This upcoming weekend is Comic Con in our area and the crew decided that we wanted new cosplay characters to roll out for this one. Most of us have had ours done for months now but my friends daughter wanted to jump in at the last minute so we kind of rushed to put this cosplay together the past couple of weeks but it has been so fun!
So far, we have had 6 people work on this one for a total of about 48 hours. Total cost has been about $125, which is pretty good considering most can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Not quite done yet but I really wanted to share some of the progress since I really love doing living art. The creation process is incredible and we end up throwing out so many ideas before landing on the final design. Please keep in mind that this is for a teenager and was thrown together rather quickly :)
Cosplay usually takes months to develop depending on the character that you are choosing to do. If I see any really well thought out cosplayers this weekend then I will share in a later post :P
That is a picture of the character that we were trying to create.
Step 1: Clothing Choices
To create the clothing look, we went to the thrift store and picked out a white button up shirt, black shorts, brown jacket, and boots. The white leggings we got at Walmart and the straps were ordered as a kit from Amazon. Patches for the jacket were ordered from Amazon as well. The red scarf we already had.
We chose to add black bike shorts to this cosplay for modesty reasons since the cosplayer is only 14 years old.
Looking for clothing at thrift stores is a cost saving method but can take hours or days trying to find the exact clothing item that you need. Plus when you have a picky teen shopping with you, it can take a little while longer haha.
She has short, dark hair already so we will likely not have her wear a wig but we haven't decided yet.
Step 2: Making Gear Boxes
This step isn't quite done so I will have to share the finished product later on.
We used acryllic paint and plastic Polar Seltzer Water bottles to simulate air compression tanks. One bottle isn't quite tall enough so we cut another one in half and taped them together. This took about 5 coats of paint because acryllic paint doesn't stick well to the plastic right away. I use sponge brushes because it gives a clean look to the brush strokes.
We used acryllic paint in pewter grey and Premier Protein boxes because they are the perfect size for the gear boxes for a teenage girl. The top with the slits is a fitted piece from an old Amazon box that is hot glued to the box. For the slits, the sword has to be able to fit into at least one slit so create the sword and measure it before you cut your slits or you will have to start over again.
Step 3: Making Dual Swords
We cut the swords out of foam board from the dollar store. We had created a template first and used a straight edged ruler to make sure we got good, straight cuts. The hilt of the sword is three separate pieces that are hot glued together. Some YouTube videos will tell you that you should have separate pieces in the blade of the sword but that's not the best way to go about it. The sword blade should be one smooth piece for durability reasons.
The hilt of the swords has black and brown cut outs hot glued onto them and are craft foam from Michael's craft store. Again, we used a template and didn't draw it free hand. Clean lines are important for swords.
The Finished Product
We haven't quite finished but are proud of the result so far! Still need to attach the bottles to the gear boxes and then attach the gear boxes to the cosplay when the cosplayer is dressed. Next time, I want to add more detail to the swords. But, each con we add more detail to the cosplay. Each cosplayer adds their own twist or flair so it's not an exact replica of the original character. Creative license and freedom of expression are so important to producing living art.
More pictures to come this weekend! Thanks so much for checking this out!
