Holly Conrad's Portfolio

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This is the art and costume portfolio of Holly Conrad, a morbidly ambitious and keenly shameless costume designer, skull finder, sculptor, and illustrator.

Check out my BLOG to see whats new.

Feel free to click the links to the side. There you can see what things I'm creating, making, breaking, and all of that. Thanks for visiting!

Yours in portfolios,
Holly
I've been published! This book here has a picture of my Orpheus Alchemy costume, as well as a wonderful blurb. You can find it at any Barnes and Nobles! Here is the blog post about it as well.

My FeeJee Mermaid was featured in the show Experience El Dorado, check it out! She shows up around 5:35

Time Magazine Online A quick photo shoot makes it in Time Magazine Online

LA Weekly did a blog post on the art show I was in, LA Myth at Meltdown Comics, come check out my little blurb and some pictures of my Familiars

www.frocktalk.com An amazing article on our floor costumes and more, plus a fabulous blog and costuming resource

In Search of Heroes I was interviewed by the In Search of Heroes Charity after the Comic Con Masquerade, I'm at at about 2 minutes in

Comic Con 2009 Here's a quick video of my entry. Not the best quality video, but it works!

Popular Mechanics For the Fyriel the Alchemist costume at the California Steampunk Convention.

Make Blog, Fyriel the Alchemist This is a lovely article written by Gareth Branwen of Make fame, he did such an amazing job and makes me sound far more cool than I believe I actually am.

I've also been featured for my earlier costumes on the PlayStation Channel for the Fyriel the Alchemist costume, as well as THIS lovely costume blog. More to come!

2009-11-22T12:52:00.000-08:00

This FeeJee Mermaid was a commission from Barber John, a barber and owner of a fabulous curiosity shop in Northern California. This was made for his shop and debuted on the show "Experience ElDorado" along with the rest of Barber John's curiosities.

Familiar 9

2009-11-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

Here's another installment to my "Familiar" series. This little guy was made with a base of carved foam, and mounted with a sculpted deer head and various accouterments.

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Titan Maximum

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The following images are a few of the costumes I made for the Adult Swim Show, Titan Maximum. Many of these are one of multiple, while a few are single designs. Willie, the first character shown below, is one of the main characters. I designed his logo and fabricated costumes for him. The hicks were probably my favorite, as I had the opportunity to age their costumes and make them look convincingly hick-like as well as create an army of them, only two are shown.

Fyriel the Alchemist

2009-08-10T19:57:00.001-07:00

First Place, 2008 California Steampunk Convention

This costume was a design inspired by my love of history, magic, and archaic flying contraptions. The wings actually opened with a lever thanks to an altered Batman toy stripped of all its battyness and made into a Da Vinci-like flying machine.

All of the leather work is hand made and hand sewn. The pieces on the back of the wings are resin cast and sculpted, as well as aged and fitted with hidden lights. Found objects were also implemented in this costume with gears and clock parts found at thrift stores and from old clocks. Thanks for looking!

The Lady of Pain

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Size: 12ft
Shown at San Diego Comic Con 2009
Won Best Workmanship and the Costume Designer's Guild Award for Best Costume 2009

This costume is a twelve foot tall homage to my favorite game, Planescape: Torment and the Planescape campaign. That dark, gritty, alternate universe has always been an inspiration for me and this ominous goddess-like character was a challenge that I loved to do. She's built on a handicapped scooter out of PVC, chicken wire, and foam. Her head is styrene as well as sculpted with magic-sculpt and painted. Her body is padded with quilt batting and her skirt is able to lift up to allow one rider inside of the scooter so it looks like she's floating (as seen here!) The skirt is hand painted and the fabric is hand-dyed, as well as aged with ash, gray spray paint, fabric dye, and manual cutting and sanding.

The video can be seen here, some picture and detail shots follow. To see some pictures of the creation process click here.

Detail Shots

Meeting Stone: World of Warcraft

2009-08-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

This was a commission for a lovely fellow who wanted a costume for the 2009 Anime Expo, as well as Blizzcon. It's mounted on the frame of a backpacker's backpack and built out of PVC piping. The outside is sealed foam and the symbol is resin-casted. Inside it is lined with EL wire to give it the blue glow. This costume was made to be comfortable to wear, as well as light enough to transport easily and sturdy enough to last multiple wears. It was a great success, and a delight to WoW players and clueless alike.

Below are some of the finished photos, if you'd like to see the costume in progress, go to my Flickr page and take a look!

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Blog

Twitter

Facebook

MySpace

Etsy

Orpheus Alchemy: My Corner of Etsy

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Resume

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Holly Ann Conrad
Email: Fyrielart@gmail.com
Cell: (909) 754-7680

Education

University of California, Santa Barbara
2004-2008
Bachelor of Arts in Medieval Studies
Honors, Dean’s Honors

University of Edinburgh
2006-2007
University of California Education Abroad

Work Experience

Garner Holt Productions
San Bernardino, CA August 2009-Present
Figure Finishing, mold-making
*Uses a large variety of plastics, fabric, and furs in unique ways to add finishing touches on creatures for major attractions at parks such as Disneyland and Universal Studios, Singapore.
*Uses Magic Sculpt as well as WED clay to sculpt and create props, creatures, and more
*Assists in mold making, fiberglass application

Shadow Animation
Hollywood, CA Feb 2009-July 2009
Puppet Costume Fabricator for Titan Maximum
*Extensive training in stop-motion costuming and puppet fabrication
*Patterned as well as dyed and painted custom pieces
*Used Illustrator and Photoshop to create unique logos for clothes and main characters
*Worked quickly and on a tight production schedule

OrpheusAlchemy.etsy.com
Highland, CA 2008-present
Creator
*Has maintained a working shop on Etsy selling costumes and props
*Lists items every other day, ships orders, and creates objects for sale

The Edinburgh Student
Edinbugh, Scotland, UK September 2006-May 2007
Editor/Illustrator/Comic Artist
*Lead Art & Illustration Editor and Graphic Designer for award-winning newspaper
*Recruited/scheduled team of five illustrators
* Illustrated for editorials, news, and design, as well designed illustrations on a quick turnaround
*Used Photoshop, Wacom tablet, and InDesign to create stylish, up-to-date layouts
*Provided technical support for Photoshop and InDesign

Additional Skills

Excellent ability to make and create. Has fabricated multiple costumes and won contests based on creativity and workmanship abilities, having personally made every piece from the basic structure to the smallest details.

Can sew and pattern on a large scale as well as small, from twelve inch puppets to twelve foot tall costumes.

Has experience resin casting as well as molding, sculpting, and sewing leather. Also has exceptional skills at aging and creating a worn look to props, costumes, and other mediums. Can also sculpt excellent maquettes as well as texture and details with polymer clay, traditional clay, and magic sculpt.

Extensive training in categorizing, researching, and writing due to historical projects resulting in papers of up to 30 pages.

Sense of humor, friendly, enthusiastic, and highly detail-oriented.

Computer knowledge (both PC and Mac): Microsoft Office, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator, Wacom Tablet, Excel, Page Maker and a basic knowledge of Maya.

Commissions
World of Warcraft Meeting Stone Costume for Blizzcon 2009 and Anime Expo 2009
FeeJee Mermaid for Barber John's Room of Curiosities

Awards and Shows
Costume Designer's Guild Award, 2009 San Diego Comic Con Masquerade
Best Workmanship Award, 2009 San Diego Comic Con Masquerade
LA Myth Art Show, 2008
First Place Costume, California Steampunk Convention, 2008
“Best Student Newspaper in Scotland,” Herald Press, 2006, 2007
Honorable Mention, Costume, Blizzcon, 2007
Dean's Honors, UCSB, 2005-2006

References

Available upon request

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Digital Art

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Sketches

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