Cosplayer of the Week: Pancake Mix Cosplay

Continuing on from last week’s horror theme (if you didn’t catch it, check out the link at the bottom of the article) we have Pancake Mix Cosplay! Now don’t go thinking we just have a “rinse and repeat” of our previous horror cosplayers, Pancake Mix has more variety than you can shake a stick at, which is one of the things that makes them so good!

Scissorwalker
Photo by Aperture Ashley

Age: 29

Location: Texas, USA

Favourite food: spaghetti! Although I’m quite partial to milk bubble tea.

Stormer
Photo by Aperture Ashley

What first inspired you to start cosplaying?

I moved schools in my junior year of high school and made some new friends who were really into cosplay. I had been to conventions a few times before as a casual attendee, but it wasn’t until I met them that I got REALLY into it. They needed an extra person for their group, so I happily obliged! At first all I could do was thrift store pre-made pieces and hand sew small outfits together, but over time I picked up a sewing machine and started learning from my grandmother how to do a bit more! Without my friends and my grandma’s motivation, I don’t think I would have gotten into cosplay like I did.

What’s your favourite part of the costume making process?

When I was younger, it used to be the dressing up part! I always loved Halloween, so getting to dress up as your favorite character was the best. Now-a-days, I prefer the actual planning process. Since I found my calling to monsters and more horror-based costumes, the real fun comes from “can I bring this monster to life!” A lot of my go-tos involve really bizarre headpieces or strange props. So when I pick something to make, I do a lot of drafting and planning on how I could feasibly wear, walk around, or even see out of the thing. You’d be amazed how often I have to stop and tell myself, “will this fit through a doorway?”, so before I even start building I have to consider its size and weight. If I’m going to a far away con, then transportation is the third issue. After doing this for 10+ years, you start to learn what works best!

Hsien-Ko
Photo by Aperture Ashley

Speaking of bigger builds, what would you say has been your most complex costume so far?

I would have to say my Winter Lantern from Bloodborne has been the most complex I’ve done so far. The head itself weighed about 15 pounds, and required a PVC rig that connected to a makeshift back pack (that I wore over a corset, and under the dress of my costume.) I had to make it look like the head was floating, but couldn’t keep all that weight on my actual head/neck. So the PVC rig helped distribute the weight across my upper body instead. I could only see out the bottom, so I needed several cosplay handlers to walk me around, and at least 3 people to help get it on and off for short breaks. It was a super ambitious project that I did in 3 weeks and would NEVER suggest anyone do that on such a short time crunch ever! It certainly wasn’t a perfect costume, but I was really proud of that build. It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my friends offering their advice and literal time to help put it together. Whether it was painting in my garage at night in the cold, or helping me take it on and off for practice. I’m very thankful for everything they continue to put up with for my sake.

Winter Lantern
Photo by Mineralblu

Do you have a dream cosplay you’d like to work towards one day? Could you use anything you’ve learned while making Winter Lantern to help you?

I have a couple upcoming costumes like the Red Nun from Remothered, or Mother Ghost from Crimson Peak, that could certainly use a combination of what I learned from Winter Lantern and others! But as far as dream costumes go, I’d love to make Beauvoir (Simone) from NieR Automata. It definitely has the size, the odd head shape, and delicate details that would require me to reeeeally plan everything out. There’s also some new techniques I’d get to learn, which is exciting to think about! I’m never quite excited to wear these heavy costumes in the middle of a Texas summer, but it hasn’t stopped me yet.

If you could give any advice to new cosplayers, what would it be?

I suppose I would say to not be afraid of using cheaper materials if you’re trying to make a big costume. There are some really nice materials out there but you don’t have to jump to the most expensive thing right away! Sometimes you can find work arounds that save you money without breaking the bank on working with something you’ve never used before. For example, a lot of my earlier big mascot and monster builds used foam pool noodles as the base! They’re cheap and abundant during the summer; easy to use, light weight, and became a perfect learning tool for working up to stronger materials. Even now I still try to find cheaper alternatives when making my monsters. Paper maché, craft foam, poster board, hot glue – all those things you probably used for arts and crafts in grade school, still work really well for some cosplay elements! You can still aim big by starting small.

The Keeper
Photo by Mineralblu

Past Cosplayer of the Week

Cosplayer of the Week: Corvidae Cosplay Emporium

Hailing from North East England, Corvidae Cosplay Emporium is made up of a fearsome duo of foamsmiths and sewing masters. They’re no strangers to guesting and judging at cons all over the UK, and looking at the calibre of their work, it’s not hard to see why! We caught up with Olivia to talk more about their costumes. Orochi and NobushiPhoto by Dr Whero Photography Age: 24 Location: Thornton Favourite food: pork belly ramen Who or what first inspired you to start cosplaying? I’ve always loved costumes but games were and are the most inspirational thing for me. The same goes for Ryan, the other cosplayer that makes up Corvidae Cosplay Emporium – we’re both massively inspired by games and making characters come to life. Taniks the ScarredPhoto by Dr Whero Photography What was your first costume? How does it compare to some of your more recent work? Our first costumes were when we were very little – our families have always been into us making and wearing costumes. Mine was a big foam Flounder when I was about 5! Ryan used to have kid’s armour that he would take on camping holidays to castles and he would run around pretending to be a knight! But our first cosplays were when the first images for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate came out; we knew it would be Victorian England so we made steampunk Assassins. In comparison to recent work they were good but very sewing based and amateur-ish. Ryan’s good at sewing as he used to work at a tailors, but since then I have completed my degree in costuming so all our patterns are made from scratch from our own basic clothing blocks and then adapted into what we want. We also are a lot better at foam work and use more technical things such as a 3D printer, airbrush, we resin cast and use LEDs in our cosplays too. They’re a lot more advanced these days! Monster Hunter World huntersFeaturing Kamui Cosplay What would you say has been your most complex costume so far? Probably the Monster Hunter World costumes that we won the Cosplay Championships at London Film and Comic Con in last year. They were complex base patterns, the armour was mental and we had to use a lot of different types of foam with different densities and thicknesses to achieve the final result. We used foam clay too, which was the first time we had worked with it. There was LEDs that had to change colour, weapons that are taller than me (and were a pain to get on and off the underground with!!!) and we had props to go on stage with to make our performance more interactive. We made the 3D files and printed numerous sections of the build, which was great fun as it was the first time we had utilised the 3D printer for complex designs, and we had about 5 weeks to make the costumes around working… safe to say we didn’t sleep for 4 days before the competition. I’ve never been so tired and pumped in my life! The costumes still aren’t done either – there’s lot we want to finalise or aspects that need changing (the Championship was the first time we both wore our costumes so there’s a bunch of stuff that can be reworked to make them better) but the entire thing took so much out of us, those costumes are packed away and we’ll sort them out when I can cope with looking at them again! Metro StalkerPhoto by Dr Whero Photography Do you have dream costumes? Can you use anything you learned while making your Monster Hunter outfits to help? For me it would be to replicate a Kaiju from Pacific Rim, it’s my all time favourite film and I would absolutely love to have the skills to do a good job with it. It’s an end goal though, it’s nothing like anything we’ve done before and I need to learn more about old school character methods from filming to attack that bad boy with the vigour that it deserves! Ryan says his dream cosplay would be Predator, either original or elder, because of the cape! I think realistically he poses the skills required to make it, but again it’s a case of wanting to master different techniques so we can both really nail the costumes and do the original inspiration proud! What’s your favourite part of the costume making process? We both love working with foam – making a 2D design into a 3D detailed reality, that’s an amazing feeling. The figuring out of how to put the costume together and how everything will work from a technical perspective is always good fun, especially considering how we need all our costumes to be not just aesthetically correct but also correct and fitting to the settings you’d find them in (like fabric choices for a Samurai costume or the cut and sewing techniques on a sci-fi piece) and, most importantly for us, that we have to perform in them – performance and being the character is the most important aspect in our eyes, so the costumes must be designed to withstand this. Then there’s obviously the final piece, when you’re wearing it and people respond to you as though you’re the character – I absolutely live for that narrative that people create with you in costume. Hunter from DestinyPhoto by Dr Whero Photography Like this:Like Loading... [...] Read more...

Cosplayer of the Week: Bacon, Bitches & Cosplay

I believe I discovered Bacon, Bitches & Cosplay by accident while looking up something completely unrelated, but her name made me chuckle so I thought I’d check her out; I’m glad I did! This German cosplay is a master mermaid, a brilliant seamstress and a dab hand at creepy makeup. Bacon, Bitches & Cosplay is a great all-rounder. Twi’lek Age: 25 Location: Bavaria Favourite food: bacon, of course! ValkyriePhoto by BildRausch Who or what first inspired you to start cosplaying? That’s a tough question. I think it was a Marvel-related fan group on Facebook that I’m part of. I met a few members in person and we had the idea of a Marvel cosplay group, which worked out great! After a meet at the Leipzig Bookfair, we founded our cosplay group, “Young Avengers Europe” and we still cosplay together now. In the beginning, I only made Marvel cosplays, but now I have many fandoms. FaunPhoto by Eschnapur Photography What would you say is your most complex costume so far? I don’t think I have very complicated costumes, I’m currently working on a post-apocalyptic outfit which is a lot of work, but it isn’t finished yet. I think my most complex is Medusa from Inhumans because I made everything except the shoes. I even braided 6 metres of wire in the hair! MedusaPhoto by BildRausch What’s your favourite part of the costume making process? The best part for me is wearing the costume, either at a con or on a photoshoot. I have so much fun really playing the character. When wearing costumes at a con, in German we would say “berufsrisiko”. You have to watch out that you’re healthy, hydrated, etc. If my feet hurt, I take off my shoes. If my head hurts, I pull off my wig. It’s so simple and I don’t care what other people say about it! Do you have any advice for new cosplayers? Just do it! If you fail, so what? Cosplay is about having fun, keep going until you’re happy. Narcissa MalfoyPhoto by Vanity Art Photography Like this:Like Loading... [...] Read more...

Cosplayer of the Week: Nirel Cosplay

Despite being a relatively new cosplayer in the grand scheme of things, Nirel Cosplay blew me away with the sheer quality of their costumes from the moment I discovered them. You want anime cuteness? Gaming badassery? The Dark Lord himself? Don’t worry, Nirel’s got you. SamaraPhoto by Steeve Li Photography Age: 22 Location: Paris Favourite food: croziflette (a French dish based on Reblochon and pasta) Paladin T21Photo by Marc O Carion Moc Who or what first inspired you to start cosplaying? It was Shoko and Jerome Cosplay. In 2013 I went to my very first Japan Expo in Paris. I already knew what cosplay was, so I wanted to watch the cosplay contests, especially the ECG (European Cosplay Gathering) finals. There they were with their awesome Monster Hunter cosplay, they were amazing on stage, I had tears in my eyes! They won the contest. Two years after, I finally started to cosplay, and every day I keep thinking about their performance, and it motivates me a lot. Maybe one day I’ll be able to make cosplays as great as they do! LokiPhoto by DriStudio Photography What was your first cosplay? It was “Le Nain” from “Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk”, a French MP3 saga! I made it with really cheap green foam, and as it’s a dwarf I had to make a beard, so I bought a Santa Claus beard and orange hairspray, mixed them together and tada! My chainmail was just a grey fabric, so it was really cheap dwarf. What would you say has been your most complex costume so far? As I like to improve my skills with every costume, they’re all complex in their own way, but I think the one that introduced me to the most different techniques is Gimli. I had to make real chainmail, and a beard! I had to work with leather, armour, fabric, and make up! GimliPhoto by Christian Poulet What’s your favourite part of the costume making process? I think it’s painting, I’m a perfectionist on that. I need to have the right shade with the right shadows and lighting so sometimes I can use five different shades of the same colour on just one armour piece! Do you have any advice for new cosplayers? Keep trying! Keep trying new techniques and challenging yourself, and never forget to have fun. NightcrawlerPhoto by Steeve Li Photography Like this:Like Loading... [...] Read more...