#Tim wants to improve his relations in the afterlife be he still completely thinks hes dead

[ew-selfish-art]

DP x DC AU: Danny desperately wants to find the explosion guy. Tim is really good at covering his tracks... he didn't account for ghosts.

The explosions make it onto TV as purported terror activity and most people haven't heard of that part of the world much less ever given a second thought to care about it. The only real reason it gets reported on has something to do with the Justice League and... Danny knows too much.

He's been in training for Clockwork's court (which he's suspicious of- feels like kingly duty bullshit- but Danny is playing along out of curiosity for now) and he's learned a lot about how the living and non-living worlds collide. That means learning about CW's usual suspects- one of which just happened to have a ton of bases around the area Danny was seeing on the news.

It didn't take long for Danny to try to piece together that whoever blew up Nanda Parbat was trying to fuck with the League of Shadows, and was doing it successfully. Less green portals in the world the better, same goes for assassins. But it gets Danny thinking... Maybe he can employ similar tactics on the GIW Bases that keep spawning on the edges of Amity Park. It would at least set them back while he and his friends navigated the help line desk to request Justice League intervention. None of them can leave Amity Park, so outreach is going to have to be creative.

So Danny figures he'll just find the guy. Call up some ghosts who were there, or er, came from there and get a profile and track him down. But the ghosts keep saying it was The Detective. Annoying!

Danny goes full conspiracy theory, gets Tucker and Sam involved, and begrudgingly asks Wes Weston his thoughts.

He hadn't expected Wes to garble out a thirty minute presentation (that had 100 more slides left to go before he cut it off) about how Batman totally trained with a cult and so did his kids. Danny kind of rolled his eyes but... hey, new avenue of searching in the Infinite Realms at least.

The ghosts confirm that Bombs is for sure not Batman's MO- But maybe his second kid would know? The second kid was already brought back to life though, so no way to easily reach him... Danny starts to realize that this might be the work of a Robin now. Wasn't the red one known for solving cold cases? (Sam provides this information- its a social faux pas to not know hero gossip at Gotham Galas- everything she's learned is against her will).

It all comes to a head when Danny goes about the hard task of opening a portal for the guy to come through at just the right time, explain the infinite realms so he doesn't panic and then describe what the fuck was going on with the GIW. It takes months, just over a full year, of random (educated guesses) portal generating- Finally, Red Robin drops into the land of the dead.

"So, you're the guy I've got to talk to about explosions right?" Danny enthusiastically asks.

Tim thinks he's died and landed in the after life following 56 hours of being awake and plummeting off the side of a building into a Lazarus pool. Nothing makes sense about the kid in front of him.

"Yeah, I got a guy for munitions." Tim answers cooly.

"How do you feel about secretly sanctioned government operations that violate protected rights?"

"Gotta get rid of 'em some how. Need me to point you in the right direction?" This might as well be happening.

#dcxdp #dpxdc #dp x dc #dc x dp #danny phantom #long post #tim drake #red robin #tim and danny team up to blow up the GIW au #Tim being known as the explosion guy is my favorite and i will not let this part of his lore go ignored #Jason is the munitions guy obviously and the ghosts go crazy over the gossip it enlights when he helps in amity park #Danny one hundred percent is living for this working relationship- what a weirdo -danny hasn't met someone stranger than himself in a min #tim bartering his services for a few more years of life and danny just pikachu facing him #Tim wants to improve his relations in the afterlife be he still completely thinks hes dead #danny: dude ur still alive #Tim: yeah thats the goal but i'll help you meet your goals first and then we can negotiate #Danny decides to make the guy super ghost rich (thinking big Haunt real estate) and send him home #Tim blows up the GIW with no remorse and with all the data back up for proper justice to be served court side #tim returns from the dead and this is how the bats learn that he's the one who blew up nanda parbat all those years ago #it takes danny so long to find tim bc tim was spiralling and only after bruce got back did he get into a normal routine enough to get got

[poppyhillmancrouchwonderland]

Final evaluation

At the beginning of the project, I explored more abstracted themes around ‘Wonderland’ with my creative photoshoots focusing on mirrors and inner reflection. After conducting a character analysis of Alice, I wanted to create a garment for her reflecting her personality traits, animals she meets, things she experiences and how this influences her.

 I was greatly influenced by Tim Walker’s White Rabbit photoshoot for Vogue Italia where the models are wearing over-sized rabbit heads (1). This made me look at the novel and the different characters Alice meets in more depth - leading me to create illustrations (2), a clay model (3) and eventually the tissue and wire mask seen in the final photos. I wanted the head piece to have more of a distorted feel instead of Disney-style “cute” rabbit. I researched the masks used in the 1973 ‘The Wicker Man’ (4) and how these added to the story line. Following along from this, I looked at artwork by Paula Rego’s ‘War’ (5) depicting human-like rabbits. This really helped me with the scale and the contoured look for the head piece as well as how it could be constructed. 

When looking at possible silhouettes, colours palettes and construction methods, I came across costumes used in performance - including costumes by Georgia de Chirico in the play ‘Ball’ (6) from 1929 and the 1966 televised version of ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ (7). I really like both of these sets of costumes because of their block colouring. I incorporated this aspect into my final piece and illustrations by having the panels over the hips continuing into the trouser legs.

I also looked into the organic and nature aspect of Wonderland. Looking at flints (8) found in the fields surrounding my home helped for colouring and texture as well as sculptures by Peter Gentenaar (9) . He creates amazing, twisted pieces by creating a structure using bamboo and tissue paper. I wanted to use this method to create my sleeves - I used dope, modelling tissue and strimmer wire (10). However, this did not have the outcome I was after, so I manipulated fabric and used plastic boning instead to create a similar look.

 

Maths, Religion and Science - I developed my pattern cutting and construction method using mathematical working and calculations. I also looked into the darker aspect of Wonderland by watching a TED talk about Conscious Reality and how the brain processes our own reality, what calculation the brain makes to perceive it and how this relates to religious ideas of an afterlife. This links to Wonderland because of Alice’s experience and how this could be interpreted as either something that happens to her consciously or unconsciously in a dream.

I chose to focus on costume design, making, pattern cutting and dyeing. I picked these to focus on as I have not yet done a project with very complex pattern cutting, fitting and precision and really wanted to push myself. I chose dyeing as part of my project because I really enjoyed the process of printing my own fabric for the Inside Out project and the different effects I can make. This links very closely to my future plans as I want to do Costume Construction at university.

In the exploration stage of the project, I looked at the ‘Pool of Tears’ chapter from Alice in Wonderland. This led me into looking at how to make the fabric look wet and heavy without actually being that. I experimented with resin to give this look and it worked very well. I really wanted to include this sampling in my final piece but as my design developed this looked out of place with the overall aesthetic. I also sampled fabric manipulation techniques and dope/modelling paper to give the idea of expanding and contracting (as Alice does in size).

                                                                                                                                                                                      

 

Overall view on outcome- broken down.

The colour palette – when deciding the colour palette for my overall look, I took a lot of inspiration from what Alice would see when falling down the rabbit hole. I used earthy tones - like the golden brown and greens - as an enhanced vision of nature, going into the more pastel colours of what I imagine Wonderland would have as you look up the costume.

In this project, I really focused on the pattern cutting, fitting and accuracy (12). I chose to do curved strips over the waist and creating a V shape in the centre front in order to exaggerate the waist and, with the under structures, help give a distorted figure shape. I found it difficult to get the point in the centre front even and continue the line accurately over the hips. This shape was inspired by James Charles 1940’s clothing (11) I decided to tell the story of ‘Absolem’ the caterpillar who helped Alice. This is shown by the stripes at the waist; they are thinner here representing his segmented body and wider at the bottom symbolising his growth into a butterfly.

I wanted to include pleated shapes down the legs on the light green side panel (13). However, when I tried to create these they did not work as I wanted them to, and I had to improvise. I hand dyed and made 60 flower shapes and hand sewed these over the hips whilst keeping the stripes visible. I chose the pastel colours pink, blue, purple and green as this is what I imagine Wonderland would have looked like before the Red Queen had all the flowers painted red. (14)

The colours used for the bodice were inspired by Disney’s animated version of Wonderland that most people associate with Alice. I used the white on the bodice to represent her curiosity and her youth. This also harks back to the original illustration -by John Tennial- of her white apron (15). As this costume additionally reflects characters Alice meets and her character development, this also resembles the white rabbit and the Queens servants who were painting the white roses red.

On the bodice, I wanted to include petal-like shapes. I used batik methods and hand dyed this piece. I originally wanted to dye them the same colour as the sleeves however something went unexpectedly in the dyeing process and created this turquoise colour (16). I am really pleased that this happened as this resulting tone linked the greens in the trousers to the blues in the sleeves. Having this on the front of the bodice really tied the whole costume together as before the bodice and trousers look very separate and not cohesive. I really like how the colour transitions from white to pale turquoise, growing out from the bodice.

For the sleeves, I tried lots of different techniques such as constructing a frame using tissue paper and dope inspired by Peter Gentenaar. However, this did not work in the way I wanted it to, so I resorted to using fabric manipulation. I dyed the white cotton using the dry ice and batik method to create different tones. As this is her most well know colour, I used the blue tones to represent Alice. I was very drawn to this colour and the idea of falling down a rabbit hole and different layers of the earth you would see. When out on a walk, I found blue Anglican flint and I really loved the texture and colours and included this into the sleeves. Another reason I chose this colour was to reflect her ‘Pool of Tears’ and the power of imagination.

To complete my costume, I created a mask from wire and tissue paper. I drew inspiration from Tim Walker’s photography from the ‘White Rabbit’ photoshoot for Vogue Italia where he used oversized animal’s heads. I started this process by drawing rabbit illustrations and developing this into a 3D clay model which I used as a basis for my final mask. I really like how the mask captures the white rabbit ambiance without being too cute/”Disney” and is instead darker and dream-like. I find this very effective as the White rabbit starts her journey and almost traps her in the world of Wonderland.

Overall, in my opinion my final outcome is very effective as I capture the dreamlike quality of Wonderland, with an uneasy feel. If I were doing this at college, I think my time management would be much better as I finished the garment 5 days late. I would have spent less time on the mock-ups and fitting but I feel this was necessary to complete my garment.  I would have also included different print techniques and maybe a form of metal work or vacuum forming that I could not do from home. However, if I completed this project at college, I would not have made this outcome as I have now. I am very happy with what I have achieved. If I were to make this again, I would fix the bodice as the white cotton was a bit larger than the interlining layer causing wrinkling across the chest. I would also have built in a form of structure to the bodice to bring the waist in more and to avoid the wrinkling at either side. I would change the back fastening to something strong and be more innovative with that to have a flush finish.

I would really like to improve my time management in the future and make a schedule that is more realistic but still pushing myself. Going forward into the next project I want to work on using a wide range of skills and different approaches and design I could use to create a better outcome.