Sheer Inspiration

I usually visit the cosplay.com site every day. It's a forum where you can post up pictures of what costumes you're working on, talk about different issues in cosplay with the community, discuss technique, photography, posing so you don't look rediculous while still 'in character.' You need to know something about cosplay or costuming in general? With (literally) thousands of enthusiasts on the boards, you'll likely have an answer to your question within the hour.

One of the other reasons I like going there is to drool over pictures of costumes that I would otherwise never get to see. It's inspiring to see people who have the skills to take on projects that would make me hesitate. And I'm hesitating less and less these days.

So here's a costume AnnaMarie and Dad will at least recognize. Ursala from the little mermaid. I mean how cool is that? I was really impressed by several things with this one- it must have been a technical beast to get just right. The tentacles, first off, both how they attach to the dress and how they're held up with 30lb fishing line and epoxy. It's really quite creative and turned out great. The wig is similarly impressive. It's not easy to get hair - even fake hair - to do something like that and I can only imagine the hours and who knows what materials she must have put into it. I've looked into what it takes to make wigs, and I'll be making one for my costume-con '09 project, but I'm not particularly looking forward to the work it'll take. Body paint is another area of costuming I've kinda stayed away from. It can be messy sometimes if you don't get the really really good (read expensive) stuff and it doesn't always photograph well either. Especially not after a full day of wearing it. But here, she only used it on her hands and face, and somehow managed to match the color of a body suit. (which I will be using in the near future)

The original page is here

One of the best anime I've seen over the past year was Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, and I'm really looking forward to it coming out here in the US. Definately a series that I want to pick up. It's in the genre of alternate history/fantasy, so probably not anyone else's in the family's cup of tea, but it was really well done! The animation was excellent, the plot tight (although I'm still waiting for season 2. grr.), and they got CLAMP to do the character design which I thought was a good move. I like CLAMP's style even if it's a bit more stylistic than realistic. Or maybe because it is. Anyways. Here's the art vs. the costume.





The original page is here





The last one there, is with another cosplayer of the same character, just wearing the school uniform rather than the full cloak and helmet costume. ^^ I really admire this particular costume because (a) good looking uniforms are dang difficult to pull off - as hard as suits in some regards, and (b) that prop helmet can't have been easy to make... and I'm jealous of it. Well, jealous of the skill that it took to make it. I can sew, but I haven't the skill to really make amazingly awesome props like that. And(c) the picture with the cloak flying up behind him is awesome. I don't think he wired it (well, below the massive collar that sticks up at any rate), which means that the kudos probably go to the photographer, but I can't really tell for sure. Which means that if he did wire it, he did it perfectly.