Anonymous asked: My friends and I are thinking of making a Gunnerkrigg Court cosplay group and we were wondering what to do for Ysengrin's arms, which are made of wood. Would you recommend using Wonderflex, an armsock like Vriska cosplayers use, or a craft foam method?
Wow!! That would be awesome! I don’t have any experience with Wonderflex, so I asked a friend about it and he said that it has some diverse uses but there is a pretty steep learning curve for it. So unless you are already good with sculptural stuff you should probably steer clearly of that. A method that requires less skill would be do an armsock with layered craft foam over it to achieve the right shapes. A neat trick with craft foam is that when you heat it up, not only can you bend it but you can press textures into it! So you could potentiall get a natural wood grain going. You could also stick with just an armsock and put padding underneath to get the MUSCLES Ysengrin has.
I wish you the best of luck!
Anonymous asked: Hi! I would like to get into making weapon props, armor, and so on for my cosplays, but I have no idea where to start. Specifically, I'm hoping to work up to Thor's costume from the Avengers film, Mjolnir included. Do you have any tips?
Honestly, when I encounter problems I just end up looking for tutorials for that specific problem - usually there’s a tutorial on the same topic, even if it isn’t the exact item I’m trying to make. I’m not sure exactly what you’ll need (you say you want to “work up to” Thor’s costume, so I don’t know if you’re experimenting with other things first?) I’ll just throw a bunch of prop-related links at you:
A really good craft foam armor tutorial
A good paper mache recipe
A tutorial on molding latex, although I don’t know how relevant that will be for Thor
Also specifically for Thor:
Photos of Thor’s hammer (the actual prop)
Again, if you have a more specific question, I’ll probably be able to help more!
Anonymous asked: Do you know how to attach a sword/half-sword to yourself while making it still look sorta realistic? I'm cosplaying guardian Dave and was wondering.
You’ll probably have to create a harness that attaches to the end of the sword that touches your body and goes under your shirt. I’m thinking you’ll probably need to have straps that go over your shoulders, and potentially one that goes all the way around your chest as well, but you’ll have to see how much support the sword needs.
Anonymous asked: I want to cosplay Senji(Crow) from Deadman Wonderland, but I'm a girl. Do you think just a black shirt would help since I don't want to show my chest? Also, how would you make the collar around his neck (the metal thing)?
What a cool looking dude! I have seen female-bodied people cosplay shirtless men before by either wearing a white or black tank top, depending on the color of their skin, OR (I personally prefer this, but it obviously depends on the size of your chest whether you can pull it off) using Ace bandages to wrap up their breasts. I know, I know, everyone says not to bind with Ace bandages, and it’s true that it can be dangerous if you wrap it tightly. Also, they tend to slip around while binding, so it could be dangerous in that sense too. But you can buy strapless binders that look like tube tops, then wrap the bandages around that. Wearing just a binder might be questionable, although you might be able to pull it off depending on the style of binder!
For the metal neck thing, this thread gives some suggestions on how to make it (about halfway down the page). I suggest either making a tinfoil/wire base and covering it with sculpey or model magic, or using a styrofoam ring as the base and covering it. You want it light enough so that it won’t bother you when you’re wearing it. The thread’s suggestion of holding it together with magnets is a really good one!
quadrants asked: I have to paint two pairs of shoes an obnoxious shade of violet. I have several options that I'm already looking at, but I'd like a second opinion! Please note that the shoes are going to be formal (one pair of dress shoes and a pair of semi-riding boots), but probably not leather. The products I'm looking at the most are Krylon's fusion spray and Liquitex Soft Body paint. c: Can you give me any advice at all?
I think either one would work! I’ve spray-painted and painted with acrylic on shoes. Spray paint is definitely not for detail work, so if you want your shoes ENTIRELY purple, that would work. Be sure to use several coats or it’ll look patchy. If you want, say, the body of the shoes purple but the soles to remain the original color, then you’ll have to go with the acrylic.
You say the shoes aren’t leather - if they’re some kind of fabric like canvas, I would probably recommend mixing your paint with fabric medium or using fabric paint (although fabric paint can be kind of hard to work with). Either of these will give a more long-lasting result than acrylic paint on something that may get wet.
If the shoes are made of plastic (or if you want to paint the soles) be aware that acrylic paint may chip off with wearing. You can put a sealant over it to help stop this but I haven’t found a kind of paint that stays on the soles of shoes very well. (Anyone have any suggestions for this?)
trustmeimbella asked: hi i am going to be doing an eridan cosplay in the near future and i'm just wondering how i should go about making his rings?? also any tips for a god tier nepeta would be much appreciated too thanks!!
What I did for the rings was go to Michael’s, buy some cheap rings of various shapes, paint them with gold paint, and then glue purple rhinestones onto them. Actually MAKING the rings seems unnecessarily difficult given that Eridan’s rings change in pretty much every single panel featuring his hands.
Tips for a god tier Nepeta? Try to base the design off the already-made designs. It’s fun to go wild sometimes, but if you’re going to make a cosplay off a non-canon design you want it to look like it would integrate seamlessly into canon. General tips for god tier cosplay include: Use some kind of natural fabric for sure, nothing at all shiny. Fleece, flannel, and other similar “pajama” materials are a good bet, since the god tiers seem to be based on pajamas. Especially since it’s Nepeta, something soft will work really well. We linked to a really good tutorial for god tier wings a little while back too!
If you have any more specific questions, ask away!
God Tier Aradia Wing Tutorial
Technically, this tutorial can be used for Vriska’s wings also. Or a fantroll’s wings. Or even just regular fairy wings. Anyway, I had trouble finding a cohesive tutorial on how to make the things, so I thought I’d make my own.
Tutorial under the cut (warning: image-heavy):
awesome and very comprehensive tutorial on fairy wings!
hulksmashmouth asked: I'm trying to make a Weeping Angel costume for Anime Detour in April; any tips on how to get started or where I might be able to find a pattern for the dress? Thanks!
Alright, so a little internet browsing and I ran across this excellent tutorial for an excellent costume. The Doctor Who fandom is large, experienced, and extremely talented, so you should be able to find resources without too much trouble.
A few comments on the tutorial (obviously, I haven’t used it myself, so take this with a grain of salt):
I like the use of a stiffer fabric for the dress. It’ll be harder to work with, as she said, but will definitely give you more stone-like look. Also, the technique used to make the dress is REALLY simple, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble.
I’m not sure about the use of the mask/neck cover…as she said in the tutorial, it looks good from the front but not the side. I can’t really think of a good solution other than to make a full-head mask or a mask that blends in on the side (latex?) but I honestly have no mask-making skills whatsoever. You could always just make up your face as close as possible, although that depends on how much you can contort your face l-lol
I also like the use of gloves for the hands/arms, but, again, I would probably go with makeup for the face. This is a good place to start for makeup (it’s a tutorial for Homestuck trolls, so it’s even gray), although you might want to use PAX for your neck (or even an airbrush if you can afford it!). Obviously, you’ll have to expand on that tutorial to get the stone look, but you’ll probably get a lot of experience painting stone after the dress and wings!
If you do finish this for Detour, tell me because I’ll probably be there and I’d love to see the end result!
Fefcestor Horn Tutorial
Ok so I’m finally making this! It will be long so I’ll put it under a read more cut…
This tutorial is specifically for the horns themselves, how to attach/wear them will come in a different tutorial after I figure it out myself (which probably won’t be until November or December, sorry guys!)
