Disney Descendants Mal – here is a photo of her homemade Halloween costume to show you what the back of the the character’s coat looks like – to read more about her costume & her brother’s homemade minion costume check out my previous post Homemade Halloween Costumes 2015 (Link to come).
This is a chocolate cake made from scratch decorated with store bought icing…it was an exhausting month so I was a little lazy lol I bought a can of white icing and used Americolour Food Colouring to colour the icing. Using a reference photo for the dragons on top, I attempted to freehand Mal’s Dragon Symbol. My niece was very happy with her cake…once she figured out what it was supposed to be lol
This was a fun project and very challenging…I gotta start making more square cakes or round cakes with more of a diameter so the icing surface area is a little larger lol
Let me know what you think of her cake, would you be able to tell what it is?
This weekend I will be attending an Airbrush course at Nait, I am super stoked to learn more about airbrushing and how to expand my knowledge from airbrushing on canvas and people to automobiles, skateboard decks, trailers, other surfaces and more!
I will touch base on how the course went and some of the things learned later this month. Follow me on my social to for real time updates during the weekend!
This year was the first year I participated in Inktober (LINK) and am very proud of myself for competing the challenge; I was talking to my friend about how exciting it was for me to start, participate and complete and while she was on her Tumblr she saw a post about Huevember!
This is another challenge similar to Inktober but with Hues: 30 hue pieces in 30 days, you can add other colours as long as that hue of the day is the focal point.
I was very excited to hear about this challenge as well, this is something that would be more challenging for me as I feel like colour theory is a department I should work on to improve. I do not think I will participate in this challenge this year but will next year…or later in the year as another month’s project 😛 we will see how she goes. I have some plans to make some creative pieces to sell for the Holiday Season this year and need to focus on these ideas before taking on another challenge, more on this to come later this month.
If you choose to participate in Huevember post it on your social and tag me, I would love to see what you come up with for this challenge!
I know this is a bit past Halloween but if you read my last post: Welcoming November you will can see October was an extremely busy month lol
This year I made my niece & nephew’s Halloween costumes, my nephew wanted to be Bob the Minion – he was extremely excited & mentioned he had the perfect teddy bear to take with him – my niece wanted to be Mal from Disney’s descendants – of course with her attitude it only made sense lol
My older sister (mother of my niece & nephew), our mom & I searched high & low looking for overalls for a 7 year old boy at multiple second hand stores, walmart, superstore & winners but could not for the life of us find any, so I made some instead.
My dad gave me an old pair of ripped jeans he had, the back pocket was the perfect width of my nephew’s chest. I cut a out the back pocket of one of the legs, making a panel with about 10 inches wide & 12 inches high with an added 1/2 – 1 inch of clearance for a seam on the top & sides. I then cut the straps out of the pant legs: 28 inches long plus 1/2 an inch to seam the top & 3 inches wide using 3/4 inch from both sides as a seam, making the strap 1 1/2 inches wide once seams are sewn. Then sewed the straps to the packet panel with two large matching black buttons, added button holes to the bottom of each strap & four on the bottom of the button panel. I then took a current pair of my nephew’s jeans, turned them inside out & sewed four buttons to the front waste band & two to the back; this way the overalls panel & buttons could later be removed and his pants were back to normal. As a final added touch I airbrushed the “G” on the front by making a stencil of the “G” & mixing fabric medium with airbrush paint. He wore a long sleeve yellow shirt, a yellow toque & face paint – I also got him a bald cap, painted it yellow, that he wore for school & even under his toque lol that boy means business when it comes to Halloween!
For my niece’s costume I bought a woman’s small white blazer from a second hand store as a cheap, clean canvas to work on. I printed out a reference photo of Mal’s jacket & free hand airbrushed everything except the dragons in the heart on the back (I cut out a stencil to ensure crisp clean lines). There were some other pieces I wanted to add to the costume but could not find the time, like the bottom “skirt” with the asymmetrical cut, high collar & dragon wing shoulders. I was, however, able to cut the jacket, giving it an asymmetrical collar similar to Mal’s & airbrush the illusion of studs.
These costumes were a bit of a challenge as I am not a seamstress by any means lol So it was a bit frustrating at times when it came to sewing, but you cannot improve if you do not try! The jacket itself was a bit of a lengthy process & was the first time I have ever airbrushed on clothing, I used a 1:1 ratio of airbrush fabric medium & paint…if anyone out there knows if this is correct or not please let me know lol it seemed to be the safest bet at the time & worked pretty good as the paint did not crack, peal or harden too stiff on the fabric, it even withstood the rain on while we were trick or treating! Through the challenges, difficulties, frustrations & many a late, late nights it was worth it in the end to see how happy they were to have these homemade costumes to dress up in that can be special memories & mementos for them when they are older.
Between teaching myself…rather giving my self crash courses on how to do Special FX make up & Face Painting, the first Global News Press release for Night of Fear Festival, where I painted my sister as a green zombie & did some special FX make to promote me at the event: Press Release Link
Making 17-20 zombies with another spray artist and an Author helping with latex the following weekend: Night Of Fear Fest Zombies
Branding & building a new Facebook page, website, signage, price lists, signup sheets & business cards for my side project: Inspiring Designs Body Art to further my creative career in other ways while making a little bit of extra income.
Thanksgiving with my boyfriend’s family & celebrating his birthday.
A 4-5 hour pro-bono face painting session at Spirit Halloween to promote my business then go to an AMAZING Slipknot concert the next day – my boyfriend’s b-day present & some tasty treats I made that he likes to eat.
My Niece’s 9th birthday, baking then decorating her cake & my side of the family’s Thanksgiving the following weekend. (Link to come)
Being haunted by some old ghosts that just wont leave me alone.
Making my Niece & Nephew’s Halloween costumes. (Link to come)
The actual 2 day Night Of Fear Festival Event (LINK) Making my first official client into an undead creature: Link to the Undead Then taking my niece & nephew trick or treating – my dad usually takes them every year but last minute was not able to come out sooner; since they are 7 & 9 I brought them out to start and my dad came by later to join us 🙂 While doing this my sister Marie and her boyfriend were able to come over and tend to the trick or treaters for me – they were coming over to watch horror movies while I did the door anyway this year so it worked out perfect.
Finally, I decided to also take on another awesome creative challenge: Inktober! You can read more about this and see my illustrations by clicking here: INKTOBER to read my Inktober blog post.
…it was a very busy month to say the least lol so I am welcoming November with open arms to hopefully catch up on some sleep and experiment with other creative things 🙂
Noelle Fontaine Design & Illustration 