craftgrrl | Crafting is super fun when it's on someone else's dime (Reply)

So this guy in my dorm is putting on a play and needed a costume designer, and he turned to me and my roommate :D

We're in charge of making a costume that looks like...this or this (the best pictures I could find, unfortunately). So today I went to Michael's and got all sorts of stuff and I'm all excited to get started.

I got a mask form and some wire mesh stuff (to make the jaw), some feathers and leather cord (for the "headdress" you see in the first picture, although the feathers aren't actually visible in that picture), and a pair of Hulk Hands that we're going to paint yellow.

So I have a couple questions. First of all, is the paint going to look awful on the Hulk hands? They're made of soft, squishy plastic but I bought some primer/sealer stuff that claims it will seep into the porous surface and make the paint stick better. I'm assuming that will keep the paint from cracking too early (they only have to last for two or three shows, after all) and looking like crud but am I wrong? The Michael's lady was incredibly unhelpful when I asked. :\\

Second, I haven't even bought the material for the outfit yet because the director has yet to measure the guy who's playing this character or even give me the actor's contact information. But when I do have measurements, WHERE THE HELL AM I GOING TO FIND PURPLE SPANDEX??? Or any purple stretchy material, for that matter. The director wants the outfit to be pretty form-fitting, but then he wants us to make an undergarment of "muscles" to make the actor look beefier. How can we do this? We were going to put the actor in a long-sleeved cotton shirt and long pants with "muscle pockets" (pockets stuffed with polyfill) sewn on the outside, but would that look absolutely horrible? Has anyone even had experience with doing anything like this before? Somehow I doubt it. :P

Lastly, how are we going to keep this poor actor from sweating to death after he's wearing a mask, a layer of poly-fill which is basically insulation, SPANDEX, and plastic Hulk hands? I think if our costume kills the lead actor the director won't be too happy with us.

Does anyone have ANY suggestions for anything related to this? I'd appreciate any advice you have.

On another note so this isn't just a "begging for help" post, I made a billfold out of "laminated" newspaper yesterday and it came out effing great. I will post pictures soon but I just wanted to share that :)