Wildfury Greatstaff [So close!] and more!

There has been much painting over the last week, but the process has been slow-going due to high humidity (sidenote: there needs to be an acrylic paint that dries the same no matter the humidity *shakes fist* as I am tired of waiting 15-30 minutes between coats).

I finished putting on the gesso primer and painting the base green for the staff ends, as well as adding most of the details. Looking back, the most challenging part of this was the gradient green-to-light-green on the crest. That was a royal pain, as I have not worked with acrylics seriously for about 6 years. Here are the results!

The left image is a rough lay-in of where the gradient should be, and I worked with it for what seemed like hours until it was to my satisfaction.

The image on the right shows the top and bottom sections, the top with runes painted on (I may end up going back in to give them more depth; a carved-in appearance, but only if I end up with extra time) and the bottom before runes.

The bottom was much less of a headache because it did not require any difficult painting technique, just one solid color for each design.

Here it is in all its wonderfully difficult to photograph glory!

I still need to decide whether I want to paint the last green band on the staff's head and attach a feather separately, or attach a fabric band so I can include the feather that way. I also still need to sew the two fabric loops to attach on the head of the staff as well - but that requires fabric hunting - and that will need to wait for a few more weeks until I no longer require a boot on my nearly-healed foot.

Fortunately, the bulk of this prop is complete. I just need to finish up those tidbits and give it a nice matte clear coat and I can mark the Wildfury Greatstaff off the to-do list! I will be glad to have it finished so I can focus on the massive amount of work I have yet to complete before this costume is ready to be worn.


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The next item up for construction is the Nordrassil Mantle, or the costume's shoulder armor. These will probably be the most time-consuming items I have to construct due to the nature of armor found in World of Warcraft (the bigger the shoulders, the more important the character - ha).

I started with a cardboard base, cut and taped until I got a shape that fit the item's base model, and covered it in a few layers of paper mache. I then filled it with expanding insulation foam (so it would not just be hard cardboard against my shoulders. I may also add additional soft foam later if they end up being too hard still, or uncomfortable). Once the foam had dried, I cut away most of the underside.

The most time consuming part of this, so far, was making the pattern for the top. Patterns might take a while to get right, but they go a long way toward making your costume awesome. A bad pattern will ruin a costume, promise.

Once all the patterning was done and to my liking, I got out the wire mesh. This item is very easy to find in art stores and craft stores, I got mine at Dick Blick. You -can- use the stuff found at stores like Home Depot, but the craft variety is just as expensive, and a heck of a lot easier to work with. I used my crappy scissors to cut the mesh; Please do not use fabric scissors or nice scissors with this stuff - it will make nicks in the blades and turn them into garbage scissors. I bent the sides over to give it shape (and so my fingers would get stabbed less).

Cue the expandy-foam, yet again, and you end up with something Cthulhu would likely be proud of (yeah, it's that scary).

After it was completely dried I got out my knife and carved the foam to look like my reference image. The best part about using wire mesh with the expanding foam is that if you get to it before the foam is rock-hard you can still bend it! And so I did, since the prongs weren't looking exactly the way I wanted.

I'd like to thank masking tape, who has been awesome today, for keeping things where they need to stay and even playing nice with foam. You are the best friend a girl can have.. well, almost.

Wildfury Greatstaff [I'm covered in paint!]

I have been steamrolling right along on this staff, and I am glad to say that the major construction portion is complete! There has been much frustration over getting the faux wood grain to look realistic (because, yes, everything must be perfect and I am a masochist - my back can vouch for that one). Fortunately, I have had success with this endeavor, and have moved on to painting the green top portion of the staff. There was much rejoicing.

I pre-mix my (acrylic) colors in recycled tubs - lids are your best friend if you plan to reuse a mixed color. I will be using the same paint on other pieces, so I mixed a lot of paint.

I ended up using 4 different browns to get a wood grain I liked. There were two medium tone browns for the base and basic grain layout, one light honey brown for the highlights and a black-brown for added texture illusion.

I used a mixture of wet and dry brush techniques. Fortunately, I spent my college career in the art and theater departments/classes so I have a lot of experience with painting. This helped immensely, although I know that anyone with enough patience and determination can achieve a nice faux wood grain.

The key here is following the brush's lead - don't try to force patterns that the brush isn't interested in executing. It is especially important for 3D projects! The surface isn't flat, it is usually much easier and looks much better if you just put on some good music and go with the flow.

I started with the darker of the two base colors, waited for it to dry, added another layer (the gesso shows through if your paint isn't very opaque), and then started using the side of my brush to lay in the lines. I repeated with highlights, added some medium brown back in where the highlights stood out too much, then went in with the dark brown last to give it some depth.

Another important thing to keep in mind when painting faux wood grain is that you should try to avoid going over highlights with your darker colors. Ideally you want to put darker colors next to the highlights in order to give the texture the illusion of depth.

Once all the wood was painted on I went back over the mess with gesso where I needed to paint in the green, so I would not need as many layers of green paint to cover the wood grain. Currently the crest is painted green all around and tomorrow or the next day it should be getting the shading and pattern painted on.