I based my design concept on the begining of Pucks last monolgue:
"If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended; That you have but slumbered here
Whilst these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream."
I really concentrated on the concept of "shadows", and it made me think of shadows of life, which then reminded me of shades. In Greek mythology shades were "souls" of those who had passed to the underworld. With these concepts in mind, I thought about how I could make these charcters seem shadow like, things that you see in the corner of your eye but can never fully focus on. I looked at other costume designs and based my costumes off of Alexey Makarov's s graphic design style, especially his drawings for Midsummer Nights Dream: (http://www.behance.net/gallery/Midsummer-nights-dream-2011-masquerade-party/1722155). I was also inspired by the song Seven Devils by Florence and the Machines (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBcXe2B97TQ). I decided the fairies would not have hands or feet like we do, they would be wisps of sorts. I wanted their costumes to also be very wispy, not giving them difinate "humanoid" shapes. I then started to think about colors and searched for shades of eirie green and blue and decided Titania and her fairies would be primarily green while Oberon and his would be primarily blue.
I started to make rough sketches for each character using pen and blue and green highlighters.
I went through several different concepts for Oberon before I finally found what I wanted.
One of the concepts I was thinking about for Oberon I decided to use for Puck.
Mustardseed was another character I could not decide on and went through several concepts.
I then took my rough sketches and created my final sketches before I moved on to my costume renderings. I decided that the hands and feet coverings would not be in color, but a part of their "skin". I wanted to incorporate makeup with my costume design and decided that their skin would be made grey with makeup. I chose grey to show even more that they are not "alive", but shades, or shadows, of life. I also gave each character a cloak that they would wear when they entered and exited the stage.
I then went through and created a costume list for each character.
I then went to a fabric store and got fabric swatches and created my costume renderings for each character. I used gouche and colored for the final renderings.
The last thing I looked at was the makeup for the faces. I wanted the base to be the same grey color as the skin with only highlights and lowlights. I wanted the highlights to be green and the low lights to be blue. That would add to the unreal feel of the characters overall, especially if lighting was incorperated to enhance the colors. I wanted Peaseblossom and Moth to have rounder faces and Titania, Mustardseed, Cobweb, Oberon, and Puck to have very shallow faces.
