Once again, this is what I broke myself over. I had less than 5 weeks to make this costume happen, while working two jobs. O.o
The design was mostly mine, I knocked heads with a theatrical friend of mine to help with the technical details. The design sketches are also on my FA, here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/3606769/
The costume was designed to be put on and taken off in under a minute and a half during the transformation sequences of prince to beast and beast to prince.
We didn't want to cover the whole face or use paint, so we used a hood and a snout. The fur surrounding the head was pretty close to the complexion of the actor. People actually came up to me after the show and said they thought it was a full face mask at first, so it must have looked convincing from stage (I know the elastic and the skin is more obvious from the close up pictures.)
It was my first time doing digitigrade legs and I learned a lot in the process.
I didn't do all the handy work. With direction, my lovely lady, Keronu, helped with a lot of the hand sewing, and she also sculpted and painted the ears, horns, and black nose. Also, a friend and co worker sewed the pants that went over the padding.
The actor LOVED wearing the costume and was excited about it the entire time. I think he's a closet fur. XD He'd say things like, "I look down and see the beast feet and think they are mine, they look so real!" At times we wouldn't have him rehearse in the costume to save time, and he'd ask to wear it anyway. I think it really helped him get in character.
I put a lot of work into this show and I'm sad it ended even though I needed it to be over for the sake of my sanity.
The costume was donated to the park district for future use.
