It’s been several years since I actually dressed up for Halloween and I’ve decided that I’m going to go for it this year. I’ve picked Rorschach from Watchmen as a character I like whose costume isn’t difficult but still presents a challenge.
I’ve got a trench coat and an acceptable pin striped suit. I’ve just bought a white scarf on eBay and will soon be picking up a hat. The gloves can be picked up cheap at some big box store which leave the mask as my primary concern.
My current plan is to wear several layers of white pantyhose over my head and to draw the black pattern onto the top most layer with a marker. I’m not 100% sure how this will work and am seeking advice/alternatives.
Questions:
How many layers of white pantyhose would I have to wear to completely or almost completely hide my face? I will be wearing a hat so my face should be slightly shadowed most of the time.
How well will a black marker produce sharp edged shapes on stretched pantyhose? Is there some other method I should consider?
Is there some entirely different method of making the mask that I should look into?
Besides the mask (and practicing my monotone), is there anything else I’m forgetting?
Any thoughts or advice you could offer would be much appreciated.
Rorschach’s shoes appear to be fairly unremarkable brown loafers. I should be able to scrape something up.
That’ll be a little harder.
Looking online, that seems like a very involved process and one ill suited to being done in a college dorm room. Plus, it sounds like batiking a pair of pantyhose would be incredible difficult given the elasticity. Still, a cool idea.
Can you get a sturdy dummy head? Stretch your hose over it, take a block of wax and trace out your borders. You should be able to get enough wax into the fabric to keep the edges from bleeding.
I went to a party one year not as Rorschach the character, but as a Rorschach inkblot test.
Slung a blank white square of corrugated plastic signboard over my back and wore a black, long-sleeved turtleneck.
Whenever anyone asked “What are you?” I would contort my arms into some weird shape, and pose, silhouetted against the white card, and ask, “What do you think I am?”
Full disclosure: I stole the idea from a post here on the SDMB, iirc.
Rorschach was shorter than 5’6" and wore elevator shoes. Bragging rights for attention to detail demands you wear a pair.
Practice saying “Hurm.”
A working grappling gun would be way cool, but if you just need something that just sorta / kinda looks like one, I’d suggest some combination of a broken hand-held hairdryer, with some sort of feeding rope attached to some sort of grappling hook. Here’s a thought: it’s not hard to find “Captain Hook hands” in kids’ costume packs at dollar stores around this time of year. I suggest epoxying three or four at the handles and attaching it to the front of the hairdryer.
I got nothing on the mask. I’d have thought someone would have invented pressure sensitive fabric with a viscous membrane of liquid sandwiched between two layers by now, though. My future sucks! If you know anyone who airbrushes, you might want to see what airbrushing some pantyhose looks like.
Don’t forget a splatter of blood on a “Have A Nice Day” button.
I’d think maybe a white baklava of some sort might work better, certainly you’d be able to mark on it better. Either that, or white tights, not pantyhose. Tights are thicker, and you’re more likely to have better luck marking on them. See if you can get fabric paint or a fabric marker, perhaps?
But wouldn’t it be too sticky to put on your face?
A balaclava appears to still have eyeholes. I don’t know this Rorschach character, but going by the Wiki page he hasn’t got eyeholes. Hence the pantyhose, I presume.
Bwa ha haaaa! I can’t believe I didn’t catch that! :o
What about a combination of black pantyhose under a balaclava perhaps? Then paint on the balaclava also? This would be less layers, less hot/itchy, and more visibility/breathability.
The problems I found were these:
The black rings around the eyes. I’d have to white them out or black over the lenses and that could be a problem.
Rorschach’s mask extends a little down the neck.
I couldn’t be sure if the masks black parts might show through the marker I use.
Bingo. Rorschach’s mask shows no facial features.
With regard to tights, how would my visibility be? I do need to be able to see out.
You’d have to check the tights, some look more opaque when seen from afar, then they are when put up close to the eyes. I wouldn’t go for several layers of pantyhose either, it’d be hot, itchy, and your ability to see would be greatly affected. Adding, the balaclava would go down the neck also.
I’m assuming a balaclava is akin to a thin ski mask. My concern is how the layering would look. I don’t want visible opening is the uppermost layer if I can avoid it.
