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Costume Design & Construction

Focusing on the actor: Rendering for "On The Harm of Tobacco" (5D)

Theatrical costume design is primarily (although not exclusively) concerned with supporting the actor in his/her interpretation of character.  

Step 1:  Read the monologue play On the Harm of Tobacco (aka "Smoking is Bad for You") by Anton Chekhov and ask yourself the following actor-type questions about the man who makes this speech:  

• If this man were a car, what kind of car would he be?
• If this man was an animal, which would he be?
• What do you think he has in his pockets?
• If he were a woman in the present time (!), how would she dress?
• If he could choose to kill himself, or kill his wife, which would he do?

If you can, also find an actor friend and talk to him/her about this play and his/her ideas about what sort of things a costumer might do to help that person better portray that character.

Post your answers or any other insights you have, to the Class Message Board.  

Step 2: Based on these insights and ideas, do a costume rendering of the character, in color.  Then label your drawing something like this:

Complete Book of Sewing

The Costume Designer's Handbook : A Complete Guide for Amateur and Professional Costume Designers

The Costume Technician's Handbook : A Complete Guide for Amateur and Professional Costume Technicians

 

Stage Costume Step-By-Step : The Complete Guide to Designing and Making Stage Costumes for All Major Drama Periods and Genres

The Magic Garment : Principles of Costume Design

Costume Construction

Elegantly Frugal Costumes : The Poor Man's Do-It-Yourself Costume Maker's Guide

 If you have difficulty drawing figures, you can print out the outline sheet below, and do your rendering on this sheet.  Printing the sheet onto cardstock will allow you to use watercolors without having the paper wrinkle.

Another way of Making rendering easier is to make a "Dancing Man":   Make this out of heavy cardstock, connect the pieces with brads as shown in the center, and lay it on your paper to make different poses for your body-outlines.

Whenever you have spare time this semester, teach yourself more about rendering by going to this links page for more lessons. Or try this book Character Costume Figure Drawing : Step-by-Step Drawing Methods for Theatre Costume Designers which has great ideas on how to draw "character" driven renderings.

Step 3:

Scan and post the image you drew to your files section and post a notification on the message board that you have done a rendering for this play and would appreciate feedback from the other students.  

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