Hi all. No, I haven't fallen off the planet. Just insanely busy between work, school, and this insane project I set myself. I have been trying to read the flist at least every couple of days and comment here and there, but I am woefully behind. As a result, I'm actually kind of embarrassed to post, but I want to keep these links somewhere easy to find and plus they may be useful to other fannish types.

If you remember a month or so ago, I was debating participating in the Amateur Drag Night at my local LGBT club, and if so, who to go as. I didn't and still don't have any ideas about an original character/persona, so the classic "pick an iconic singer" route seemed the most sensible. Elton John won the debate, and I've been working on the costume ever since. (This is not yet complete. Worst case, I'll be performing in a waistcoat w/no jacket, which really is kind of worst case, because there's only so flat a pair of G-cups are going to go, and the jacket would help the illusion of flatness. However, I'm not willing to pay big bucks for the right jacket, and men apparently only donate raggedy, tweedy suits to Goodwill around here. Sir Elton does wear quite a variety of things, but "tweedy" is not one of them. Were I trying to be Giles or the Doctor, that would apparently be far easier.)

Tonight, I'm trying my first test-run of makeup, which I had almost but not completely forgotten about. I'm not quite committed enough to use theatrical appliances and the like a la droxy, so I've been researching subtler makeup techniques, and here are some tutorials I've found helpful. Some are coming from a drag or crossplay perspective, others from transmen giving tips on passing.

http://kittykazoo13.deviantart.com/art/My-first-FtM-makeup-tutorial-208360508
Also known as "how to become David Tennant." :-D I like the explanation given on the shading and the color coding for highlighting and lowlighting. I'm not, however, quite understanding what she means about the eyebrows. I see the difference, but seeing them being done would've been more helpful, which leads to the next one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgTjHZXOPmM
This eyebrow tutorial is helpful not only in the use of stippling sponge (thank you so much, I was never going to be able to hand-draw anything random-looking enough) but also mistake erasure. I already have really heavy eyebrows (thanks, Dad) but still not as thick as Sir Elton, so playing with that is going to be fun.

http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/tutorials/crossplayfm
Another helpful tip w/stippling sponge to "rough up" the skin w/o stubbling.

http://www.wikihow.com/Pass-As-a-Guy-and-Still-Be-Scene-or-Emo-%28for-FTM-Teens%29
While this is specifically about achieving a masculine emo/scene look, I found it useful for thinking through what elements read as masculine versus androgynous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhvLQ40jP1U
This one goes all-out on the sketched-in facial hair, which looks better than I'd expect but still isn't something I'm likely to try. What I found more helpful was the visual on the shading prior to that.

So, first attempt is pretty much a shitty first draft, but here are the pix anyway. No wig or other stuff, though, just the makeup. ( Pix )

As far as the choreography ... I'm going to settle at the moment for simply not bellydancing despite all impulses to the contrary and worry less about how much my hips are moving in a masculine versus feminine manner. Sir Elton does do some hip-swaying stuff (almost identical to every hip bump I've had to correct in a male bellydance student, actually) that I've kind of got the hang of. I think. We shall see. And he does use a cane as a prop in the video to the song I chose ("I'm Still Standing"), which gave me a clue how to handle the one bit where there are no lyrics. That *is* bellydance, though nobody would mistake this cane-work for anything traditional, but I think it fits the persona even though he's never done that kind of thing that I've seen.

One week to go. Hopefully, there will be video. (Most likely crappy phone video, but video nonetheless.) Meanwhile, I should probably attempt some homework.