Strider coat colour

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Rangerofthesea
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Strider coat colour

Post by Rangerofthesea »

Greetings all,
I have been searching online for what seems like hours and wonder if anyone here can shed some light on a question I have. Does anybody happen to know exactly what shade of green Striders coat is? I can't seem to find reference to it and I'm terrible with colours.
jasonofthehill
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by jasonofthehill »

In the LOTR behind the scenes Ngila Dickson (the costume designer) refers to it as licorice green. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdaYOovyneI (about 5:09), also some really great close ups before and after that timestamp for reference.
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Rangerofthesea
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by Rangerofthesea »

Thank you so much for that. I have the DVD with that on but unfortunately left it at home while I'm away for work. Thanks again.
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by jasonofthehill »

You're welcome. I'm new here but I feel that's what this community is here for.
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Elleth
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by Elleth »

You may also wish to contact Michael Sheridan, our own Manveron - he's but together a startlingly accurate WETA Strider outfit, and has put together an absolutely incredible archive of reference material

https://linktr.ee/Msheridanarts
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Eofor
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by Eofor »

Rangerofthesea wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 11:59 am Greetings all,
I have been searching online for what seems like hours and wonder if anyone here can shed some light on a question I have. Does anybody happen to know exactly what shade of green Striders coat is? I can't seem to find reference to it and I'm terrible with colours.
I agree with Elleth that there is no one better to ask than Manveruon as I believe he has folders and folders of movie stills and shots? It may be worth noting what version of the films you are watching too as they seem to carry different tints which can greatly alter the appearance of some colours compared to the real life item.
But the white fury of the Northmen burned the hotter, and more skilled was their knighthood with long spears and bitter. Fewer were they but they clove through the Southrons like a fire-bolt in a forest.
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Cimrandir
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by Cimrandir »

Given that Manv has quite a bit on his plate with his business and such and may not log in the forum for a while, I’m taking the liberty of posting some photos he posted in a LotR costuming group on Facebook. He built an accurate reproduction of Strider’s coat for a commission. You may find it helpful and seeing the color is a much easier without the filters from the films.
…we sat down together to totally break down, weather, and distress the new jacket - and I am PSYCHED with the final result!
First we trimmed the hemline and cuffs to length. Then we took scissors to all the edges to create the authentic-looking chewed-up, ragged edge - this can be tricky, since you don’t want to make it LOOK like you did it with scissors, but it went quite well, and I think the result turned out awesome! After that we sanded the hell out of it, and then re-colored almost every inch of it by very gently over-dying the green leather with a mixture of brown and black leather dye to get that really gnarly, blackened, filthy look you can see in the movies (the screen-used coat may have started out green, but it definitely doesn’t look totally green on film, even with the green filters they added in post). Finally, I added a good coat of leather conditioner/sealer to help seal in the new dyes and keep the leather from getting crispy.
The only thing we didn’t get to was adding dirt and mud stains, which I usually achieve with the use of acrylic craft paints in various earth-tones, watered down and sponged or splattered onto the hemline and other strategic areas of the garment, and/or dry-brushed on to give a caked-mud look. But even without that detail, I think the final result looks absolutely stellar, and I’m really proud of the work we both did on it!
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Manveruon
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by Manveruon »

Oh wow, yeah, my sincere apologies - I have fallen WAY behind on forum posts, and I totally missed this! Thanks for the kind words, everyone! It’s been a labor of love for me over the course of two solid decades, so the entirety of this costume is really close to my heart!

In terms of the shade of green, yes, as Jasonofthehill mentions above, Nglia Dickson does indeed refer to it as a “licorice green” - although truth be told, I’m not at all sure what that means. I don’t necessarily associate licorice with the color green, but maybe I’m missing something (or maybe indeed she misspoke). Either way though, I personally think the shade of green that comes closest is a sort of deep olive. You don’t want it to get TOO dark, and you don’t want it to read too hunter/Lincoln green or forest green. It’s got to have some brown in it.

The jacket Cimrandir posted here was made from an olive green deer-tan cowhide that I purchased through the Hide House (I used two pieces of it and had JUST barely enough to finish the entire coat with careful positioning on the hide). You can find the exact leather I used here:
https://www.hidehouse.com/Leather/Explo ... -E33-P.asp

This particular leather was a little lighter in color than what I used for my own jacket, and technically just a bit lighter than I probably would have preferred, but it worked out just fine in the end, because we did re-color it really extensively. That’s just the thing - the coat in the movies has clearly been distressed, weathered, over-dyed, and generally altered SIGNIFICANTLY from its original color and finish, and there’s a ton of variegation in it as seen throughout the films, to say nothing of the mud splatters, blood stains, etc. so it can definitely be difficult to say the exact color for sure.

Incidentally, if you or anyone else here happens to be interested, here is a link to my entire Aragorn costume reference library:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... En8Pt-OAyQ
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Taylor Steiner
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by Taylor Steiner »

Holy smokes Manv! That thing is great!
Frodo lives!
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Manveruon
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by Manveruon »

Taylor Steiner wrote: Tue Aug 23, 2022 10:24 pm Holy smokes Manv! That thing is great!
Thanks! I’m really proud of how it came out!
Incidentally, here are some photos of my own reproduction I made for myself a few years back (no wig here because I was just doing a pre-con costume test):
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And here’s a link to my build gallery that has a ton of detailed photos of the process I went through making all of it, if anyone is interested:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sNTf_j6RDw
Maerondir Perianseron, also called “Mickel,” Halfling Friend - Ranger of the Misty Mountains
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Manveruon
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by Manveruon »

Absolutely no idea why some of those are rotated sideways - sorry about that!
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Taylor Steiner
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Re: Strider coat colour

Post by Taylor Steiner »

Wow!
Frodo lives!
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