Fear the Walking Dead : the Horrors of Plaid

plaidsI like a good challenge now and then, but it’s equally true that I’m notoriously lazy. I’m working on drafting clothing for the Fear the Walking Dead characters and finding it a balance of both those worlds. This is a universe where people wear a lot of straight basics: t-shirts, sports coats, jeans, that sort of thing. But it’s also a show full of very particular prints and, worst of all worlds: lots of plaid.

Do men really wear this much plaid these days? Especially in California? It seems so 1990s. But then I guess all sorts of retro is in these days.

Fortunately the horror of plaids is largely restricted to one character, Travis. Each of the Clark children (Alicia and Nick) has at least one plaid of their own, as does one zombie critter. All told it’s about 6 or 7 plaid pieces that I have to get through. It could definitely be a lot worse.

And who knows? Maybe I will come to love painting plaid. It’s highly doubtful, but there’s always a chance that it will be a lot easier than I expect. At least I have plenty of reference pictures. And believe me, I’m not going to be super-particular about the exact patterns.

Between the plaids on this show and animal prints on Empire, I’m really wandering into new territories all over the place. Learning new stuff is never a bad thing. I’m looking forward to how these will turn out.