How to do green skin w/o body paint?

By LadyStitch. 09/06/10, 06:54 pm

I'm a theatrical costumer who offten get's asked to do some really odd things for the meladramas we do. (Ie 6 foot tall Killer mutant leeches, headless vampires who chase people all over the stage, and Atomic cave girls from Island Zero. Just to name a few.)

My current project has me stumped. My director wants me to make a girl a green skinned alien. (Thin Orion slave girl from Star Trek Original series) but here is the kicker, she has to look like a cocktail waitress from a las vegas casino, but I can not use green body paint. She can wear it on her face but no makeup else where. She has to change into too many other characters to use body paint.

Ideas I have had so far.
1)buy 2 pair of green tights. Her wear one pair as tights, the other cut up and make "sleeves" I have found tights but they are not footed tights only ankle length.

2) Buy a white nylon/spandex body suit and dye it the color we need. Problem is getting a consitant dye on it, and worried I would goof up a $75 body suit.

3) Dye a nylon body stocking the right color. Problem is that 1 actually dying it correctly, 2- like the regular tights I would still need to make sleeves some how.

The thing is I have 4 weeks to have 4 "space girl" dresses done as well as the cocktail waitress dress made, so making a bodysuit/stocking from stratch is not an option.

Thoughts?

By **JVCA**. 10/06/10, 01:47 am

Could you potentially buy a green sleeveless bodysuit and try to match the fabric for you own sleeves as closely as possible (as the arms and legs are so far apart I'm fairly sure that minor inconsistency would go unnoticed)? If you use a high stretch fabric (75%?), then you can just make an extra long sleeve (probably make it wider at the end) and get her to put the sleeve on inside out. You can then trace & pin around her fingers to make a glove at the end of the sleeve. The fabric should stretch enough for her to move her fingers despite using a shortcut method to make the glove, and then you can sew the glove/sleeve to the main bodysuit through the armhole? (sorry if this doesn't make sense - I just woke up, so my wording might not be fabulous, hahah)

By LadyStitch. 10/06/10, 02:24 am

That is the biggest issues is FINDING a Green body suit that won't break the bank. I could see paying $30, but not the $60-70 that most sites are asking for them. That isn't including the shipping sad

By Cookie Monster. 10/06/10, 02:53 am

$60-$70 Is probably the cheapest you'll find for ready-made.
I brought my spandex (don't ask) from Spandex Man.

By Static. 10/06/10, 02:58 am

In the interests of time and convenience, I would say just bite the bullet and buy a ready-made bodysuit sad

It's pretty enpensive, but on a limited deadline and with a billion other things to do you may not have much of a choice! Dyeing stuff can be an absolute nightmare, it's worth a shot if you can find a cheap white one, but you may end up spending more on a failed experiment than the proper item off the bat.

By neimhaille. 10/06/10, 04:58 am

Nylon pantihose are going to give the best effect in terms of texture and colour. I know for Elphaba they use a sheer green bodysuit- in Wicked. The sheerness allows the natural skin tone to come through in the same way natural skin tone comes through make up.

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Sleeve-Body-Stocking-N8150/dp/B000B7IJ2S/ref=pd_sbs_a_2
Nude or black though.

The other option is to get a sheer bodysuit and sheer pantihose and dye them to match.

What about her hands? They will need to be made up as well, unless gloves can be worked in to the costume?

How close will the audience be? A regular nylon/cotton lycra suit could be made (with gloves built in) but it will be really obvious even on stage for some situations.

By Huntress. 10/06/10, 06:22 am

What about using green fabric paint and painting the nude suit from the site that Neimhaille suggested?? You put the paint in a spray bottle, diluted with a little water and spray onto the suit. (Most effective if you have someone wearing it and standing in the shower at the time. A friend and I have done this and it worked out well.

By LadyStitch. 10/06/10, 07:49 pm

Neimhaile: The producer gave me an extra $100 in case I want to buy a green body suit. Now the trick is to find one. To be honest I don't want to deal with dying anything. If it was an art piece, sure I'd do it but with just tight time constraints.... not so much.
FYI, Her hands are going to be covered with gloves. As much as we want this one scene to be really cool, it's the whole "will only be seen for 5 minutes" thing.

Huntress: I like your idea but I don't have a person who would willingly do the fabric paint trick. Since I only get to see my actors 1 time a week. It isn't feezeable. Great Idea though.

Everyone: Thank you for the wonderful ideas. Trust me they are appreciated. :)

By LadyStitch. 11/06/10, 08:09 pm

Ok, I know I sounds wishy washy but, Now difficult would it be to dye 2 body suits? And what would I have to do dye it?

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