Laiškas žmogui, norinčiam tapti cosplayeriu

Nuėjau, pamačiau, noriu! Būti cosplayeriu. Kas tai? Ogi kiekvienam skirtingai. Vienam tai yra pasivertimas mėgstamu personažu. Gali nusipirkti kostiumą, nusikirpti plaukus kaip personažas arba įsigyti peruką, gali prašyti mamos, tėčio, labiau patyrusių draugų pagalbos. Gali nešti nuotraukas pas siuvėją. Gali išmokti pasidaryti sudėtingą makiažą, kuriuo išsiskiria tavo personažas. Gali išmokti kalbėti ta maniera, kaip jis. Kitam, gi, svarbiausia gali būti kostiumo gamyba, o ne meilė personažui. Tokie gamintojai stengiasi pirkti kuo mažiau dalykų, kuo mažiau perdarinėti senus rūbus ir kuo daugiau viską daryti nuo 0. Nuo nulio iki kostiumo. Jie net renkasi kostiumus pagal tai, ką jie nori gaminti, o ne kuo nori būti. Prisipažinsiu, aš iš tokių. Pažįstu vieną merginą, kuriai kostiumo atsiradimas (iš kur, kas padarė, ar tiksliai) nesvarbu, bet ji dievina pasidaryti personažo makiažą, apsirengti ir eiti fotografuotis. Pažįstu cosplayerių, kuriems sceninis pasirodymas yra svarbiausia dalis. Kiekvienas šių dalykų atskirai, ir visi šie dalykai kartu yra „cosplay“. Tai yra be galo platus, be galo atviras hobis, ir kiekvienam jis reiškia kažką skirtingo, kiekvienas pasiima ir susikuria pats tą hobio terpę, kuri jam labiausiai tinka, ir štai tada jis būna cosplayeriu. Skamba labai paprastai, ar ne? Taip ir yra, bet...

Yra tokia nerašyta ir visai ne taisyklė, bet daugiausia pagarbos sulaukia tie cosplayeriai, kurie kostiumus darosi patys.  Einant į konkursą varžytis dėl geriausio kostiumo, ir sąžinė neleidžia rungtis su savo pirktu kostiumu prieš kolegą, kuris praleido gerą pusmetį savajį siūdamas, pjaudamas, šlifuodamas ir dažydamas.

Gerai, tarkim, noriu kostiumą daryti pats. Bet gi nuo ko pradėti?!

Tai štai, visų pirma, pradėk nuo to:

1)      Google yra tavo geriausia draugė. Ji mėgsta raktažodžius (anglų kalba), tokius kaip „costume making“, „wip (reiškia work in progress)“, „how to make“, „what to use for“. Pavyzdžiui, nori pasidaryti Sailor Moon kostiumą. Na ir rašai „how to make Sailor Moon costume“. Nepatikėsi, Google randa daugybę video, nuotraukų, istrukcijų. Dar geriau ieškoti dalimis. Pvz.: „How to make Sailor Moon skirt“, ir t.t.. „Where to buy Sailor Moon wig“, ir taip toliau ir panašiai. Absoliučiai visa informacija, kurios tau reikia, jau yra internete, tau tereikia išmokti jos ieškoti.

2)      Kol ten googlini, gali pabandyti įvesti ir “Lithuanian cosplayers”, rasi keletą naudingų nuorodų kurios tave nuves pas lietuvius kolegas. Nesiūlau ieškoti lietuviškai, nes nežinau nė vieno su cosplay susijusio puslapio (išskyrus renginių puslapius) kuris rašytų lietuviškai. Bet, gera žinia yra ta, kad nuėjęs į kokio nors lietuvių cosplayerio puslapį pvz Facebook‘e, tu gali jam parašyti lietuviškai! J Pvz.: Eglucy Cos-up, Semashke Cos-land, Foxtail, Marynchan’s Sewing Shack, Solly, T-oku Cosplay, Squirrel Cosplay Cave, Vampire Kitteh Cosplay, Giedrius Cosplay, Akade Cosplay, Cere Cosplay, Roses and Boltshells (duo, viena iš jų lietuvė), Dulcinea Cosplay (aš)… Neabejoju, kad nepaminėjau dar bent 20 lietuvių cosplayerių Facebook‘e, bet pradžiai, manau užteks? J Pas juos visus gali klausti patarimo (su sąlyga, kad naudojiesi google ir neateini klausti to, ką iškart rastum įvedęs į paiešką) apie savo kostiumo gamybą. Neklausk „kaip man pasigaminti karūną/kardą/skydą/batus“. Klausk „gal žinai kur galiu nusipirkti dirbtinės raudonos odos?“, „Kokią medžiagą patartum šitiems šarvams *prisegu nuotrauką*?, ir panašių civilizuotų klausimų ;-)

3)      Taigi, jau lyg ir žinai, kaip ką pasigaminti, ir kur nusipirkti medžiagas Lietuvoje. Trečias žingsnelis, nusipirkus medžiagas, būtų viską testuoti!!! Nesusikirpk viso kostiumo iškart, jei nesi nieko siuvęs. Nesusipjaustyk viso plastiko, jei nesi daręs šarvų. Pabandyk pasiūti gabalėlį, palyginti, išskalbi ir išdžiovinti. Pabandyk paklijuoti, pašlifuoti, pašildyti, padažyti. Niekam nepatinka „siurprizai“ kostiumo darymo pabaigoje, kai savo ginklą nupurški dažais, o jis ištirpsta... True story, bro . Taigi tam ir reikalingi testai, medžiagų, priemonių, įrankių sąveikai ir suderinamumui nustatyti.

4)      O kam tas ketvirtas punktas? Jis jau nebe pradžia! Toliau tu darai kostiumą. Nepasiduodi, kai neišeina. Supranti, kad tavo įgūdžiai neatitinka tavo skonio ir neverki dėl to. Arba verki nedaug (visi verkiam prieš renginius), nes visi mes suprantame grožį ir tvarkingumą, ir pirmą kartą mums patiems tikrai nepavyksta padaryti taip, kaip mes įsivaizduojame, kaip norėtume. Yra toks angliškas posakis, kuris čia labai tinka, „practice makes perfect“. Ir nepatikėsi, tą dieną, kai tavo kostiumas bus baigtas (arba plius minus baigtas, patikėk, aš be „grafkių“ nesu ėjusi niekur su kostiumu), ir tu jį visą užsidėsi – atrodysi nuostabiai. Ir niekas nematys tavo klaidų bendroje jo visumoje. Atrodysi puikiai, jausiesi puikiai ir būsi tarp krūvos tokių pačių nutrūktgalvių, kas ir yra šio hobio esmė. TO HAVE FUN ^_^

Pasimatysime INTRO kur papasakosiu plačiau apie tam tikras kostiumo gamybos subtilybes.

Renginio nuoroda:NowJapan INTRO

Xoxo, Dulcinea.

Q & A about costume making

Hey everyone! Thank you all for submitting your questions for this Q&A. I hope you find the answers helpful and there will be many more Q&A's like that! :) 

Q1) "How to fix finger armor to your arm, and it has to connect with the rest of the hand/arm armor?" 

A1) Of course I would like to suggest to use a glove, which your character is likely to have, and either glue the armor directly to the fingers of the glove with hot glue, or glue velcro with superglue to the insides of the armor, and then sew the other side of the velcro to the fingertips. This will allow you to put on and off these parts without the glove and one by one. Convenient for fixing con damage. As for connecting it to the other parts of the hand armor, the question you need to ask yourself is why do you need? it Is it in the reference, does it look the character is wearing an armor glove and not just finger armor plus a handplate and wristbands/armbands? If the latter is the answer, than you do not actually need a connection, you can just attach separate parts of armor to your glove, ideally by using velcro, or sew on studs like this (I'm sorry I don't know the name): 

Now let's say your character has a lot of armor on it's fingers and hands and DOES NOT have a glove, but a bare skin showing through. This is a lot more complicated, but can be made just as simply by still using a glove in skin color and just doing the same thing I wrote about above. Otherwise, you can make an armor glove, that is connected together and works like a glove without any fabric, by using transparent silicone bra straps:

You can by them by the meter/yard without any ends, just like any elastic or bias or any tape, and cut into as many pieces as you need. On the skin, these are almost invisible, especially in photos, and you can use it for holding your armor glove, gluing the pieces of this material from the inside of each piece. All of the materials for this: velcro, studs, clear straps can be bought at the places where they sell stuff for sewing. 

P.S This question was originally asked in Lithuanian so I will make a short translation here for the person who asked it:

Na pvz.. Kaip pas Elise ar Marauder Ashe tie nagai.. kaip juos tvirtinti..? Kad ant pirštų jie laikytusi normaliai. Bet tie nagai dar turi susijungti su visa armoro rankove iki alkūnių.

A: geriausia naudot pirštinę jeigu personažas tokią turi (jeigu juoda tarp šarvo dalių, reiškia turi), ir arba klijuoti prie jos tiesiogiai su karštais klijais, arba siūti prie pirštų galiukų pirštinės velcro kibią juostą, o kitą pusę klijuoti į vidų šarvo dalių. Jei nagai turi susijungti su kitomis dalimis, visiškai be tarpų vistiek nepadarysi, tačiau vizualiai galima. Naudojant pirštinę tiesiog tvirtink tiesiai ant jos kitas dalis ten kur jos turi būti, arba su velcro, arba su knopkėm kaip fotkej viršuj. Jeigu personažas turi nuogą ranką po šarvais ir tai matosi, tu vistiek gali naudot kūno spalvos pirštinę, arba jeigu jis turi tokią pilną "šarvo pirštinę" ir nenori/negali dėl kažkokių priežasčiu naudot medžiaginės pirštinės, gali pasidaryt šarvo pirštinę iš vien tik šarvų, naudodamas permatoma silikoninę juostelę (kaip ant liemenėlių būna), klijuodamas gabaliukus tarp atskirų dalių iš vidaus. Tada gausi ir galėsi užsidėt tokią su mažais tarpukais šarvų pirštinę, bet bent jau ties riešu vistiek kažkaip turėsi prie savęs pritvirtinti, su knopkėm ar velcro ar kažkuo panašiu.

Q2) What materials do you use to make your armor, specifically the trim? What are the hooves on your draenei costume made of?

A2) I use pvc foam board or worbla for my armor. Most of the Draenei armor is made out of worbla, and the rim is also out of worbla, I made it by cutting a strip, heating and bending it to the edge of the table, and then  very slightly heating it and making it adhere it to the rest of the armor plate. No glue is needed, as worbla is self adhesive. Here you can the picture of the raised rims happening:

The hooves I made like this: Made a prototype hoof using whatever crap I had around the workshop and smoothed in out later, primed it and so on, and here is what I got: 

Then I molded it in molding silicone and cast two exact coppies in epoxy resin. However, I'd recommend using polyurethane as it's a lot more lightweigt, but I wanted it to be tinted from within so it does not chip, and I do not have vacuum degassing system to be able to use clear polyurethane resin, and the white cannot be tinted dark brown, so here's that. Then I made three holes in each screwed them to my high platform shoes with removed heels, and lastly I added some furniture "anti scratch" pads to the bottom to make it less slippery. I used super glue on top of their adhesive surface. It lasts for about one con and then one has to glue new ones on but it really does help :) 

Q3) I wonder about is how hard is it to keep all your cosplays in good order when traveling? and during conventions when walking around in a crowded space? making it was durable and easy to wear as possible etc 

A3) For travelling I use absolutely massive amounts of bubble wrap. I wrap each and any armor part into bubble wrap separately very single time, and that definitely helps the costume to travel in tact. Walking around a crowded space? That's not something we can do anything about, con damage is real and will always happen. To me what always happens is paint chipping and sometimes some very thin edges breaking of (I often have some thin long parts on my costumes..). If I want to wear a costume for a another cost it takes me about a week to repair it, as I usually strip a lot of painted parts due to chipping or cracking, refill it, prime it again and repaint it. 

Q4) When you do a costume with large shoulders like your draenei, how do you go about strapping them?

A4) I always do one and the same: one elastic band across the back (both of my shoulders are always connected together), and one elastic band around the armpit. I have done this for my Draenei shoulders, my Aion ranger shoulders, my Erza shoulders... I didn't do it for my necromancer shoulders, but I really should have, because I went it had visible leather straps connecting them together and I was certain this was going to be enough, but they kept sliding and moving around, so I definitely recommend my initial method to anyone in regards of shoulders. Oh and yes, I do need help putting them all! :) If a character has a naked arms/back, I use clear silicone bra strap tape instead and it's almost invisible in picture and crazy easy to photoshop out:

Q5) I love your Erza Scarlet costume so much! For her pauldrons, how did you shape them? The compound curves are very smooth, and I'm curious how you achieved that finish.

A5) I have used acrylic  half spheres for the curvy round base of the shoulders. I heated them up and bent them a little to resemble the needed form better, and then I use large chunks of pvc foam board that I also bent and glued and carved around the half spheres and finally I have used worbla scraps to build the other details and to fill in whatever mess I had left there. I use a dremel to carve off the excess everything and then of course filling, sanding and priming took place before paint, to achieve and ensure a smooth finish. It would have been easier not to use pvc foam board and just build the rims entirely from worbla, however, that would be a little bit of a waste of money. You could also build the rims empty on the inside, just using a worbla-craft foam sandwiches, and I have a tutorial for that technique over here, along with how to achieve the smooth finish: http://dulcineacosplay.blogspot.com/2014/02/worbla-smooth-surface-magic.html

Here are a few pictures illustrating my story of the Erza shoulder making:

A6) What kind of, or brand of resin do you use for your gemstone casting?

Q6) My favorite for this task is Pebeo Gedeo epoxy crystal resin that can be bought at hobby stores. It's really expensive though and that's the biggest con, but I really get best results with it, as I can't use polyurethane clear resin not having a degassing chamber.

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to your new questions about crafts! ^_^

xoxo, Dulcinea

Q & A (supposed to be a video, but happened to be a written blog post) + backstory

Hi everyone!

I don't know how many of you remember, that I about 2 months ago, I asked you to submit questions over here http://ask.fm/DulcineaCosplay , and promised to make a video with answers. I made this request (or is it an offer?) since I felt like many people misread my career change like the end of the hobby (since I announced that I have stopped making props for a living, many of you thought it = I quit cosplaying). I also did it because I believed it will help me get over my being on camera and talking fear. I almost got there. But then I started to get more questions (a couple weeks after the ones you guys sent in due to my request), which just made me more and more terrified of putting myself out there. There weren't "hate" questions, but all of them had either hidden complaints in them, or opinions that I am... well someone, who I am really not. Days went by, and the more I tried to sit in front of camera and talk, the more sick I would get in my stomach, and eventually I gave up. All I could imagine is someone loooking at the video and searching for something that I said wrong. Or looked wrong. But I still owe you all a Q & A. So here it will be, written down, because I have always felt that written words come easy to me, I can hide my fragile personality underneath them and appear cooler than I am! :-D

So now to all of you, kind people who gave me chance to answer some questions, here are my answers (some of them were not in English, so I translated those):

Q1) i don't think i'm original.....but seriously: are you planning on quitting cosplay completely?! please say no...

A1) I'm not definitely planning on quitting cosplay completely! I have, however, many mixed feelings about this hobby, that I want to share, since I'm doing the oversharing thing today. Some days I can't wait to start a new project, meet new people, "be out there", but other days I get sort of depressed and want to hide somewhere really deep. I know a lot of people to whom cosplay is exactly the thing that helps them be social, find friends, and cons are where they feel most at home. While I have gotten many many wonderful friends due to this hobby, my social anxiety increased. I have a very hard time taking compliments face to face and honestly have no idea what to say to people when they ask me stuff like : "how everything you do is so perfect?" and similar questions. I am well aware it sounds ridiculous and that I am supposed to be grateful for recognition. Don't get me wrong, I am, I just haven't found a way to deal with my inner socially awkward penguin. I am less of a penguin in non cosplay life, when nobody is praising me :-D
But yeah, no, I am not planning on quitting cosplay. Crafting gives me a lot of joy, as well as reading your comments under my pictures! I love those <3

Q2) Where do you come from?

A2) I believe the country is meant here, so - Lithuania, Europe :)

Q3) where do you get your worbla?


A3) I am getting mine at www.mycostumes.de, but the last time I did that, the CosCon shop wasn't open yet. Now I would get it from them, as they are closer, in Poland.  http://coscon.pl/

Q4) who's your cosplay inspiration (person or/and group of people)? ~ but to make it more interesting, answer should include people you don't know ~

A4) No problem, I can easily list many cosplay inspirations, both who I do know and those who I do not :) I don't personally know, yet worship: Volpin Props, Fev Studios, Vensy, Lightning Cosplay, Punished Props, Murmeltierchen Cosplay. And some of whom I do know: Shappi Wokshop, Violet Cosplay, Kairi in Cosplayland, Shinju's Workshop, Semashke Cos-Land, Foxtail, Giedrius Cosplay, Eglucy Cos-Up, Team Paraluna Cosplay, Jaycee Cosplay, Squirrel Cosplay Cave, and about like a million others. Honestly I find every cosplayer inspiring in one way or another :)

Q5) How do you choose music for your cosplay performances? Do you consider original sources for music first or straight to YouTube to find randomly good song?

A5) I used to spend hours and hours on Youtube (days, even), searching for a perfect song or two, but now I just go straight to this amazing dude, who makes music, and ask him for a custom made piece! I tell him what kind of theme, mood, and words I want, and he delivers something really really outstanding: https://soundcloud.com/zetox
Here is my Nidalee performance with the music that he made for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxhZ_Cc2zTs

Q6) This is probably the most random one you shall get from not an anonymous but... Was it difficult to go to bathroom while in your draenei cosplay? :DDD Describe your answer, why and how long did it take you? (silly questions, yeah? :D)‎  Kaligula

A6) Now you will be greatly disappointed in my answer :-D I never had to go to a bathroom in a full costume as such, because I would go right before I would put on my armor (with the help of like two friends haha), and I would limit my water intake for the day... I believe many cosplayers do it like this with their difficult costumes. It would literally be impossible to go to the bathroom in a full Draenei cosplay, because the pants go over the shoulders and then there are multiple piece of armor on top of it :)

Q7) Do you do any crafting? (not commissions for props but rather for yourself or a friend, not using the usual cosplay materials that you use for making props) Trippy question. >.>‎  Kaligula

A7) Not really, other than hand dying of the skirts for my job and occasional fancy gift wrapping, no :) I have also knit a few scarfs back in the day, but nothing significant. Actually, all my life I was absolutely sure that I have absolutely no skills or talent for any kind of crafts, and then I decided to start cosplaying. I still have absolutely no skills or talent,  but I have found that as long as you sand for hours, you don't really need any talent. :D

Q8) Sorry, wasn't following you very actively, but is it true that you're getting away from everything that considers cosplay? Why? I'm not judging, just curious :)

A8) As mentioned in Q1, nope, I am not! :) 

Q9) Have you tried dancing while in full armor/detailed costume? For example, any dance from WoW or Aion (since you cosplayed characters from these games)?‎  Kaligula

A9) I haven't danced in WoW or Aion costume, but I did that in an armored Nymphora. I went nuts there and all the parts stayed in tact. Actually, my faux teeth have unglued, but my "floating armor" stayed put. True story. It's somewhere on the internet, but I can't find it at the moment. It happened at Nowjapan, 2012. And this is not armor, but dancing from last year's Nyaaa! I always dance on stage if that's happening! :)) Thankfully to Vampire Kitten Cosplay, it does happen quite often..:)

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10202451062979675

Q10) U got any stalkish fans? (apart from me ofc)‎  Kaligula

A10) Nope. You're seriously the only one.

Q11) What do you do on your free time?

A11) I play LOL! Top lane, mostly (Singed, Sion, Ryze, Quinn, Lux, Poppy), normals (as I am too scared to find out what I would be in ranked. I bet Bronze V, but I don't want to know for sure). I also well, make cosplay :D however before when I had a prop making business, I would also make  my own costumes during work hours (as well as free time :D), as I had my best friend working on commissions with me, under my direct supervision, so I'd make my stuff and he would be there working on customers stuff. That way I would be available and around to do what he didn't do (gem casting, molding, and plastics thermoforming, for example), and if I needed someone to hold something or cut something with "man hands", he'd be around for me. 
And lastly, I watch a lot of TV shows in my free time and while working on cosplay. Keeps me very distracted from the boredom of sanding.

Q12) How and from where do You get all Your inspirations?

A12) I guess I answered mostly in Q4. From everyone related to cosplay :3

Q13) Do you plan to cosplay for a loooooong time? (surely hope so!!!)

A13) As I spoke about my mixed feelings in Q1, I guess it's safe to say that I have absolutely no idea how long I will be cosplaying, I just don't have a plan there :) but well, I hope so too! :)

Q14) how much does it take you to put on that draenei costume, make-up included?

A14) About two hours and about 2 friends helping me put it all on.

Q15) DO YOU WATCH ANIME?!

A15) Not anymore I don't. I just can't pay that much attention to the screen to read subtitles, as when I watch TV shows, I can still craft stuff, because listening is good enough, but then I don't speak japanese... And yes, I know I could watch anime in English or even Lithuanian, but I don't like voice overs :( Back when I used to watch it, FMA, FMP and NGE were my favorite animes :)

Q16) who or what motivates you to work harder on your projects ? you seem to be very ambitious and always make everything perfect at the end. Share your secrets :)‎  Egle

A16) I am my own worst enemy and my own greatest competition. I always want to to do better than the past me did, so I won't allow myself to settle for less. However, I always run out of time and I don't see my works as nowhere near "perfect" :D but well, you know, really, sanding and filling is the actual secret. And then many many many many hours. For example, what I would never do: I would never have some armor piece finished with paint job a couple weeks before the con, because well, I will be working on that surface until a mere couple days are left and then I will paint it. I don't know if you can call it a secret, but that's what I always do. I don't paint "unfinished" (the way I see it two weeks before the con) stuff and store it on the shelf, I'd rather use all the time I have to even it out and then pray and cry over drying paint. 

Q17) how do you attach wigs to your head? do you use any special wig layers for hair to stay put?

A17) I'm afraid I may be a noob here and not know stuff about wig layers, but well I use a wig cap and I use quite a few bobby pins. I pin through the wig into my wig cap and it holds like a charm.

Q18) Does Amber fart a lot?

A18) No he does not. Once I blamed him for doing so, but that was really me. I had to. He couldn't say anything about it, because he's a cat. 

Q19) Now that I think about your nJ performance in 2013... How bad was your vision with mesh eye contacts + lights near your eyes? o.O

A19) Pretty pathetic indeed. However, it helped with the stage fright a lot, because I could not see people looking at me :D Just the mesh contacts alone, however, work oddly: I could see something in the distance quite okay, but then I could never see myself in a mirror without thinking I am the purple blur. Therefore doing your own make up isn't very much possible with these contacts in. Eglucy Cos-Up did mine for NowJapan, and Foxtail for EC.

Q20) Do you have a fave YouTuber?

A20) Not one in particular, but there are few channels I watch. One of my guilty pleasures is Bubzvlogs, I don't know why exactly, but I absolutely adore her personality. Jenna Marbles, Michelle Phan, and whatever video Volpin Props <3 may upload.

Q21) Can you lift three cats at once? If yes, what about four cats at once? So, Can you??

A21) I can. Please send me three cats and I will show you. For now I only have proof of two kittens.

Q22) What will be your next cosplay?

A22) I think it will be an original gijinka design of Princess Luna for Nyaaa! Cosplay 2015. I really do like doing my own designs and that event is becoming a pony tradition for me :D

Q23) since you were a judge at nj, did u like the Deadpool(s) running around, acting funny, doing some in-between cosplay performances entertainment? they were cool btw, hope you liked them <3

A23) I saw them doing something really really bad, so no, not really, sorry :( I can't elaborate without putting the "victim" in the spotlight, but if you want to discuss it in private, please do send me a message on my page.

Q24) How differently judges rate in different cons (appearance/performance)? What does a judge have to look for in nowJapan\ Eurocosplay\ other cons you judged in? How different is that judging?

A24) Every event has their own criteria that are presented to the judges, so they know what to look for. In general these tips I have a blog post about apply, especially in Eurocosplay competiton: http://dulcineacosplay.blogspot.com/2014/06/10-things-worth-remembering-when-making.html Nowpajan has it's own uniqueness though. It's the only event I got to judge where the judges had no idea who will win and what. We just put down the scores on day 1 and got our papers taken away, same happened on day 2, and we were not given any time to discuss the winners. Everything came as a surprise to us.

Q25) What's your biggest fail in life?

A25) I have had many many many of them! Something I regret the most, is being a complete and utter b**** to someone who I really like and respect. Until this day I sit and think as to how can I fix the relationship that changed entirelly due to my sole fault. The moral of the story: sit down, breathe, think, then talk, and not the other way around...

Q26) How do you imagine our planet will be in the future?

A26) Well, I guess it really depends on how far in the future? Because well, the endgame will be "no more planet", right? 

Q27) What does it feel like to be a judge? Is it hard? Do you enjoy it? why?‎  Semashke

A27) Actually, yes, I rather enjoy it. When I am a judge I have a lot less stress than I am myself in a competition, yet at the same time I feel kind of important. I also believe that I have a fairly keen eye and am able to spot the strong and weak spots of ones cosplay craftmanship and performance wise, so I am fairly confident in my abilities to judge and therefore it's neither hard nor stressful for me.

Q28) What do you do for a living now that you say you are no longer taking prop commissions?

A28) I have a handmade clothing company, that specializes in tulle skirts, mostly: https://www.facebook.com/wbdulcinea It's my absolute dream job and I don't regret my decision to shift careers one bit! :) I personally hand dye each skirt in numerous ways, such as dip dye, gradient, dual colors and more, and I also do all the customer service. I have two lovely ladies (my mom and my friend) who do the sewing, as I am nowhere near that good of a seamstress to feel confident enough to sew professionaly for a customer :) 



Thank you so much for reading, and I really hope that you found at least a bit of interest in this Q & A. I look forward to any and all feedback <3

xoxo,
Dulcinea

10 things worth remembering when making your costume and/or entering a competition

I am an occasional cosplay judge, and I have two more cosplay competitions to judge this year (as far as I am aware), one of them is for EC. I thought I would share the things that I notice and pay attention to during a judging. Surely all of it depends on all the cosplayers that have entered, and they set their own standart, so the judges have to judge accordingly, but in an ideal world, your costume(and mine as well :)) would be...:

1. Proportianate. A simple issue that can ruin the entire look, no matter how detailed or neat your costume is, if you have too small weapons or way too large knee pads - that is quite a serious issue, so it is worth taking a time in the beginning to scale your character down according to your size and getting these proportions right before you start cutting your materials.

2. Ironed. This may seem silly, but I have seen lots of cosplayers on stage with un ironed cloth pieces. I have no justification for this, and "not having an iron" is also not really an excuse, because I am sure you can borrow one, and you can take your costume to the con on a hanger. Ideally you should choose fabric accordingly to how messy it gets after wearing or handling, and stick with something that does not require ironing every fifteen minutes or so. Iron is also a must have when you are just sewing a piece, for example, to iron out your patterns at first, then to iron out the fabric before you even cut it, to flatten out the seams in the inside of the garment, to get the edges of bias tape nice and flat, to heat on appliques, to make the fabric more sturdy with fliseline, and a thousand more uses. Actually, me and my very good friend and collegue at work have this saying "if faced with a problem - try using heat". It works both in a sewing department and in prop making (heat gun), I have solved thousands of problems that way :))

3. Your seams should be finished on the inside. That's pretty much self explanatory, when looking on the inside of your seams, I expect to not see fraying edges.

4. Your costume should have all the details that are in the reference. This is rarely the case, but generally the more details you will have transfered, the better for you. I will absolutely notice them all :-) I will also give bonus points if you can take of a part of your costume and underneath there is still an accurate costume, and not a hidden tangled mess. 

5. You should have more than one or two techniques in your costumes. If your favorite material and the only thing you work with is EVA/WORBLA/SINTRA (insert any), try and make some details using something else, e.g sculpt them in polymer clay, carve them out of xps, cast them, and so on. The more techniques you will have in your costume - the better, this is the thing that EC judges actually look for.

6. There should be no hot glue or any other glue clearly visible on your costume. Also, pretty much self explanatory so I don't think it is needed to dig deeper into this.

7. You should have neat seams and surfaces. Now I am not really talking about the clothing seams, of course they have to be neat, but there may be required to have more seams than your reference does, because for example an artist just draws a naked character in anime and then draws on some clothing, obviously that will not work in a real world, so you need to make seams for a fitting garment in quite a few places. This is not the case for the props! I understand you need to make this part out of a few pieces, because you cannot bend the material that way from one large piece, I do this all the time and I understand it. But I do not understand when the prop is finished and painted, and I can see the extra seams has not been filled out. Or I can see them overfilled and sticking out. It is supposed to just not be there, guys, you can make thousands of seams while making your prop, but the final piece has to have just as many as your reference does. The surface can be smooth or it can be textured, depending on your character, but it should not have your fingerprints and other things that do not belong there :)

8. Your paint job should make sense. Now that is something that I would like to see more often than I do.Things to consider is not only the right colors, but whether you need to have a color solid and glossy, or matte, maybe darker to the edges, maybe two toned colors, dark or light undertones, etc etc. Look at your reference and see more than just a color. Also, I think that artificially painting on highlights with something white-silver is really a bad idea for a 3D object (with some exception in cartoony character cases), it will look awkward and obvious from more than one direction. You should aim for natural, blended highlights, that will actually bounce the light of your prop. Metalic surfaces: do not use metalic paint spray paint cans. They have thousands of shiny particles in them, sort of glitter like, and your sword blade ends up looking like a brand new silver colored Toyota car.

9. You should have weathering. I guess I must say what weathering is. There is a huge common misconception that it's all dirt, grime, and battle damage, and if your character is "clean" and "noble" he will have none. That is not truth. If your armor has edges, there will always be darkened seams right next to them, because if it catches any dirt ever, it will be impossible to remove. There will always be something in the areas that a hard to reach and impossible to clean, so think about that. It is incredibly obvious to me if a costume has or has not been weathered at all, so a little goes a long way. Just make your character "real" and not a toy figure, that's about it. Think about who your character is, what elements is he or she (or even it) exposed to, how old are the pieces that are being worn, which era are they from, and many more. 

10. You should be happy and proud of what you did. It is too late to think what you could have done better when you are standing in front of the judges, just defend your costume as best you can! ;-) 

Worbla: smooth surface magic

All of this information is also available in the write up of my Noble Tac Officer's costume, but this a condensed and Worbla-only oriented tutorial to everyone who ever wanted to know how to make it's surface super smooth. Absolutely smooth, to be exact, without any indication to an original surface or any imperfections that lack of skill (my case) may do to your piece. I will also cover pattern making and general construction of Worbla, however, Kamui Cosplay has an amazing book about that, I suggest it for every beginner and even advanced user, it pretty much explains everything besides the "magical" surface.

1. In order to create some unconventional patterns for my shoulder piece I have used Cobracast (got it from www.mycostumes.de) to copy the form of my own shoulder, it literally took me no more than 15 minutes, I have used ~10cm strips, heated those up one by one and placed them on my shoulder.

2. Looking at the reference I have sculpted my shoulder piece from a soft plasticine (cheap, reusable, and pretty easy to work with, no special tools required, I used my fingers and a single blade from a utility knife).
It took me around 4 hours to complete.

3. Using painters/masking tape, I covered the entire piece with it, marked all the edges/connection spots, peeled it off, and cut it to small patterns, two patterns for each shoulder piece part. It is important to glue it onto paper or the same masking tape, so you have them not sticky and holding the curved form, do not flatten those or they shall not work as patterns! :)

4. My character had two exact, mirrored shoulder pieces, there patterns worked for both of them onto craft foam, and then twice from Worbla so you would have "sandwich material".

Above are all the pieces for one shoulder piece.

5. Make Worbla sandwiches (how to do it you can read in a book by Kamui Cosplay) and press them at the edges, just following the pattern, the patterns will just fall together due to the curve! :)

6. And now - the magic! Even though the raw Worbla creation looks pretty neat, everyone knows that it needs some kind of surface work, be it gesso, wood glue, or my favorite spray filler. In case you need the surface that looks spotless and without any texture, this is the way to go.

a) spray it with spray filler or primer

b) be shocked by all the imperfections revealed

c) put on regular filler for indoor work (just the stuff carpenters use, nothing fancy is needed)

d) wait for it to dry and sand it carefully

e) be amazed by how perfect it's starting to look. To ruin that impression - spray it with spray filler or primer again :D

f) repeat c), d), a), untill there is no more b).

7. It is very relative as to how many coats of filler and primer you may need: it depends on what your expectations are for the smoothness, how messy was your original work, how well do you sand, etc etc..:) I needed 8 rounds of sanding for this one, but only first 3-4 rounds are significant, the rest it, what I like to all it.. licking :))

8. Primer/Spray filler being the last coat, your surface is ready to take in any paint! Very gentle sanding (1000 grit for example) before painting so paint sticks better.

I get my Worbla and Cobracast from www.mycostumes.de

List of all suppliers:

http://www.cast4art.de/distribution/

Book about cosplay armor making by Kamui Cosplay: http://www.storenvy.com/products/3889360-ebook-pdf-the-book-of-armor-making

Noble Tac Officer's Leather Set and Bow: cosplay costume write up

I have played Aion: The Tower of Eternity since open beta in China, and waited for about two years till it was out. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. I'd even play it now, if I had any time to do it, Aion is a very demanding game about being online every day (daily quests, limited purchase of craft items once in every 24 hours or so, arena fights, tickets, flower watering :D) if you want to do good, and my extensive cosplay hobby gets in a way of that :) fun fact - every time I played Aion (had to start over when it transfered to Gameforge, but I was happy to) I was an armorsmith there! My latest character Dulcinea the asmodian cleric is even a master armorsmith. Hopefully I can be that in real life too, at least cosplay-wise.
However, the outfit I chose from Aion is a leather armor. I just really wanted to finally learn to sew, also it was a time before Christmas, and snowflakes stole my heart.

Here are some of my references:

As you can probably notice, the in-game bow looks purple in the gems areas, but both concept art and wallpaper were blue, same in the modelviewer, so there wasn't much discussion, I stuck with dark blue.
The bow was made out of pvc foam board, 5mm thick sheets, to be exact. The right amount of same part pieces were cut out, all glued together with cyaoacrylic glue, and then shaped with a rotarry tool. Later sanding, filling, and more sanding and then more filling took part. Here are some pictures so you know what I'm talking about:

 It wasn't actually cut with the utility knife you see in the picture, but with a an electric saw (Dremel motto-saw)

 Filler all over the parts.

 Center bow part: glued, shaped, filled, sanded. Right before last coat of grey primmer, widely known as Spray Filler. I use it for almost everything.

The bow has sparkly blue gems visible from even an inner side, so I made 8 thin strips from PET plastic, painted each with nail polish by tapping the brush all over the thing with about 10 different colors and glued those to every side on the bow "wings". Look over here:

The same technique was used to create the gems for the snowflakes and tiaras:

 These gems are made from crystal clear resin  and painted with nail polish from the side of the flat back. Starting with glitter, and finishing with the darkest navy blue one can find.

The good side of the gems is later sprayed with glossy acrylic varnish  giving it lots of sparkle!
I made the snowflakes for the costume, as well as entire tiara, also from crystal resin. I have first coppied the patterns from my references using photoshop (I also used it to get proportions), and cut each different snowflake branch out of thick paper:

And then I sculpted on top of each pattern, using a toothpick, a needle, and my fingers. My sculpting tools were on the way from abroad, and I only had my large sculpting tools at hand, clearly not suitable.

This on the left is the smaller snowflake branch I had to make. You can find it around my large (relatively) gemstone on the tiara.

I baked all the snowlfake branches (I was using Super Sculpey to make them), and molded in Mold Max 30 silicone rubber, and then kept pouring those molds with crystal resin, once every two days, as it took days for each branch to cure :) I finished with all the snowflakes only a day before the shoot due to that, but one of my main goals with this costume was to have snowflakes, that look like ice. The hexagon are made from either polycarbonate plastic (large ones), or also resin (all the small ones).

I sanded the back of each branch as resin poured over the edges at times, glued every snowflake together with Bison contact transparent glue, sprayed all of them with acrylic gloss varnish for extra icey shine, and put some silver gilding wax at the edges from the back side, for even more dimension and a cold gradient look.

Back to the progress of the bow: the center part. Two sheets of pvc foam board were used for the base, one full, and one with holes for the gems cut out:

After that I took some of my favorite material - Apoxie sculpt, that is air dry, super sandable, and fairly easy to work with and sculpted all the 3D details on it. By then I already had my super amazing sculpting tools in, so it was much more fun. 

Two days later, eveything is sanded and sprayed with spray filler:

And after it was painted and gemstones inserted (gemstones surely made the same way, and the "cross" part is 3 layers of translucent colored film in purple, blue, and silver foil all on top of each other. I have used white acrylics spray paint and spray paint can in gold, which was later washed in brown acrylic water, and further "killed" by a clear coat. 

I have also used... a pencil with water to add some dimension to the white parts on the entire bow, it's amazing what you can do with it, just dip the pencil tip in water and draw on the edges and cavities of the prop, and clean ir off with a cloth - not everything cleans off, and the weathering effect from the pencil is silver-grey, which is exactly what Noble Tac Officer's Bow needs.

The last part of the bow front is made of Worbla. I have heated the material to a putty state and made swirls of it, then built around somewhat of a patterns, coppied of this, not sure if you can see what is supposed to be there. I know I couldn't, so I did my best:

As it is somewhat silver yet gold, I decided to spray paint it in silver and add golden gilding wax. I think I am satisfied with what came out of it. Below is the bow in the final stages of the assembly, as I made it in 9 separate parts: base center part, two side "tails", 4 wings from each side, the front top part and the tip I just wrote about. There are also some gems in the tip as well, made from crystal resin and painted from the back in beautiful glossy purple.

Now, on to the armor! I have taken something like a "cast" of my shoulder using Cobracast:

And then sculpted the shoulder piece looking at the reference from plasticine just to be used for patterns:

I covered the sculpt in painters tape, marked the edges of each part, peeled it off and cut it - equals patterns (below)

I then cut out these patterns from craft foam (twice, for every shoulder) and 4 versions of each in Worbla so I could make the worbla-craft foam sandwiches:

 I learned the sandwich technique from Kamui Cosplay, everyone who hasn't should check her out. She even has a book about working with Worbla, and I surely am a proud owner of a copy!

 So I made a sandwich of each part: Worbla - Craft foam - Worbla, and pressed these at the edges, leaving the inside hollow for my shoulder to go in.

 Looks pretty neat, although as soon as I sprayed my beloved Spray Filler, it showed all the imperfections horribly:

And after this I did this routine over and over again: fill the piece with filler, sand it, spray with spray filler (why, you might ask? Because honestly you can't see anything on a piece in grey and white marble, and it also seals the filler in place). You can use regular spray primer for this as well, in any color.

 Lots of filler above

 This is how the piece looks after sanding. After as many rounds of this as I needed (about 8 for each) (filling-sanding-spraying), finishing with spray filler(primer) coat. And so this answers a question I received so many times "how did you get the surface so smooth?" :)

The other part of the shoulders were made from PVC foam board, by cutting, shapping, sanding and filling:

And the finished shoulder piece (left arm, the right has no pauldron with daggers in the game):

Colored in white spray acrylics paint, and the gem-like details are made using transparent films and nail polish (don't want to get into the smallest detail, but I may provide a tutorial later on this, as it's not something I seen anyone do before).

Shoes: I have bought my shoes on Ebay and coated with the same faux leather I used for the dress, and the back details are made from pvc foam board with apoxie sculpt detailing, and the "flappy parts" are chiffon on a transparent clear film, thus giving it studiness but still looking like fabric!

A snowflake was mounted in the middle of each shoe:

As you can see my tights in this picture, I shall now move onto how I made those. I bought regular 40 den grey tights and put those on my dummy legs. Pulled out the snowflake patterns from the references (3 different size snowflakes, exactly as is), cut them out in paper and then craft foam:

Got a pair of extra hands provided by a friend Ieva, and using a textile spray paint, I stamped the tights:

Spray - flip, place, press, press the edges - peel. Repeat for each snowflake, and that's it!

Another part of my costume is the collar: I made it from craft foam glued at the edges (I had first tried a colored foam and painted it, but it cracked all over the place, so then I got some white craft foam and made the collar without paint). I also cut and curled feathers for it, and the brooch is made from pvc foam board with a resin snowflake:

The back of the collar has also two chiffon on a film wings with a part very similar to what on my shoe heels, but I didn't take the WIP photo of it, as it was literally made on the last night and photos was the last thing on my mind :(

Gloves were sewn from faux leather(same as the dress and the shoes cover pieces) and the bracers made from also white craft foam, covered with feathers, to maintain the unique Aion feather look, and yet fluffy:

And now I guess we are finally down to the dress. This was the most scarry part for me. I have not done a lot of sewing before this, definitely no whole dresses in my collection. Thankfully I had guidance provided by my very good friend and cosplay partner Ieva, who tought me so much! 

First I surely sewn a dummy dress from the crappy fabric:

After this I had a hang of sewing straight lines already, so I sewn the original dress from the strechy faux leather (because LEATHER ARMOR :D), with some sequin strechy fabric and a built it, yet somewhat separate strechy underskirt. 

I sewn all the snowflakes on it with a clear sting, and all the fixing of everything on my armor are clear straps - kind of like bras have, you know? They almost completely dissapear in the photos and are super easy to remove if any is left :)

And then lastly I cut my long wig into a shorter one and styled it with some flattening iron and hairspray. 

My guess is, this costume looks much simpler when you first look at the reference. So I thought too, but then when I decided to do every single detail, it appareared my 7 weeks vanished into thin air so fast, I forgot what sleep feels like. Finally I can rest a bit, maybe long into Aion? :D While I do that, check out my finished costume:

Costume, props and model and this horribly long write up: Dulcinea Cosplay https://www.facebook.com/DulcineaCosplay

Make up by Eglė Bžeskaitė

Photos and editing by Indrė Sipaitė Kuodienė

Studio by Tomas Dinda

Support team, santa's little helpers : members of Bearded Pegasus Forge: Ieva, Rokas, Rimas.