When looking for that special touch to make a costume look just so, don’t overlook the prop master’s friend, spray paint! It will stick and dry well on almost any fabric, including leather, although check vinyl and plastics in a small inconspicuous spot before going all out. It comes in a wide variety of colors and finishes and makes for great distressing.
Here is a brief tutorial on the Tinman costume we recently created for our production of “The Wiz”.
For those who don’t know, The Wiz, is an urban retelling of the classic Wizard of Oz complete with a magnificent soul music score, in which the tinman is a mechanical carnival midway barker left behind to rust into oblivion when his amusement park shuts down.
In our case we had recently produced the Wizard of Oz and due to a lack of time we were forced to use a “make do” off the shelf costume for the tinman. Here is a link to a similar costume you can order online.
One of the skills that any true theatre techie will develop early on is “prop eye” the ability to visualize that item on the shelf at Walmart or home depot as a part of something else. (with lots of hotglue and duck tape of course) For the tinman we needed to dress the suit up a little so I added boots, shoulder tabs, slinky sleeves, a “hubcap” collar, a pair of gauntlet gloves and a distressed finish.
For the boots we went directly to the prop outlet (also known as the Dollar Tree or $99 cent store) and purchased two small trash cans in bright colored plastic. We cut the bottoms out of these using a jigsaw. A box knife or keyhole saw would work as well. The actor then slips bare feet down through the top of the upside down can and replaces his foot ware, add a coat of distressed metal finish (more on that later) and voila!
The flip up tops from the center of the lids became the shoulder tabs. These were also distressed then attached using large safety pins to the shoulders of the costume. They could be more permanently attached using an upholstery needle and fishing line or heavy thread. The bottom edge was fastened to our slinky sleeves, and they too received the weathering treatment.
For the slinky sleeves look no further than your hardware store. This pair is made from one long dryer vent hose cut in half. They come in a couple of different diameters and should be able to fit all but the largest tinmen. Get your wire cutters ready and be extra careful to bend under any sharp points!
For the hubcap collar its back to the $1 store for a plastic “chrome” finish serving tray that you can easily cut the center from using a box knife. If the edges happen to be sharp a thin strip of duck tape folded over the edge should take care of it.
The gloves were simple garden gloves, brown jersey in this case. The gauntlets were cut from a piece of fun foam and attached with craft glue. We used the jersey gloves with the little rubber nubbies on them. The spray paint gave these a nice sheen but didn’t dry well so you might stick to the plain variety. ***the fun foam can be made into much more elaborate metallic pieces, check out this link here for details***
Now for the finish. You will want gray spray primer, a nice rich brown spray, cheap (I prefer Walmart brand) silver, gold and flat black. Make sure you give the plastic trash cans a good coat of primer to help your finish last before applying color. I sprayed all of my [parts separately but you could just as easily spray the whole getup. Lightly streak the red, black and gold across the surface to give the appearance of rusty and grime. I did them in this order: brown, black, gold and finish up with a light dusting of silver to help blend.
New to spray paint? Less is more! Lightly press the nozzle as you move the can across the surface of the costume with a “brushing” motion. Don’t stay in one place too long or you’ll puddle and run. More light coats are superior to heavy coats, remember we are not trying to preserve the surface just enough to make it look good.
Just add a distressed straw boater hat, a junk pipe cain, a pair of silver sprayed shoes (see it works on almost anything) a little makeup (we used gold instead of silver, the features showed up better) and ease on down the road!
The actor pictured is Eric, a rookie who handled himself like a real pro!
Here is a brief tutorial on the Tinman costume we recently created for our production of “The Wiz”.
For those who don’t know, The Wiz, is an urban retelling of the classic Wizard of Oz complete with a magnificent soul music score, in which the tinman is a mechanical carnival midway barker left behind to rust into oblivion when his amusement park shuts down.
In our case we had recently produced the Wizard of Oz and due to a lack of time we were forced to use a “make do” off the shelf costume for the tinman. Here is a link to a similar costume you can order online.
One of the skills that any true theatre techie will develop early on is “prop eye” the ability to visualize that item on the shelf at Walmart or home depot as a part of something else. (with lots of hotglue and duck tape of course) For the tinman we needed to dress the suit up a little so I added boots, shoulder tabs, slinky sleeves, a “hubcap” collar, a pair of gauntlet gloves and a distressed finish.
For the boots we went directly to the prop outlet (also known as the Dollar Tree or $99 cent store) and purchased two small trash cans in bright colored plastic. We cut the bottoms out of these using a jigsaw. A box knife or keyhole saw would work as well. The actor then slips bare feet down through the top of the upside down can and replaces his foot ware, add a coat of distressed metal finish (more on that later) and voila!
The flip up tops from the center of the lids became the shoulder tabs. These were also distressed then attached using large safety pins to the shoulders of the costume. They could be more permanently attached using an upholstery needle and fishing line or heavy thread. The bottom edge was fastened to our slinky sleeves, and they too received the weathering treatment.
For the slinky sleeves look no further than your hardware store. This pair is made from one long dryer vent hose cut in half. They come in a couple of different diameters and should be able to fit all but the largest tinmen. Get your wire cutters ready and be extra careful to bend under any sharp points!
For the hubcap collar its back to the $1 store for a plastic “chrome” finish serving tray that you can easily cut the center from using a box knife. If the edges happen to be sharp a thin strip of duck tape folded over the edge should take care of it.
The gloves were simple garden gloves, brown jersey in this case. The gauntlets were cut from a piece of fun foam and attached with craft glue. We used the jersey gloves with the little rubber nubbies on them. The spray paint gave these a nice sheen but didn’t dry well so you might stick to the plain variety. ***the fun foam can be made into much more elaborate metallic pieces, check out this link here for details***
Now for the finish. You will want gray spray primer, a nice rich brown spray, cheap (I prefer Walmart brand) silver, gold and flat black. Make sure you give the plastic trash cans a good coat of primer to help your finish last before applying color. I sprayed all of my [parts separately but you could just as easily spray the whole getup. Lightly streak the red, black and gold across the surface to give the appearance of rusty and grime. I did them in this order: brown, black, gold and finish up with a light dusting of silver to help blend.
New to spray paint? Less is more! Lightly press the nozzle as you move the can across the surface of the costume with a “brushing” motion. Don’t stay in one place too long or you’ll puddle and run. More light coats are superior to heavy coats, remember we are not trying to preserve the surface just enough to make it look good.
Just add a distressed straw boater hat, a junk pipe cain, a pair of silver sprayed shoes (see it works on almost anything) a little makeup (we used gold instead of silver, the features showed up better) and ease on down the road!
The actor pictured is Eric, a rookie who handled himself like a real pro!
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