I've always been a fan of fantasy creatures. When I was little, I got The Chronicles of Narnia book set, and I believe it's one of the things that had a huge influence on why I love creatures so much. Mr. Tumnus was always a favorite of mine, and because of him I've long had a soft spot for fauns and satyrs. When the new The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe movie by Walden Media came out, that settled it. I had to make a faun costume.

This costume allowed me to try out several things that I had always wanted to do, but never could before due to various reasons. This involved my first experience working with leather, my first time making molds and casting latex, and it allowed me to try doing a "true" digitigrade leg setup. In this costume, I walk on my toes, on top of a four-inch wood hoof. Although there are ways to fake digitigrade legs, I felt they'd look far too bulky for a faun (they'd work fine for something like a minotaur though!). The method I used with my hoof boots poses some risk, but I managed to not break anything or even hurt myself. Tensor bandage support is used under the hoof boots as an added precaution.

The bodice is modified off a McCall's pattern, the leggings modified from a generic PJ pants pattern. The shirt under the bodice is an altered t-shirt, because I didn't have time to fuss with making one from scratch. The hoof boots are my own design, as are the armlets and the other leather bits. The horns were sculpted, molded and cast by me. The one addition I want to make when I have the time is to make some pointed ear tip prosthetics.

The faun costume has been probably the most laid-back project I've done in years, even with trying out a bunch of new things. It was worked on over the course of a few months at my leisure, rather than the usual mad dash to get my costume done for Halloween. If all goes well, this costume will be serving as a base for a more complicated demoness costume at a later date.

A 12-second video of the faun walking can be found here.

Pictures:

Costume Details
     

Campus Halloween Bash October 26, 2006
A big thank you to Phil for taking these pictures.