Hello everyone! I've been watching this forum for almost 2 weeks now, and finally joined to be part of the fun! I wanna thank a lot of you - you've given me so many good ideas for this costume (dying pants, suspenders, etc). I used to be such a hard-core costumer and have slowly been giving up, and I stumbled on this forum while trying to find some cheap way to do his shirt when I realized what I was doing. I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to get these costumes done
right. I instantly realized that I used to spend easily $300 on a costume to have every detail right, and here I was trying to keep this under $50 (college did this to me!!!). I was rather ashamed of myself. So I went out of my way and decided now that I finally got a paypal account I'm going to put it to good use! So I'll let ya'll know how I'm approaching this costume.
Head: I have natural blonde hair, and if I don't wash it for about 2 weeks it actually turns black/green just like the jokers. That part of the movie is NOT exaggerated. BUT I'm not doing that. I have a friend who used to dress as Severus Snape quite often - she has a formula for greasy hair. First off my hair will be the EXACT LENGTH as his by the end of october (if not a bit shorter). I'll braid it all (lol dread-like) and sleep like that thurs evening. Friday (halloween) I'll spray down my hair in PAM or just vegetable oil it up and take out the braids. TA-DAA I have perfect Joker hair.
Make-up: Fairly simple. I bought Faux Skin to make the scars, spirit gum to hold it down, and latex to blend and more stick-age, my friend already had the white theatre make-up, black lipstick smears and looks best for his eyes but don't forget the black eye-liner first to get in real close to the eyeballs, and you need 2 shades of red for his smile (the bright red for the main smile and a darker shade for his upper lip). As a girl I already own this lipstickz. And as a bonus, I bought some yellow tooth decay paint for my teeth (hell yeah!)
Clothes: This will just be in one grouping because I haven't been able to start sewing yet. I bought the suspenders and stretchy print ons for it already (transfers just got here today). I bought white pinstriped material for his pants (the pinstripe is metallic so it wont dye and they were the perfect distance apart) and Blue and Red dye so I can create my own purple. His socks are in the mail. A friend from work is donating his shoes for me to sandpaper and destroy. I have the blue satin and green front for his vest (buying pattern soon) and the purple and orange/red lining for his trench coat. I found the PERFECT purple-gray suit jacket at Good Will. I've found perfect gloves for him but hell for me if I tell you until I've secured them for myself! lol His tie I'm still working on (I really don't want to resort to the zazzle tie). His shirt I've recieved about 5 quotes on all from ****** fanmade stuff the textile mills offering digital printing. Textiles won't go lower than $270 for about 3 yards (not including $30 shipping) and hack-jobs have murdered his awesome shirt. So I've concluded I'm going to cheat on this one thing. I have an old white button-up shirt I don't wear much anymore. I'm going to very carefully measure out and buy transfers. Through some awesome photoshop skills I've secured a swatch I can print and I'm just going to cover the exposed areas (collar/sleeves and some extra). I'll seam rip the shirt into flat pieces and then sew it up again later. I won't shirk the shirt though (haha) I'm buying the best iron-ons available to ensure I don't crinkle crack and flake.
If anyone has any tips, suggestions, or know if I can buy a similar tie of his at Dillards or JC Penny or something (as often as I buy ties JOKE) PLEASE feel free to let me know.
Here's some photos of my make-up test. I'm wearing the coat from good will, but the brown shirt underneath was the shirt I'd worn to work. XD so just... ignore that. The knife was a handmade one made by my dad that was just sitting in our basement.
This is a good picture of my hair (the light really shows it - blah!) My hair is naturally a bit wavy/curly. So That's just how it always looks. I honestly tried to mess it up and failed. D:
Sorry its blurry (these were all taken via camera phone). But the light/perspective really lets you see the lumps of scar tissue around my mouth. I'll definately blue the make-up more next time, this is too definate.
Last pic I swear:
No coat. I'm removing the latex and faux skin. This is just to let you know what you have to look forward to if you use this method. It hurt LIKE HELL. I personally don't mind so much, but just an FYI.
Feed back would be AWESOME