Thursday 28 October 2021

Art Trek: Creepy Cosplay

 Disaster has struck!

 Okay, so that may be a bit overdramatic... 

 I'd just finished sewing a couple of bits of gold ribbon around the cuffs of a cheapo red long-sleeved T-shirt, went to put it on so I could pin on the narrower gold ribbon for the shoulder yoke and...


... couldn't get my hands through the sleeve cuffs anymore!!!


 "What is that silly witch going on about?", I hear you ask.  Why, it's (nearing*) the end of a month so that means it's time for some Star Trek fan art.  My Star Trek fan art!  As my piece, "These are a few of my favourite things!" got the most votes in the previous challenge, I got to set the theme for this one - and here it is:

The theme for this challenge is Creepy Cosplay!

For this costume party, I'd like to see you dress yourself (or a willing partner/friend/animal companion) or a mannequin/doll/action figure as something spooky and Star Trek related, whether obvious or obscure.  It doesn't have to be solely Star Trek, but the Star Trek element must be on show.  You can use existing assets, such as a commercial or pre-made uniform (for example), but you must create something new and significant for your piece too - such as part of your costume, make-up, a prop or scenery.

However, if fabric and foam rubber aren't your forte, or constructing with cardboard leaves you cold and you can't even bring yourself to give it a try, by all means go with something that you're more comfortable with, such as a drawing, CG model or photo-manips.  But... if you go down the 2D route, your drawing/CG model/photo-manip must be of a recognisable Star Trek character in costume as someone/thing else, and you cannot use any existing assets (except for the photo that you may be manipulating, of course).

 So, here is my completely fictitious (even within the Star Trek universe) and very basic uniform top based on an old long-sleeved t-shirt that was languishing in a drawer.  To keep it as simple as possible I just sewed on gold ribbon for the shoulder yoke and cuffs (although, sewing non-stretchy ribbon on to a stretchy fabric was a bit of a bugger as the second photo up there attests to).  I got MirrorMe to model it but that meant flipping the photo so that the Starfleet badge came out the right way around.


 Here are some cardboard props I hastily threw together: some gravestones and one & a half "bluegill" parasites for the The Next Generation episode "Conspiracy".  You'll see why only half of one was needed in a mo.



 Rather amazingly, the weather played ball (it's been a gorgeous day here - blue skies and sunshine, and really quite warm despite a strong wind) so I was able to go out into the garden with my props, Camera & Tripod and set up the Hallowe'en scene.  Here is one of the photos from the many, many that I took (this one's from the first batch - before I realised it would probably look better from a higher angle):


 As you're probably still saying "But, really, what is the silly witch going on about?", this idea stemmed from one I had some time back involving a plush Xenomorph chestburster (that an ex-boyfriend, The Wiggler, gave me a long time ago) bursting out of a Trill (a humanoid alien with a trail of spots running down its sides from head to toes) in a horrible take on the Trill symbionts (a massive slug-like being that lives inside the humanoid Trill).  The chestburster toy lays across the top of the comfy chair in my home-office, so it's always on show meaning that idea is often at the forefront of my mind. 
 I originally planned to do that idea set in a Trill graveyard, so I made some gravestones for deceased Trill.  I chose the hosts of the Cyl symbiont (Cyl is from the Trek literary universe), including Neema Cyl - Audrid Dax's daughter (Audrid was one of the previous hosts before Jadzia and Ezri from Deep Space Nine) - but then remembered Cyl's and Dax's connection to the "Conspiracy" parasites (from "Sins of the Mother" in the Lives of Dax anthology - one of my very favourite Trek books) and thought it would be much better to use them rather than the chestburster (and I didn't want to rip my top open!).  So, I changed some of the names on the gravestones to other Trill characters involved in the Litverse's return of the parasites storyline (from the DS9 post-season 7 novels, or "relaunch"): Audrid (Dax's fourth host), Jayvin Vod (Audrid's husband and Neema's father), Taulin (Cyl's host in the mid-late 24th century, and a Watcher for the parasites), and Verjyl (a host for the Gard symbiont who identified and captured the murderer Joran Dax, and became the first Gard Watcher). 
 In the scene, I 'play' a future host of Cyl having succumbed to the parasites.
 

* I couldn't post this at the end of the month (i.e. Hallowe'en) because that's when the Garden Photos Event kicks off with Terrifying Triffidery!  So, I had to quickly slap this together and pop it up now which is why the image above may not be my final piece - I'll be continuing to work on it up until Saturday night, I should think.

EDIT 10:20 30 10 2021 - This is my final piece: The Takers of Gist (named after the parasite's rather ostentatious name/title for itself in "Sins of the Mother").

Same photo, but with slightly different light, colour, contrast, vignette and title.


Previously on Art Trek (née It's a Faaaake! Not The Art Of Star Trek):
 
July 2021 - Andorian Piggyback
April 2021 - Ship Girl; May 2021 - TROI; June 2021 - Risa Revisited, all collected in Spinning Around
August 2020 - Hellrunner Loves Spineback (Not Trek)
July 2020 - New Look Next Gen
June 2020 - Aefvadh
May 2020 - Princessium and the Po
April 2020 - Into the Arboretum
March 2020 - Brighter Future
August & September 2019 - here are the links to their existence on the TrekBBS: And it was *this* big! & Under the Sea... (August 2019), and Spytember (September 2019)
July 2019 - Blue Food (and the warm up: Baby Plastic Sperm Whales...)
June 2019 - Boldly Go in Infinite Diversity
May 2019 - (the leaked final scene) X Marks The Spot, and the main attraction: Treasure Map
April 2019 - Oops-A-Daisy!
March 2019 - Disco78
January 2019 - Caught Red Handed
October 2018 - Anomalous T-Shirt
September 2018 - Two Soups
August 2018 - Wild Things (and its prequel: Seeing Double)
July 2018 - Revenge of the Baby-Sat
June 2018 - Making Money
March 2018 - Murder On The Dancefloor
February 2018 - Narwhal in a Spacesuit
December 2017 - Unfinished Business
November 2017 - Let's See Your OC!
October 2017 - Celebrate Good Times, Come On!
July 2017 - Walk Like An Egyptian
June 2017 - Foreign Relations
May 2017 - Driven to Distraction
February 2017 - Of Prophet's Tears and Verteron Nodes (plus the warm up: The Celestial Temple Cries Golden Tears)
December 2016 - "Did the plan fail, Edward?"
November 2016 - Winter Solstice
October 2016 - Twisted October: Star Trek Art Challenge

14 comments:

  1. I have absolutely no idea what any of this is actually about, but I see you've shaved your head! And that sly bit of waistline flesh is a bit of a tease... Jx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shaved my head? Certainly not! It's just very grey/colourless now. And, it is a bit short around the back & sides, I suppose...

      Ah, yes, the 'exposure'. Those jeans are quite low-riding (I don't wear them any more - I think they were my ex's as I certainly don't recall buying them), and that top kept hoiking up every time I leaned back, so it was always a bit of a bugger trying to get everything in place before Camera's 10 second timer went off. Unfortunately, that was the best photo - skin and all!

      Delete
  2. I love it! Very nice! Did you get my email? I sent my pics for the Terrifying Triffidery on Monday (I think.) Maybe it went in your junk folder since it was a first time email with large attachments (that sounds naughty. Hahaha) I still need to send pics for the Garden Party.

    You remind me that I really need to do something with my fabric hoard besides just admire it. I get trapped in the inertia of possibility, often. It my most common non-physical location.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Triffidery safely received, thank you!

      It's a wonder we haven't bumped into each other, as I'm often there myselves.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. As far as I'm aware, the Star Trek Trills don't peck their reflection in a mirror hung with an irritating little bell. But who knows what they get up to when the camera's not on them...?

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  4. Velcro. Okay, so maybe it wouldn't have looked so good, but it would have saved some sewing, at least for the cuffs.
    The lettering is excellent though!!
    Meanwhile, have you really shaved your head???!!! It's something I nearly did last year, and might still do one day.
    Sx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't really inspect those photos for my hair before posting them - but it does look like I've shaved most of it off. It looks like you can see my scalp! Or that I've got mange... And there's some sort of badger-stripe running parallel to the Trill spots, too.
      Hmmm... I might have to borrow one of Pam Demic's wigs.

      Anyway. Moving on... Ooh, Velcro! But how would I have attached it if not by sewing? Glue? Drat! Why didn't I use glue?!
      Thank you for the lettering praise (you obviously didn't look too closely, thank gods).

      Delete
  5. Well, being stuck in a sleeve sounds pretty "creepy" to me! Have you tried yelling "Beam me OUT, Scotty"?

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    Replies
    1. Or "Seam me out, Scotty!"?

      Sorry. Sorry.

      Delete
    2. I always thought it's "Scotch me up, Beamy !"

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    3. You couldn't be closer to the truth, Mago. Scotty loved a good drink or twelve, and often suffered from bouts of 'shore leave'...

      Delete
  6. Congratulations on taking a tawdry rag from H&M and turning it into something spectacular. I was coaxed inside Primark a few years ago, so I understand the trauma you've been through, however I didn't shave all my hair off I just had a Dettol bath.

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Tickle my fancy, why don't you?