#cosfaqs

I was told by several friends and tumblr users that my Fisher the Voidfish cosplay from The Adventure Zone was being shared uncredited via pintrest and tumblr, so I hurried to put out my big compilation post faster than I usually do. I would very much appreciate it if everyone could reblog this version of the post, instead of any other post floating around that doesn’t correctly credit the costume back to me!! As an artist and a fan, it was incredibly hurtful that this happened. Although the original reposter has apologized profusely for this and properly credited me afterwards, it’s incredibly difficult to undo the damage that results from the reposting of any uncredited image in a large fandom. 

All photos in this post are taken by either myself, scribblesafterdark, or by cowbuttcrunchies!! My darling Magnus is the other half of cowbuttcrunchies. I would also like to take this time to shoutout to my friend automb, who provided endless support with this costume and helped me with cutting and trimming all the tentacles on Fisher’s dress. They also made Junior for me under my guidance, while I was going nutso over the rest of the costume. 

Thank you again to everyone who commented and tagged me on the other post, and I hope that everyone reblogs this version instead!!! As usual, more information about my work process will be under the cut, so if you’re interested in that kind of thing, read on! 💙 

Now, I was one of the last people in my friend group to get into and catch up to TAZ, and they had all been planning to cosplay TAZ to an upcoming convention as a large group. By the time I caught up, (right before the finale!!!!!) most of the characters were snatched up and we had three weeks left before the con. I was indifferent to any particular character (I loved them all equally, not that I didn’t like any) up until I heard the Voidfish’s song to Magnus about her baby. I fell in love right there and made the incredibly rash and stupid decision to make a Voidfish costume of my own design in the three weeks before Dragon*Con. 

With the design process I basically knew exactly what I wanted to do from the beginning. I didn’t want to create a jellyfish inspired dress, I wanted to BE a magical space jellyfish. I avoided any decisions to make my skirt into a jellycap because it would detract from being a creature’s silhouette into being a very human one. The decision to make a headpiece instead of using an umbrella was also intentional; I wanted my hands free for posing and to hold Junior, and any wooden ducks that came my way!! 

The dress base I used is made from cotton sateen and is my own pattern I drafted to fit my curves. I have a difficult body type to shop for and most commercial patterns don’t fit me without heavy alterations, so it’s much easier for me to create my own from scratch. It’s scoop necked dress with princess seams and a skirt that is hemmed slightly higher in the front than in the back. This was an intentional choice to reflect the decisions I made with the jellycap, in that I knew I wanted the cap to be balanced off center and at an angle instead of being parallel to the floor. 

Once I had the dress made and added boning to the bodice, I used my airbrush and went over the whole dress to give it a galaxy aurora borealis effect. While the dress was wet in between layers, I sprinkled some coarse salt on the dress to get that sort of organic mottled look on my fabric. It was a risk that worked incredibly well in my favor after the dyes dried!! 

The tentacles were all organza cut in spirals and serged on all sides. The fabric I used the most of was this glimmery, purple holographic organza from the little girls Halloween costume aisle in JoAnn’s, and supplemented with anything I found stored in my basement leftover from previous costumes! 

My pride and joy and possibly the coolest item I have ever made is my jellycap!! 💙  The whole structure is a kind of cage formed from wire and Terraflex (if you follow any of my previous posts you all know that I use Terraflex over Worbla for its versatility and its availability; I can pick it up in a store near me rather than wait for it to get shipped to me), and shaped in ovals and loopies fused with itself with more Terraflex. The headpiece is very carefully balanced and the center of my head is actually towards the front of the cap, so the back is sloped longer at an angle, and is not a perfectly shaped circular dome. I think it looks much more visually interesting this way, and has the added bonus of looking like a real jellyfish from the back!! 

The frame was gessoed and painted in glow in the dark paint which doesn’t glow as much as I wish it did, but the concept was cool anyways? It was then fully covered with the holographic organza and then stuffed with LEDs and strips of leftover organza. The whole cap is carefully weighted so it stays on my head without any clips!! The only way it falls off my head is if someone bumps into it while I’m walking. Automb made Junior for me the same way I made Fisher’s cap! While I worked on the bigger project, they used leftover scraps of wire and plastic to scrumble my baby together, and any leftover tentacles I had from the dress went straight to Junior. 

My Joanns happened to have a pleather trim that was already flat and ready to go when I braided it! When I wove the edges, I folded them over at the sides before crossing them in the center, if that makes any sense!!

First of all, thank you so much for all your kind words!!!! they’re super sweet and so are you asfjdkfgh

As for any tips, one of the best things to do is research!!! If you don’t know how to do something, look it up on the internet, read a manual, or ask people around you! Google and youtube are some of my favorite resources these days, because chances are if I need to learn how to do something, someone’s already made a tutorial or a video that’s exactly like or similar to something I need.

I wouldn’t also just jump into a project with your final fabric. Use a cheap fabric like muslin or something else you don’t mind using to make practice versions of your cosplay, and make all of your mistakes on that! The nice thing about all these muslin mockups is that you can doodle all of your notes on them with marker and it won’t matter in the long run, because that’s not your final fabric. 

I think another thing to do is just to start. I have trouble starting things myself; I’ll gather materials for weeks and weeks and not actually start anything because I either procrastinate or I’m too afraid to mess up (this is usually the case if I’m thinking about trying out a new technique or material). Make yourself DO something with the materials you have! Once you get started it’s easier to get the ball rolling and to keep it rolling until you finish! 

I find that it also helps if you have a sewing buddy to make things with; another person in the room or on your computer screen is a great motivator to keep your focus on your project. 

Mistakes aren’t the end of the world. Cosplay is supposed to be fun! There are no penalties for messing up a cosplay. The worst that can happen is you just spend a little more money to buy extra materials, or that you don’t finish your costume in time. I personally think it’s better to try and fail, and learn from your mistakes, than to worry about all the possible mistakes you could make, and not actually do anything in the end. 

I used Ben Nye creme colors in white, sky blue, and cosmic blue!! I use a tedious-but-successful method of layering the colors on my skin in which the order is “white -> sky blue -> very light layer of cosmic blue -> white -> maybe another layer of sky blue, depends on what your colors look like”The tedious part comes in when I switch from using a brush to messily, lightly and streakily apply makeup for the first three layers to a triangular foundation sponge to layer on a heavier application of color and stippling that all over my face, which ends up blending all previous layers into one consistent, smooth new color. 

I could, in theory, mix my own Sapphire color using the colors i mentioned above and save myself a lot of pain but 1) I like having basic pots of unmixed Ben Nye color to use for multiple costumes, and 2) this method of application gives me an easy way to control the exact color I get each time with enough wiggle room to adjust where I need to, and 3) this method gives me a nice solid application of makeup without caking it on too thick. Also 4) I am lazy. There is also that.

I don’t have a tutorial for it, but here’s a video i found years ago and linked on my blog with some tips for cutting wigs!! Like i mentioned in the post, thinning/layering scissors are not super necessary, it’s just an easier way to do thin out the ends of your cuts. There’s no real wrong way to cut a wig except for cutting straight across; cutting the wig fibers like that never ends up working out well for anyone.