SMP Designs

Bucky Barnes Featured on Comics Alliance

smpdesigns — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:08:32 +0000

Dateline 11/7/11: I just got this link from the friend that I made the Bucky Barnes Captain America for. He was featured in the costume in Comics Alliance’s Best Costumes Ever (This Week) article!

Check out the How It Was Made page for details on the costume.

New Flickr Stream and Photos

smpdesigns — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:57:39 +0000

I’ve just created a new gallery on Flickr for featured projects and some of my favorite costumes. Check it out!

The latest addition is the Macross flightsuit that I did for Dragon*Con this year. More to come…

Countdown: 97 Days to Dragon*Con

smpdesigns — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:06:04 +0000

Dateline 5/27/11: It’s that time of year again. The last few months of Dragon Con prep. I’ve got several projects in the works for this year. Terra, The Fury, some work on Union Jack and who knows what else between now and then. I’ve also got another project going on that I’m keeping under wraps until the con. Here’s a little sneak peek:

More to come…

Thanks for the interview, Eric!

smpdesigns — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:15:55 +0000

Dateline 2/25/11

My pal Eric is working on a cosplay blog and asked me to give an interview for the project. Of course, I was happy to oblige and you can check it out here. He’s had a couple of cotumes made by me, including the Red Lantern pictured below:

Check out his blog and give him props as he works on his Comm Masters!

The Little Death Screening

smpdesigns — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:23:43 +0000

Dateline 9/16/10: Went to see the last film project I worked on last night – The Little Death. It turned out great and it was awesome to see it and say hello again to all the talented people who worked on it. Check out the advance trailer below.

Check out the advance trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWlobtWu7ko

Awesome New Pics Soon & Cool Updates!

smpdesigns — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:18:00 +0000

Dateline 8/4/10: The photos are in from the shoot and they are amazing! Check this one out, hot off the presses:

More new pics are coming soon. In the meantime, I’ve posted updates to Quirrell, Sinestro and Buck Capt in the last two days. Be sure to check them out!

Sinestro is in the works!

smpdesigns — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:41:30 +0000

Dateline 7/29/10: As Dragon*Con 2010 looms ever closer, I’ve been hard at work getting all the costume projects I’m working on ready to go. They’re all going well so far and most have pages in the How It Was Made Section. The most recent is Sinestro, and there’s been some great progess made.

I also had a great photo shoot last weekend with some other costumer pals and will hopefully be adding those to the galleries soon as well as creating an additional gallery for featured costumes. There’s a lot going on here at SMP Designs these days and it’s just going to get crazier as the countdown to D*C2010 continues.

Stay tuned…

Photo Props

smpdesigns — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:04:39 +0000

Dateline 7/15/10: OK, so now that the new site is live and (almost – whew) finished, I have to give a major shout-out to Bryan Humphrey of Foggy Lens Photography.

I met Bryan through friends with Lab604 and HimeArts and was fortunate enough to have some of my pieces shot by him for the new site. You can see the work by visiting the Portfolio and checking out the galleries. Bryan shot Pied Piper, Speed Racer and the Jedi.

Here are some of the shots:

Bucky Capt in progess is posted!

smpdesigns — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:44:17 +0000

Dateline 7/14/10: The Bucky Barnes Captain America costume is in progress and the page has been started as well. Visit the page HERE to follow the progress.

On other fronts, all the supplies for the rest of the costumes I’ve got going right now are rolling in from points all over the map and I’m in full-swing Dragon*Con prep. I’ll be posting more on Quirrell, Bucky and (coming soon) Union Jack and Loki. Be sure to check back often to keep up wtih all the madness!

A New Pattern and New Projects In Progress

smpdesigns — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 06:06:16 +0000

Dateline 7/10/10: I’ve been travelling the last couple of weeks, but I’m back now and working on new projects. A couple of these projects required the drafting of a pattern for a cowl that covers the entire head. I spent the afternoon working on the pattern and have included some pics and have a PDF download available.

I created the pattern first in segments and then revised it into a version with minimal seams. I needed a good, structurally sound cowl that could be made in both stretch and not-so-stretchy materials. So, this was the result:

The segmented version is useful if color-blocking is required (as it would have been with the Fury costume I am still possibly going to be working on) and the one with the minimal seams can be adapted to most other cowl/headgear patterns with some simple reshaping. Here are some pics of the model I assembled as I was working on the pattern to show the final shape:

I then created the second version with the minimal seams and decided to make a rough mock-up of it in some blue faux-leather I had laying around as a test for a Bucky Captain America I’m working on. Here’s how it turned out:

So, some shaping is needed, but the basic shape is there and the pattern is quite functional. There will be a Captain America page in the How It Was Made section soon with more pictures.

I created a PDF of the pattern image above with the images of the model for anyone who’s facing the frustration of having to come up with this type of pattern. Please feel free to download it HERE and I hope it helps. If you use it, let me know how it works!