The Van Dyke is real

James’ costume consists of a linen (under)shirt, a slashed doublet, breeches, leather bucket boots, leather gauntlets, linen cuffs and collar with lace, a woolen musketeer tabard (or cassock/casaque or mandilion) with a hand-embroidered cross and pewter buttons and a wool felt hat with 5 ostrich plumes.

And twirled facial hair.

James came to my rescue and offered to help me with the costumes right before Halloween. So I had him sewing buttons for two days. There are 113 buttons just on the tabard.

The musketeer tabard that you have pictured in your mind never really existed. No one knows for sure what they look like, but the tabards you typically see in most movies and illustrations are based on Maurice Leloir’s rendition of a musketeer – he was the main illustrator for Dumas, and while he strove for historical accuracy, the tabard was likely inspired by the theatre, and based on a court pages outfit.

I used patterns from Reconstructing History (with some modifications – mainly to the tabard), and that’s also where I bought the (very fitting) collar lace from. I would say that you do need some sewing experience for these patterns – they are not for beginners – but if you ever get stuck or have questions you can email the pattern makers and she’ll get right back to you. The boots were James’ wedding boots (modified), and his gloves were from Leather Mystics.

Halloween may be over…but the magic is not. Even though it looks as if the magic of winter solstice celebrations are already trying to squish out the lingering Halloween magic, I’ll keep the spirit of jackolanterns, costumes, and the-day-after sugar/party headache alive for a little while longer. I will complete my remaining Halloween Hoopla sketches (for my high school, university and early marriage years) in the next few weeks – the reasons for the spread out delay, and the reasons why the sketches suddenly stopped, are as followed:

• I was frantically trying to get two Halloween costumes together.
• I suddenly became ill (it wasn’t the flu but I shall spare you the details. I am fine fine fine now)
• had to do multiple trips back and forth to the hospital (but again, I’m fine)
• lost about 5 days for costuming, time that was badly needed, and thus spent all of my remaining waking moments working on the costumes. my husband was kind enough to feed me while I worked and remind me to shower.

So it was a very, very busy Halloween season. We went to a party, which was fantastic. We had a truly magnificent time; I was so delighted at the quality and quantity of costumes, it truly was one of my best Halloweens.

Plus, everyone seemed to really, really like our costumes.

d'Artagnan and Milady de Winter

So much hand stitching, embroidery, button (hole) stitching…but they turned out quite nice I think. I’ll post some more photos with more details about the costumes later during the week.

It was one for all. And all for one.

(James was very, very relieved that he could finally shave. I can’t help but miss his Van Dyke)

Constance Bonacieux

The Three Musketeers: The Game has now been released now for PC! Huzzah!

d'Artagnan ("Charles de Batz-Castelmore Comte d'Artagnan")

The Three Musketeers: The Game has been released for Mac!

Check out the new video and download the demo today!

The Comte de Rochefort

The Comte de Rochefort, otherwise known as the “Man from Meung” throughout The Three Musketeers, is a mysterious character who appears from time to time both in the book and the game. I debated about revealing his true name in this post – the Man from Meung’s name is not announced until the end but it is somewhat of a disappointment. It wasn’t as if he declared that he was the King of England or d’Artagnan’s father.

…Or did he?

Dingo Games Shirts

Dingo Games company T-shirts, made in the summer of ’08 and worn proudly since. Made with StencilPro and aided by my wonderful husband. While I imagine that I do a pretty ok job of ‘screening’ small images, I don’t seem to have the consistent arm strength needed to squeegee bigger images, so that’s where I run to my computer scientist for help.

It has been a busy couple of weeks that began with PAX and ended with a trip to the Mandarin. And the middle, like an Oreo cookie, was filled with the best stuff; family, friends, Pate‘s corn, the Toronto Zoo, Cyrano, German board games and a very, very fun and beautiful wedding. It’s good to be home and to get back to working on Musketeer related projects – apart from game work, there are 5 ostrich plumes and a black felted hat that are requesting my attention.

It’s done it’s done it’s done it’s done it’s done it’s done it’s done!

Louis XIII, King of France and Navarre

You can try (and buy) The Three Musketeers: The Game here!

Poor Louis, everything to him is just so boring. In the game he wears a little head wreath because he needed to be a bit different (and I didn’t like him in a crown, and a cavalier hat wasn’t unique enough). Pretty sure the real Louis wasn’t walking around wearing a laurel wreath, but it is a dashing look, as portrayed in actual portraits and on coins!

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

He’s gorgeous! He’s rich! Kings wanna love him, army officers want to be him!

In The Three Musketeers, Buckingham is a key character involved in all the courtly intrigues. He may not be around too much, but when he is, the reader is made aware each and every time that he is very important, very good looking, and very English.

Anne of Austria, Queen Consort of France

Poor tragic Queen Anne – beautiful but unhappy.

When I had to go about creating artwork for The Three Musketeers: The Game, I was concerned about keeping ‘things’ within a historical contest. Clothing, weapons, furniture, buildings, pottery – so many different aspects of early 17th century life were researched in hopes of making a historical game true to the time period. It was overwhelming initially trying to keep everything accurate. So while I did my best, a lot of things in the game are not “100% true” to the real early 17th century.

Alexander Dumas’ The Three Musketeers is a swashbuckling romantic historical fiction epic; it’s not a period-perfect true-to-real-life non-fiction account of the 17th century. Events that actually occurred are in the book – but at incorrect times. Real people within the book are by no means historically accurate portrayals. There are even items that didn’t exist in the early 17th century that found their way into the book – like a stove-pipe that is crucial to the story. Even the iconic and beloved tabard of the Musketeers is not accurate – the real Musketeers weren’t given uniforms until later on, and there is uncertainty about the ‘tabard’ (or cassock) colours.

While I did take artistic liberties when doing illustrations and animation, I had such a marvelous time conducting research, even if the final products weren’t “100% true.’ All the main characters were based on real portraits from the early 17th century. We traveled to England and France to get a more personal feel for the countries portrayed in the book. And I had such a fun time documenting different weapons and articles of clothing.

So when you’re reading or playing The Three Musketeers, know that both Dumas and Dingo Games had the best of intentions. You can’t watch Pirates of the Caribbean or Gladiator (or any film version of The Three Musketeers!) as a historical documentary – you watch it for fun. And fun is what The Three Musketeers: The Game is all about.

(If you are interesting in a watching a great ‘real history lesson,’ watch ‘Tales From The Green Valley.’ The show takes places in the UK instead of France, but I absolutely loved it – and yes, for those concerned, the DVD works fine on North American players!)