Nothing but us birds here

How to Level Up Your Cosplay panel, as given at Krakencon F2016

You’ve made your first cosplays and know the basics, but have you ever wondered how to take your cosplays to the next level? Come get tips on how to improve your skills to create higher quality and more impressive costumes. Topics covered will include costume and material choice, finishing techniques, and creating eye-catching detail.

Old version of the panel contained here. This is the new and improved version.

This is just the bare bones of the panel, as many of the examples were elaborated on in-person, and it is just the slides, not any of my notes. It is not meant to be exhaustive or definitive, and is just meant for general advice and suggestion purposes only. If anyone has feedback they would like to give, feel free to do so. That said, I hope that people find this information useful.

Here is a link to a pdf of the presentation. You may download for personal use, but please do not alter the presentation, repost without permission, or do any sort of other unauthorized use. (If you have a question about how you can use this presentation, please send me a message with your question and we can work it out. I promise I’m not scary. ;]) Feel free to reblog this post as much as you want, though. I do these panels and post them because I want the information to be shared.

TUTORIAL: Making Temporary Tattoos for Cosplay!

Okay, so we know using a Sharpie/Marker for complicated tattoos day-of for a con is a PAIN, so here’s a quick tutorial on the best way I’ve gotten success for really clean and convincing temporary tattoos for cosplay!

First things first, I would recommend getting this Silhouette tattoo paper. It comes with 2 - 8.5″ x 11″ sheets that are printable on Ink Jet printers for only $7! It comes with thorough instructions on how to use the paper, but I’ll give a quick summary.

Create your tattoo in the program of your choice. I used Illustrator, but you could also print any PDF or JPG – just make sure the design is mirrored when you print it!! (I’d also recommend printing extras for multi-day use or mistakes when cutting!)

After the ink dries, add the clear adhesive sheet (comes with the Silhouette kit) over the top and smooth out any air bubbles.

Then (and this is really important!) cut our your tattoo as close to the edges as possible! You don’t want the design to fall apart, but the more white edges you leave, the more shiny adhesive will show up on your skin.

Now you’re ready to apply your temporary tattoo! Peel off the clear sheet, lay the tattoo facedown on your skin, and use a damp rag to wet the entire paper back. Then peel the paper off and the design is left behind!

Use makeup powder (personally I like the colorless powder so not to deaden the brilliance of the tattoo itself) and soften the shiny surface.

Go take pictures of your cosplay and have fun! It should last all day at a con (and then some!)~

Ryuko Matoi Life Fiber Sync Cosplay Master Post Wig  What type of wefts did you use? Which base wigs did you start with, and how did you make fluffy spikes? How to make the red streak In Progress Photos Hair Pins  Latex Garment Material What kind of glue and latex did you use? Developing a pattern from stretch fabric How did you get the neck to be that tight and seamless?  Leggings How do you get in, are there fasteners NEW Prop Boobs What materials did you use, and how did you construct them? How do they stay on? Painting them to match your skin tone Senketsu’s Eyes and Armor What are the base materials, paint brands and sealer?  Material, Construction, Attachment methods

As promised a (very) rough tutorial on the armor assembly. I’m kinda messing around with my method right now, trying things in different orders and seeing what’s most comfortable for me. Still, I hope this gives people a general idea. If you have any questions or if something is unclear, let me know.

Dyes/Dye Products used: Tandy Eco-flow Silver Waterstain Tandy Eco-flow Oil Based Dye: Range Brown Tandy Eco-flow Oil Based Dye: Bison Brown Tandy Eco-flow Leather Sealer: Shiny Sheen Latex free gloves (these are important!)

Hardware: Medium Double Cap Silver Rivet Line 20 Silver Snap

Tools: Leather scissors Plastic anvil board Pen Hole Punch Med. Rivet setting tool w/ metal anvil Multisize anvil kit

Realistic Foam Wings Tutorial by Zexion-the-gamer

Heat Transfer Vinyl

Okay dudes I wanna teach you some magic today.  I get a LOT of questions about what I use for designs on my Zelda costume as well as on my Matt Miller jacket.  You can buy it on eBay pretty easily.  I get mine here.

This stuff looks amazing and it’s SO CLEAN when you apply it.  It also isn’t overly shiny, so it looks pretty great on most fabrics, which is why I prefer it to painting fabric.  SO here is how the stuff works:

Heat transfer vinyl has two sides–a glossy and a matte side.  You’re going to want to draw your design on the matte side, as that’s where it has the adhesive.

Draw your design and cut it out.

Place it matte side down, glossy side up on the fabric you’re using.

Iron!  I put my iron on the highest setting just to be sure it sticks but some times this can warp the vinyl if you’re not careful.  You’ll want to go over it a few times.

Realistic Foam Wings Tutorial by Zexion-the-gamer

HOW TO COVER THICK EYEBROWS: Cosplay tutorial. After my Uta cosplay I got a lot of questions on how I covered my eyebrows, mine are rather thick and a lot of people have trouble covering their eyebrows when they’re as thick as mine so here is my tutorial for you! This by no means the perfect way or right way, this is just what works for me. MATERIALS: Glue stick, plastic knife, White powder, concealer, regular powder and face paint (optional)

Get a gluestick, doesn’t matter the color. Cut of a big chunk of it and slap that sucker onto your brows, don’t worry it will wash out and not tear off your eyebrows. I’ve done this many times. Take a plastic knife or what ever tool you prefer and smooth the glue across your brows till they are fully covered. (I rushed so mine could have been blended better but eh whatever)

You will want to get some white powder/makeup and cover your eyebrows where the glue is. I unfortunately ran out of my powder so I used white face paint instead for this, while it still works you’re MUCH better off with a white powder, it gives it a cleaner look.

Time to use yo liquid concealer. Smother yo brows with concealer till no purple can be seen, I also used a little bit of pink facepaint to cover places where the purple stood out a lot.

Now take your powder and whatever other makeup you use and BLEND IT ALL OVAH. You want to make it look as seamless as you can (Step one comes in VERY handy here, the better you blended the glue the better it will look at the end, I went back and blended my glue a little more.)

Hello all! I’ve gotten quite a few people askin how I went about putting together my head for a recent costume I did at Anime Iowa 2014, so I figured I’d make a tutorial for it! More under the cut!

Ever have trouble finding boots in the right color? Tried spray-painting them and ended up with a dry, cracked mess? A fantastic friend recently advised me to paint leather boots (and any other leather goods) with floral paint. This is a spray paint that is light and flexible enough to use on live flowers. Above are the Poison Ivy boots I painted for a friend, which turned out fantastic.

One thing though: Wear them while you paint them, and maybe stretch your foot around in between coats. I didn’t think of this, and while the paint did not crack at all, it started to split where the boots were stretched from walking. Next time I paint some boots, I’ll let you know if I was able to fix this problem.

Alexis’ amazing guest post about lingerie and cosplay a few weeks ago got me thinking. Though I’ve never attended San Diego Comic-Con, I do attend Dragon*Con and Emerald City Comicon and Portland Comicon pretty regularly. And while I don’t think of myself as a “cosplayer” (in my opinion, that implies a level of skill I …