Modesty's Costume Closet

This post is highlighting my (somewhat flawed) research methods and decision process for a particular costume part: Hoof Boots. (Like the ones pictured below.) Creature Feet by ChaosCostumes I am trying to decide whether or not to purchase the boots from an artist or to make them myself.  There are several options to weigh, one of them being whether it's worth investing in a new skill. Methods Buy on Etsy Follow Tutorial My Method Pros and Cons Etsy Pros: No mess in my apartment, high quality from an experienced creator, safety tested Cons: Limited design choices and colors, shoe sizes too big, have to wait for shipping Tutorial Pros: Definitive proof that the method works, final design look is in my control Cons: I have no experience making these things, very difficult to find used/cheap shoes in my size, Big mess, hazardous chemical materials, Not necessarily cheaper My version Pros: Potentially most economical method, design in my control, shoe guaranteed to fit, ankle support,

This should be the last post for my centaur planning. Hiding the seams! The main seam would be between the horse half and human half of the body. There may be some seams between the hoof and foot but that's covered in the hoof post .  Waisted  So the human half of the costume meets the horse half around the hips or waist when connecting to horse half. How you connect the horse half to your body will determine what needs covering. If you connect mostly with belts around the waist and hips, then the area to cover is minimal. If you use a system of suspenders then there is more coverage.  This is where the design of the character costume can play a big role. It can be a chicken-egg situation where how much you need to cover depends on your horse body design or you tailor your horse body design to the costume.  Using a tutu and saddle blanket.  For example, if you are creating a centaur character with minimal covering, then blending the horse half is done at the waist. So let's st

The other horse features to include on our Centaur costume are decidedly less complicated than horse legs, thank goodness! The features I'm going to highlight are manes, tails, ears, and horns.  Manes I'm going to start with the easier part to talk about: the mane. For the most part, centaurs just have long hair, so a wig of your choosing or just using your own hair is all you need. Done. Moving on.  ... I'm kidding. There is one aspect I wanted to highlight and that's back hair or hair along the spine. Personally, I think it's a cool design touch to the costume and it can be useful for hiding straps or support systems for the horse body. You can make this out of wig wefts, mohair or yak hair wefts, or faux fur or perhaps even brush bristles (for mohawk-like manes). I imagine you would have to include this as part of the wig or attach it to an accessory. Possibly latex it down to your skin directly. Now I'm done with manes. Onto tails! Tails Horse tails can be q

For the discussion of how to make hooves, my focus is going to be on the front legs. However, that is not to say that we ignore the hind legs! The size of your hooves should be similar. So we may want to handle the front legs before deciding how to make the hind legs.  Hoof Approaches In the centaur design, our human legs act as the front legs for the horse, so our human feet will be where the hoof goes. But we run into a problem. Humans are plantigrade, meaning we walk on a flat foot. Horses are digitigrade, meaning they walk on their toes. Right away we will run into a challenge that will pit us against form and function!  If you do stand on the balls of your feet, then your heel and ankle look like a fetlock on a horse. However, this is not a comfortable or natural position for a human to stand in for a long period of time especially if they're dragging a horse rear-end behind them! It's not impossible, people wear tall heels every day so these muscles can be trained. This i

 Arguably, the most difficult part of the horse half are the legs. They are oddly articulated and thin. When translating that into a costume, it becomes a bit of an issue because if the leg structure is not sturdy, it will make the horse half very heavy and droopy.  So, let's look at the source!  Horse Anatomy 101 Hind Leg Bones This is what the bones of the horse's hind leg look like. Already it looks like things are pointing in every which way! But from the bottom up we have the hoof bone (coffin), the pastern (toe bone), fetlock joint (technically like a knuckle joint but it looks like an ankle), cannon bone (the tarsal bones of your foot), the hock joint (like your heel and ankle), Tibia, knee joint, femur, hip socket into the pelvis. This skeleton shows a bit of spine.  While this may look complicated, it can be simplified.  Simplified Skeletons When creating the hind legs for our costume, this simplified skeleton will help serve as our guide for measurements and joint pla

Previously, I went over design considerations to adjust the challenge of making the centaur costume. It is still a big challenge but now we can get into building tips for the horse body.  Disclaimer:  Once again, I will emphasize that as of writing this blog, I have not attempted this construction. When I do, I may come back to update a few things. I'm going off of what I would consider in the planning/design phase and how I would approach construction. You are free to try my ideas but know that these are currently UNTESTED. I am using principles from making art dolls, sculpting and pony plushie making in these experiments/hypothetical situations.  Measuring for the Horse Half If we look at a picture of a horse from the side and you measure from the withers to ground, you should get the horse's relative length from chest to rump.  (Life's not perfect...but it's relatively true.) Standard Horse, Pony and Draft Horse, picture angles... We can take this principle in measur

 So, to move forward with the design of a centaur costume, I want to create a character design.  Brainstorm This mess is what I came up with: Very quick bubble map Now I'm going to pick some words to put together and make some concepts:  Farming - Clydesdale - Draft Horse - Sunflowers Circus - Lippazanner - Acrobat - Clowns - Balloons Fantasy - Knight - Draft Horse - Sword Greek - Unicorn  - Drapery - Nymph - Willow - Blossoms Western - Rodeo - Cowgirl - Texas Pony Express - Post Office Worker - Wild West Gothic - Nightmare Moon - Armor - Pegasus - Unicorn - Vampire Medieval Princess - Unicorn Hunt - Unicorn  Race - Marathon - Greek  Rose - Unicorn - Virgin Mary - St. Teresa the Little Flower 🌸  Chariot - Roman Legion - Military Horse Police Horse - Mounties Already we have a lot of ideas here. The ones that are of most interest to me to test out are:  Western - Rodeo - Cowgirl - Texas Circus Acrobat Clown Pony Express Postal Service Greek Nymph Gothic Nightmare I need to do some

 Obviously one of the most challenging parts of the costume is the horse half. Horses are particularly tricky creatures to recreate. There are a few ways to make it more accessible or challenging depending on what you want to do and what your skill level is.  To make the costume as convenient as possible, you want to make sure the horse half stays light-weight and balanced.  Inspiration References First, let's consider various depictions of centaurs or horses throughout media and history.  Some of the more popular or at least what I know are Disney's Fantasia, Chronicles of Narnia (BBC and Disney), and a Wrinkle in Time.  For horses, we can look at My Little Pony, Spirit Stallion of Cimarron, again Disney's Fantasia, or the myriad of horse characters from animations.    These depictions of centaurs and horses (particularly in animation) can simplify the design of the horse in ways that may make the creation of our costume design much easier. Pay attention to how they handle