The last two days have been devoted to the wings for the Weeping Angel
costume. I'm trying to make them early-on, so I'll have time to fix
mistakes. Meanwhile, they are making an unholy mess of my living room,
there are bits of foamcore & craft foam everywhere!
Designing
the pattern, I drew it out on paper first. Spent a lot of time
squinting at pictures of the Angels' wings to get an idea of what they
looked like, then just used a small dish for a circle shape and
freehanded it on newspaper...
In detail...
I
had to size them to fit the kid. The core of the wings will be made of
foamcore, I got one of those tri-fold school science project boards and
cut it up. The fold works nicely as a hinge, so each wing will have a
double thickness. I'll glue fabric (so the glue holding the wire to the
foamcore has something to grip) to chicken wire, then sandwich that
between the fold in each wing core. I'll make her a harness of
backpack strapping & buckles, and attach that to the wings so she
can wear them.
Then
I cut individual feathers out of the thin craft foam, and used a dull
pencil to mark & score the feather details so they'll have a
'carved' look. I also cut some chunks out of some feathers here and
there to match the ones on the show. I made the feathers various
lengths, the ones that will line the long edge of each wing have a bit
of a curve to them as well.
These I've since painted gray, using the rag-on technique so they aren't one uniform color.
The smaller feathers at the top are a little different:
Then
they got their first coat of gray tempera paint, ragged on with a paper
towel. The tempera works well since it gives a nice, flat look. After
the gray dried I brushed some black paint into the grooves, then wiped
most of it away, leaving some in the grooves. When I did this it also
helped the look of aged stone with the black 'running' down the
feathers.
After
that dried, it was time for the finer detail. I put a few drops of
black and white tempera paint on a paper plate, and used a round brush
to 'pounch' it onto the feathers, using a paper towl to help blend.
After that dried, I mixed a drop of 'Iron Oxide' color paint into
some water, then applied a few drops at the top of the feather,
allowing it to run down.
Here's how the feathers looked after the final coats of paint:
After this dries, I'll apply a thick, uneven coat of matte Mod Podge for texture--the finished wings need to look like stone, without weighing as much as stone!
They
are looking pretty good so far...but they really ARE taking over the
living room, darned things are everywhere! I got some fabric stiffener
for the dress, that should help the 'stone' look along nicely. I'll
have to brush some of the same paint layers onto her dress and onto the
gray tights that she'll be wearing on her arms & legs, so that
everything matches.
This is an interesting project so far,
because I've never done anything like it before and I'm just kind of
winging it (ha) and putting my trust in paint--!
