We first came across Elle Norton Cosplay when I (Anna) decided to scour the internet for Korra cosplayers for our Korra day. Since then we’ve been in love with Elle’s cosplays and just had to feature her as a Cosplayer of the Week.
Age: I’m 21.
Location/Nationality: I live in Brisbane Australia.
What is your favourite food/meal? My favourite food is probably chocolate.
What inspires you to cosplay?
For a few years I was really interested in cosplay. I was fascinated with making the costumes and being the character, but I had no one to talk to about it. It wasn’t until the start of 2014 when I joined my Uni’s anime club and met some people who I could geek out with. Luckily half of the group’s members were cosplayers or were thinking of cosplaying too. It was because of them I had my first cosplay experience. Ever since then I’ve been having the time of my life. Through cosplay I’ve made so many good friends, and had so many experiences I’d never had been able to if I hadn’t finally taken the plunge and cosplayed. It is that constant sense of belonging and friendship that inspires me to cosplay. At this point it is too engrained in me to reverse, so I’ll be a cute old lady cosplaying till I can’t stand.
Photo by YS photography
Last year you cosplayed Drax (from Guardians of the Galaxy), why did you pick him and how long did it take for you to get ready?
I really love Drax’s character (Guardians of the Galaxy), he’s naively innocent in a stabby violent way, but he tries to understand and though he may be misunderstood himself he treasures his friends and would die for them. He is innately flawed, but can learn from his mistakes. He’s not just a hulking brute hell-bent on revenge, he has a heart and a brain too. Plus he was so much fun to wear. My Fem-Drax cosplay from last year was an eye opening experience in a few ways. Most of that is because of the bodypaint hell I went through. It took 2 hours to apply the body paint, luckily I had my Starlord (Izzys Cosplay) on hand to paint me, then a good half hour to do my make-up and have the tattoos applied, again by my wonderful Starlord. I had decided to use PAX body paint, which I wont be doing again on such a large scale (neck, back, arms, chest, hands) because it took over 2 hours to take off … and I fell asleep halfway through on the floor of my bathroom. I wore Drax on a Sunday after a hectic 3 day con with little to no sleep. We were all so tired, but somehow I managed to get it all off.
You have also made a lot of props and armour for your various costumes, which has been your favourite piece to make so far? Why?
I enjoy making props more than sewing, so I have quite a few props and armour builds I really enjoyed. I think my favourite would have to be Drax’s daggers, since they are so detailed and the reason I bought a dremmel. On the other hand the most rewarding in the sense of being recognised would go to Magneto since I really love my paintwork and everyone really seemed to enjoy my work, especially the helmet. I have a few costumes that have awesome props coming up in the next year that I am so excited about. I have already started work on The Blue Spirit’s swords (Avatar: The Last Airbender) and plan to start Valka’s staff (How to Train Your Dragon 2) very soon!
Photo by YS Photography
What advice would you give to other cosplayers?
If I were to give any advice to cosplayers it would be to give everything a go – you never know what you might be good at and what you might enjoy. I intend to try out a bunch of new materials in the next few months and I’m really excited. You know, cosplay is quite expensive and there are always new materials to substitute old ones, so I say have a play and try everything once. You might try Worbla and realise you don’t like it and prefer foam or cardboard. You’d be amazed what you can do with cardboard (Magneto’s helmet is made from cardboard). You don’t learn unless you try!
What has been the most interesting/difficult technique you have used so far?
Technique wise, the most difficult would probably be magnetos armour since there are complex shaped that I had to sand in or glittering a suit I’d made for Caesar (The Hunger Games), but the most interesting was probably making Amon’s mask (The Legend of Korra). I used plaster bandage to make a mould of my face and then built on it with plaster to give him a pointy nose and sharper eyes which my face as a basis. Amon was my dream cosplay and I have worn it so many times. My favourite cosplay experience was getting to hang out with an Avatar cosplay group as Amon. We had a fake wedding for Varrick and Zhuli and I got to officiate. I almost caught the bouquet too. Excited to hang out with those guys again as The Blue Spirit in September at OZ Comic Con Brisbane. We are all going to meet Dante Basco together. Of course winning the cosplay comp for best group (standard) for my Hunger Games group is a very close second!
Photo by Milk and Threads
If you could pick any costume to make, money and skill ability not being an issue, which costume would you make?
If I could pick any costume to make with unlimited time and money I’d make the Creeper from Jeepers Creepers, but that may scare some people. I’ll leave that for a zombie walk. On the other hand, I plan on making Emilia The Hero (Devil is a Part-timer) in full armour at some point. She will be very expensive!
Photo by Cru Photography
with Izzys Cosplay
Photo by Hard knocks Cosplay