I spent the last couple of days completely over-thinking my costume/being then decided to just make a few drawings and think about the materials I could use.
Over the last few weeks, I've been collecting the card roll from finished toilet papers to eventually use for some sort of 3D object or sculpture so I thought of using those at first.
Then I went on to thinking about depicting my 5 words purely from fabrics and textures and not necessarily the form.
I still wanted to create a being that lived underwater but my last few being drawings were very human-formed and I wanted something more abstract with a sense of life in it.
I began thinking of what position I wanted to stand/be in under the costume. I thought of cats and how they curl up in balls or stand on all fours and decided to create a being around that.
Taking the final rough idea/sketch I decided to create a being with cat-like eyes, but with tentacles since its an underwater creature. I contemplated on a tail but decided not go with it. I coloured the tentacles in typical lipstick colours - pinks, purples and browns. I decided to keep the teabag idea and drew them on to the back of my creature. I will also be using wires inspired by the keyword 'phone'.
I'm very happy with my final being and feel that it reflects my 5 words I started off with quite well. I also think it'll work very well as a costume given the right materials, thought and preparation.
The tasks on the brief were to draw the being, then draw it in 5 different forms, draw its characteristics and behaviours, its purposes in life and its home. I began by drawing my being on A4 paper then drew it again twice with its front perspective and back perspective to get an idea of how my costume will be in 3D.
I then started to think of my beings characteristics, its behaviour, its purpose in life and where it might live. I jotted down a few ideas that came to mind, then began to research characteristics of axolotls and octopuses for inspiration.
Even though the brief specifies that we're supposed to think of 5 things for each thing, I feel satisfied with the amount I've come up with for my being.
I decided that my beings main characteristics and behaviours would be:
1. It camouflages to its closest object when its scared or senses danger.
2. It has night vision used to hunt its prey.
3. It captures and strangles its prey with its thinner green (wire) tentacles.
4. It eats mainly smaller fish but sometimes humans too, using these same tentacles.
5. It had cat-like traits. It purrs when it senses love and meows when its hungry.
Its purposes in life are:
1. It grows tea for humans.
2. Humans can also use its coloured tentacles for various clothing items and even decor.
3. It's tentacles decontaminate the ocean and keep it clean.
As for its territory/home I was really stuck with this for a while. I knew I wanted my being to live underwater and I knew I wanted it to be on the darker, more sinister side but I wasn't sure how to draw this because I couldn't visualise it properly.
I remembered the underwater scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and since one of my 5 words were Harry Potter, I decided to watch that part of the film to get ideas. I screen-shotted a few scenes to reference and get ideas from when I'm drawing.
I really love the idea of my being living in an isolated area under the sea. There would be a lot of over grown corals, seaweed and vines like in the second screen shot. I also really want a deep, dark, cave-like area a few meters below the sea which is where my being would live.
I also thought it might be useful to look in to my 'Harry Potter - Film Wizardry' book and scan some pages from the underwater scene and also from the final maze scene as there were loads of visuals including moss and vines.
I want my underwater area to look isolated so I had the idea of drawing ancient ruins maybe from a ship or a temple/something Ancient from land. I went back to my British Museum photos because I remember taking a photo in the Ancient Greece section that might help me with this idea. I really want to draw ruined pillars/columns from some sort of old building using my photo below as inspiration:
A few rough sketches of these ideas:
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