Artists Use Tangible Talent to Ace Costume Creation

0
105
Julie Rustad, left, designs Halloween costumes with the help of her son, Syver, and husband, Jon. These creations are in honor of the LEGO Movie.

As an artist, taking your work home with you might be easier than you think. Creative expression doesn’t stop at the doors of your studio or workspace, so when holidays such as Halloween come around, some artists use their artistic abilities to make their own creative costumes.

Check out these stories of professional artists who are using their craft to get in the Halloween spirit with what they’ve got lying around the house:

Costume-creater Brittany Smith shows off her award-wnning "Avatar:The Last Airbender" costume.
Costume-creater Brittany Smith shows off her award-wnning “Avatar:The Last Airbender” costume.
Brittany Smith, 21, Manchester, New Hampshire

Smith, a self-employed costume designer and illustrator with a degree in the latter, has been making costumes ever since she was a child, having come from a family of seamstresses.

“I was very picky,” Smith said of her early costume years. “I wanted that trim on that dress cut that way.”

Much of Smith’s inspirations come from two very opposite places: current TV trends and old-school fantasy/sci-fi aesthetics.

During her time costuming, she has made a rockabilly-style dress, a Game of Thrones costume and even an award-winning Avatar: The Last Airbender costume. The materials can be anything from cotton broadcloth to burlap.

And just as the materials are vast, so are the price ranges, depending on the materials.

To start out with a design, she finds or is sent images to get some visual inspiration; she finds materials and from there, it’s construction after modifying or creating an entirely new pattern to use.

Smith said her pieces are usually ongoing, usually completed piece by piece, as she liked to make sure she’s always working on something.

Smith is currently working on a combat chemist costume for a steampunk Live Action Role-play with which she is currently involved.

Julie Rustad, 35, Tucson, Arizona

Julie Rustad, her husband, Jon, and son, Syver, used construction paper, duct tape and other household materials to create this space-themed costume.
Julie Rustad, her husband, Jon, and son, Syver, used construction paper, duct tape and other household materials to create this space-themed costume.

Rustad, a self-employed artist at Julie Originals, along with her animator husband, Jon, has been making costumes all her life, even apart from Halloween. Now, she’s passing that tradition onto her 4-year-old son, Syver.

“With both of us having creative passions and businesses, we enjoy putting our heads together and coming up with something, but also involving Syver because even though he’s young, he’s super creative and super involved,” Rustad said.

One of their most recent costumes was for a space-themed day at Syver’s summer camp. Using construction paper, duct tape, tennis ball cans, cocktail glasses, a backpack, a hockey helmet and regular old fabric paint, Syver was transformed into a bona fide moon walker. This DIY costume, Rustad said, earned compliments from the entire summer camp crew.

As an artist, Rustad paints what’s in her own backyard, and that translated into costume making as well. Instead of spending a small fortune on something that might only get worn once, the Rustads like to use things they have around the house. It makes the costume-making process fun, worthwhile and memorable, Rustad said.

They also recently dressed up as characters in the LEGO Movie for a film screening.

A full suit of armor created by Los Angeles costume-maker Bruce Gray.
A full suit of armor created by Los Angeles costume-maker Bruce Gray.
Bruce Gray, 57, Los Angeles

Originally involved in photography and advertising in Boston, Gray decided on a whim to pack up and move to Los Angeles to immerse himself in fine arts.

He currently makes hand-crafted metal marvels but has no formal training in metal work.

His most elaborate creation is his full suit of armor, which is also his favorite creation to date, but another notable piece of his is a bullet-riddled propane tank that was transformed into a bodice for a model.

After shaping the tank to the model’s figure, he fit the inside with felt and rubber so it didn’t hurt the model while she was wearing it.

His pieces, which can cost anywhere from $5 for more than $1,000 to make, are rarely planned out, Gray said, thanks to his spontaneous style. Gray said that these mesmerizing metallic creations can take anywhere from only a day to months at a time to complete.

Although these two works are wearable, he makes standalone sculptures out of metal and wood as well.

Pam McMurtry, Kaysville, Utah

McMurtry, having just gone back to school to get a BFA in drawing and painting, is another thrifty costumer, using everything she has lying around if she can help it. In fact, McMurtry said she has never even bought a costume before.

If she has fabric, or manages to find some on sale, that needs to be put together, she sews it herself — though it’s not her favorite past time.

Her creation process deals with mentality more than it does the physical construction of the costume. She first contemplates what the message or purpose of the costume is — what the character you’re creating is saying or reacting against — and then the treasure hunt for costume pieces starts.

Some of her more memorable costumes have been a queen — using a formal dress from a wedding, a crown and some jewelry — Mother Nature and a tourist.

Janna Lowell, Los Angeles

Costume-creator Janna Lowell plans on releasing a YouTube video using her "Matira Mistress of Muscle Goddess of Interplanetary Discipline" costume.
Costume-creator Janna Lowell plans on releasing a YouTube video using her “Matira Mistress of Muscle Goddess of Interplanetary Discipline” costume.
Lowell grew up on the East coast but is now a Los Angeles local who has a history in the local artist community.

Having dabbled in scriptwriting, acting, painting and jewelry making during her time in California, Lowell has amassed quite the expansive costume collection, though she still continues to use found objects in her creations.

One notable costume of hers is “White Trash,” a humorous reaction against what she calls “celebrity calamities.”

Using fishnets, over-the-top high heels or thigh-high boots, with similarly over-the-top makeup, wigs and a trash bag filled with any manner of trash she can find — notably tabloid cut outs — her costume turns heads without breaking the bank.

Her costume history started off when she was 9 years old, after the sultan and harem wife costumes she made for her parents won them a first prize award in a costume contest.

Her ideas come in an instant, but the construction of her self-described eclectic costumes can take hours, Lowell said.

Coming up, Lowell said she is using her scriptwriting, acting and costuming talent to release a silly, but fun workout video on YouTube, starring her favorite costume creation thus far, Matira Mistress of Muscle Goddess of Interplanetary Discipline. The YouTube video will be called “Mistress Matira Whips You into Shape,” and is described as “fetish fitness fun.”


Adam Rhodes is a staff writer for Professional Artist. Originally from Boca Raton, He’s is a striving student journalist with hopes of being a feature writer. Adam is currently a journalism student minoring in criminology in his final year at the University of Central Florida.