Orcs - Halloween shortcuts

Here we present some shortcuts from our members.

Orcs are basically elves that fell out of the ugly tree and smashed into every branch on the way down before they landed in a pond scum covered pool. There are several types of Orcs - Moria Orcs, Orcs of
Mordor, and Uruk-hai.

Your best bet for a simple Orc look is to go with extreme pointed ears, a mottled green/brown/grey skin tone, really snaggly teeth, beetling brows, scars and evil looking tattoos, and stringy black hair pulled up into a ponytail. Orcs also tend to chains from nose to ear, or around the ears, or just piercings at various places in the neck or face. (Check out the pictures in The LoTR Visual companion also the costume drawings in The Art of the Lord of The Rings.) Orcs have very prominent, evil slit looking eyes - but I don't know if your Office manager wants to get the
contact lenses to do that.

A simple costume would be to get some dark brown or grey homespun material - like a very heavy duty burlap. (I don't recommend burlap at all if this costume has to be worn all day.) Make a simple T-tunic with long arms, get a worn leather belt for cinching in the waist, get some real leather or faux leather straps and pieces to make arm bands, vambraces (lower arm cuffs), and a harness to go round the chest and shoulders. If you can find an old, ratty fake fur rug (or fake fur remnant from the local
fabric store) in a fairly natural color (without a rubber backing if it's a rug). Spray paint everything in mottled dark browns, greys, and blacks with a touch of pond scum green. Hang fake bones/skulls from the belt and off the back of the fake fur capelet. (Spray paint the bones grey) You can put either the white hand of Saruman or the red eye of Mordor on the front of the tunic and maybe the arm bands. Neatness isn't necessary - a neat orc is an oxymoron.

Check out pages 152 and 153 in the book "The Art of The Lord of The Rings" for ideas. They show some of the early concepts for Orc costume which is more of a Celtic/barbarian look. This look is easier to achieve than the armor and chain mail of some of the Orcs. Also you can layer with the barbarian look and so have stuff to take off in the office to keep from getting stuck in a doorway. As for the arms and legs. Well, let's see - dark colored tights in brown or green for the legs, go with boots for the feet. Orcs stomp - A LOT! If you can find an old long sleeve turtle neck in either brown or green - cut off the sleeves and wear them under the T-tunic and the arm bands. This will save you having to wear makeup all over your arms. Makeup will only be needed for your hands and face/neck. Oh, and get some ugly, long, black fake fingernails to give the hands that lovely claw like look.

== Fran E.

Orcs with Fun Foam and other stuff

Head on over to our section on Armor Cheats. We've got ways to build armor fairly quickly and easy weathering techniques.

Disclaimer: Everything here is just provided to help you out as a suggestion. .

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This page was last updated 04/22/08