AFWVG - Doctor Stockill

FINAL DESIGN

AFWVG - Plague Mask

The plague mask is an interesting one. It's mentioned just once in the book, I think, in a single paragraph at the bottom of page 206. I could have easily decided to do a generic 'doctor' outfit for Stockill, but since I'm only making the one costume for him, I thought I'd go for something a bit more iconic.

I think the 'plague doctor' is a fairly important aspect to the story since, and here comes a spoiler, Doctor Stockill is trying to create his own strain of the plague so he can create a cure for it, thus getting rich from it when he releases said plague across London. Alongside that, plague masks just look menacing. And menacing is perfect for your average evil doctor.

My first plague mask idea came to me while I was about to fall asleep one night (actually, that's a lie. My first ones came to me when I was in Germany, but those drawings aren't all coloured and pretty. And, quite frankly, they're pretty boring.). The thought was this; one step up from the usual plague mask. I can't help but think that, since he is trying to make the plague, Stockill would be quite aware that it wasn't transmitted by smell. Although, in the book, the mask is described as being stuffed with herbs and things, I thought that I'd industrial it up a bit. Industrial and a bit more high tech - air tanks. Air tanks and filters.

I've played with different shapes of mask (though they are all fairly similar), different types of eyes, different brass fittings... Since I can't cast metal, the interesting bits would have to be very lucky finds or made out of something else and painted. Ideas are sculpey (which I don't think would work too well), Wonderflex (something which I've never used before but read a lot about) and casting things in resin. 

With the eyes, I'm considering going with something styled like eye-cup welding goggles. They just scream 'industrial' and have that same shape as your generic plague mask. I have a couple of pairs with a 'cybergoth' styling to them, which cost me a fair bit of money, so I don't especially want to mess with them. I hunted down a plastic version that I can happily ruin. Probably wouldn't use them, instead using them to make a copy out of Wonderflex or whathaveyou. Going to start working on fake brass bits next week, see what works, and finalise my mask design from there.

AFWVG - More designing

This lovely evening, I am going to share a bunch more designs. At last count, I have 45 which is, for me, a hell of a lot. I usually have about 10 or something. Oh, and then another 19 of back views and such.

Finalising my designs now so I can start making next week, something that I'm sure my tutors will be happy about. With any luck, I'll go to Newcastle and hunt out some leather and brass bits on Wednesday. Shouldn't be too difficult, I've been told about an apparently good shop. More on that if it is.

I am having difficulty, however, sourcing some black and white striped fabric that has stripes of more than 1cm thickness. It's hell, I tell you. Hell. So many of my designs have that on them in some capacity.



ASYLUM GIRLS

Some Ward B girls and a straitjacket. That might be my final design for that, but we shall see. The Ward B girls match the style of my various Emily-with-a-Y designs - same shape 'dress', same types of patches and tears... in fact, they are similar pretty much across the board. The girls differ from Emily, however, because they have ankle cuffs (an indication of being 'more' mad) and collars. I ditched the collar from my Emily design after realising "Oh, this is for a musical. She'll need to sing." Emily would, however, get the ankle cuffs in what could possibly be Act II, or whenever she gets sent down to Ward B herself.

COUNT DE ROTHSBERG

The Count here has, as you can see, the same patches and tears as the Asylum girls in the second design. The first design lacks them, but is otherwise practically the same. This is because he is seen through the eyes of 'Mad' Emily as well as 'Sane' Emily. I'm not sure why, but I have always seen the Count as wearing a red coat. Maybe it's in the book, maybe not. I don't even remember. It's far too late to go reading it right now, so I'm just going to assume it's just in my imagination. That red, however, also serves the purpose of separating him from Stockill (who wears black) and Lymer (who wears white.)

DOCTOR LYMER

Speaking of Lymer, here he is! Same elements from the other costume designs. His coat is white, making him obviously a doctor. It's as simple as that. 

PLAGUE MASK

And oh, here is the fun one. I've never worked with leather before, so this is going to be interesting. Not entirely sure of how it is going to go yet, but I am definitely leaning towards having the pipes to a filter or air tank. I'm going to try and stay away from 'unnecessary' chunks of brass. It always bothers me when I see steampunk things that are just covered in seemingly random brass bits. That, and I don't especially want to learn how to cast metal just yet! I do have a plan, though, for making brass parts, for this and the Plague Rat's claw. More on that later.

Until then, I have a sketchbook to rearrange!