Don Vincenzo and Don Vincente Costume

Fantasy characters based on the leonine beast-man "Vincent" from the 1987 TV series "Beauty and the Beast" with Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton as Vincent and Catherine, these are Vincent's long lost leonine relatives from Italy and Spain.

Don Vincenzo,played by Dino, is Vincent's long lost Italian relative, whose persona would be a strikingly handsome leonine version of the Dos Equis Guy (played by Jonathan Goldsmith).

Don Vincente's persona (played by Julia) is inspired by a Diego Velasquez self-portrait (June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660) a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip the IV. He is in his early to mid 50's. Julia states, "I thought that being only 5'3" like many of my Hispanic men friends where I live in New Mexico that my short stature would lend itself well to playing the part of a Spaniard, which it does. As Don Vincente, I got to play the part of a suave, debonair sort of gent, thus indulging my more outgoing and flamboyant nature".

Dino's costume was put together using real Steampunk style clothing. The wig was styled and sprayed with white hair spray and strong hair freezing spray. The gloves were bought with attached fingernails and modified with white paint. The cost: $150.00

Julia's costume: The doublet was made entirely by eye without a pattern using recycled fabric from a dress. The pants are Indian salwar pants bought from a thrift shop. The boots are vinyl. The gloves are two types: nylon underneath with real leather fingerless gloves over. Plastic claws were glued to the nylon gloves. The fangs were plastic custom-fitted ones. The wig was sprayed with white hair spray and styled with super strong freezing spray.

The facial prosthetic appliances were made from scratch. Julia says, "I started to research the subject on You Tube and found that one could easily make such an appliance out of facial quality liquid latex. Because I also work in clay and could easily sculpt a face upon which to mold the latex, I chose Mehron Liquid Latex as my medium. But there was no one available to make a plaster mold of my face upon which to sculpt. What to do? I decided to make an impression of my own face myself, so I rolled out a slab of clay, laid it on my face, pressed around the eyes, nowse, mouth and chin, and then allowed the clay to stiffen a bit. I began to add more clay to make Vincent's face while looking at numerous close up photographs that I had amassed on my PC. I then fired the mold which at this point, looked like a sort of Venetian mask. I proceeded to make the latex facial prosthetic appliance using 10 coats of material, sealed it with castor oil, and then added grease paint and crepe hair. I tested the appliance by wearing it for 6 hours, having applied it with spirit gum. It was quite comfortable, and I was able to eat and drink with it on. In trying on the full garb, I found that I could keep cool in warm weather by tying a wet bandana around my neck and re-wetting it time to time." The cost: $150.00 These are both a work in progress.