Donkey Kong Head Piece

   This is a Donkey Kong costume I made.
    The base of the head piece is paper mache. I covered the base with batting and then the brown fabric. I stuffed bits of fiber fill into the peak of the pointed area on top of the head.
    The mouth was added over the brown fabric. I made a separate upper and lower lip. The lips were hand sewn onto the brown fabric. After attaching the lips, I stuffed the mouth with fiberfill.  I covered the opening of the mouth with white fabric sewing it in place.
     After the white fabric was in place I penciled in teeth.   Then I painted over the pencil marks with black acrylic paint.
     The area of black behind the eyes is a sheer black fabric to see through. The eyeballs a re stuffed circles of fabric with black painted pupils. The eye brows were sewn on as were the nose and ears.
     There is a bike helmet inside the head to keep it in place while being worn.
      To get the right size and proportion for the the head, i looked for images of the character  and printed out one I liked. I made a rough sketch of the expression that I wanted him to have. I opted for the toothy grin.
    I also made rough sketches for the body and hands. After measuring my body , I then estimated the size i needed to make the various character parts.
    The head piece was difficult as most of it is hand sewn. My daughter and her friends frequently borrow this costume. He is right now posing as Santa at a comic shop!