Tag: Pencils

“Katia Kabanova” Costume Designs – Part II

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Thomas | Costumes,Drawings | Tags: , , , , |

Time to continue from the last post about the Opera costumes. Here are nine more designs for “Katia Kabanova” that was (playing at the Opera Zuid).

But first some photos of the production – here you can see the mud that covered the whole stage, which I had to preview on the designs also.

Opera Katja Kabanova

Opera Katja Kabanova

The costume of Varvara (left) is among the drawings below.

Opera Katja Kabanova

Kabanicha - the design is in the previous posting

Opera Katja Kabanova

Most of the characters in this play are from the higher class (of about 1860-80). I found it surprising how little their attire changes over the centuries and regions – the nobility of Russia differs little to that of England or the United States.
On the other hand, the lower or middle classes have so many interesting styles in comparison. When looking at German outfits of these times, you can find distinctive traditional dresses pretty much for each village. Much of which has disappeared until today – while the upper class nowadays still wears similar suits and coats as even in the middle of the 19th century.

Lets start then with some of the rich guys in the play:

Costume Norfolk Jacket (high class dress until 1900)

Boris Grigorjevic - Katia's secret lover. In a Norfolk Jacket (very popular high class dress until 1900)

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija, Katya) - tichon, upper class men's costume ca. 1880

Tichon, the boring husband of Katia

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija, Katya) - Men's coat (upper class dress, ca. 1880)

Tichon, with a coat (upper class dress, ca. 1880)

Costume high class dress

Dikoj - Boris' Uncle

Russian mens coat, hat - ca. 1880

Costume for the choir - a thick coat, and typical russian hat.

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija, Katya) - upper class womans dress - ca. 1880

Varvara - the foster daughter in the family

Varvara - coat russian upper class - ca. 1880

Again Varvara, this time in a coat for the curch visit

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija) - russian orthodox costume design - ca. 1880

"Feklusa" - russian orthodox costume

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija, Katya) - peasant womens costume design - ca. 1880

Russian peasant women's costume - ca. 1880

“Katia Kabanova” Costume Designs – Part I

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Thomas | Costumes,Drawings | Tags: , , , , |

Since the last post of some of my costume drawings, the Faust opera has been played in Paris. Here is an image and a video – I hope to get more good quality photos later.

Faust in Paris

"Faust in Paris"

In the meantime I have been working on more plays – drawing hundreds of costumes based on design instructions by Yan Tax. Time to show some more of them.

These below are for “Katia Kabanova“. The opera plays in Russia at the end of the 19th century (1860 in the original play, and 1890 in this version) – with more historically accurate designs. Never thought I would ever get interested in fashion… but researching this was fun. One excellent resource for costumes is the blog of the FIDM Cotume Museum. Full of high quality photos and detailed historical descriptions. So I tried to stay as accurate as possible, even on the details.

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija) - womens costume design

The main role - Katia Kabanova (sometimes written Katja Kabanova or Katya Kabanova)

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija) - womens costume design

Katia in a 19th century coat with veil

1890s, 1900s, turn of the century, clothing, vintage

Boris - Katia's secret lover. With a bit of a vain personality.

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija) - womens costume design

Kabanicha - the matriarch dominating the family. In a black gown.

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija) - womens costume design

Kabanicha - in a coat for the church visit.

Kudrjas, turn of the century, clothing

Kudrjas

Russian mens costume, turn of the century, clothing

Russian man in a coat (at the church procession).

Katia Kabanova (Kaja, Katija) - womens costume design

An choir woman - for the procession to the church.

Russian noble-man, turn of the century, clothing

Russian noble-man, in a coat (at the church procession).

“Faust in Paris” Costume Designs – Part II

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Thomas | Costumes,Drawings | Tags: , , , , |

Next bunch of the costume designs for the “Faust in Paris” piece (part I here). Coming from usually designing fantasy costumes for games where everything goes, this is a very interesting change. These things have to work in real life – I got very specific guidelines form the designer, and partly even cloth samples.

Also the presentation is different. The designs are most important – not characters itself of course. Although I still try to convey some of the personality.

And all the costumes had to be done very quick. So I decided against using the computer. One would think that having the flexibility of Photoshop would make the work faster – but traditional tools somehow turn out to be way more efficient. I have some suspicions why, but it is still a bit of a puzzle.

Faust in Paris - Bacchus

One of the side characters - some kind of gourmet aristocrats they have in France.

Faust in Paris - Gourmet

Faust in Paris - Gourmet

Faust in Paris - Fellini Clown

Faust in Paris - Concubines - Godesses

These are some of the godesses/concubine designs

“Faust in Paris” Costume Designs – Part I

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Thomas | Costumes,Drawings | Tags: , , , , , |

At the beginning of the year I made some costume designs for theater and film. Here are some for the play “Faust in Paris” – a twist on the good ol’ Faust story. The performance was supposed to be shown in Paris, I’ll try to get some information on how far that is, would be cool to see photos of the actual costumes.

Really fun job, interesting differences to doing fantasy costumes for games. A little more on that in the next part.

Faust in Paris - "Mephisto" in a bishops dress

First one of the cool guys: "Mephisto" in a bishop's dress

Faust in Paris - Gretchen Version

A farmers girl, and lead character - a "Gretchen" version who's fate does not seem to mean it all that well.

Faust in Paris - danceress in red dress

Beware those ladies in red dresses.

Faust in Paris - Various Male costume designs

Various costume designs for the unusual mix of characters in the piece.

Whitewalk – Drawing from a Fashion Event

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Thomas | Drawings | Tags: , , |

I started this at a fashion event in Amsterdam I was invited to. But the time was really really short, with the models only being there for a couple of seconds.

So I had to finish it at home, and used the chance to try a bit different style of penciling. Just by chance Gurney had a post about drawings, so I took some tricks. I like the structure the strokes create, and the vibrancy in it. I’ll just work a bit smaller from now on – and with less shading, as my thumb got blisters from filling up the whole sheet.

Whitewalk, Pencils on 32x42 cm Bristol Paper

Whitewalk, Pencils on 32x42 cm Bristol Paper

Rotating Beer Coaster Art

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Thomas | Drawings | Tags: , , , |

Last week me and some friends were drawing on beer mats again - I think over the years we filled quite some of them :) Great fun. Usually I leave them in the bars, but this one is special. Spot how many creatures you can find on this one. Careful though: if you look to long at it, I'm sure you can go insane.

I made a little JavaScript - so if you have a browser with HTML5 support, then you can rotate this with your mouse.

rotating beer coaster


And so that it's not just one image - here is one other coaster I have lying around at home.

Beer Coaster 03

Another one, where someone drew me, but I have no clue anymore who did it. If anyone recognizes it, lemme know :)

Beer Coaster 04

Mezzo Concept Sketchgroup Drawing

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Thomas | Drawings | Tags: , , , , |

Digging out a scan of a drawing from a sketchgroup we had in Utrecht some months, since Nadia posted a painting on her blog. This is a collab of Nadia, Wanja and if I remember correctly also Stephan aka Duq.
We certainly wanna do more meetings – if you’re around the area here, and are interested – check this thread on Conceptart.org, where the meetings are usually announced.

Mezzo Sketchgroup Drawing

Mezzo Sketchgroup Drawing

Unearthly Challenge – Final Artwork

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Thomas | Concept Art,Digital Artworks,Drawings | Tags: , , , |

I talked before about the entry in the Unearthly Challenge. Our team could not finish the 3D version – it’s sad, but there was not enough time. So I took the whole thing into 2D. Interesting experience in a way. It has the disadvantage that we really started with 3D in mind. So we were a bit restricted with the ideas – it had to be doable in time, and it had to be logical (no weird 2D trickery). Then again – since I designed out all the separated parts for modeling, I had working designs when starting to paint. I wish I had one more day – but I made it just in time.
My fav of the contest is this one by Skadi. Now here is just hoping the judges wont take too long.

Final Image of the Falling town.

Final Image of the Falling town.

I noticed a bit late that many people don’t get the Dig Dug reference. I guess the game is a bit old by now :)
So here some screenshots as explanation.

faeffadaga

This is Dig Dug, the main game influence.

Also the C64 game Boulder Dash - thats where the boulders are from.

Also the C64 game Boulder Dash - thats where the boulders are from.

afdgah

The modeling sheet - showing the parts.

This is the sketches sheet - showing the progress.

This is the sketches sheet - showing the progress.

Unearthly Challenge Started

Posted on October 21, 2009 by Thomas | Concept Art,Drawings,Oil Paintings | Tags: , , , , |

First something about the last posting – I’ve updated the portrait of the blonde girl. Damn, it looked bad (heh, I deleted all traces). I never see how bad a picture is until a week is over or so. Was a good learning experience to analyze and fix it though.

Update of last postings painting

And yeah got no internet – so fewer updates for now. Bad timing, as I just started taking part in the Unearthly Challenge with two friends.

The topic is “End-Game”. We want to do a 3D version of a medieval town that gets devoured by some digdug style machines that dig the ground away.

Here are the two first detailed concepts:

Overview Concept of Falling Town

Overview Concept of Falling Town

Second concept of Falling Town

Second concept of Falling Town

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