General D. Costume

For my first iteration of the character, I had no idea how in depth I was going to get in the future. I found everything I could, the coat I already owned as well as many of the metals. Like the 1985 and Broadway designs for the character, I was focusing on the military aspect and giving him an undead makeup design afterward.

The skull piece on the front of the hat was sculpted out of Thermomorph, a moldable thermoplastic. I sculpted it through multiple passes, and then painted it all to bring it together. It also got some weathering and shading.

I found a great spiderweb fabric that made covering his coat in webs much easier (on Broadway, he had to be sprayed over with glue webs every night) and began to put things together.

Next up was his eye patch. While the on-stage designs have him a simple black eye patch or even just black makeup around one eye, I wanted to tie it into the design more. To oppose Ann's candy-heart, I made a pleather broekn heart (admittedly slightly inspired by the Knave of Hearts from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland - I'm sorry you won't be able to unsee it now). The crack down the middle is backed with a stretched black fabric, so while it isn't easy to see through it does provide some light. Though, when applying it, it is easier to simply keep my eye closed since there isn't a lot of room.

And now for the makeup. This was my first time doing this sort of look, I had only just begun taking a stage makeup class in college and had previously only done very subtle makeup. You can definitely tell, but I'm glad I went for it because I've imporoved greatly just by practising on this character alone.

And that was it for the first design! I did a couple other makeup tests, one matching the Broadway edition with a blacked-out eye instead of a patch, but the costume overall didn't change much, until-

This was when the footage of the musicl was unearthed, and it was discovered that the rat design mentioned by the playwright to have never made it onstage, actually DID make it onstage! The costume, admittedly, was a little clunky and difficult to read from afar, with the rat additions also making him more goofy than scary when seen up close. This is when I really delved into re-designing the character, I wanted to find a way to incorporate the rat aspect in a way that read well, while still making him look scary.

I decided to add ears, and based the shapes off of rat characters from Don Bluth movies. Their ears are thinner and sharper, and pressed back to give them an aggressive feel. I also of course wanted to cut some scars and rips into them.

If you can't tell, this is when the true scrappy-ness of this project starts. The ears are made of fabric I had on hand and are held up with cardboard, the tail is also made of scraps and even stuffed with them. I clearly wasn't planning on this costume lasting so long!

The final makeup look for this design. I added a nose and whisker spots to my makeup so he looked more animal-like, and decided to forgo the eye patch.

I think it's safe to say the rat gask mask is mine- and most people's- favorite part of the costume. I looked at the extended filters of WWI gas masks and the way they extened and morphed the shape of someone's head, and decided I could use it to my advantage.

This is a simplified look at the process, since I've already typed it out in greater detail over on Instructables.

From a design standpoint, I wanted to incorporate his character elements into the mask itself. First off is the blind eye. In the show, he had lost an eye when trading it for an all-seeing eye ring, a sacrifice he made for power. Since the eye itself appears in the sky, I thought it would be fitting to incorporate the history this trade more directly via a large lightning burn scar. The appearance conveys that his eye was "taken" by being struck by lighting, leaving a massive scar and his eye blinded. I took a stylistic apporach to it, with sharp stright points and perfect curves, and filled it in with glue for texture. Since he's undead, I looked at photos of rat skulls and painted over the fabric of the mask to give an idea of bone showing through.

At this point, I didn't yet have anything to hide my head. But he would get more upgrades.

This makeup look came directly after I had finished the gas mask, and was inspired by it. I created the blind eye patch to match the mask, and began expirimenting with liquid latex and ripped-up paper to create a 3-dimensional scar. I decided to make the colors more muted, only making my skin tone a little duller and more grey to match the mask itself. This is also when I begin stippling in green and yellow "moss" patches to the edges of my hairline. But many of the deisgn factors remain the same, such as the black nose and lips and general aging.

Even as my makeup skills for the rest of the face improve, I believe this is the best version of the scar itself I have ever done.

You may also notice some other small changes, like switching to a black shirt underneath the coat and adding even more pins to the lapels.

Between these two versions, he got many upgrades. First off, I added claws and toe pads to the gloves I had been using for him. The claws are fleece, and were sewn together in two parts before being stuffed and hand-stitched to the ends of the fingers. The toe pads are circles of felt, also stuffed with tiny bits of polyfill. I like the way these make my hands look even less human, though they do make picking things up extrordinarily difficult.

I finally bought a pair of tan dress pants specifically for the costume and sewed some little scraps of the leftove spiderweb fabric to them. I also picked up some green moss-like lace, painted ot for a bit more color variation, and began sewing it in little patches over the clothes and accessories. Since I was planning out my trip to a convention, I purchased a military surplus metal canteen as my water bottle and gave it an army green strap with a buckle. The pockets of the coat are only so big after all, and with the coat, boots, balaclava, and mask on it shouldn't surprise you I was sweating buckets constantly.

WasabiCon

Rat King's Bazzar of the Bizzare

An immersive art experience created by Mike Bennett, which also hosted events and craft faires (like the one I went to).

I have also worn the costume to a couple of smaller cosplay meetups and events, though I haven't gotten good photos from all of them.

After adding the balaclava and the last few additions, I definitely love how this turned out and just how much fun it is to wear in public. I often get comments about how the combination of the mask and my movements makes me look inhuman and uncanny, especially given the placement of the mask's eyes. Along with, naturally, people often wondering how I can see.

Onstage I don't think I'd have an actor wearing it at all times. I enjoy the emmount of expression you can get out of it, but it is definitely difficult to act, talk, and hear in, and I'd like to keep the character grounded. However, it would definitely make an iconic entrance and could be used sparingly throughout the show when being intimidating is more important than nuanced acting.

Despite my best efforts to avoid anything of the type, I was informed that the skull-and-crossbones I had used was reminicent of the Nazi "death's head" icon. And though I believe my intentions and reasoning are pretty clear (he's death- a skull and crossbones makes sense) I decided to switch it out before I wore him again. Especially since the military themeing has already gotten some questions. I sculpted a new Thermomorph piece for the front of the hat, now incorporating the eye theme used elsewhere.

The blind eye patch matches the mask better, however the broken heart patch I had used originally felt a lot more polished and visually interesting. I did end up making the scar a bit lighter, in order to not blend in with the patch itself.

This time the skin color was slightly darkened and greyed out again, but still remains realistic. I shaded with browns and purples to hopefully make him look more weathered and aged, and really wanted to accentuate the wrinkles and creases like I would for onstage. I carried the withered look farther down into the neck this time, and of course there's plenty of moss. To help with the rat look I also purchased some fake buck teeth, which I'm not wearing above but am wearing in the photos below.

Despite not liking the texture and shading on the scar as much as my first attempt, overall this is my favorite look that I've done by far. In the future, I would make the skin tone even more corpse-like.

Onstage, this makeup would be (if possible) under the mask.

The Raggedy Ann Rally is an event that happens every year in Arcolla, IL (birthplace of Johnny Gruelle, the creator of the character). In June 2023, the rest of the Raggedy Ann Revival Effort organizers and I planned to go together, and picked out a day we'd all get together in our costumes from the show!

This General D. is pretty much the same as earlier, they were only a couple months apart. I was a little rushed doing the makeup since we were preparing to go out and take pictures as a group, so it's not quite as clean as before, but I got the skin tone the best it has ever been and I did have some help with the details. Luckily I hadn't pulled the latex off of the patch from the last time, so I only needed to do a base coat before applying the already-made prosthetic. I did, also, forget my rat teeth in the hotel. That's ok though.

Mostly I just wanted to share what a fun time we had meeting up and taking pictures as the characters!