to move up and down
oh the astro boy
Since Astro Boy was already made practically, I had time to experiment with things I never really have a chance to work with by nature of how much time I typically have to do anything (not a lot). I knew that since A was getting a whole new costume (seriously how can I resist a request for Kid Flash?) I would have to come up with something clever and awesome to keep Lo as Astro Boy. It couldn’t take a long time to make, though, otherwise that would defeat the whole point of keeping him as Astro instead of another character/whole new costume.
ARM CANNONS clearly. I ordered EL wire and LED strips to play around with.
the EL wire came with a battery pack (as evidenced), which made it really easy to plan around, because it already had an on/off switch included. The strips just had +/- wires so we had to tape them to batteries at the day of the show. No big deal.
I did learn a lot of stupidly obvious things about LEDs, though, such as how they work in a cluster so you can only cut them in groups of five lights (in this case). Oh the basics! My middle school tech ed teacher would be so disappointed in me.
so I constructed the cannon out of a bunch of cardboard, foam core, and some old poster tubes (i have like 80 and I still forget to bring one to SDCC every year, wtf is that)
it took a bit to figure out the perfect shape. Astro’s gun has a dual layering thing, mostly because it’s 3D animation and they just HAVE to get clever about that… the cartoon cannon was just a bright ball of blue so Logan vetoed that immediately, and who can blame him when he has THIS as comparison:
I didnt have enough time to really break down the actual literal pieces of the cannon, so I simplified.
Added another panel of cardboard and then finished off some edging:
Originally I lined the whole creation with silver paper, because I liked the idea of creating a papercraft item out of the thing. But since everything else on the costume is soft shapes, like Astro’s boots, I decided it wouldn’t fit in with the look.
so i resorted to GOOD OLD FOAM, my friend, to pad out the cannon and make it appear soft-edged like the rest of the costume. I covered it in silver fabric that I purchased in NYC years ago to make leggings that I promptly lost interest in before the draft even finished.
the EL wire coils around the centre and Lo’s hand grabs the battery back inside the cannon. I also carved a hole at the side so I could pull the end of the wire out and around the outer rim of the cannon to at least attempt to give it the dual look.
The strips are down the side. I actually made casings for them to enhance the blue and diffuse it somewhat. It’s a layer of semi-opaque vellum plus a layer of clear blue drafting paper, hot glued to a piece of posterboard I cut into a little ravine shape for the strip to attach to. As you can see, it worked better in one than the other. You can also see where I learned how many circuits are connected… and when one goes out… good job me!
Definitely needs improvement but it’s not so bad. Lo got to help a lot, which is the most important part, really.
the kid flash adventure
So after sewing points for Nightwing last year, I figured I had Kid Flash pretty set. Cut, hand tack, hand stitch, baste, stitch, serge. Long process but it worked out pretty well:
I made a muslin out of old fabric left over from other superhero costumes and just drew on where I wanted the spikes to go. The hardest part was actually picking which of KF’s Young Justice costumes to go with… I preferred these spikes but I really also liked the shoulder panels on the newer one. In the end I decided to go with the first version because it would be more simple.
The logo was pretty easy. I drew it on A’s muslin body suit and made a pattern from there. the back has double-sided fusing on it, so basically just had to iron it to the front where I wanted it to go.
I actually anticipated A having an issue with wearing a jumpsuit (like what if he had to go to the bathroom?) but he tried to convince me to let him wear the muslin to school so I clearly have found a new avenue for introducing clothing around A’s sensory issues.
So after ironing it on I realised it did this:
MELTED the centre of the front panel….. I did NOT want to take apart the spikes at A’s hipbone, because they would take forever to redo.
I ended up adding another panel across the chest, curved around A’s ribcage, to offset the error without redoing everything. It kind of makes me angry but no one else seems bothered by it.
A’s goggles and ear spikes were spraypainted:
In the back you can see I tested like 8 different kinds of things for the ear pieces, everything from a hollow bouncy ball cut in half to the plastic balls that quarter toys come in, which is what I ended up going with. His lightening ears are just wire and foamcore.
The goggles are Willy Wonka’s TV specs, which were an amazing find because the lenses are already red! Too bad they’re too big for A… I’ll post pics of that soon. I should have boiled the plastic first and bent it a little so A could wear it with elastic. I might try that before the photoshoot.
But they look rad:
the boots. OHHHH the boots. I dont even want to show you the photos.
I bought these white go-go boots for A to wear and they were fine on him. I figured, oh hey I’ll just spray paint them it’ll be GRAND.
WRONG.
I tested a few different paints. The issue was that the top panel of the boots stretched and made everything chip.
I tried to correct this with actual liquid latex and then powder on top, to offset latex’s need to stick to itself, but it just made the boots really dark. The boots he’s wearing in the photos were literally made in twenty minutes before the boys arrived to my apt to get dressed………talk about a rush job!
Lo as Astro Boy. Since this was his halloween costume originally, I had a lot more time to make accessories for it - like the LED chest reactor and arm cannon. It’s hard to see some details, like the joints I made at his knees & elbows, but it’s okay. I’ve never had to work with LEDs before so it was a learning experience to share with Lo.
More pictures soon! I have a lot of progress shots of the cannon as Lo & I constructed it, too.
Quick post to start the ECCC round up. A as Kid Flash! This time, I have all the progress shots for the costume and I’ll post a progress thing soon… all sorts of interesting issues I didn’t foresee.
proudest moment of my weekend goes to A, who came with me to the DC 52 panel and walked up to the mic dressed as Wally/Kid Flash to ask the panelists, “Why isn’t Wally West in the Flash comics anymore??” and the whole room cheered for him.
A & I really like the new Flash comics! I actually like them a lot more than the Batman issues, which is another conversation, but we are both really sad that Wally’s been virtually erased. On Friday someone else asked about Wally at the DC All Access panel and the moderator literally answered with “Who wants free comics?” which I suppose is to be expected, but it made me sad.
A was apprehensive about walking up to the mic and was worried he wouldn’t remember what to say so we practiced a lot & I ended up writing it down to make him feel better. I think he felt pretty proud after though! A few people came up to him afterward, and during the con, to tell him he had a great question, which I think totally made his day. Brian Cunningham saw him a few hours later and yelled out GO WALLY WEST! which I think also made him really excited (though I didn’t see it).
He ended the day with: “When am I going to be old enough to go to the big comiccon?” which seems like a success to me. :D I plan on getting better pics like the Speedy ones, but ECCC fell on a really busy weekend this year so it’ll be awhile before I have time to take him somewhere appropriate for a shoot.
the start of ECCC preparations
for emerald city comic-con this year, A’s decided to be Kid Flash from young justice. I actually have been trying to encourage him to stick with just modifying Speedy - I’m doing a lot of traveling and running around this month, leaving me with less time than originally planned to get much done.
more than that though, while I think A has the perfect kid flash personality, i’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around how to clothe a sensory-aware child in what is most likely going to have to be a jumpsuit. this is a potentially huge issue, with bathroom complaints being the least of the worries. A’s never had to wear so much as overalls, so the idea of an entirely unified piece could be a long process to adjust to (and I don’t really have time for that). I’m just not sure of any other way to get the spiked seamline alone KF’s hipbones, unless I overlap some black fabric over the seams or something…
I’m also unsure about the headpiece, because i dont want to over-interface it to keep it stable, and have it look like a store-bought puffy costume situation. A has a difficult time with masks - I can’t see, it’s poking my eyes, it’s too stiff, its too soft, it’s pretty endless. getting him to wear the mask long enough for Speedy’s photoshoot was a small miracle and honestly, it’s not completely his fault. There’s just not a lot of options for kids that look good & work well, other than leather. the boys’ mom & I have discussed adjusting A to things on his face with weighted bean bags and watersoaked towels, with the hope to eventually make a mold of his eyes/forehead. it would make things so much easier, mask-wise, but the idea of molding any child’s face, let alone a kid who can hardly handle a haircut (you’re cutting me! it hurts!) is just a bit far-reaching I think.
I’ll have to experiment, I guess, because A is pretty adamant on being KF. hopefully the excitement over being Wally will make him more open to trying new things… like with Robin & the tights.
I am, however, pretty stoked about the boots we purchased for A to adjust to back in November. They have a bit of a cowboy boot heel to them, which required a lot of explaining (even boys wear cowboy boots etc), but as far as comfort and walking, A’s adjusted to them pretty well. I’m glad I started that months ago, though it’s been a month or so since the last time I had him in them. Hopefully they still fit.
I haven’t really talked to Lo about ECCC yet, mostly because I would really like him to stay as Astro Boy, since I didn’t get a chance to really complete all the things I had planned for it (namely, the arm laser gun and a better headpiece), but I have the distinct feeling that because one twin is getting a new costume, the other will want one also… bad news with only a few weeks to make clothes, haha. looks like I won’t be convincing him that he’s basically Damian Wayne (but i really want to).
open to suggestions! >_>
remember when i numbered posts
okay so i’m really sick of how disorganized flickr & other image engines can be, especially when it comes to finding photos of yourself at a convention. especially when your cosplay is a character who’s cosplayed a zillion times and looks like you in every tiny thumbnail because everyone’s pretty consistent when creating her costume (harley what). especially even MORE when that cosplay is a character who is well known to a certain extent, but whose name is frequently misspelled or assumed to be another character (harlequin anyone), thereby ruining chances of finding all the awesome photos that fantastic people take of you.
it also sucks when you have a convention that’s tagged with a million different things- for example, san diego comiccon has like 10, misspells not included: SDCC, SDCC2011, SDCCsaturday, sandiegocomiccon, sandiegocomicon, sandiegocomiccon2011, on and on. and not every one tags their photos individually (or tags them at ALL) because let’s face it, that’s a gigantic pain in the ass.
and we can’t forget about the person (ME sadly) that takes a zillion photos that sit in Aperture/Light Room and never see the internet at all, because some of us (ME) can’t be bothered to find the patience to edit and process hundreds of photos (which raises the question, why do you bother taking them at all, Aidan? and I DONT KNOW OKAY).
so i decided that in hopes of finding at least SOME images, maybe if i made a card to hand out to people as they take my photo, some people would actually take the time out of their day post-con to email the photo(s) they took to me. even if it’s just one or two people it’ll still be worth it to me (i’m greedy for pictures always, sad story), so i present to you my cosplay business card (good lord):
there are a lot of problems with this. one, handing out a card while in a group photo is kind of ridiculous, especially if we’re surrounded by a lot of different people (the harley meet-up for example). also the logistics of carrying around a stack of cards… PLUS, people will lose the card, not bother at all, forget which costume i was (hopefully i’ll write little notes or maybe a sticker for the back so they remember what i looked like), etc. i’m hoping that if nothing else, it’ll be a social experiment i can laugh about. i don’t want it to come off as pretentious or “do this or else” etc, but i know that when i’m given business cards & notices from photographers, i usually email them asking for my photo and they’re like SURE SURE (except for that one guy who backhandedly tried to charge me for photos, yeah ccimages i’m looking at you, but that’s another story). so anyway i’m kind of hopeful that it’ll work out the other way around.
we’ll see i guess!! might experiment with this at ECCC at the end of march if we end up pulling out Harley & Ivy. I need to have a hand-writing adventure………whee!
some in progress shots for the nerfpunk costume.
i actually had photos of all my steps and patterns to make a more proper in-progress post, a la the Nightwing costume when this blog was initially started (oh best intentions), but my cellphone updated incorrectly and lost all my photos. of COURSE despite having a great dSLR camera & various lenses i obviously opted to use my cellphone for image taking instead. the same thing happened with Little Red as well as Speedy & Astro Boy.
So the gun I chose has orange/red stripes down part of the body, which is basically what i based the entirety of my design on (i’m consistent at least). Originally the costume was going to have a vest over the top that connected to the bustle & holster. It was going to be made out of two layers of that transparent red vinyl, with the wide lime green fishnet in between. The top layer of vinyl was going to be cut away in parts to make a pattern. I made the initial pattern but did not have time to complete the actual vest.
I basically really enjoyed the idea of making a garment with the intent to be garish, over the top, way too complicated and busy and a complete EYESORE. i wanted to take advantage of that completely!
Just realised I never got around to posting any photos of my nerfpunk costume from Steamcon here in Seattle way back in October. I’m very good at keeping up with things that relate to myself and only myself, aren’t I?
the intent behind nerfpunk, in case you haven’t been following along or just plain forgot cuz it’s been months (that’s more likely i’m sure), is to flip around the expectations of steampunk. A “typical” steampunk garment utilizes a weapon that they assemble to match the costume; typically, this is a nerf gun. The idea of nerfpunk was to reverse it - pick the gun and make the costume match it. That means no modding of the gun was allowed! I kind of cheated, in that I waited until they released their new little discs because I liked the colour scheme better… but it’s still heinously garish.
things i like:
• the sleeves. i spent most of my time on them (even more than the corset, which is kind of tragic really) because I wanted them to have a stupid number of layers. friendly mockery ;)
• the idea of the vinyl gun holster. it was made like 20 minutes before we hopped on the bus to the hotel so it’s not stable and I’d like to expand on it further.
I have some in progress shots that I’ll post after this. Mostly this costume was, unfortunately, more of an afterthought than I really wanted. I had way too many other costumes to prioritize (in that they were being made for a)children and b)people that are not myself), which left me little more than a week or so to create something from the sketches I’d been working on for months. I’d really like to go back into this costume with the intent to make it more than just some piecemeal assembly of ideas, but you know. when have i ever done that?
(the other nerfpunker in the photos is my friend Melinda! she makes amazing costumes AND she won an award for this one in the bathing suit contest!)
That’s awesome! The YJ speedy costume is adorable :) I think I understand what you’re saying, and I sort of did that too.
A’s Speedy costume was based mostly on Teen Titans Year One Speedy, because it was his current favourite comic. TTY1 Speedy’s hat was something of a marvel, in that it seemed to be able to make a variety of shapes possible:
(i mean really. top right, what IS THAT?)
Might as well continue the backwards catching up with some shots of the Little Red Riding Hood costume I made for my 2 year old goddaughter, Sierra.
The struggle with this costume was creating it without any fittings, as she lives across the country from me & I get to see her just once a year. I just HAD to make everything with various wovens I spent a few months collecting, which made the fitting margin a bit smaller than if I had chosen knits… but I think it turned out pretty well.
the dress actually has a lot of details, the photos of which i lost when my phone decided to be a loser and update wrong (and it’s also my fault for being lazy and not using my camera). The skirt has three layers of fabric with two layers of gathered tulle in between (for comfort, because that shit’s so itchy come on), and the topmost layer is more like a pinafore, tying up in the back.
I also included a wolf paw in her basket.. which was a bit hard to make toddler friendly…but bread&cheese is just so boring.
Mini photoshoot of A & his Speedy costume.
Things I have issues with:
• The boots. The ones I made were too hard for him to get on and hurt his ankles (remember the sensory challenges I wrote about with making his Robin costume here) and so I had to resort to fluffy fat fleece things that separated at the ankle so he could put them on and off without discomfort. They work well for him - he loves them - but I’m disappointed in my execution. For ECCC, I’ve purchased a pair of girls’ (shhhh) boots to spray-paint yellow and I’m going to begin training him on wearing them now. Haha.
• The collar still flaps upward… should have tacked that.
• The hat is actually backwards.. I accidentally placed the spikes on the back part of it instead of the front. Before an actual photoshoot I’m going to take it apart and reassemble it properly.
HE loves it, which is the important part, so there’s that.
I’ll post a break down of my process soon; I lost a lot of my progress images from all of my costumes, so I’ve been trying to gather them back from people I sent them to along the way.
Just wanted to give you a preview of the updates I have coming up soon. You know. After October ends and I can take a breath again.
behold: the worst photo i will ever put on this blog
I just can’t be bothered to pull out my camera for one picture.. yay windows phone!
But lets talk about how Astro Boy’s going to have a glowing reactor!
It’s a bit thick.. I might want to pad out Lo’s chest with some foam or something so it’s doesn’t appear as bulky, but I probably won’t do that for Halloween due to time constraints. I still want to pad his forearms and perhaps make the laser his hand turns into, but we’ll see. All three of those things might become adjustments for ECCC.
(It’s pinned onto the shirt, which is stuffed in a pillow)
020: Rambling
i’m having difficulty deciding on how historically accurate i want the nerfpunk piece to be, and how much leeway I want to give myself to have something finished soon.
i’m thinking that i might make a simpler version for steam-con and then, perhaps, modify or recreate it into something more complicated and time consuming, because the ideas that i have are just not coming together fast enough for a convention in like, two weeks. and i don’t want to rush myself, either, since i want this to be a piece i can use in my portfolio, instead of everything else i’ve done this year, which has been on barely-attainable deadlines.
a simpler version would be more steampunk and less victorian, just by nature of the fact i could stop working on a collapsible bustle and all the other framework i’ll need underneath the garment, and focus on the the visual layer. Reuse old corsets and things like that.
Ugh.
Just got back from a trip to NYC though - got lots of new fabrics to explore with!
this is the fabric i got earlier..the colours match! it’s just my bad camera phone…
will post in progress photos soon :) and i will have an update on the Halloween commissions soon, I promise.
