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Faust: Spirit of Fire

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Done for my Costume Design class, Spring 2007-2008
Watercolors and ink

For our final, we were able to pick a script to analyze and design for - I choose to do Goethe's Faust, because I'm crazy like that. And, I originally choose to do it in a steampunk style, but I didn't want to do crazy robotic arms and whatnot, so it wound up being stylized Victorian/fantasy moreso than anything.

:pointr: In the beginning of the play, Faust is trying to summon and tame a spirit. What he winds up summoning terrifies him to no end, and it is only tagged as "spirit" in the text, and later is described as a "spirit of fire" that is "what wove the fabric with which God created life".

Taking those two metaphors into it, I believe that the spirit would be best portrayed not as a ball of light or something like that, but as a woman of flames. Her hair wraps up like flames, her cloak is in varied shades of dyed sheers that is tattered like flames.

She is wearing a corset to emphasize the bust and the waist, and a bustle type swag on the hips - this was in mimic of ancient fetishes of the creator goddess, with a larger bust and very large hips.

In order to make her even more dramatic on stage, she is on stilts that raise her up another foot and a half, so she just towers over Faust. Also, her bright colors are in direct contrast with Faust's more muted pallet, so she'd stand out even more.

Oddly enough, it was the best play I have read or seen in my 3+ years in a Theatre program, probably because it's so wholly unpractical to put on - it was written to be read, not performed, I'm certain.

Faust Designs:
- Faust (sketch)
- Spirit of Fire
- Mephisto
- Demon Mephisto
- Mephisto Traveling
- Margaret
- Evil Spirit in the Church

Feel free to use the design on your own OC designs if you want - just shoot me a link when it's done, and I'd appreciate a credit in the description, too...

Design (c) Samantha Lemieux 2008
Image size
1000x1375px 841.63 KB
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Soulslayer317's avatar

You did really well for the colouring