Cosplay Challenge II
May. 31st, 2012 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asreoninfusionBecause this time I decided that I was going to change my plans for May's Expo, two weeks before the event! Always a good idea... XD
Reference picture:
I'd actually planned to do Aqua over a year or so ago, but never went through with it. (I used to have a friend who abhorred the series and was very vocal about that opinion, so that put me off. And then I just completely forgot about it. ^^;;) But I was replaying Birth By Sleep and was re-struck by the same inspiration I had been the first time, so cosplaying for Expo it was. :D
Of course, I decided this about two weeks before Expo actually occured. Despite that, it wasn't too bad. It was constant, solid work, but never a mad, panicked rush to finish (except a few last pieces on the morning heading up to London >>), and I'm generally really pleased with how the costume came out.
In the vaguely approximate order I made everything;
- Belts and insignia piece. The belts I didn't really take any progress photos of, but they were basically just cheap white belts from the pound store that I painted pink and cut down, replacing the buckles with snap fasteners. The insignia piece, as above, is just Fimo clay that I had floating around from another project. It took four tries to get that paint job right. I'd run out of the primer I'd used before for the white mage staff, so I attempted painting it without, but... yeah, primer is your friend.
- Skirt and short combination. (It does look better in a not-horribly-dingy room, honest.) The skirt was bought from a charity store the first time I was planning to cosplay Aqua, and has just been sitting in my cosplay drawer this whole time. It was a really lucky find; perfect colour, length, and style, so it was just a matter of cutting it into the two pieces and re-hemming the edges. The shorts were easy again, just leggings cut down and re-hemmed.
- Shoulder armour pieces. Nothing terribly exciting here, just painted craft foam. ^^;; I was vaguely following this tutorial, but obviously I quickly gave up on the entire sealing section due to time constraints! My colours required acrylics rather than rub n' buff anyway, so the quick way was sufficient.
- Keyblade! I was dreading doing it, but once I figured out my method, it was actually really fun and came out better than I was expecting. Well, the wood was a little thin, and the paint job wasn't the best either, so the combination of those factors have resulted in the finished piece looking a little more 2D than I would like. It was also a little flimsy in the handle joint (not that this stopped me waving it around like a maniac and slashing bubbles with it. XD;)
For the keyblade itself, I basically just sized up my reference picture, printed it out and cut it down into the respective pieces I was going to use. Which was a lot easier that trying to pattern all the pieces myself, as I'd originally tried to do! Used the pattern pieces to cut out the wood, glued it all together, sand down the edges, primer, painting, and voila! The chain (which hasn't been added in either of the photos) was just plastic chain I'd bought from the hardware store and painted, and there's a little pendant on the end which is more Fimo clay with some glass gems embedded.
- Top and corset. The corset is obviously an actual bought corset, which has had the lacing detail (shoelaces >>) sewn on to it. The top is made myself, though I'm not entirely happy with the fabric colour. It's the right kind of fabric, but I could only find it in either the royal blue that I used, or a rather too dark navy blue. Eh. I own a very similar style of top myself, just in black, so I used that to make the pattern from. Black edging and boob patches (lol, idk, what are you supposed to called them?) were added in after this picture.
- Wig. This is after cutting, but before styling. I've never actually styled a wig before, and thus don't have a wig head, so there was a bit of difficulty with the endeavour. Originally, I tried to get my sister to wear it while I styled it, but I couldn't even figure out how to put a wig on another person. >>;; So then I wore it and my mum attempted to style it. That... just didn't go well. So I washed it out, and ended up styling it while wearing it myself and trying to judge what I was doing looking in the mirror. It was a complete pain and tooks me forever, but it eventually turned out not too bad at all for a first attempt at wig styling.
- The shoe armour was another headache, and I admit I totally left this right to the last minute because of how much I was dreading it. ^^;; This was done the night before. Pretty basic really - a pair of old boots (they were my favourite for ages, but given they're old enough to now have holes in the sole, I think it's time to retire them T^T) and craft foam cut out and hot glued onto them. A bit of painting and weathering later, and done! It didn't look half bad, despite the rather slapdash method of making them. Problem was, alas, the craft foam isn't terribly flexible, and at the front just above the ankle (where most of the movement was) it ended up tearing somewhat. This was probably not aided by the fact I was running around a lot, though. >>
- The sleeves and white drapey bits on the skirt I didn't take any progress shots off because... well, basically, they're just bits of white fabric. Not terribly exciting! And the last few other things (gloves and over-the-knee socks) were just bought. And that was it!
I've scrounged a few photos from Expo, but there's not as many good ones as I would like. So I'm hoping to do a proper photoshoot and get some nice ones with interesting poses and non-derpy expressions and such like. I'm in the process of making a Wayfinder for that. :3
But in the meantime, here's the best I could find of the finished product (be warned, though; derpy face errywhere. >>)
Taken at the Manga Cosplay Zone booth thingy at Expo [http://sfx.co.uk/2012/05/01/mango-cosplay-compo-finalists-vote-for/]
Taken by Yilei Wu
Taken by Nathan Toper [http://nathantoper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/mcm-expo-london-comic-con-cosplay-part.html]
I didn't take too many photos during Expo, but I'll post the ones I did take a bit later, as well as a general write up. Because it was quite the eventful Expo indeed, and the best I've been to. Apartment-sharing and actually staying on-site makes a huge difference. :3
Reference picture:
I'd actually planned to do Aqua over a year or so ago, but never went through with it. (I used to have a friend who abhorred the series and was very vocal about that opinion, so that put me off. And then I just completely forgot about it. ^^;;) But I was replaying Birth By Sleep and was re-struck by the same inspiration I had been the first time, so cosplaying for Expo it was. :D
Of course, I decided this about two weeks before Expo actually occured. Despite that, it wasn't too bad. It was constant, solid work, but never a mad, panicked rush to finish (except a few last pieces on the morning heading up to London >>), and I'm generally really pleased with how the costume came out.
In the vaguely approximate order I made everything;
- Belts and insignia piece. The belts I didn't really take any progress photos of, but they were basically just cheap white belts from the pound store that I painted pink and cut down, replacing the buckles with snap fasteners. The insignia piece, as above, is just Fimo clay that I had floating around from another project. It took four tries to get that paint job right. I'd run out of the primer I'd used before for the white mage staff, so I attempted painting it without, but... yeah, primer is your friend.
- Skirt and short combination. (It does look better in a not-horribly-dingy room, honest.) The skirt was bought from a charity store the first time I was planning to cosplay Aqua, and has just been sitting in my cosplay drawer this whole time. It was a really lucky find; perfect colour, length, and style, so it was just a matter of cutting it into the two pieces and re-hemming the edges. The shorts were easy again, just leggings cut down and re-hemmed.
- Shoulder armour pieces. Nothing terribly exciting here, just painted craft foam. ^^;; I was vaguely following this tutorial, but obviously I quickly gave up on the entire sealing section due to time constraints! My colours required acrylics rather than rub n' buff anyway, so the quick way was sufficient.
- Keyblade! I was dreading doing it, but once I figured out my method, it was actually really fun and came out better than I was expecting. Well, the wood was a little thin, and the paint job wasn't the best either, so the combination of those factors have resulted in the finished piece looking a little more 2D than I would like. It was also a little flimsy in the handle joint (not that this stopped me waving it around like a maniac and slashing bubbles with it. XD;)
For the keyblade itself, I basically just sized up my reference picture, printed it out and cut it down into the respective pieces I was going to use. Which was a lot easier that trying to pattern all the pieces myself, as I'd originally tried to do! Used the pattern pieces to cut out the wood, glued it all together, sand down the edges, primer, painting, and voila! The chain (which hasn't been added in either of the photos) was just plastic chain I'd bought from the hardware store and painted, and there's a little pendant on the end which is more Fimo clay with some glass gems embedded.
- Top and corset. The corset is obviously an actual bought corset, which has had the lacing detail (shoelaces >>) sewn on to it. The top is made myself, though I'm not entirely happy with the fabric colour. It's the right kind of fabric, but I could only find it in either the royal blue that I used, or a rather too dark navy blue. Eh. I own a very similar style of top myself, just in black, so I used that to make the pattern from. Black edging and boob patches (lol, idk, what are you supposed to called them?) were added in after this picture.
- Wig. This is after cutting, but before styling. I've never actually styled a wig before, and thus don't have a wig head, so there was a bit of difficulty with the endeavour. Originally, I tried to get my sister to wear it while I styled it, but I couldn't even figure out how to put a wig on another person. >>;; So then I wore it and my mum attempted to style it. That... just didn't go well. So I washed it out, and ended up styling it while wearing it myself and trying to judge what I was doing looking in the mirror. It was a complete pain and tooks me forever, but it eventually turned out not too bad at all for a first attempt at wig styling.
- The shoe armour was another headache, and I admit I totally left this right to the last minute because of how much I was dreading it. ^^;; This was done the night before. Pretty basic really - a pair of old boots (they were my favourite for ages, but given they're old enough to now have holes in the sole, I think it's time to retire them T^T) and craft foam cut out and hot glued onto them. A bit of painting and weathering later, and done! It didn't look half bad, despite the rather slapdash method of making them. Problem was, alas, the craft foam isn't terribly flexible, and at the front just above the ankle (where most of the movement was) it ended up tearing somewhat. This was probably not aided by the fact I was running around a lot, though. >>
- The sleeves and white drapey bits on the skirt I didn't take any progress shots off because... well, basically, they're just bits of white fabric. Not terribly exciting! And the last few other things (gloves and over-the-knee socks) were just bought. And that was it!
I've scrounged a few photos from Expo, but there's not as many good ones as I would like. So I'm hoping to do a proper photoshoot and get some nice ones with interesting poses and non-derpy expressions and such like. I'm in the process of making a Wayfinder for that. :3
But in the meantime, here's the best I could find of the finished product (be warned, though; derpy face errywhere. >>)
Taken at the Manga Cosplay Zone booth thingy at Expo [http://sfx.co.uk/2012/05/01/mango-cosplay-compo-finalists-vote-for/]
Taken by Yilei Wu
Taken by Nathan Toper [http://nathantoper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/mcm-expo-london-comic-con-cosplay-part.html]
I didn't take too many photos during Expo, but I'll post the ones I did take a bit later, as well as a general write up. Because it was quite the eventful Expo indeed, and the best I've been to. Apartment-sharing and actually staying on-site makes a huge difference. :3
