THEA 390: Costume Design (with Professor Colleen Ballance)

"Essential guide that will improve your drawing skills and costume renderings. Step-by-step visuals illustrate the how-tos of drawing body parts, costumes, accessories, faces, children, and different character archetypes, such as maternal, elderly, sassy, sexy, and evil. By focusing on the foundations of drawing bodies, including body proportion, bone structure, body masses, facial expressions, and appendages, this guide shows you how to develop sketches from stick figures to full-blown characters. Includes a chapter on how to use Photoshop to enhance and improve costume designs, in order to provide easy delivery design ideas to the director and design team, provide easy changes and alterations during the design process, virtually apply actual fabric swatches over costume sketches, and help visualize lighting effects"--Publisher's description.

"Collects from a variety of sources--including costume history texts, journal articles, historical publications, autobiographies, biographies, foreign language dictionaries, and contemporary publications--to create a resource that spans the globe, from the earliest record of fashion to the 21st century. Including more than 20,000 fashion and costume terms, this volume also features more than 300 illustrations. The first section of the book is an alphabetical listing of these words with their definitions, period, and country of origin. This volume also contains appendixes that list the terms by country of origin, period, and type of clothing. The book is not limited to the Western World and includes both archaic and current terms"--Publisher's description.

"Shows you how to use inexpensive materials to create durable products in a short amount of time that are practical and technical. It is written in an easy-to-follow manner and each step is shown with a wide array of illustrations and photographs. From creating armor out of laundry baskets, to detailed tricks to create a prosthetic nose for a witch, this book will show the techniques needed for you to produce end results that are beautiful, economical, and fast to make"--Publisher's description.

This updated edition of Costumes for the Stage aims at simplicity in all aspects of designing and making costumes. It is designed primarily for those who need to dress plays on a small budget, whether for amateur, semi-professional, or professional groups. Starting with five pages illustrating the basic shapes of each period, Sheila Jackson provides practical advice for every kind of play, together with drawings, diagrams, and patterns from which to work. Included are sections on Greek plays, medieval miracles and mysteries, Shakespeare, seventeenth century, eighteenth century, Victorian and Edwardian costume, the twenties and thirties, and the present day. Each section covers the details of men's and women's clothes (hats, collars, shoes, jewelry, etc.) as well as methods for adapting and simplifying the style of the period. There are also sections on pantomimes and musicals, pageants and school plays, and invaluable advice on underwear, fabrics, measurements and fitting, the use of color, and simple ways to make masks, crowns, and decorations. The revised edition features expanded text and new illustrations. Hundreds of line drawings and no-nonsense, authoritative text combine to make this an essential book of costume design.

"An invaluable guide for anyone who designs, or aspires to design, costumes for stage productions. It explains the role of the costume designer, from understanding the script to realizing ideas on paper and in fabric. Among the topics covered are art and design materials; exercises for developing drawing skills; script and character analysis; the theater production process; and approaches to historical and modern dress productions. Includes a fabric dictionary of textiles and their terms"--Publisher's description.

"Minoan ladies, Scythian warriors, Roman and Sarmatian merchants, prehistoric weavers, gold sheet figures, Vikings, Medieval saints and sinners, Renaissance noblemen, Danish peasants, dressmakers, and Hollywood stars appear in the pages of this anthology. This is not necessarily how they dressed in the past, but how the authors of this book think they dressed in the past, and why they think so. No reader of this book will ever look at a reconstructed costume in a museum or at a historical festival, or watch a film with a historic theme again without a heightened awareness of how, why, and from what sources the costumes were reconstructed. The seventeen contributors come from a variety of disciplines: archaeologists, historians, curators with ethnological and anthropological backgrounds, designers, a weaver, a conservator, and a scholar of fashion in cinema. The anthology is also recommended for use in teaching students at design schools"--Publisher's description.

Traces the stylistic and functional threads that unite clothing across time and cultures, as well as delving into the divergent styles and significance of apparel. Surveys clothing and body adornment; and examines the origins of clothing, the development of fabrics and technologies, and the social meanings of dress. Presents information on representative costumes from a wide variety of historical eras. Topics range from the bustle, sari, and toga to Polyester and body piercing, the cocktail dress, bathing suit, burqua, Nehru jacket, techniques and manufactures (batik, dry cleaning, zipper, stone washing), body adornment (makeup, mask, tattoo, wig), and important persons and institutions (Coco Chanel, Edith Head, Yves Saint-Laurent, Fashion Institute of Technology). The longer essays provide cultural context: class, gender, sumptuary laws, costume design for stage and screen, advertising, fashion careers, ecclesiastical dress, military uniforms, etc.

"Provides detailed advice on acquiring and refining the myriad of skills needed to be a theater designer, from drawing to costume design to effectively presenting design work. Theater designers need to be proficient in an extraordinarily diverse range of skills to carry out their work--they are expected to be able to draw both creatively and technically; to be able to use color imaginatively; to make accurate scale models of their set designs; to design costumes, whether of a specific period, modern, or entirely fantastical; to understand the relationship of their work to stage lighting; and to be able to use computer-technology in imaginative ways. Here, a professional theater designer and teacher describes these techniques in detail (with illustrations), and suggests practical ways to acquire them. Topics covered include drawing and sketching instruction; the use of color and hand-drafting techniques; advice on model-making, textures, and perspective; a guide to costume designs and costume-rendering techniques; creative use of digital techniques; and practical methods for the effective presentation of a range of design-work. Each chapter concludes with a useful series of practical exercises"--Publisher's description.

"This how-to handbook offers detailed, step-by-step instructions that cover the basics of sewing costumes (which often require skills not found in standard sewing guides) to help even the most novice sewists create the costumes of their dreams. A skilled crafter and avid cosplayer, Gillian Conahan walks readers through finding inspiration online and through their fandom; shares insight into translating character art into real-world garments; and offers advice on pattern selection, alterations, fabrics, and embellishment techniques. The book also features 11 original step-by-step basic patterns-such as jumpsuits, jackets, and pants. It then suggests ideas for mixing and matching these basics to create costumes of all styles, including superheroes, pirates, elves, school girls, and adventurers"--Publisher's description.

"Offers illustrations to demonstrate techniques visually; fundamentals on topics such as beauty, time periods, black and white film; and up-to-date information on cutting-edge techniques like air brushing makeup for computer-generated movies, makeup effects, mold-making, lighting, and lots of information on how to work effectively in HD"--From Publisher's description.

Provides a fascinating demystification of the use of masks on stage. Examines how masks have the ability to play the fundamental game of theatre--the suspension of disbelief. Includes an introduction to the origin of masks; advice on preparing, making and using masks; tips on writing, devising and directing mask-work; and lots of fun, practical exercises. Will empower teachers, directors and actors to fully explore the world of the mask.

"This indispensable guide to fashion provides in more than 1200 entries detailed information on the life and work of every important designer from 1840 to the present day, including not only couturiers but also shoe, hat, and knitwear specialists, costume designers, jewelers, and hairdressers. It covers the fashion media, photographers and illustrators, influential art movements, fashion terms, garment and accessory styles, technical processes, and every kind of fabric, as well as personalities who have influenced fashion or promoted a style"--Publisher's description.