In response to the Host's challenge in Episode 0-2 : How to visually depict the Valar

Lovely picture - I like the idea of Nienna being defined by her veils

 

Did an after and before pic, changed the color scheme a little. Left the reference picture in as well. I believe she was the one who won the nomination

 

Really, really nice. It is a good idea to have the Valar be depicted like that.

 

Soooo...I am setting as one of my costume goals this coming year to work on this version of Nienna. Obviously, I would be making the outfit for me, not someone who looks like the actress we cast in the role, but I think it would be really great to have the opportunity to play with some fabrics and work out what it would look like.

So, before I do that...is there any objection to my using your designs, Bre and Anastasia? Obviously, if anyone asks me where it's from, I'll tell them, but there's a good chance that if I make the costume there will be photos floating around the internet without any attribution. (Because I would intend to wear it to DragonCon next year with a group of the Valar, so...if that happens...strangers will take photos not knowing who we are).

I should add the caveat that it wouldn't be a faithful reproduction, more 'inspired by.' I definitely want to do the headwrap+veil, but there will likely be some limitations in how well I can do the rest of it. Like, chiffon is lovely, but I've never sewn with it before, and, well..... Also, I might be adding 'teardrop' trim as decoration. Stuff like that. We'll see. Just an idea right now, but one I'm pretty excited about!

 

I'm fine with it. Just add "inspired by" with credit if you do a photo post of it online or something like that

 

I had a (possibly crazy) thought about the Ainur. To snow that their fanar shapes are raiment, artistic expressions of themselves and veils upon their true (invisible??) glory.

Instead of having just one "elemental" costume and one human/elven costume, for each Ainu... what if we had several of each? Imagine Manwe has several "elemental" fanar and several clothing outfits for his elven fana. All of them fit his visual themes and convey something about his character. But which he's wearing changes from episode to episode, in keeping with something about his role in that episode or its theme. Or even wilder, what if it changed from scene to scene, based on each Ainu's mood? In addition to CGI creating slight changes as his emotions shift within a scene (like Morgan Z's suggestion).

Now imagine that for all the Valar and Maiar, for Mairon/Sauron, and for early Melkor too. Really convey how temporary these shapes are, and how each reveals only a little about the Ainu inside it.

This would probably be craaaazy to do with a real TV series, but we'll never film it, so we don't have to care about practicality. Not to demand extra costumes from the artists, but to say Go wild, draw as many different costumes as you want. Each artist has their own ideas for how to convey each Ainu... why choose when we could use them all?

 

Crazy idea... but i like it.