Making a Roman Soldier Costume

cThis is not really an art- or creativity-related thing but I'd like to share on my blog just because I am so proud that Chen Chen and I did something amazing during this holiday...

Chen Chen and I are two of the young people who took part in playing the skit for the family meeting on Easter Monday in my church. The skit is telling the story of Jesus's resurrection, and the roles we are taking are the two Roman guards standing outside Jesus' tomb after His death and flee after finding out the loss of Jesus' body.
We spent more than 7 hours each making our costumes at the church on the Good Friday. It was a long process and it  is very fun and even fascinating, when the recycling boxes are turning into soldier uniform, and then I can't stop myself working on it.
Almost everything is according to an instruction on a web link, so I can't say there is creative activity. After all, it really helps me learn stuff like crafts and working with my stupid hands.

(Thanks to the girls who took all the pictures:).)

 Chen Chen and I in costumes ;) 

(Two Asian Warriors in Roman Soldier Costume!)

1. Materials and tools

- Lots of cardboard boxes (I don't know how many boxes we used because Shirley or Chen Chen'd got the board in advance, but we used them for a lot of large areas)
- Cutting materials (i.e. knives, scissors, and cutting boards...)
- Hot Glue/Glue gun (for all the joints on the cardboard), and some tape (for the belt part)
- Silver paints
- Brooms (for the crests on the top of the helmets)
- Belt (for the skirt)
- Plastic swords
- Red shirts
- Sandals


2. Helmets
I'm not teaching you how to make the costume, so I won't explain every single step in details. I have some pictures to show you how I made them.

The broom is the hardest part for me to put onto the helmet stably. I kinda screwed up my design but eventually I figure it out with the help from Shirley.

 2. Body Armour
This is the biggest part of the costume, made of almost the entire a box, front, back and two sides.
Also we made an awesome shield for the chest.

3. Soldier's Skirt

It's a lot of work of of cutting and pasting. I'm glad Lucy helped us:). 

Everything should be connect with hot glue and "anything else is a waste of time", however, we tape the strips to the belt. That's why one of them fell off right before the performance, which really took me aback.

Almost done~ Let's relax and have a dance. 

Picture Time!

4. Texture
Using hot glue, convenient and dried very quickly.
Random patterns...

4. Paint it all over with silver paint!

It might be the most exciting part, though I didn't make it myself, because it is turning cardboard into metal.

And they are SILVER and SHINY!

The texture is still clearly seen after being painted. I don't have a word from my vocabulary to describe this coolest thing I've done.

(reference: Instructable-Halloween Custume-Roman-esque soldier uniform - from cardboard! by larenmoer)

More looks  our lovely costumes!

"We look so buff!" (saying in an ironic way)

Pictures from the play :)

Stand Guard...

"My God is not dead

 He's surely alive

He's living on the inside

Roaring like a lion"

Friday:　Children's Night :D

We sing

and we do puppet show

We make beautiful hats from recycling materials.

We do face-painting on each other=)

We knit sleeping mat for the homeless in Haiti.

It is how cool we CITYouth are:).

I'm so proud that we've all got talents and we always work together towards one goal, JESUS!

I'm one of the talents, and I do art.

Happy Spring

Are you tired of looking at the black & white sketches in my blog recently?

Yeah, sketching is less complicated than painting. I don't mean the process of painting is troubling though, painting is a beautiful thing. Just the things I have to do BEFORE and AFTER painting bother me so much- setting up paints & palettes and cleaning up brushes & table- how lazy I am.

Ha, I have something nice for the season this time:). 

The worst thing about the country I live in is that the winter is freaking cold. When I waked up on the morning of APRIL 4th, I saw the snow lying peacefully outside my window...  and then I swore inside my head. 

"Why is the winter here endless?"

Spring is finally here. Yeah! My t-shirts all take a deep breath from the closet.

Does this painting recall you a sweet memory of spring outing? Or does it remind you to go out and have a picnic with your friends on a sunshiny day? 

I did it just for fun, and I used texture again because it's fun!

Click on the picture and you will see more texture:).

The "abnormal things" I used for the painting are:

1. Flour

2. A "weapon" and a holder (Mixing flour and paints)

And after mixing flour and paint in the holder, I used the knife to put the mixture on the canvas. They are very sticky to the surface. 

(Accidentally, I used brown paint to mix with flour... I told myself, "don't gross out. It looks fine, just like chocolate", but seriously, someone might think I was stirring poo.... )

Cover the whole surface with the "chocolate(or ...) ", just wait for it to dry. Once it's dry, it never falls off and it smells... so good... make me want to eat the canvas like a bagel.

Then I paint my image on it. When doing painting on textures, the problem occurs when painting even colors, for example, light colors on dark background and dark colors on light background, that I have to use my brush with paint to dig into the holes in the flour. but it looks great when you want different colors appear at the same time, isolating from on another.

FUN FUN FUN

Have you noticed that my profile picture is changed? LOL.... that's a self-portrait. I'm not a skilled photographer to take a photo of it in a perfect perspective, so I will post it on my blog in later days.

I Love Portraits

These are some sketches of my friends:).

I love doing portraits so much. Doing portraits for friends is like the best gift ever for them.

I did the following two sketches during March Break.

WLX is my best friend in China. On a weekend in March, I sent messages to him and DZW on QQ to ask them send some recent pictures to me and I would do portraits of them. To tell the truth, the reason why I did this was I really missed them and wanted to see some of their latest pictures (the last time I saw them was four months ago and only for like an hour), and it was the best excuse to get their pictures:D.

This is DZW. She had a nick name from me called Banala, because she loves eating bananas. Yeah, she is a COOL person, a great pin-pang player, and a smart "nerd".

Self Portrait, June and July 2010, China

I did this last summer during the 2 months I stayed for in China. I sketched from a photograph taken in a photo studio when I was 9. I was supposed to dress like a floral fairy:). It was cute. And it was the first portrait I started. HAHAHA.

A birthday gift for Irina, Oct 2010.

That was a photograph we took when we were at a pool party at Clare's house. How lovely we are!

This one have been posted in February. A goodbye gift to Hanna. 

I haven't heard from her for a month. Hope she is doing well:).

Doing some accurate and realistic drawing can make up for my talentlessness in anime drawing I hope:).

I hope I can have chance to listen to some professional portrait classes. 

A sketch of someone you might know....

I feel so good to be here again! 

I've been busy on stuff like PHYSICS TEST MATH STUDY NOTES%*&^)(@$% in the past 2 weeks... 

Anyhow, I still do art every Thursday:D. Art is never abandoned.

I did a sketch of this guy last month. 

You know who he is, if you are an Asian or Chinese....

Yes, he is Leehom Wang.

I would totally go crazy by simply listening to his speaking 4 years ago. I was a big fan back then and since I was 11, however, as we both grow older and older, I still listen to his songs that recall me memories and look forward to his new music, and he never really disappoint me.

Just saying, I do not become a fan of any celebrity now. I like him not just because he's good-looking or talented. I attach importance of him because he has been an implacable role in my life whose music I grows up with. 

I feel like I can smell the memory when I listen to any of his song, as if each song is telling me a story of my junior life and recalling me someone from there...