We are a couple of weirdo character artists for video games, working out of Long Beach, California. Building spooky costumes for Halloween is a creative outlet that gets us away from the computer screens -- it's so satisfying to make real, tangible characters that can be worn and acted to the delight of others.
Max, who was also SWSCA's costume contest winner in , has other hobbies, which include sculpting, 3D printing, molding, and casting his designs as latex masks; Erin likes to clean the bones of roadkilled animals and articulate them into natural history displays. They both like pets. Erin Zaneski in her Cyberpunk cosplay, created by Maxence Fleuret. Some diaphanized animals by Erin Zaneski: L-R a chicken, a round stingray, and, in the last column, details of a Crested gecko.
It was a dark and stormy night And we had no clue what to make for Halloween this year! Only one week before Halloween, we found ourselves wandering the aisles of Spirit and perusing the sad, mass-manufactured costumes, hunting for something to use as a quick base. A cheesy plastic helmet caught Erin's eye, "I've always wanted to be an astronaut!
We distressed the fabric, cutting holes with a razor blade, then tore at the fibers with a stiff, sharp wire brush. The brush worked wonders to very quickly create surface piling and interestingly frayed edges.
We then rubbed charcoal around all those edges to create a charred look, as if tiny shards of debris hurtling through space burnt straight through the suit upon impact. A little dremeling on the plastic helmet did the trick to "break" the visor's "glass" and create some impact damage scars, which we then painted up with dirt and edge wear. Orangey brown water-based paint on the knees, elbows, and ankles of the pants suggests that the Halfstronaut was perhaps working on Mars before their terrible accident occurred.
