Necromancer Help...

[Tralan]

Okay, so I've finally decided on a costume (yay me!) I wanted to go wizard, but I was tired of regular ol' wizards. So, I decided to be a Necromancer (a wizard who raises and commands the undead).

I've got my tree branch staff (I am later going to polish it up and make it a nice walking stick for my father) which I will be adorning with all sorts of weird little trinkets and bones.

I will be getting a cloak (a bit pricey, but it looks nice), as well as the "creepy cloth" holey cheesecloth to give my cloak the worn and tattered look.

Instead of a spellbook, I found an awesome skull at Walgreens of all places. It looks like a real skull. I'm going to paint mystic runes in "blood" that will serve as my spellbook.

Make-up has been decided upon.

I'm having problems with my shirt, pants, gloves and shoe work. The only black "shoes" I have are steel toed, calf high leather snow boots. Those will be intense to walk around in (as opposed to in-doors... :googly:). I suppose they will work. I was thinking of getting just a long sleeved black shirt, and probably just some black pants... but just plain ol' black won't be enough to complete it. I was tossing around the idea of tying "bones" around my wrists in macabre gauntlets with some twine. I might make some ghoulish shin guards the same way. I kinda also need a wig. I'm sorry, but a necromancer with a receding hairline and bald(ING!!!) spot on his head doesn't shout "Commander of the undead" to me. Possibly just a simple long black wig with trinkets and bones and little skulls woven in? And about gloves? I don't want cheesy skeleton golves or clothing.

Any suggestions? The look I am going for here is "one who spends more time with the dead than the living." The creep factor needs to be somewhat high. I want the comedic factor very very very low. My "character" is on the verge of undeath himself. He's slowly crossing that threshhold. My makeup is going to give me a deathly palor and the skin will be cracked, some places bleeding or scabbed over as the dark I've been weilding take it's toll on my body.

[Terrormaster]

Necromancers rox da sox. You could save money on the wig and just shave off the rest of your hair (its what I do)... Lots of bald necromancers :D Oh and grow in a soul patch or goatee.

[Tralan]

I like the way you think, good sir. I'm all for the saving of da monies. And, because my head is sickly grey already, I won't have to paint it.

[Bone Dancer]

You can make your own creepy cloth with Rit dye and cheese cloth alot cheaper then buying the creepy cloth. Facial tatoos might work also. Do an image search on google an see what comes up that may help. Also check out rpg games ( AD&D) for character images. Instead of buying a cloak I would do a layered look thing with burlap and cheese cloth over a cotton over lay base.

[The-Haunter]

AD&D has a charactor class for the necromancer you may also want to look up a lich (it's an undead wizard may be too skeletal though)

[debbie5]

I made creepy cloth from old sheer curtains and spray paint (use light sprays of paint or material will get too stiff). Hubby was a Senator Palpatine-like character last year- similar costume to yours. Most Party City shops (& similar places) have black fingerless vinyl gloves that have silver studs on them- very cool looking. What about a skullcap that comes down over or around your ears (like the lining to a welder's helmet?) for your head? I like a wide band at the waist, like a rough fabric-ed, wide cummerbund...you can just use material and a binder clip to hold it together in the back. You could tie some rocks onto the staff with rough twine, along with some things that would clink- old keys, washers....

Hubby fretted about his footwear as well. In the end no one noticed his spit shined black boots.
I did have to tack down here & there (by hand sewing) his overcape as it wanted to fall off or shift around all night. Creepy cloth tends to want to stick to itself & get screwed up unless it's pinned down. What DID look great was his painted teeth. We had a few bottles of special teeth paint in black & gold. We dabbed it on, one color at a time & rubbed 1/2 of it off immediately to give a mottled, rotten effect. It was nasty/perfect. We rented a charcoal grey "monk's cassock" and then a hooded monk's robe that we had the costume shop slter to look like an overrobe from Star Wars (they were willing to alter at no charge as they had nothing like it in stock). We got the makeup & costume at http://www.thecostumer.com/cfwebstore/. It's the same place Kiss gets their makeup! The costume was really inexpensive to rent (vs. price of making it), as I haggled them down, and the material was perfect. Not cheesy- very believeable.
This sounds like a cool idea for a costume. Post pics!

[Tralan]

I am extremely familiar with the D&D necromancers... I actually came across Xemos the other day and that's what made me decide. Xemos wasn't quite a lich yet... but soon.

I've decided instead of a cloak that the cheesecloth/other tattered fabric layering would suit my needs better.

Bone Dancer actually gave me a coold idea for my hands/feet. Use cotton bandages soaked in tea and then just wrap whatever I'm wearing. I can probably tatter it to give it an old, worn "mummy" feel. Also a good way to strap the bones to my shins.

Today I bought my skull. It's amazing looking. I got it at Walgreen's of all places. I might hold off on the bloody runes... or buy another one because this thing is way cool as is! Next couple'a paydays I am going to be guying small bits of the costume.

Now... where can I find cheesecloth?

[debbie5]

Most fabric stores sell it. If you can't find it there, you can buy it at any food store, but in way smaller packages, as it's used for canning & other food uses. Orrrrrrrr...you can use beef netting(buy online). It will seem more expensive as you will have to buy a roll, but it drapes better and you can use the rest of the roll in your haunt.

[Tralan]

I've been online reading about beef netting (I can use da googles! :D ).

Oh, and I wasn't ignoring your first post, debbie. I get excited then I forget stuff. I was actually really wanting to do the rotten teeth idea. It fits. It fits well. AND, I think a skullcap is an incredible idea. If I can find the right one it might pull off a very "arcane" edge to the character.

Hobby Lobby has a huge fabric department (even bigger than their fake plant department... which is really saying something). And they're running specials for Hallow's Eve.

As soon as I have a memory card for my camera (mine probably was eaten by the vacuum or hidden by the weasel... I think it was on the floor as it definately was NOT on the desk where I had it last) and some betteries, I will be posting lots and lots of pics hehe.

Thank you all for the responses, BTW. Again, I got excited and forgot to say things I wanted to say.

[kprimm]

I was thinking the same thing, maybe shave your head and put a tribal tatoo mark up on your dome, or maybe one of those silver or gold skull cap type things. I like your bone idea for your shins and wrists. Also maybe you could take a blucky and use the torso area incorporated into your staff. You could cut out the plastic in between the ribs and attach it to the staff.

[Tralan]

I like where this is going with the staff, kprimm. Big Lots, of all places, had a near complete skeleton set that looked awesome. You're supposed to toss them around your yard so it looks like someone died there, but they'd be great on my person and staff...

[Tralan]

Okay. So today I got some cheesecloth. I bought some black and white (I am going to dye the white to a darker grey). I also bought a cheap Wal Mart cloak. I want to sew it. I really do, but I don't have a sewing machine and hand stitching is out of the question. But I am going to layer the cheesecloth on the cloak and hand stitch it in small areas, so it stays attached but still have a kind of flowing quality.

I've decided to shave my head. I'm going to get some makeup to lighten my skin tones and accent my bone structure. I am going to do small patches of cracked skin... not prosthetics, but just make it looke REALLY dry. Of course, the heavy bags under my eyes to make them look sunken in. My head gear will simply be the cloak's hood, which will have cheesecloth draped from it.My hands will be gloves... but fingerless. I am going to partially wrap them in tea-died bandages which will be ripped and stringy, and my boots/shins will be wrapped in the same. I'm thinking just a black long sleeved shirt and possibly a "bone" necklace and then the skull and decked out staff.

Oh, and the teeth.

[Bone Dancer]

Your going to shave your head? Now thats going the extra mile for a good costume.
I would do that a few days ahead of time so your scalp won't be so tender when you put on any makeup you do.

[Tralan]

I shave my head regularly throughout the year. I let my hair grow for about 3 months before shaving it again. this A) cuts costs on seeing a barber, and B) ensures my hair is always even. Hallow's Eve is around the three month mark anyway, so it's not really going out of my way.

And if I do it a few days in advance, my hair will already be growing in and I'll have a dark black 5 O'clocker on my head... except directly up top where the receding hairline and bald spot are forming :/

[The-Haunter]

I shave half of my beard to go as jeckle and hyde

[Tralan]

*Sigh*

I fail at makeup. Not just fail, but "Epic Fail" if you will. So I bought a mask and some skeleton hands. I'll just be an undead dude with a staff :/ The mask looks cool, though. It's a kind of skull mask, but the eye holes are slits so it looks like empty sockets.

[Tralan]

Okay, I've been practicing my makeup, and it's getting better, what with using cheap-o halloween makeup from Wal Mart and K Mart (I am tight on money and I am not spending a lot of money on actual makeup... so I'm making due with what I've got).

I did find a styrofoam skeleton at big Lots for fairly cheap. All the bones are individual... you lay it out in your yard in roughly a human shape and it looks like someone died there a long time ago. The ribs and such are perfect for the shinguard idea I had. However, I got some bonus things with it. The hip bone sections make awesome shoulder pads and the shoulder blades make cool elbow pads. And, the skull fits perfectly on top of my staff. I just have to hot glue it on so it doesn't slide around.

Slowly but surely this thing is coming together. All I have left to purchase is a black long sleeve T from Wal Mart (the only place I've found that carries 3XL... I'm a big guy).

My mask and skeleton hands are awesome, but I think I'll give them to my friend to wear. I might get some shackles so he can be my undead servant.

[nixie]

I have GOT to see some pics of this...

[Tralan]

My ferret, well, ferreted away my digital camera's memory card sometime between January and last month. And my webcam is acting up. I think it's just getting old. Hopefully my buddy will stop being a wienie and go out with me on Halloween. He has a decent digital camera.

I'm going to use strips of the tea-stained cheesecloth to hang random small bones from the staff.

[Tralan]

Well, I made a big splash with my necromancer. I ended up getting a different cloak from a store that had a huge sale, and it was more of a wrap-around, so my bone armor on the shoulders and whatnot was unnecessary.

My bone shin armor was cool, but kept falling out, so I ended up just using the tea stained cheesecloth around my boots and shins. I had some black cheesecloth which I made a kind of skirt so it looked more like I was wearing decrepit robes. I had my sacrificial ritual dagger and my bag of bloody eyeballs hanging from my belt. And my wrists and hands were wrapped in the tea stained cheesecloth. I carried around a staff with a skull on top and some random dangling bones. that was my favorite part. It's just a cool staff lol. Overall, it was a great Halloween.

AND! My buddy (whom I complained is a Hallowienie) wore his Ghostbuster uniform and pack. He hates wearing it because people accuse him of buying it from a costume shop. I told him "I know you made it and you know you made it so who cares what some drunk hillbillies from Wyoming think?" but he still gets all butt hurt about it. Well, we went to the mall where they were doing a trick-or-treat/halloween party thing and just walked around looking at costumes. Every four steps I hear "..ghostbuster!" I was completely overshadowed, but he had fun. So that made me happy because next year he'll go out with me again (Halloween is more fun with friends).

Oh, I was in the food court getting a soda (I wore way too many layers as I was expecting to be outside in the cold, not in the mall... it was a kind of spur of the moment thing) and an entire family of dark wizards came in. they all had these crazy intricate hooded cloaks and medieval garb... I am almost positive they made their clothing themselves. Anyhow, the dad looked at me and said "Even the undead get thirsty." I laughed and took a picture with them. Then my firend and I took a picture with a really hot, really scantily clad gal. She was dressed as a herem girl or something. Too bad it was her boyfriend taking the picture.

Next year I will have my CFX mask and hopefully my proton pack will be finished by then so I can be a ghoulish "people buster" lol.