Last december, a friend of mine called me to help him with the dressing makeup and hairstyle for his short film.
Bingo, I do not hesitate a second!
The short film's story is about the "Shadows' King" so I proposed to create a fantasy accessory so the actor can enter the character's mind.
First step: Create a moodbard. I started to ask my friend some visual ideas to catch his vision of the story and the characters.
Among these, this is the one I stepped upon👇.
As the textures speak as much as the colors, I chose this image as the main inspiration. Shadows' King is a cold monster embodying our deepest fears. If we associate both ideas, we find this great parallel of dried paint on skin, hard to remove that can leave some scars. Perfect!
Second question: what can I make that can be pertinent? The answer to that was pretty fast to come across. A monster needs to be terryfyins and what is better than claws to check this? It's decided, I will create monster claws!
Second step: Create gloves. This is something I've never done before. Et not to make things easier, the actor that will wear it was not chosen yet -which means I cannot custom make it. I worked with my own hands measurements instead and cut larger.
Off to buy fabric! I know what I'm looking for: fabric that's easy to sew, inexpensive, and above all, fabric that I can paint on. I finally decide on white polyester for the lining. The downside is that I have to put on the gloves without any elasticity in the material! I add another mesh-type fabric to sew cuffs that extend the gloves.
This video shows the process I used: I trace the outline of my hand up to the wrist, cut it out a little larger, then sew the front and back together with a sewing machine. It's as simple as that!
I then cut feathers out of polyester to sew onto the wrist of the glove by hand. This will give the monster an animal-like appearance! Finally, I cut out my mesh fabric and sew it onto the glove as well.
Second step is done, I can move on painting!
Third step: Create claws. The simplest solution is to buy fake nails. But here, we make everything ourselves! Since we want to create something personalized and inexpensive, I opt for plastic. I cut very long fake nails from a bottle. To bend them, I fold them and slip them into hot water.
I try out different combinations with the glove, without much success. Finally, I cut them and achieve this result with hot glue. And there you have it, we have our structure! 👇
Fourth step: Paint!
I have some acrylic paint lying around, so I start by applying a coat of gray. On top of that, I use the brush to create some textured marks. Add some red, white, and black, and this is what you get!
The gloves are sent to my friend, and a few months later, they appear in the short film “Nous Autres qui éblouissons l'Ombre” (around 03:47).
Clearly, the actor managed to put them on :). It was a really cool and rewarding opportunity to create something for someone else! Plus, since my friend is a drag queen, the gloves could be used again for performances ✨
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