt!
Belt was made with vegetable tanned leather. I found a nice gator scale patterned veg tanned leather piece at my local Tandy Leather supply store. I used Eco-Flo water based leather dye to dye the leather red to match the other red leather strapping.

The Lion belt buckle was drafted in pencil, then traced on to some 5mm EVA foam. I carved into the cut-out and added layers of 2mm foam to shape the finished design, then covered the piece in worbla. The belt strapping was fitted for the mouth, then painted with a dry-brush technique with gold acrylic paint to give an antique gold look while still showing much of the black worbla underneath.

The buckle was then sealed with a clear satin varnish spray and the belt piece was fitted in place. Gold rivets were hammered into the belt and buckle piece, and gold belt ends were attached to the leather to be connected to the rest of the belt piece.

An homage was paid to the original monkey king tale with a small piece of faux fur to represent the tiger skin from the legend. I used a scrap of rust faux fur and airbrushed stripes to make it look like a tiger pelt. I cut the fur with a blade to make it look like it had a hasty jagged edge, and sewed it to a unique spiral belt accessory I found. The spiral matches that on Wukong's boots

I found an interesting laced belt at my local fabric store and decided it would make an interesting feature to my own belt. I trimmed the knotted ends and finished the edges with a piece of red suede. I added some D rings to attach to the main belt.

 

[Temperance]

Whoops, posted twice! sorry about that!

 

[Temperance]

More monkey! Pants and Tunic!
Because I am dumb, I didn't take any photos of the tunic or pants being drafted or sewn.

Pants were sewn using a basic pajama pant pattern - New Look 6635
I modded the pattern slightly by adding an elastic waistband instead of a drawstring. I also added elastic to the ankles to keep them from riding up when I move around.

Jacket was modified from a tunic pattern for a Shepherd tunic - simplicity 4213 Nativity play Costumes.

The shape of the shepherd tunics were similar to what I wanted, so it was a good base to start from. I made the back and sleeves the same as the pattern, but the front was changed into to 2 halves, then widened at the bottom edge to flare out and make the jacket wrap-around and tie like a martial arts style jacket.

Ribbon was sewn to the edging. Then ties were sewn to the waist at the sides so the jacket could be securely tied closed. The sleeves were finished with a serger, and a stitch was added to the cuffs to have the close tighter at the wrist (so they wouldn't come loose from the gantlets)

 

[Apollo]

Love what you have done so far!

Just watched Chow’s Journey To The West for the upteenth time last week!!

 

[Temperance]

Gauntlets were cut from leather and gold rivets were added along the edging. They were further decorated with some lucky fortune Chinese coins which were fixed in place with some red leather strapping. The finished gauntlet has a simple hinge closure and decorative red knots.

 

[Temperance]

I did lots of research into historical chinese armour and clothing. The basic shape regardless of class is very similar for chinese armours; they are all square-ish in shape and have a front or back closure, with a cut into the sides for the arms. The legs are then protected with long thigh skirting with a split in the front and back for ease of movement.

I started with the thigh skirting. I cut two rectangles, then measured and stitched rectangle beads (with a flowing dragon motif) with red leather lacing, and added brass rivets.

I patterned the upper armour with a simple duct tape pattern and transferred it to cow leather. The thigh guards were attached to the upper half with hammered brass rivets, and a decorative front and back flap were added with assorted scraps of black and leather and suede.

The upper armour was trimmed with red suede and shoulder straps with buckles were hammered into the corners. Grommets were punched into the front of the tunic and leather lacing was woven through to make the closures.

More beads and lacing were added to the front of the armour to tie into the thigh guards. Then, a test fit with belt to ensure the specific "look" draped appropriately.

TEST FIT!!!

I put on everything I had made to see how the whole garment looked together. Overall the costume looked good, but some details could now been seen that needed to be addressed. In particular: Head seemed a little large so fur needed to be trimmed down further, wide-eyed look was a little bold so stronger eyelids need to be added, Shoulder armour of some type needed to be installed, and finally a tail!

 

[Temperance]

Traditionally, Wukong is often represented in Peking opera with a large pheasant headdress/crown. I decided to add one to make a classic silhouette. I did not think I could find long enough pheasant feathers (nor would they be very durable), so I decided to make my own.

I cut 14 gauge wire to the desired length I wanted, then used some cotton twill to make the feather. I used e 77 spray glue and folded the fabric over the wire twice to make a thick and sturdy fabric base with the wire as the core. The fabric was then cut to make a more feather looking shape

The feathers were painted with a tan spray paint, then hand painted with tulip fabric paint to get the distinctive V chevron shape of the pheasant feather.

I cut some triangles of red faux fur and folded them over the bottom edge of the wire, then used scissors to trim the fur to further accentuate the shape.

The crown was made with foam and coated in Worbla. I painted the crown with black and gold dry brushing, then painted the gems with a red acrylic. the edges were finished with some trim similar to that used on Wukong's boots. Holes were drilled into the crown and the wires from the home made feathers were installed and epoxied into place.

A Tee nut was installed in the head where a screw could be put through the crown and attach to the head.

 

[Temperance]

The staff was made with some plumbing piping. I ensured a screw joiner was placed in the middle so it could be disassembled for packing and travel. The plumbing piping was rolled in 3mm sheet foam to thicken, and further pieces of sheet foam were added to create details. I carved some spiral patterns into the foam, then covered the entire staff in worbla.
Based off the story of the Monkey king, his staff is often described as a black rod. I did not want to make the rod entirely black, as that is a little bland, but I decided to paint it a little on the dark side with some gold and red drybrushing. the staff was spray painted with Krylon Matte black, then gold and red acrylics were added to the detailing. I finished the staff with two strips of red fabric which I shredded with a box cutter and rubbed down with fabric paint to age.

 

[Temperance]

Tail was made with a pool noodle as a base. 14 Gauge wire was inserted into the pool noodle, and the entire tube was covered with NFT fur. The fur was trimmed and a belt hook installed so the belt can be attached to the pants. The wire in the tail allows me to adjust the tail into any shape. 4

 

[Temperance]

I decided Wukong was a little wide-eyed for my liking, so I used a 2 part epoxy putty to make some larger eyelids. The eyelids were painted to match the fur and the head was further painted to give him a more cheeky expression. I found his head was also a little large in test photos, so I trimmed his fur down a bit further to make his head a little smaller and his hair a little less wild.

Handsome boy :3c

 

[Temperance]

Shoulder armour was made with some vegetable tanned leather rectangles. I cut 8 pieces per shoulder and dyed them with eco-flo leather dye. I punched holes around the edging and used red vynil lacing to sew the pieces together. I hammered a piece of leather to each row to stabilize and force the curve of the shoulder pieces. LEather lacing was used to tie the shoulder pieces to the leather tunic.
TEST FIT #2:

 

[Sourdoh]

Fabulous! It looks great. An unusual character exceptionally well done.

 

[Apollo]

Awesome job!!

 

[Temperance]

Although the changes I made to the head helped, I still found his head a little large for my liking, so I decided to add further bulk to the shoulders.
I designed a lion face based off Chinese imagery and carved it into a piece of floor foam. I covered the foam in worbla to give it some smoothness and added texture (to match the belt buckle), then made a silicone mold with Smooth-on Rebound25. I cast two resin copies of the head. While the resin was still on the mold curing (solid but still flexible) I bent the mold over a large 1 gallon paint can to give the shoulders a curved shape. Once the resin fully cured, they were rigid in the curved shape I wanted.
I dry brushed the shoulder pieces in gold to match the belt buckle. Holes were drilled in the sides and a Chicago Screw was installed to attach the resin shoulders to the leather shoulder pieces. The hinge mechanism of the chicago screws allows the upper lion parts to bend and move with my shoulders instead of being a rigid tube shape.

 

[Temperance]

Monkey is complete!

Got some photos taken by my friend over at www.unleashthemoment.ca :3
Hijinks will surely ensure