Initial Thoughts

When I heard this prompt, my mind immediately went to a factoid about the filming of The Addams Family: in every shot, Morticia has a beam of light across her upper face, no matter where she’s standing or what angle she moves. With it being Halloween this week, and with how much I’ve been enjoying my foray into Marvelous Designer, I decided to tackle a Morticia sculpt. This will give me a chance to work on a full body character, create another garment (with challenges in the close fit and skirt drape), and play around with dramatic, focused lighting.

Morticia has several looks in the first film, but I decided to go with her beaded brocade dress that she wears in several scenes. It has a little more detail than some of her plain black gowns, and I was able to find excellent reference images of it from when the real dress was sold at auction. Immediately, I’m curious about how to create both the beaded trim at the neckline and the partially transparent chiffon strips at her sleeves and skirt hem, as I’m not entirely sure how to go about creating them. The dress pattern itself shouldn’t be too complicated, as it is a straightforward princess seam mermaid silhouette.

Bibliography

x_toxictears, 2016. Twitter – Someday my cheekbones will have their own lighting crew like Morticia Addams. [image] Available at: <https://twitter.com/x_toxictears/status/743516847748816896&gt; [Accessed 26 October 2021].

Prop Store Auction. (2018). Morticia Addams’ (Anjelica Huston) and Gomez Addams’ (Raul Julia) and Signature Costumes. [image] Available at: https://propstoreauction.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/138/lot/28188/ [Accessed: 19 October 2021].