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Art Post: SunDowner Character Designs

Blog, my art, sundowner

Art Post: SunDowner Character Designs

May 2, 1999 /

Some of the first full length character references I did for the comic… Miles’ never got finished tho!

art old sundowner

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Easy video trend where I just get to plug in some

Easy video trend where I just get to plug in some fav costume photos? Yes please!

My Costume History Day 44 - Teela from Masters of

My Costume History Day 44 - Teela from Masters of the Universe/He-Man, for Dragoncon 2003

Since I’d done She-Ra in 2002, I really wanted to do a Teela costume too. And Dragoncon was the best opportunity I’d had to do a costume like that!

I bought a white leotard and cut the sleeves off to make the lower arm gauntlets. Found a coppery sort-of crepe fabric at Hancock for the vest - I don’t think Mom & I used a pattern for this, I think we just kinda made it up as we went. It closes in the front with a hook and eye, and for the little “snake” chest details on the front, we made individual pieces and appliqued them together to create a 3d effect.

Bought the wig online, and made the tiara out of some craft foam, leftover vest fabric and a red gemstone. It bobbie pins into the wig. Boots I had, added some fur just tucked into the top.

Orko I made out of a little teddy bear, a bouncy ball, batting, duct tape, floral wire, paper mache, craft foam, and fabric for his little robe and hat. He attaches to my wrist with fishing line.

Wore this at Dragoncon and had fun in it! I wanted to wear it again the next year to SDCC, but I didn’t like how the snake chest appliques weren’t obvious, in a lot of pics they just disappeared. So I went in with some watered down fabric paint and painted around the stitch lines to try to give it some more depth. And then after SDCC I had people making fun of me for painting the details on. Can’t win.

Also had a guy come up to me in the Mattel booth, where I was taking pics in front of a big He-Man mural, and ask who I was supposed to be dressed as. I said Teela. He said no, you can’t be Teela, you’re too short. Ok like sorry I didn’t get leg extending surgery for my COSPLAY? WTF LOL

I haven’t worn it since SDCC 2004, but I do still have it all. Several times it’s almost made the cut of getting a white backdrop shoot recently - in 2024 I even washed the leotard in prep for it, but it just didn’t happen. Orko needs some repairs too... so maybe I’ll get around to that this year. Fingers crossed.

My Costume History Day 43 - Susan Sto Helit from D

My Costume History Day 43 - Susan Sto Helit from Discworld, made for Dragoncon 2003

Dragoncon is always a great opportunity to do costumes that wouldn’t really fly or be noticed at any other con. At the time I went to Dragoncon in 2002, I was reading through all of the Discworld books, and I thought Susan would be a fun costume to do for this con - and I immediately decided I’d do it for the next year, 2003.

And I started on it almost as soon as I got home. I based it on Paul Kidby artwork! It’s mostly put together of bought and modified pieces. I bought the bodice and skirt on ebay - when the skirt arrived, I cut it at an angle and cauterized the edge. Bought the gloves, used my Morrigan boots. Made the cape out of some black fabric, bought the wig from Amphigory and painted the stripe in with some watered down acrylics.

Death of Rats I made out of various things... styrofoam ball, sculpey, batting, friendly plastic, floral wire, some scrap black fabric. I thought he turned out so cute! I bought the scythe at Halloween time and painted it.

And then I had to sit on for months until the next Dragoncon LOL. Thankfully I didn’t lose interest and did wear it - put it on as SOON as we got to Dragoncon that year! I was really happy with it.

Though I didn’t wear it again after that for a few years - until Terry Pratchett was a guest at MidSouthCon in 2007! I was like omg I gotta get this Susan costume out and wearable again. Unfortunately I’d loaned the cape to someone and never got it back, so I substituted my husband’s Vader cape instead. The cheap bodice I’d used in 2003 RIPPED at some of the lower eyelets when I went to put it on, so I threw a black underbust corset on over it. Not particularly the look I wanted but I was trying to make it work!

I did get to meet Terry Pratchett, he signed a book for me, complimented my costume so goal achieved. I do still have it all - but Death of Rats’ sculpey pieces are crumbling into dust. One day I’ll do a bunch of repairs and upgrades and get this shot on the backdrop! I need better pics!

My Costume History Day 43 - Blossom from the Power

My Costume History Day 43 - Blossom from the Powerpuff Girls, for Dragoncon 2003

Ash, Cath and I wanted to do matching costumes for the Dragoncon 03 parade - and since it was the early 2000s, that meant we were going to do the Powerpuff Girls LOL

Ash was Buttercup, Cath was Bubbles and I was Blossom. Headed to Hancock and thankfully they had stretch knit in all 3 colors we needed for the dress - plus black for the waistbands. Each dress is just a basic tube with side seams, arm holes and neck hole. Nothing fancy. The waistbands were just tubes of fabric. We bought tights and shoes.

Ash used her own hair - for Bubbles we got a blonde wig and put it in pigtails, and for me as Blossom, the only orange wig I could find was a cheap, shiny Party City wig. I made the “bow” with a wire frame covered in red fabric and it’s wired with floral wire into the wig cap.

We wore these in the Dragoncon parade (with the cosplay.com group!) and had so much fun. But... that was it. We never wore them again, because the 3 of us didn’t go to another con together for another 2 years LOL. And I wasn’t going to wear Blossom alone??

I did at least use the waistband for another costume (Marion) and the shoes for some other things too. But otherwise, it sat in a bin in my closet for 20 years. Until Jan 2023, when I finally got it out, cleaned it up, bought new shoes and tights (the original shoes bit the dust) and got it shot in the white backdrop. 20 year old Party City wig and all LOL (omg it lost so much hair when I tried to brush it!)

But I’m soooo happy to finally have some standalone photos of this that aren’t a 450px tall pic from an old digital camera. I finally have it properly catalogued and she’s retired for good now.

My Costume History Day 42 - Asuka from Evangelion,

My Costume History Day 42 - Asuka from Evangelion, for Anime Expo 2003

For AX I wanted to do a dream costume - Asuka’s plugsuit. I started by buying a red bodysuit from River’s Edge dancewear (RIP). Mom & I cut the sleeves off and replaced them with black spandex sleeves, using the scraps of the original sleeves to create the padded upper portion (with some batting). Bought some red spandex gloves and cut them off at the wrist, and used the upper part to create the red paneling on the lower arm. I used heatbond for a lot of this! Including the black spandex palm portion on the red gloves.

The blue collar and green and black stripe were made of some scrap knit. The chest panels were made of bra cups covered in red pleather leftover from Misato and sewn on. The discs were wooden discs painted silver, glued onto some black spandex which was sewn on. The black stripes on the legs were black ribbon heatbonded on. All of the small lines were just draw on with a fabric marker. The shoes were some loafers I had, covered in red stretch knit with some black pleather. My dad made the backpack out of styrofoam for me, with some vinyl and fabric straps.

It wasn’t particularly fine craftsmenship - but I LOVED it. This costume was so much fun to wear. And it looked pretty good in photos too - the 3 different red fabrics didn’t look so different on a 2003 digital camera LOL

I wore it a lot of AX (where my backpack broke and dad had to come over to the convention center to do a quick repair before going sight-seeing for the day!), and took it a LOT of other cons - I think the last one was A-Kon 2005.

The story is not over yet, though, because just this past December I got it out, cleaned it up, and shot it on the white backdrop! It’s not in great shape anymore - some of the fabric marker has bled in places, the pleather is peeling, and some of the heatbonded areas are coming off. And it was a little dicey getting my 2025 hips into it LOL But we managed and I am SO glad to finally have some high quality pics of it. It is officially retired permanently now!

My Costume History Day 42 - Morrigan from Darkstal

My Costume History Day 42 - Morrigan from Darkstalkers, for Anime Expo 2003

Ash and I wanted to be in the Anime Expo masquerade, but we had sign up months in advance. I decided I wanted to do Morrigan, and convinced her to be BBHood with me, so that’s what we submitted and were accepted for. And months later, I really had no interest in these costumes anymore, but we were committed by that point, so onwards I guess!

I bought a black leotard to base everything around. The feather shoulder trim was a lucky find at Hancock, and the sleeves I made of a stretch knit I dyed. The tights I bought - the bats I cut out of craft foam, and just stuck them between the tights and my legs. Bought the boots on ebay.

The wings were most of the work here. They are built around a wire frame, covered in batting, and then covered in black pleather with magenta cotton. The horns were sculpey. I also attached fishing wire to the edges that I could loop around my wrists to hold them up. The larger wings were attached to the leotard at the back with a D-ring, and the smaller ones were wired into my wig.

The heart cut out on the leotard caused a problem. 2 days before we left for AX, I went to cut out that heart shape... and cut it too big and of course with the stretchy fabric, it was a mess. Ruined. I had to run to the dance store the next morning and thankfully they had another black leotard. This time, my dad made a wireform heart for me as a base, and I cut a very small hole and wrapped the fabric around it. Worked much better and crisis averted!

Biggest issue wearing this though? Of course we were in the masquerade meaning we were stuck wearing these costumes for hours. I hadn’t been able to use my usual thin floral wire for the head wings - it wouldn’t support it, so I’d used a much thicker wire, and it dug into my head SO BAD. I finally had to go into the restrooms and take it off for a while!

But we did have fun wearing them. I also took it to Katsucon the next year. Around 2012 I noticed the pleather was going, so I did a quick white backdrop shoot before selling it for like $50 and a warning it wouldn’t last much longer! LOL

My Costume History Day 41 - Sailor Jupiter from th

My Costume History Day 41 - Sailor Jupiter from the Sailor Moon Musicals (“SeraMyu”) for Anime Expo 2003

Doing the SeraMyu style uniforms was all the rage at the time so of course I wanted to jump on board and do Sailor Jupiter. I figured it had to be pretty easy since I already did one Sailor Jupiter costume, I’d just do all the same stuff again, right?

So I started out buying a white leotard as a base just like I did with the first one, and unfortunately this one wasn’t as good quality - it was see-through, and I always had to wear a second leotard underneath it. I also couldn’t find green taffeta I liked as much as what I used with my first, so I had to settle on what you see here. I got some metallic pink for the underskirt/bows, etc, and a TON of gold trim.

Made the skirts same as the previous one, but they just never sat as nice. Trimmed it in the gold ribbon trim. The hip pads were made from the sleeves of the leotard, and I added more gold trim there too. The collar I made using my original Jupiter collar as a template, but added some wire into the hem on the sides so it would stand up and away from my shoulders. Made the bows, added the trim, and the little shoulder pieces were organza. Reused a lot of my same accessories from the first one - but did buy new gloves to add the pink toppers to (though in the white backdrop photos I had to revert to my Y2K gloves, because by then I had scavenged the original gloves for these for another project.)

The boots were funny - I wanted heeled boots this time, so I found some at the thrift store that were close enough. Painted them, added the white shoelaces. Tried them on with the costume and realized they were about 3 sizes too big LOL. Oops. I had to wear multiple socks with them to keep them on my feet!

I never loved it as much as my previous Jupiter costume, and I only wore it once at Anime Expo. It sat in my closet for years before I finally got it out in 2012 and shot it on the white backdrop - but thankfully I did end up loving these photos and it made me feel a lot more positive towards this costume.

I did sell it not long after though - I knew I wasn’t going to wear again!

My Costume History Day 40 - Alucard from Hellsing,

My Costume History Day 40 - Alucard from Hellsing, for Anime Expo 2003

So I’m cheating a little bit here, because this is not my costume - it’s Ash’s. We put this together for her to wear to Project A-Kon 2003 to go with my Integra costume. But it looked fun so I asked if I could borrow it for Anime Expo a month later and she said yes!

The jacket was a lucky find at the thrift store. We were SO excited to find that. Minus the polka dot lining LOL. I can’t remember where we found the hat, but we added the lighter fabric band around it. The sunglasses we bought and the ascot was made of some red satin.

I paired this with a pinstripe vest and pants set I already had - it was my default wedding/“you need to dress up for this” outfit at the time LOL. And a white button up shirt and gloves I already had, and a black wig I bought for a costume that never happened.

I wore this the night BEFORE Anime Expo started, because people were already out in costume and milling around the area. It was fun to swish around in the coat! I only have 2 photos of it, because this was the only time I wore it and there weren’t a lot of photographers out taking photos yet.

Of course since most of this was Ash’s, it went back to her. But the vest and pants did live on to be part of other things — the vest became my Zatanna vest in 2008, and the pants became my Donna Noble Partners in Crime pants in 2013. Reduce, reuse, ecyce!

My Costume History Day 39 - Ruby Heart from Marvel

My Costume History Day 39 - Ruby Heart from Marvel vs Capcom 2, for Project A-Kon 2003

I was obsessed with this character design. And pirates were really cool at that moment. I decided I HAD to make it for A-Kon that year.

The whole thing is made of black stretch pleather, so I think you can probably already guess how this post ends. I THINK I modified the same pattern I used for Belldandy’s dress for this jacket, and there’s part of a petticoat hoop sewn into the bottom hem to make it flare out. Added the red stripe made of leftover Misato pleather, and all of the gold buttons down the front are just for show. Since it was stretchy, there are no closures, it just pulls on over my head.

The pants were some black leather pants I bought for a costume that never happened, and the boots were my Lina boots, just turned over to create the cuffed look. The undershirt is made of white cotton for the torso area (with the big collar and the ruffles down the front), and blue stretch knit for the sleeves.

The hat is made around a baseball hat as a base, built up with foam and fabric - the brim shape was also foam, and then I covered everything in the black stretch pleather. The eye patch was some scrap vinyl covered in some silver lame fabric, and the “armor” piece under the jacket at the front was layers of marine vinyl covered in the same silver fabric, and just ties on around the waist.

This was a lot of fun to wear at A-Kon - if miserably hot, and a little overstimulating to wear with the giant hat, wig, and eyepatch. I brought to Anime Expo 2003 a month or so later, and did a photoshoot with it out in our yard in 2004 when I got a new digital camera - it was the first thing I shot because I really needed new, better pics of it for my blog.

I technically still have most of this costume. I cannot tell you what state the jacket it is, because it has been wrapped up in a bag for over a decade. I’m scared to look at it. The hat, on the other hand, was unfortunately stored in an “oversized” bin in the garage and of course, melted, and got thrown away years ago. One of these days I’ll go on live and open up whats left of the jacket for everyone to see in real time LOL

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