Cyril's fitting

 Acre's fitting for his character Cyril went really well. The polo shirt and waist coat fitted perfectly  the only adjustment was that the buttons might need to be changed on the waist coat, as they hurt if he lands on them whilst doing Chinese pole.

The mask looked great but again the eye holes need to be a bit bigger due to restriction.

These clown trousers are my favourite part of Cyril's costume as I think they look really funny and would have real impact on the audience. Also Arce could hide in them with would be great if he popped out of them during the performance. Sadly the clown trousers aren't being used as Cyril is going to look smarter now and be more like the ring leader.

Fittings

The first fitting for Bev and Cyril went really well there were some alteration to the costumes but over all the actors seemed happy. It was quite a long day traveling to and from London and having to carry the fiber glass hoop was challenging on the underground. Apart from that I felt I gained a lot from visiting Circus space and the performers as they gave me some idea of what the costume will have to go through.

Bev/ Lynn's costume

 This is the lycra base for the fat suit. The suit fitted really well the only adjustments was taking the legs up because they were a little bit to long. The arms were a little short but Lynn said she liked that due to rolling objects up her arm in her act.



















This is the thin version of the night dress Bev will be wearing. It was quite restricting around the legs so godets  are going to put in for extra room.

    The calico toile of the coat fitted well but katie wanted the coat to be baggier to look more frumpy, so the Center front was taken out and also a box pleat is going to be put in the back.

     
        I'm really pleased with the mask for Bev as it has a cartoon and I feel will add to the character once the fat suit is on. The eyes need to made bigger as they restrict vision and nose holes need to made to breath. It is still undecided whether the masks are going to be used due to the practicality of them.  Hopefully they are used because I think they will be really effective.

Fat suit

Creating the fat suit has been quite difficult as it needed to be padded out quite a lot to get it to a large size. The top picture shows the fat suit taking shape. After adding bean bag boobs I feel the suit looks much more realistic. Even though I have found the fat suit challenging I have learnt  a lot and have really enjoyed making it.

pillows

I'm really pleased with the way the pillows for Beverly have turned out. I think the Lycra cover buttons works well to get the fleshy look. The fabric for the cushions also works really well because it slightly skin coloured but not so much that they look too realistic.

mask making

 In this session we started creating the paper mache mask for the characters. The paper mache should be softer than the fiber glass but still being strong. The other advantage with paper mache is that it's easier to create texture ontop of and to paint on.

Dye room

Today I experimented in the dye room trying to get the correct lime green for Beverly's coat. I felt the session was a success and I got a very close colour. To get the florescent quality to the fabric I am going to try painting on it with florescent paint at a later date.

These are all my samples some a bit to dark or too blue.












This big sample was the most effective and it going to be the sample I add the paint to.

Getting started

Back from Easter holidays and time to get on with the circus!
From having a meeting with the designer yesterday a few changes are being made to  some of the characters. Luckily both of my character are pretty much staying the same.

Progress is a little slow at the moment as I'm working on another production but I have drafted Beverly's Lycra body suit pattern. So hopefully when the Lycra is bought and dyed I will have a base for her fat suit.