In those days, the days of CostumeCon 1991, I knew a handsome couple whom I really wanted to design for. You see, when I see someone naked or just really good-looking, my first impulse is that I want to DRESS them, and then DRAW them. Artists are funny that way, just ask one if you know one. The problem with my friends here was that they were not costumers and would never wear anything like what I designed. I designed for them anyway just for the sake of showing it around at CostumeCon and then I gave the art to the folks who inspired it, since they didn't attend the convention.
I gave them pseudo-Babylonian outfits with a hint of Deco, just like those wonderful films of the early 20th century that lavished detail of ancient Assyria or Babylon gone by on both sets and costumes. All of the glamour and glitz was loosely wrapped around some moral lesson but was really just pure fun and entertainment. They don't make 'em like this any more. But I can design 'em. "Ardath" is a mythical Babylon-ish city of splendor and corruption imagined by one of my favorite fantasy authors, Marie Corelli, 1860-1925, who wrote Steampunk when it really existed. "Ardath" was published in 1889 and I have done many costume studies for that Hollywood Babylon world.
Two costume studies are ink and watercolor on illustration board, each 6" x 9", February 1991.
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