Female Turian costume at Armageddon Expo by Matt & Kristy on Flickr.
Tag Archives: cosplay
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Female Turian costume by Matt & Kristy on Flickr.
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Female Turian costume by Matt & Kristy on Flickr.
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My modded Blood Dragon armour with my custom Turian enhancements and the Black Widow because I can- this is why I made the BW in the end over a pistol- which I was going to do as I still have some rough patches on this thing. Surprise original costume is a suprise. So fun how many people got it. Especially kids who probably shouldn’t be playing the game!
(Photo credit to Matt Glasgow of Star Wars NZ (I’ll link the rest of the parade photos when I get back from the show- and to the Armageddon Cosplay account).)
Glam paint job is glam. A layer of flat paints then washed with translucent yellows and pinks mixed with interference pigments (green over the yellow and blue over the pink).
I made 99% of this costume from raw materials. And patterned about the same. Huge shout out to trodoon on dA for his renders of his 3D models as I had print outs on my workroom walls for reference and used them heavily.
Her name? Neimhaille which is a word I created in 1999 and has since been taken up by fantasy artists with my explanation verbatim 😉 Also there is a Bioware account holder who snaffled it but I am so not ditching it given I did literally create the name. It was for a sportsfighting persona (Scottish- I had my play in music sorted as well- Give me the Prize from Highlander 😉 ).
Anyway so Neimhallie (Nee- wa-yeh or Neev-ayel depending on how authenically Gaelic you want to be- though I don’t object to Neem-ayel either 😉 )
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My modded Blood Dragon armour with my custom Turian enhancements and the Black Widow because I can- this is why I made the BW in the end over a pistol- which I was going to do as I still have some rough patches on this thing. Surprise original costume is a suprise. So fun how many people got it. Especially kids who probably shouldn’t be playing the game!
(Photo credit to Matt Glasgow of Star Wars NZ (I’ll link the rest of the parade photos when I get back from the show- and to the Armageddon Cosplay account).)
Glam paint job is glam. A layer of flat paints then washed with translucent yellows and pinks mixed with interference pigments (green over the yellow and blue over the pink).
I made 99% of this costume from raw materials. And patterned about the same. Huge shout out to trodoon on dA for his renders of his 3D models as I had print outs on my workroom walls for reference and used them heavily.
Her name? Neimhaille which is a word I created in 1999 and has since been taken up by fantasy artists with my explanation verbatim 😉 Also there is a Bioware account holder who snaffled it but I am so not ditching it given I did literally create the name. It was for a sportsfighting persona (Scottish- I had my play in music sorted as well- Give me the Prize from Highlander 😉 ).
Anyway so Neimhallie (Nee- wa-yeh or Neev-ayel depending on how authenically Gaelic you want to be- though I don’t object to Neem-ayel either 😉 )
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I can draw at least :)
So cutting the templates for Shae was harder than it needed to be and I was almost in tears. It is ready to glue together now though and the effort should be worth it.
So after a break I started testing the paper patterns for my Blood Dragon. No, I’m not yet ready to cut the foam base. But I do now have all the armour roughly patterned. Except the helmet. I kind of like how my Lizzie Shep looked with her tiny ponytail and no helmet in cut scenes 🙂
A mix of printer paper, cartridge and baking paper. So yes, it will all need to be transferred. Hpwever my walls are horrible so I need to buy enough card to cover it as well as transfer patterns to.
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I can draw at least 🙂
So cutting the templates for Shae was harder than it needed to be and I was almost in tears. It is…
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PAX attempts
I knew PAX to be essentially tinted glue, tinted medical adhesive grade glue. It is used for skin not just appliances, I just spoke to a Hobbit actor who recalled his days of PAX on LotR so… we both sighed about IM and how we each had lovely care packages in which it was contained 😉
Anyway, I am not part of the regulation of make up artists in the US or anywhere for that matter so DO NOT DO THIS TO SOMEONE ELSE! Unless you have their permission and everyone is fully aware of what it actually is.
Prosthetic Aide and Liquitex was the original formulation and used on Latex appliances. Why? Aside from durablility and endless colour options the chemical composition does not degrade the latex. It offers a lot of protection in fact. Cake make up may contain petro chemicals which will break down latex pretty quick smart.
PA is an acrylic based glue used for medical prosthetics. So it is water mixable when uncured but water-resistant at least when cured.
Galadriel
My first foray was for Galadriel up there back in 2003. I hadn’t got the tone right because I didn’t realise how red my hair had turned (it was two years into methotrexate therapy which is notorious for making hair grow back differently after it all falls out). And it was too late. It was better when I wasn’t surrounded by so much greenery 😉 The stage had red curtain from memory so my hair toned down visually.
Anyway. This wasn’t PAX but a much easier to remove alternative. J&J Clean and Clear moisturiser (still available) with some acrylic paint. The moisturiser is about the only one you can do this with as it is meant to not deliver a deep dose of oils or anything to young skin. But it does carry the pigments and thins them out nicely.
Samara
For Samara I used a very similar mix with a little Liquiset added in. And a little PA as I used it to hold the appliance on my head.
Full PAX
For Shaak Ti and Darth Tykhi it was full on PAX. And I wanted to tear my skin off. Also that is the same colour paint in both cases. Convention lighting can do weird things to colour.
In all cases I used a filbert style brush, foundation brushes are a kind of this shape (rounded paddle shape) and lots of careful layering. PAX takes a while to dry and it goes very tacky when it is close to dry. You need to powder to set at just the right moment or you get powder patches.
You can go swimming in the stuff.
As for wanting to tear my skin off? It’s like wearing an extra full layer of skin, dermis, epidermis and subdermis. I felt very very claustrophobic. Especially the paint around my thighs. The paint flexes but not as much as skin.
So recommended? Only if you absolutely have to and if PAX is genuinely cheaper than the newer alternatives. Which it may be where you live. Here PA is exceedingly expensive.
Cons: difficult to remove once cured (really hot bath with lots of soap, you will be sweating) some rubbing alcohol and if you can Isopropyl Myristate. This makes the glue break down permanently and gums it up so you’ll need your own towel and facecloth etc. at an hotel.
It’s messy to work with and tidy as you go. The slow cure and water solubility while curing makes it easy to transfer to everything. Also it’s glue.
Pros: it stays put. Stays put. Unless you say lie on the carpet and lean on your elbows and then you might transfer some from essentially scrubbing it off.
If you are using latex appliances it’s a once stop no wories about matching shop! It’s fantastic for painting detail over AA paint as you can wipe it off with a damp cloth when you make a mistake but once cured grips like a limpet!
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Base and Buff:
The first is great, really great to get “natural” looks that work well under camera. I’m now old enough that I have been worrying about foundation settling where I don’t want it to but was intoduced to the most fabulous tool ever. The “stipple” or airbrush brush. Can’t miss them they are usually synthetic and have dense black fibres and then longer finer white fibres that extent to form a flat top.
I have this one and looooove it 🙂 Going to get a second one. I have Revlon Color Creations and pump that into my hand and literally stipple and sweep the liquid on lightly and wow. What a difference! Those stay put make ups tend to get really tacky really quickly so I now do this immediately after moisturising (Aveeno in this case, not for paint, I’ll get to that later!) and might even put a little in with the foundation.
For human tones (or in that range close to my own) I use the same brush (sweeping motion) to set with powder which helps keep the brush from clumping which makes it easier to clean after. Isopropyl Alcohol and a gentle cloth for this one.
For the greenifying above I took a densely coloured powder and a velour puff and just buff with it in to the foundation, lightly then more firmly to get a nice even colour. But your own skin underneath shows through a little and so you don’t need to shade and highlight quite as much as you do with paint.
In both cases the green was by ChiChi and in a compressed compact. Lovely rich colour. And really reasonably priced.
I also used Liquiset and PAX (prosthetic Aide and acrylic paint) for line details where suitable. PAX for under neck and liquiset around eyes.
They are also mica rich so I avoided flash photography where possible. With a setting spray my hands stayed pretty green all evening but you can see some wear under the metal necklace and my hands in the Wvil Queen photo.
BTW, the fauna of the Juncle costume was my Witchblade costume with extra bits added. All caulk silicon mixed with pigments and powdered into metallic hyper shine. Like a beetle carapace.
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Make up part one
I think I have to accept I am perma banned from my own site and hosts so Tumblr gets the blog posts I’d make over there. Sigh.
I like to either work with street make up as a base and buff subtle/not so subtle colour in with brushes and velour pads. This works well when you have the colour in a compact where you can do touch ups but does last a good evening.
Or I go hard core with the paint because at at conventions I have to keep moving or I crash. There are bugger all photos of me at cons because I’m not in place for long enough 😉 But it means I am always on the job always looking for people to enthuse at. It’s just part of my job as Cosplay Coordinator for the shows in NZ (and Melbourne) and member of the Rebel Legion and 501st (and occasionally for the SCA.) I’m never flitting away to look for purchases, it’s to do the one on one thing. Not sure how many people actually realise how much is involved (though I may need to set an alarm to make sure I have a proper break).
So it is rare that I have a chance to reset or fix anything once the main doors open at a convention! That habit has spilled over to my funtimes visits too.
Nest post will be about an easy but effective method and then the one after that will be all about AA 🙂
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