I have had my beloved Enid Doll for many years, as many years nearly, as I have been a what I would call #1 fan of Daniel Clowes work. I generally have a hard time with favorites, but when it comes to comics, his inspiration to me has not be surpassed. He is to many, a voice that helped define and articulate so accurately the authenticity in the silent marvels of the day to day, a minds eye into the most humble, neurotic and relatable characters as well as the internal monologue of the silent rebel, a rebel against rebellion and the struggle in defining yourself, for a start.
This year for Halloween, I decided I would finally get it together and create this Enid Doll costume.
I will show some pictures of the process I used, which was based on my instincts of finding and manipulating existing objects. Please comment if you have a suggestion for me about something I can do differently next time!
I picked up a plastic prop football helmet, and removed the front face guard. Using craft foam, which in retrospect, should have been thicker, I cut out the mask part and smoothed it all down using duct tape.
I then after trying a few different things for the ears, I found one of those cheap hard plastic batman masks, and cut off the ears, which fit perfectly, when turned backwards onto the shape of the helmet. I also used the nose piece for structure.
The gun base is a plastic handle, turned backwards cut off of a toy dart gun, an empty bottle and a suction cup. Actual Enid Doll toys for reference.
Here the paper mache has been lovingly applied, I did also add it to the ears.
Below, I have coated both the Ray-Gun and Mask in wood filler, which was then sanded down very excruciatingly, before being painted.
The finished paint job. I would like to go back and add the extra texture details to the Ray-Gun, but this was my first time, and it got down to the wire for Halloween.
I also painted the back of an old jacket, because it is indeed October, and this costume required one or two, I assume, Enid approved, additions.
I made these lapel pins quickly out of printable shrink plastic. One of Daniel Clowes and the other is the EIghtball #13 cover. Usually when I make these types of pins, I like to coat them in resin, but there just wasn't time for it, as it was a last minute addition.
Outfit: the orange wool sweater is vintage, I picked it up while thrifting, as well as the skirt.
I couldn't believe how perfect the pattern was when I found this skirt. It was much too big for me and much too long so it needed some quick adjustments on the sewing machine.