Blue Meanie Project!
Aug. 24th, 2011 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furtechThis year's big costume project for the SDCC (aka, ComiCon International 2011) masquerade and Reno Worldcon (Renovation) was the Blue Meanie Boss!
Here’s the complete set of pics
I'd wanted to make him for a while: he looked like fun to perform and I love the Beatles and Yellow Submarine. Working on him was a one reason I was so scarce here: he was a large undertaking in every way.
HUGE kudos and thanks to my fellow Anything Goes School of Masquerade Arts builder-performers: Wayne, Henry, Lydia and Kim! for their wonderful animated Beatles costumes in the SDCC version of the skit!
Incredibly heart-felt thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
genjitsu and waynekaa for doing the script and dialogue and voice and mixing for the Reno skit (as well as the AGSMA skit at SDCC!).
I also made a couple of faux-Rock Band guitar props . I'm really happy with how they turned out!
Blue Meanie details:
Constructed by Lynette and myself. We had a hard time finding any fur that looked like Blue Meanie fur...we considered ruffling up kong-fur; blue-dyed sheepskins (which would have weighed about a hundred pounds); and finally settled on...Clown Wigs! 39 of them! I got such an education on purchasing clown wigs: apparently there is a whole range of quality...we needed to buy the Sooper Deluxxe Clown Wigs, not the Deluxxe Clown Wigs if we wanted wigs that looked like every picture in every costume catalog in existance (they all use the same pic, though the wigs themselves range from thin-and-skanky to plush-and-poofy). I feel so enlightened. If I ever decide to change careers, I'm set!
We dismantled the wigs and essentially quilted them together. Very poofy. I also got an education on large-sized go-go boots: I was originally going to use those for the Blue Meanie's boots, so I had a dickens of a time trying to find them in my size (11+). Finally hit on the idea of searching transvestite resource sites and discovered another whole world of Amazing Facts, including where to buy man-sized go-go boots. The world is a wonderful place.
I used a pool toy to get his shape, which has the added benefit of efficient storage later. His hands have finger extensions so that I can manipulate the over-sized sausage-fingers. His head was the hard part: I made five different-sized foam-maquettes trying to get exactly the right proportions. His boots we ended up foam-sculpting from a pair of pimp-boots. Vision is sucky, but the effect is nice.
About half the people who saw him recognized him; the other half was perplexed.
Here’s the complete set of pics
I'd wanted to make him for a while: he looked like fun to perform and I love the Beatles and Yellow Submarine. Working on him was a one reason I was so scarce here: he was a large undertaking in every way.
HUGE kudos and thanks to my fellow Anything Goes School of Masquerade Arts builder-performers: Wayne, Henry, Lydia and Kim! for their wonderful animated Beatles costumes in the SDCC version of the skit!
Incredibly heart-felt thanks to
genjitsu and waynekaa for doing the script and dialogue and voice and mixing for the Reno skit (as well as the AGSMA skit at SDCC!). I also made a couple of faux-Rock Band guitar props . I'm really happy with how they turned out!
Blue Meanie details:
Constructed by Lynette and myself. We had a hard time finding any fur that looked like Blue Meanie fur...we considered ruffling up kong-fur; blue-dyed sheepskins (which would have weighed about a hundred pounds); and finally settled on...Clown Wigs! 39 of them! I got such an education on purchasing clown wigs: apparently there is a whole range of quality...we needed to buy the Sooper Deluxxe Clown Wigs, not the Deluxxe Clown Wigs if we wanted wigs that looked like every picture in every costume catalog in existance (they all use the same pic, though the wigs themselves range from thin-and-skanky to plush-and-poofy). I feel so enlightened. If I ever decide to change careers, I'm set!
We dismantled the wigs and essentially quilted them together. Very poofy. I also got an education on large-sized go-go boots: I was originally going to use those for the Blue Meanie's boots, so I had a dickens of a time trying to find them in my size (11+). Finally hit on the idea of searching transvestite resource sites and discovered another whole world of Amazing Facts, including where to buy man-sized go-go boots. The world is a wonderful place.
I used a pool toy to get his shape, which has the added benefit of efficient storage later. His hands have finger extensions so that I can manipulate the over-sized sausage-fingers. His head was the hard part: I made five different-sized foam-maquettes trying to get exactly the right proportions. His boots we ended up foam-sculpting from a pair of pimp-boots. Vision is sucky, but the effect is nice.
About half the people who saw him recognized him; the other half was perplexed.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 02:44 am (UTC)any WIP pics?
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Date: 2011-08-26 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 04:55 am (UTC)PS - had my shoulder surgery last Wed. I'd mentioned. turned out i had a torn rotator cuff too. 3 weeks in a sling, 12 weeks PT.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:09 pm (UTC)OCDa determined costumer! The clown wigs were Lynette's inspired idea. We literally googled about 15,000 google images looking for "blue fur" and related searches. She found the wigs late in the game, but there had been no other good choices, so the wigs (though annoying), were perfect!Thanks for the kudos! Love 'em coming from you (King of Beasts!)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 06:01 am (UTC)Congratulations!
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Date: 2011-08-26 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:32 pm (UTC)BTW, what I REALLY love when I was shooting you was that you "shrugged" the head in - if you know what I mean - and the effect was perfect: before you did that, it was a person in a Blue Meanie suit. After that, it was Blue Meanie. Well done.
and yes, I'd appreciate some print sales. Not directed at you, but I do need some small sales to keep going at this. Not hoping to actually make money vis-a-vis hotel rooms, gas money etc. per se, but it would be good to make some-thing.
Anyway, will probably upload by this weekend. Just check my LJ for a status announcement.
Thanks.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 12:02 pm (UTC)I would have TOTALLY been at Worldcon this year (even if only to help my husband in his role as Official Photographer in the photo room!!) -- except for the fact that this very same weekend happened to be the North American Taiko Conference (yes, we are talking about those wonderful Japanese Drums!!) which THIS year was actually being held, for the first time ever, IN MY HOMETOWN!!! (-- Note: NATC is only held every two years. Last time I went was in '07, in Seattle. I couldn't afford LA 2 years ago.)
(In addition to being a costumer, I am also a Taiko musician who plays with a semi-professional SF Bay Area group; so, sadly regarding this year's Worldcon scheduling, the NATC was very much a MUST NOT MISS for me. :D )
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Date: 2011-08-26 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 03:23 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvn0WTz20YY
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Date: 2011-08-26 07:13 pm (UTC)(Plus thanks for all the work in both routines!!)
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Date: 2011-08-25 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 05:02 pm (UTC)Really awesome work. I think I would have recognized him, though i probably wouldn't have remembered he was called a "Blue Meanie." Haha!
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Date: 2011-08-26 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 05:21 pm (UTC)I think I've pegged you every time you've done something. I can't put my finger on why, but your stuff just has a signature to it that I pick up.
EDIT: I just realized that the Meanie's hands remind me an awful lot of Cornell's hands.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:18 pm (UTC)Nice call on spotting me! Especially using the hands vs Cornell's as a reference point. My goal is now to totally sneak one by you...
I'm told my eyes are usually a give away, too.
oh YOU did this?
Date: 2011-08-25 06:24 pm (UTC)Re: oh YOU did this?
Date: 2011-08-26 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-25 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-28 01:39 am (UTC)Just... Whoa. :>
Amazing work. I knew EXACTLY what I was looking at at the first pic. I guess that makes me old. :>
no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 09:24 pm (UTC)It's All Too Much
Date: 2017-05-28 11:37 pm (UTC)Re: It's All Too Much
Date: 2017-06-03 08:48 am (UTC)Re: It's All Too Much
Date: 2017-06-03 09:58 pm (UTC)