So in my last blog entry, I talked about preparing for my cosplay last year. Last year was actually the first year I attempted cosplay, fun fact! I've been to other cons but never in costume. I didn't think I would be able to attempt it before last year you see, because the amount of exhaustion you experience at any con can be very overwhelming. When I attended San Diego Comic Con, for instance, the most sleep I ever got was when I camped outside of Hall H (the largest panel room in the convention hall) in a sleeping bag. I averaged maybe 4-5 hours if I got lucky. If you've been to a con like this before, you can probably relate.
Despite this, I couldn't take not dressing up any longer. Not that there is anything wrong with not dressing up, but dressing up is so much fun! For anyone that hasn't dressed up in cosplay, just think about how excited you get when you get to dress up for Halloween each year and plan your costume. Now bump that up about fifteen levels, because you're not going to want to stop at your generic costume from a Halloween store. You're going to want elements of the character they don't have, you're going to want this and that, and thus you're thrown into the world of costume DIY. Let me just tell you, it's worth it!
Now, in my last blog entry I told you all not to wait until the last second to plan your cosplay and put all the pieces together. I stand by that. But take my own advise? Pssssssshhh no. So I pretty much had every idea I could muster for my own cosplay just a few days ago. I've been throwing it together since. Mind you, I had plans for only one costume this year - the Bride of Frankenstein. I had the outfit and wig figured out, I've been toying with makeup look ideas... Seemingly I had everything figured out. Well, no, not really... and by not really, I mean basically not at all. I decided that I didn't just want to dress up one day of the con like I did for Dragon Con last year. Time to throw some things together!
Bride of Frankenstein, Dr. Finkelstein (The Nightmare Before Christmas), Anger (Inside Out)... here I come!
Crafting
I got kind of lucky with my procrastination this time, which is great. I had already dressed as Anger for an Inside Out Party I had with friends (most people my age go to clubs and I planned a party to celebrate the release of a Disney/Pixar movie - this is who you're dealing with!), so I already had some of those things together. I was already planning on dressing as Dr. Finkelstein when I attend Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney Magic Kingdom this September, and the Bride of Frankenstein was always going to happen for Dragon Con this year. But I always want to do more! *I should note, the Inside Out party turned into a combination Inside Out & Avengers party, and these pictures are from that night! Featuring my cat, Sherlock!*
I have here my Inside Out Anger shoes, one of which I painted last year, and one of which I painted this year! The Inside Out shoe was used last year in my look for Disgust, so this year I painted an Anger shoe to match the already painted Disgust shoes! Also here are my Dr. Finkelstein/Nightmare Before Christmas shoes, which I loooved painting! Using pictures for reference, I drew on the designs in pencil and used the color scheme as best I could! One thing I do recommend you get if you are planning on matching colors like I did is getting yourself some small paint pots that you can mix your paint in and keep it fresh - this has been super useful for me, especially if I want to go back in and add to them at a later date. The last pair of shoes here are silhouette depictions of Frankenstein and his Bride, from the classic Universal Studios horror films! I used an already silhouetted picture of their faces for reference, and these were by far the most difficult to translate to the shoes! You feel a little crazy just filling in a wavy splotch where a mouth goes, but once the paint goes on, it really comes to life! For the backs of the shoes, I just wrote out "here comes" how it came naturally to me, and for "THE BRIDE" I used a reference photo of one of the original posters of the film!
But once I was done with the shoes... Well, I wasn't really done! I decided that since I had finished these relatively quickly, I should move on to hair bows... naturally. Naturally, right? I can't be the only one! Keeping it in this year's cosplay family, I decided to make a bow for all three looks! They'll be pinned into the wigs I wear respectively, which I cannot wait to do! I decided to buy these bows instead of making them since I'm short on time, and I got some blank ones from the craft section in Walmart, so if you want to do the same they should be fairly easy to find! *I also bought some plain cheap shoes at Walmart to make these, and they're really comfortable and a great canvas!* So I used these plain white and black bows and, as usual, acrylic paint! Once you're done, it's important to seal your work off with Mod Podge. I've said this before, but don't apply too much Mod Podge! Your shoes can crack if you use more than just one layer, as can any other bendable surface you apply it to. I only applied Mod Podge to the parts of the bows where I actually used the acrylic paint so that they were still flexible. If your design covers the whole surface of the shoe, use one coat over all of it (the cloth part), otherwise just apply to the painted areas!
Clothes
So since I don't yet know how to sew and I wanted to do a different take on these characters, I started looking for outfits that looked like a modern inspired version of each character. So basically, I wanted to make Anger & Dr. Finkelstein a human, and I wanted the Bride of Frankenstein to be dressed to reflect modern day. Thus I began to plan every bit of my outfits - some even came from things I already had in my closet that I decided to re-purpose! I found everything that I wanted and needed from Torrid, Hot Topic, Fashion to Figure! Torrid and Fashion to Figure have perfect clothes for curvy women, so when I go shopping, generally it's there. The only things I have for my cosplay from Hot Topic were their amazeballs socks. For real, they have all kinds of socks for just about any pop culture you can think of. It's awesome.
Makeup
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Makeup
I love going all in for makeup looks! For the looks planned, I will be using pictures of the original characters, my own ideas, and some inspiration from NikkieTutorials & Patrick Starrr!
Inspiration from Nikkie:
Inspiration from Patrick:
I pulled inspiration from the eyes in Patrick's BoF tutorial, and I learned how to contour in B&W from the lovely Nikkie!
Inspiration for the Anger makeup look started with Nikkie's Hunger Games look and evolved into my own creation!
That's it for now, folks! Look for my next blog entry about Dragon Con coming soon!
Bis zum Nächsten Mal!
RayKay
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