Coraline Costume Design 2016

 Hi everyone! Halloween is just around the corner now, so that's why I've decided to share my costume design for this year! If you don't know what you're going to be for Halloween, this will give you an idea! I love to watch the film 'Coraline' at Halloween so this year I decided to dress up as her. I've got a few pieces that I'm planning on wearing but I wanted to picture how I was going to wear them, that's why I drew out my design!

Here is my costume design for this year! I started by drawing it out in the pencil and then used my stabilo coloured fineliners to go over the liners and colour it in! Normally, I would just use my Prismacolour coloured pencils for something like this but I wanted to use this as my Inktober drawing yesterday so I used fineliners! I know that the anatomy isn't very accurate (especially on the legs) but this was just to give me an idea of what my costume will look like when I wear it! I don't always draw a costume design every year but it's helpful to look back on when you're getting ready so you can check if you've got everything on! For example, I might forget to draw freckles on my cheeks but when I look at this I'll know where I made a mistake! There's some parts of this design that I haven't got yet: the fimo clay rock/sweet and the dragonfly clip are yet to be made. Also, I don't think I'll wear the yellow wellies because a.I don't have any and b. I'm wearing this for an indoor party.

As well as the costume design, I wanted to show you a few elements of my outfit in this post! Here's the handmade Coraline doll that I talked about in a previous post. If you want to know how I made it, go to the post from two weeks ago by clicking here. It was based on the doll in the film that Coraline's neighbour/friend Wybe gave to her. Wybe found the doll in his Grandma's house, she wasn't too happy that he gave it to Coraline (you'll find out why if you watch the film which I highly recommend)! It isn't an exact copy of the doll that is in the film but it has a similar style. The doll is quite an important part of the story so that's why I chose to make this as part of my costume. However, you don't have to make or buy one to make your outfit a good representation of Coraline.

The last thing I wanted to show you in this post is the yellow anorak that I'm wearing on Halloween! I was surprised when my Mum said she had found i in a charity shop for me because I was worried that I wouldn't find one in time for Halloween! If you're looking for a cheap costume then I recommend that you look in charity shops for the items that you need! It wasn't in the first charity shop that was looked in though, apparently it was found in about the 7th one! So don't think it's an easy task to find the perfect costume for a small price! But putting together your outfit is half the fun! It's great to see it come together piece by piece until you've got the whole costume! The good thing about Coraline's outfit is that everything looks ordinary. This means that I can wear things like the raincoat again. By the way, Coraline wears other outfits in the film such as the starry jumper so there are several options!

I hope that this post has inspired you to choose a fun Halloween costume! I'm looking forward to Halloween, I'll make sure I have a picture of me in the costume to share with you! Come back next week to see my last Halloween post which will be about what I did (will do) on Halloween!

PS: My first blogging tips post was published on Cathy Cassidy's blog (Dreamcatcher) a while ago. Click here to see it! I'm working on a second one now as well!

Over to you...
What are your plans for Halloween, are you dressing up and going to a party, staying at home to watch scary movies or something else? Also, what are your Halloween movie recommendations? I'm also looking for new ones! Let me know in the comments! 

Why I'm Doing Inktober!

 Hello everyone! Inktober is a month long drawing challenge where you draw one ink drawing for every day of October. Some people don't draw absolutely every day, but I try my best to draw every day (I think I've only missed one day so far). You can draw whatever you want as long as it's in ink! There are some prompts that you can find on social media but I just draw what I feel like each day! Most of the things I draw are Halloween or Autumn themed because this season is so inspiring-don't you think? Gorgeous colours, a gentle breeze and that fresh start feeling!

So, why am I doing Inktober? I am doing Inktober for many reasons. Firstly, it is an interesting challenge to post on social media! I recently got Instagram so doing Inktober is a great excuse to post every day ha-ha! I love creating new, creative content for my Instagram and this blog! Any excuse to draw every day is good enough for me! I feel like I am on a roll at the moment in terms of art, I just started my GCSE art course and it feels like I am drawing every spare minute! I'm loving it though! Taking my art sketchbook home is fun to develop my school work and then I draw my Inktober things to create a personal sketchbook! Unfortunately focusing on drawing means that I am doing less of other things such as: fashion design. Sorry that I haven't posted a fashion design post for a while but I will try in November once the challenge is over!



Another reason I am doing Inktober is to build up a 'stash' of drawings that I can then edit! An example of my edited ink drawings is on the right! Here's an edited version of the owl ink drawing I showed you above! I started by scanning it and then taking it to Photoshop where I cleaned up the lines, removed the white background and coloured it in. I then saved it as a png. I then went to PicMonkey (an editing website) on the design feature where I made a background and then added the owl as an overlay. I like to take my ink drawings into digital art because it progresses the simple drawings into professional-looking art. I then use these as Inktober posts (which is cheating but oh well)!xD

The main reason I am taking part in Inktober is to improve my inking skills. I don't think that 'inking' is my strength in art so doing Inktober has helped a lot. In my art course, you get higher marks for experimenting (using different mediums, techniques, etc) so using ink is a skill I need to be skilled at. I do think that doing Inktober has been an effective way of developing my skills with biros and fineliners. You can see that this drawing on the left is much more comlex and 'better' (I mean more detailed) than the owl drawing at the top. This is actually my favourite drawing so far. This was my first time experimenting with the cross-hatching technique and I think it worked well! It took me a long time (until I thought of putting this in the bin) but you have to put time in to see improvement! You can clearly see the development so I think this has been a useful challenge!

The last reason I am doing Inktober is so I can improve my blog! You will have seen my new Halloween background that will be here for October. This was actually made with the skull drawing I showed you above! I have decided to make all my blog backgrounds since the pineapple one I had last month, by myself! This will improve my blog by making it unique to me! Another way Inktober will improve my blog is because it has helped me get used to drawing often! This means that I will be able to produce art faster in the future so I can post my art more often on here (remember I am aiming to post every week)! I am enjoying improving my blog content, I wonder how it will have changed this time next year? It's these sorts of wonderings (this isn't a word is it) that make me look forward to the future!

I hope you enjoyed this post full of my Inktober art! I recommend that you do any daily art challenge (it doesn't have to be Inktober) because it gives you the results that you want and sparks your creativity!

Over to you...
Have you ever done an art challenge such as Inktober? How did it go? Let me know in the comments! If not, would you ever try it? 

Craft Project Idea:Coraline Doll

 I love celebrating Halloween (and all celebrations really) and I love crafting so I thought I would combine the two in this week's post! This week, I have been making a doll from the Coraline film using felt! I'll be using this as part of my Halloween costume this year, which as you can probably guess, will be a Coraline outfit! Coraline is one of my favourite Halloween films because it perfectly mixes creepy with cute and the animation style is beautifully stunning! Hopefully this will give you a few ideas for your next project, it's not necessarily a tutorial but i'll tell you the basic steps I took to make Coraline!

To start making this doll, I decorated her face! I chose two shiny,black buttons for her eyes and sewed them in place. Next, I drew on the felt where I wanted the lips, eyebrows and freckles to be. You can draw quite easily with biro to give you an idea where to sew! Then I started to sew the rest of the facial features! I used satin stitch for her eyebrows, french knots for her freckles (which are quite complex stitches, so I recommend you practice them on a fabric scrap first) and I haven't sewed the lips in this photo yet! I then created two hair pieces out of blue felt! I started by cutting out a basic hair outline for the front and back and then cut strips of felt, which were then sewed onto this larger piece! This helped to add texture to the doll which adds interest!

In this next picture, I have started to add clothes and sew her lips on. For the lips, I used basic running stitch down the centre (in brown thread) and then filled above and below the line (in light pink thread) in whatever way I could. i'm not sure if the technique I used has a name but I just imagined the thread was a pen and I was colouring in the lips. If you're confused, I mean that I simply put my needle through at the top and put it back at the bottom, then moved along to the right and went through at the bottom and then out at the top, and then repeated until it was done. Sorry if you don't understand, it's hard to explain! I then sewed on a dark pink vest which I then sewed light pink strips onto with running stitch that was spaced apart. I then put a black strip to be the skirt waistband (I put the skirt on in a later picture). After this I sewed on white socks which has black stripes sewn on. Finally I made yellow boots with laces!

In this photo, you can see Coraline stuffed! She was sewn up using blanket stitch in a skin tone. As I stitched, I added little bits of stuffing to make sure I didn't miss any gaps. I probably would have missed gaps if it was stuffed after sewing most of it up. It can be fiddly to sew and stuff simultaneously but this method is the most effective to evenly stuff. Take your time to sew it up because you don't want to leave large paces between each stitch because the doll will easily fall apart and the stuffing will come out; you don't want that!  I forgot to mention earlier, I added a little clip in Coraline's hair that she has in the film. If you add all these little details, it makes for a more accurate costume (but if you're short of time, you can just create an impression of Coraline rather than a close replica).




This last photo shows Coraline now that she is completely finished! The things that changed from the last picture to this one, is the fact that she has all her clothes now! Here she is in her lovely yellow anorak that was sewn up using three pieces (1 for the back and 2 for the front) which was then turned inside out and decorated with a collar and buttons! She is also wearing a  black skirt that was made using layers of different fabrics: black felt, a black ribbon,taffeta and netting! the reason I use different fabrics is to add interesting texture and depth to the piece of clothing! I didn't want it to just lay flat on her legs.  I love the way that she turned out! She is cute but also a little bit creepy, just like in the film! I think this will be a great addition to my costume that I'm wearing on Halloween. I'll also keep her afterwards because she looks great!



If you make this, I hope you have a lot of fun like I did when I made this! You could make it with a friend or family member who's experienced with sewing if you'd like! I made mine with my Mum who's an experienced sewer!

Over to you...
What are you wearing for Halloween? Let me know! Did you give this project a go?