Steampunk & Cosplay Fashion Design & Illustration

More than 50 ideas for learning to design your own Neo-Victorian costumes and accessories

Samantha Crossland

• Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781600584985
• eBook ISBN: 9781633229013
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Fashion Design

Steampunk & Cosplay Fashion Design & Illustration is designed to appeal to both fashion enthusiasts and steampunk cosplay fans alike.

Whether your dream is to become a fashion designer, or you simply want to combine your artistic skills with a love for steampunk fashion and culture, the tips, tricks, tools, and step-by-step projects in this book provide you with everything you need to learn to design and draw an assortment of cosplay outfits. Beginning with a brief introduction to drawing techniques and fashion basics, this valuable resource provides a quick guide to figure proportions, basic anatomy, and a glossary of common fashion terms. Additionally you will learn how to render various textures, including fabric, brass, leather, wood, and more. You'll discover how to render typical steampunk characters, along with their fascinating and outlandish accessories, including brass spectacles, goggles, canes, boots, and more. After working through the step-by-step projects you will find templates at the back of the book to help you get started on your own original fashion designs.

With comprehensive instruction, a plethora of artist tips and tricks, and beautiful artwork to inspire, Steampunk & Cosplay Fashion Design & Illustration is the perfect resource for budding fashion designers and seasoned artists alike.

DEFINING STEAMPUNK

STEAMPUNK IS A POPULAR ARTISTIC MOVEMENT that spans many genres, including fine art, music, performance, fashion, graphic design, and others; however, the inspiration for this steam-driven, industrial utopia filled with Victorian sights, textures, haberdashery, and otherworldly technology was originally born in ink from the masters of science-fiction literature.

Tales of adventure penned by the literary innovators of their time sparked steampunk to life. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) bridged the gap between ancient mythology and the imagination of science, thereby paving the way for the genre’s earliest origins. A few years later, the innovative literary techniques in Edgar Allan Poe’s horror stories emerged. Then Jules Verne began blending the styles of Poe and Shelley into his cornerstone works, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1869). In 1889, Mark Twain pioneered another foundational notion of steampunk with the concept of time travel in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

H. G. Wells is often linked to steampunk, most notably for coining the term “time machine” in his work The Time Machine (1885), and he continued to perfect the science-fiction genre with War of the Worlds (1898). H. P. Lovecraft, a contemporary of the scientific minds associated with steampunk, designed a sophisticated blend of alternate dimensions and apocalyptic settings in a fictional universe known as “Cthulhu Mythos,” which he created in 1925. Today many of these works are taught in high school and college literature courses. In addition to the contributions of these literary figures, the innovations, theories, and ideas of such brilliant minds as Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and others also influenced the evolution of steampunk. And many of their ideas thought...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Defining Steampunk
• Illustration Projects
• Croquis Templates
• About the Designer
• Copyright