Fionnuala Character Roughs, created with hand drawn work assembled on PS.
This is the character: Fionnuala. She is the only female child in the Children of Lir and is the second oldest. Fionnuala means ‘fair’. She is often depicted as a strong character- the only one who stands up to the women who turns them into swans and she is also very caring.
When working on my character roughs I have had to make all my children for the story a little older as I will be working with adult performerns and not children ( this is a health and safety aspect of my degree, all performeers must be 18 or over). Therefore I have worked to bring softness and immuturity into Fionnualas costume.
Staring with the silhouette of Irish dance dresses I have combined this with the medieval origions of the myth to bring about a soft but fit for purpose costume. I am depicting Fionnuala as a swan, however, I do not want to just recreate a full on swan costume!
Therefore I have brought in elements throughout- she will have wings in the form of a shawl or cape- that look as though the swan is surrounding her being to mimic the idea in the myth that the swans still retain their human voice and soul. I would also like her headpiece to tell a sotry through the embellisment- from child who is loved to a swan. This will be done through embroidery and using celtic symbols and knots. The same idea will come through in the embroidery on the costume- it is very common for Irish dance dresses to have a decorative embroidery that hails to a story or myth.
I will also be using softer colours for Fionnuala. I have my first fitting with my performer on thursday 17th! So I will be posting the final designs for Fionnuala and the images from my fitting in the next couple of weeks!
