Cosplay | Jennifer Awesome v5.0

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Just an Update

May 22, 2013 Jen Ný College, Cool Story Bro, Cosplay No comments

As always, I’ve been busy and forgot to update this blog for a long time. Since the last time you’ve heard from me, my boyfriend and I have moved out of our small apartment and into a townhouse. I’ve also decided to go back to school for video game design this fall. So here’s everything that’s going on in my life right now:

Our new place is pretty awesome. We have an extra bedroom, which I have turned into a classic gaming room (pictures to come!) We still need to get some poster frames so we can finish decorating.

As long as nothing happens with my financial aid, I’ll be going back to school for video game design. I realized that, at this point, I’m probably never going to “grow up” and decide on a grown-up type of career, so I might as well try to make a career out of something I actually enjoy.

I bought a Kinect as soon as we moved into our new place, since we have enough living room space for it now. I’ve already lost a little bit of weight playing it. I’m hoping to get into awesome shape so I can go to the beach this summer, not look like a gamer stereotype when school starts, and be able to pull off a Golden Axe cosplay.

I won’t be at Colossalcon this year (unless we decide to go for maybe one day), since my friend is getting married that Saturday, and I’m going to be a bridesmaid. It would be pretty douchey to skip a friend’s wedding for something like that. But I’ll hopefully be able to go to other cons later this summer.

I did go to Shinbokucon, which was pretty much how you’d expect Shinbokucon to be. We just reused our Elfen Lied costumes for that, since that con isn’t really worth making a whole new cosplay.

I guess that’s about it for now. I don’t have any photos for this post, so I’ll use one from my Elfen Lied cosplay. Notice how I switched from the horns to bows.

Glasses and Cosplay

January 18, 2013 Jen Ný Cosplay 2 comments

Today I’m going to try to write a post that will actually be useful to other cosplayers, instead of just rambling about how awesome I think I am. I’m assuming most cosplayers who need glasses just use contacts when cosplaying a character that doesn’t wear glasses, but I’m just not willing to touch my eyeballs just for a costume. I also don’t want to limit my cosplay options just to characters that have the same minor disability as me. If you’re also in the minority of people who are not willing to (or simply can’t) wear contacts, there are other options.

Hipster Lucy: I murdered my classmates before it was cool.

You can simply wear your glasses and not care what people at the con say or think. Most people won’t care, but some people elitists might. You can always insist that you’re a hipster version of whatever character you’re cosplaying.

I’ve also heard of people simply not wearing their glasses at all, and relying on their non-blind friends to help them get around. That seems like it would be dangerous, and probably wouldn’t be much fun, so I wouldn’t recommend doing that.

If you don’t want to wear contacts or your normal glasses, but don’t want to go without vision, you could get a pair of frameless glasses, which won’t be as obvious in photos.

I was originally going to just wear my regular glasses and possibly take them off when people wanted photos, since that’s what I did with my last two costumes, but I thought my thick frames detracted from the costume too much, so I decided to get a pair of frameless glasses to use for cons.

“normal” Lucy

I ended up getting a pair of cheap glasses from zennioptical.com for about $30 (after shipping and adding anti-glare coating). Since it was just for a costume, I wasn’t about to spend $500 at one of the ripoff mall optical stores, especially when I’m probably going to need to get my prescription updated soon anyway. I got them in the mail today, just in time for the con.The glasses seem to be of just as good quality as the ones I paid hundreds of dollars for at the mall. The lenses actually seem clearer than my other pair, though that might just mean I need to clean the lenses better.

I’ll probably buy glasses online again next time I need new ones, or if I ever need a certain type of glasses for a cosplay. I don’t think I’m ever going to spend $500 at a mall optical store again (I’ll write another post about ordering glasses online later).

I suppose if I really wanted to make my costume more accurate, I could have gotten red/pink color contacts, but I would really prefer not sticking my fingers into my eye. I can’t even watch my boyfriend put in his contacts. lol. I can live without that minor detail.

Anyway, most people realize that some people need to wear their glasses, and won’t have a problem with it, but every con has those elitist cosplayers who find fault with everything. Don’t sacrifice your vision or comfort just to make your costume more accurate to please those people. You’re there to have fun. Dress how you want.

Elfen Lied Cosplay: Lucy’s Horns

January 10, 2013 Jen Ný Cosplay No comments

I just finished making Lucy’s horns for my cosplay costume. The horns are made of Sculpey III oven bake clay.

I originally made a set of horns out of some scraps of 5mm Foamies sheets I had left over from my Skyrim Iron Helmet, but I decided to remake them out of Sculpey clay so they would be thicker, harder, and more bone-like (and less cat ear like, though I’m sure the artist of the series intended them to look similar to cat ears). The original horns I made ended up being shaped more like her horns in some parts of the manga than her anime horns (they seem inconsistent in the manga), which I guess would have been okay since my wig is more the color of her hair on the manga cover than in the anime.

I sculpted the horns into a vaguely cat ear triangular shape with ridges around the edges and baked them. Then I painted them with vintage white acrylic paint. Once the paint was dry, I coated them in Sculpey Gloss Glaze. They might not have needed the gloss, but I thought it would make them more durable, since online reviews I’ve read say that Sculpey III breaks more easily than other types of Sculpey clay. (I’m still using up the Sculpey left over from when I was a teenager before I buy more).

I was having a difficult time getting the horns to stick directly to the headband, so I cut thin strips of 2mm Foamies sheets and superglued them between the horns and the headband. I glued the horns too high on the headband and first, so I had to pull them off and cut new strips of Foamies. If you’re planning to do a similar costume, make sure you try on the headband and mark where you need to glue the horns before going crazy with the super glue!

I write another post once I figure out how to keep my wig on better, and how to better hide the headband under the hair.

I Didn’t Die

January 3, 2013 Jen Ný Cool Story Bro, Cosplay No comments

With the new year, I’m actually going to attempt to start posting occasionally. I know, I said that last year, and I this year will probably end up about the same.

I got a new job a couple months ago, which is partially why I’ve been too busy to keep this blog updated. I also haven’t done much that would be relevant enough to this blog to post about.

The last anime convention I was at was Midoricon (where I wore the same costume I made for Matsuricon, which is why I never got around to posting about it), but I will be going to Ohayocon in a couple weeks. With the holidays, my boyfriend and I both forgot about the con until someone at a New Years party asked if we would be there. I’m tired of my Skyrim costume since I wore it for two cons, a cosplay picnic, and Halloween, but I am attempting to put together a new cosplay for Ohayocon.

This will be the first anime con where I’m cosplaying an actual anime character! I will be Lucy from Elfen Lied (Hans will be Kohta, or as I like to call him “generic anime dude”). Since the outfit is so basic, and since I waited until the last minute, I’ve just ordered everything I needed for my costume from Amazon and eBay (except the horns, which I’m making). It was cheaper to put together a “closet cosplay” of the outfit I wanted than to buy a pre-made costume online that barely even looks like Lucy’s outfit in the anime (there are some awful looking costumes available to purchase out there!).

In other news, I’ve decided to actually learn guitar. Maybe in a few years, I’ll be good enough to post videos here. (Probably not…)

Well, that’s about all I have to post about right now. Check back later for updates on my costume (I’ll tell you how I made Lucy’s horns, and if all goes well once I get my pink wig, how to wear a wig over long hair without having to use a wig cap).

PS: What do you want to read about in my blog? More cosplay stuff? Reviews and rants about video games and anime? Cool stories about my life that you really shouldn’t care about anyway? I’ll try to include tips for other cosplayers in those posts to at least give this blog some kind of value, but I can really only do a couple costumes a year.

Finished Skyrim Cosplay

August 31, 2012 Jen Ný Cosplay, Photos 2 comments

I just wanted to share some photos of my finished Skyrim cosplay costume. These pictures were taken while adventuring outside the hotel.

My boyfriend took an arrow to the knee. His adventuring days are over.

But I still get to adventure:

Skyrim Hide Armor pt. 2

August 31, 2012 Jen Ný Cosplay, Sewing No comments

Here’s the skirt I made for my Skyrim hide armor costume.

The skirt for the hide armor is made from several layers of fabric. I started by making the black under layer from a stretchy black fabric. It’s double layered with the same black fabric. I then made the fur layer and sewed it to the black under skirt around the top. The patchwork “hide” flaps are attached to the bottom of the fur layer. I put a zipper closure on the side of the skirt and made the belt completely separate from the skirt.

The belt is held on with Velcro under the skull medallion on the front, but I ended up using safety pins to better hold it together. The medallions are made from Foamies that I painted silver. Eventually, I’m planning on switching those medallions out with something better, possible real metal, if I can think of a better way to make them.

I didn’t have time to make the actual hide bracers, so I ended up just making generic bracers from the same fabric I used for the top of my hide armor.

Skyrim Iron Helmet

August 31, 2012 Jen Ný Cosplay No comments

I would have posted earlier, but I was still working on my costume up until a few hours before we had to leave for the Matsuricon.

Here are some photos of my iron helmet.

I made the entire helmet out of Foamies sheets (2mm for the horns and detailing and I believe 5mm for the helmet itself). I used several layers of acrylic paint to give it a well-worn look. I started with metallic silver. It was too light, so I mixed that paint with black to give it a darker color. I added yet another layer of silver/black paint using a spongy brush (that’s the technical term!) to give it more of a “worn” texture. I then applied some bronze paint with a spongy brush to give it a rusty effect. Some of the battle damage was created using clear packaging tape underneath the paint.

For the horns, I created the basic horn shape using newspaper and tape. I then cut strips of Foamies and super glued them around the news paper horns. I painted them a sort of off-white at first, but it was much too light, so I mixed white, brown, and yellow to make the tan color you see now. The horns are super glued onto the helmet.

Skyrim Imperial Nerf Sword

August 21, 2012 Jen Ný Cosplay No comments

I was originally going to make a Dawnbreaker sword (actually, two of them, so I could dual wield like I had my character do after exploiting a glitch in the Break of Dawn quest), but I’m running out of time to finish my costume and couldn’t find anything to use as the light for the top of the hilt. Instead, I just made a generic sword painted in a similar fashion to the Imperial sword.

I simply used acrylic paint on a Nerf sword to make it a similar color to the Imperial sword in Skyrim. (Anything is better than the original blue color). I may eventually make a couple Dawnbreakers for a future cosplay. Eventually, I may attempt to remove the horrible “Nerf” logo from this sword and mod the hilt to more closely resemble the Imperial sword using foam or air-dry clay.

Also, fun fact: I keep accidentally typing “nerd” instead of “Nerf.”

Skyrim Hide Armor Progress

August 16, 2012 Jen Ný Cosplay, Sewing 2 comments

I have the top part of my Hide Armor for my Skyrim cosplay finished. It is made from a brown soft kind of leathery/velvety material.

The shirt is double layered, lined with the same material that I used for the outside. I MacGyvered the pattern by taping together several sheets of paper and tracing a tanktop, then simply altering the outline to match the outfit worn by my Skyrim character. I put a zipper on the side to make it easier to get on and off.

After I finished sewing together the top, I sewed little x’s around all of the edges to give it more . That took a lot longer that I thought it would, but I think it makes it look better than if I had just left the edges unfinished.

I then used leather lacing for the lacing on the front. The top of the lacing is sewn on, but the rest is just going through loops I made with thread to allow the lacing to be tightened as needed.

The pauldron or whatever it’s called (I like to call them “shoulder armor thingies”) is made from rubber foam with the same fabric I used for the top covering it. It is held on with a plus-sized belt I found at Goodwill.

I have the skirt about halfway done. I’m hoping to finish it tomorrow. My Iron Helmet and sword are both also about halfway finished. I haven’t even started on my Hide Bracers or Tavern Clothes yet, but I think I can get everything finished in time for the con (which is in 1 week!). If I still have any time left over, I may also make a Hide Helmet so I can take advantage of the Custom Fit and Matching Set perks! Eventually I may make a matching Hide Shield, for future cons, though I never use a shield in the game and don’t really feel like carrying one around in real life.

Amulet of Talos

August 13, 2012 Jen Ný Cosplay No comments

I finished my Amulet of Talos for my Skyrim cosplay (aside from putting it on a necklace).

The amulet is made from green Sculpey III Granitex clay that I’ve had sitting around my parents house for probably the better part of a decade. I haven’t actually worked with polymer clay since I was a teenager, which is probably why it came out looking a little odd.

When the clay cooled after baking, it noticed that the amulet seemed kind of brittle. I assume since Sculpey III is marketed to children, it might not be the best quality clay on the market. To attempt to strengthen it, I coated it with super glue.

Even with the stone effect from the granitex clay, it didn’t have the right look I was going for, so I used various shades of eyeshadow (greens, black, and a little blue) to give it a more aged/worn look before coating it with super glue. After the super glue was dried, I coated it with Sculpey Gloss Glaze. It did end up shinier than I intended because of the glaze.

If there is any interest, I may make a few more of these for my Etsy shop, once I get it set up. I will probably start adding items on Etsy (mostly video game inspired pieces) after Matsuricon. I already have some ideas on how I can improve the Amulet of Talos for Etsy customers.

The rest of my Skyrim cosplay is coming along nicely. I have the top part of the hide armor finished, and my helmet and sword are coming along nicely. Stay tuned for pictures!

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