Spidey Fights Shirtless and Costume Design Update

Okay, I’m going to start by throwing things off and doing things in a different order than I put them in the title. And for me to even point that out suggests that I’m neurotic–in that I would even think about that–but not very good at being neurotic–in that I think about that but proceed with doing things out of order. But anyway…

Costume update.

To review, I have shifted focus from my totally DIY costume experiment back to finalizing my Photoshop template designs for professional printing. I have started with the “traditional” look.

Originally, I had done a design starting with a “male muscle base” pattern I got from 4 Neo Designs. I came up with a pretty satisfactory design on that “blank slate,” but when it came down to it, I got kind of paranoid about one aspect of it, that being the web pattern. I mean, you’re starting with a flat “puzzle” of pieces that will ultimately be sewn together, and being sure that the web lines line up from front to back takes some measuring, guesswork, and hoping for the best.

But getting this pattern printed on fabric isn’t exactly free, so  I ultimately decided that–for the traditional costume–I would like to at least base the webbing patterns on a tried and true foundation, and design from there. So I started with an existing “tradtional” Spider-Man costume template from GunHead Design:

Not bad. This is the cool look for costumes nowadays, with the patterned overlay, and the shading/highlighting to suggest muscles, etc. But I want to go for a cleaner, more basic look. So I did some tweaking, keeping what I liked and adjusting the colors…

I kept the web pattern layout to soothe my line-matching fears, but did a bolder/higher contrast webbing version on a clean, un-shaded, more muted color palette. I did a slightly “calmer” version of the chest spider based on Gun Head’s version. Redrew the seam allowances on the blue areas. Redrew the rear spider emblem based on Gun Head’s design (kudos for doing a Spider-Man costume with the traditional comic style back symbol!).

I debated about adding a pattern overlay, but ended up doing so. I can see why the movie costumes incorporate such a thing. It adds a nice, textured feel:

I tried to keep mine small and subtle. My hope is that it will give that nice effect from a distance, but you won’t know it’s there without moving in close.

This pattern was one of a package of several free Photoshop patterns (.pat files) here: http://www.shapes4free.com/vector-photoshop-patterns/hexagon-photoshop-patterns/

Of course, I also think it’s possible that the very existence of Photoshop is to blame for these textures/patterns showing up on movie costumes. Once you get in there and start messing around in Photoshop, it’s just so easy and fun to play with all the settings. For example, to give the illusion of “raised” webbing like in the movies, I just select my webbing layer and click a few buttons:

I don’t even like the raised webbing look, but at the same time, I’m like “Cool! Raised webbing!” I am pretty sure that the only way the first Raimi movie Spider-Man ended up with raised webs is from the costume designers playing around in Photoshop.

I am not going to do raised webs for this version.

So, up next, the part that I am really looking forward to: I am going to start from this design/template and do some major modifications to achieve the Ditko-style costume with separate mask, gloves, boots, shirt, and pants.

This means I will be getting a bit more adventurous with the webbing pattern, as well as the front and rear spider symbols, the colors, the eyes, and even the red/blue area layout.

And I will be getting very adventurous with the template in terms of the ultimate sewing pattern. That should be interesting.

And now, as promised, Spider-Man fights shirtless.

So, the context: he was surprising a room full of gun-toting baddies led by the Kingpin (the big bald guy in the pics, for those who don’t know). He wanted to start with a distraction, so employed a tactic he used a time or two back in the day, i.e. making a decoy, in this case using his webbing dressed in his costume shirt.

Yes, just the shirt. It makes just as much sense as it sounds. But, y’know, it was partly dark and stuff, and the decoy was in motion as it swung down on webbing…

Anyway, moving on. The dubiousness of the tactic is immaterial, as it was worth it, resulting as it did in great out of context pics like this:

If you didn’t know better, you would think someone had gone in and digitally edited this for fun.

And the best part is how–a page or two later–he takes the time to put his shirt back on while the Kingpin is taking swings at him.

Love these old stories. You just don’t see stuff like that much anymore.

Up Soon: The Beginnings of Attempt #2 of the Ditko costume, and soon-to-come bodysuit sewing adventures.