You all should go and checkout episode 6 of the Diablo podcast, where they talk about Blizzcon, and intereviewed Mario on our Witch Doctor costumes!
(No, his feet aren’t painted, but this was a trial shoot to see how long it would take us to paint ourselves)
Also, yes, Mario is working on several recap posts of his costumes, but he is currently also working on several other commissions, and so he has little time to sit on the computer. I may try and get them written up for him.
A good friend of Alice’s asked if we would take on a commission for a rather unique and truly identifiable helmet.
Char Aznable from the Gundam Universe.
Finish product before shipping!! I am aware that there are a few flaws in the helm that have far more to do with my inexperience, then any thing with my process. The following tutorial will show both how I made this helmet and a few tips to avoid a few mistakes I made along the way. Continue reading
(This post was written by our newest member of Arms, Armor, and Awesome: Skylar, of Lyeric cosplay. You can check her out here!)
Hey everyone! Here is a quick note with some tips on how to prepare and plan your future masterpiece!
This will be a two part tutorial, the second part being about preparing patterns and materials.
The preparation stage of costume creation is probably the most important. If you plan well, it will be much easier, and the whole your experience will be less stressful and more successful. Really, it’s all about researching and organizing!
Tip 1: Gathering Reference Pictures!
Now is the time to surf the internet to find your references. You should find as many reference pictures as possible. A great cosplay is as accurate as possible. The best thing you can do to guarantee accuracy is to find as many angles as possible. Save this pictures to a folder and print them out. This way you don’t have to run back and forth to your computer. If you are creating a Warcraft costume, I recommend using www.wowhead.com. They have this great View in 3D feature. To collect the picture, just press Print Screen on the top of your keyboard, and paste the image into MS Paint/Photoshop (whichever you choose). You can also use WoW model viewer.
Tip 2: Decide what details are crucial and which you can be flexible on.
Accuracy is a great thing, but remember, just because it is like that in game/drawn that way doesn’t mean it works like that in the real world. This is when your artistic liberty comes into effect! Make it work. Another thing too: search through Deviantart and other pages to see how artists draw this costume. This can give you an idea on how to alter the costume to make it more realistic.
Tip 3: Ask yourself if this is a costume you can realistically build.
I know there are many amazing costume potentials out there, but make sure it’s within your skill level. If you pick something way to difficult, you most likely will become frustrated and unhappy with it and quit (trust me).
Tip 4: Study your pictures and pick out what material will best suit that aspect of the costume.
Fabric choice, material choice and painting are critical! So make sure you take the time and effort to find out these things. It makes a world of a difference. Also- be prepared! Make a list of things you need to buy in order to create this costume. For some materials (example paper mache) you need a sander to make a smooth surface. Think ahead!
Tip 5: Take risks!
This is the best piece of advice I can give you. If you don’t take risks you will never learn. By taking these risks you can find your own techniques on how to construct items that you may not be able to find on the internet. So take chances! What’s the worst that could happen?
So, this is just a small note of advice I can give you. I hope it can help you a little bit! Part 2 is on its way.
Good luck, and happy costuming!
Lyeric♪
Mario and I would just like to extend a formal welcome to the newest member of Arms, Armor and Awesome, Skylar of Lyeric Cosplay, who will be posting here as Lyeric! We’re very excited to have her on board! Her female Lich King costume was her first, but boy is it amazing!
We can’t say enough just how excited we are to have her on our team!
This is my last post on my series of how I made the female Witch Doctor Costume, and Mario is working on writing up his posts now so you should see them soon.
To find the perfect shades for our body paint, we went to San Francisco (which is just over an hour away) and, of course with our trusty iPhones out with the pictures loaded up, compared swatch after swatch of paint to what was in the picture. Mario’s turned out to be a mix of two grays: 501 and FF7. Mine was a red/brown called 046. It was easier to order these by calling Kryolan, because I couldn’t find one of the shades anywhere online. If you don’t have a store around you that allows you to swatch the colors for your body paint, then make sure to look online for pictures and videos of swatches that others have done, to see how the shade looks on different skin types, and how it photographs. Continue reading
The staff and dagger were really some of the easiest (but kind of time consuming) parts of the costume.
Honestly I thought I took more pictures, but again… I either didn’t, or I’ve lost them. Lame. Continue reading
The lady Witch Doctor has an awful lot of jewelry and accessories going on. She’s got several gold bracelets on each wrist, one on her left upper arm, two gold bands on her right leg, a bone and feather leg band on her left leg, two completely different sandals, two gold hoop earrings in each ear, and what we have been lovingly referring to as the ‘crotch skull’. Yes, it is that skull with feathers that is clipped to the …crotch part of the skirt. Oh, and she’s got really long nails, too, which I did not get any pictures of at all when I was wearing them. Lame. Continue reading
Alice Comstock as Witch Doctor from “Diablo 3”
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Mario Roy as Tier 8 Priest from “World of Warcraft”
Join Otaku House Cosplay Idol
Simply vote for us by clicking the link, ‘liking’ Otaku House, then ‘liking’ our photos! We’re going to be using these as our signatures for a while, until the contest is over. You can vote for as many photos as you like. Thank you for your support!
This post will cover the Witch Doctor’s neck rings, leather collar thing (is there a name for that? I dunno.), and necklaces. (Also, the picture above has a different mask than the one I made, I just used it because it has a close up on the necklaces.) Continue reading
After squinting at and studying the female witchdoctor concept art for a few weeks, I finally felt sure of what kind of fabric it was I was looking for. Mario and I made a trip out to our local JoAnns, and proceeded to wander around with our cellphones out and the picture up, holding up the picture to every reddish fabric we could find. We decided that it needed to be a good stretchy fabric that would fray and rip nicely, and it didn’t take us long to find it. We only got two yards because really, the costume doesn’t call for a lot of fabric. We also got leather lacing in the same color (lucky for us that it matched so well!), some beads that looked like they were similar to the one in the picture, and a button/claw thing that looked like a tooth that isn’t in the picture, but would help secure the skirt onto me so that I wouldn’t have to worry about anything falling off, since the leather lacing is kind of hard to tie (and would be bulky under the skirt anyway, and I didn’t trust a simple clasp to hold this heavy skirt up. Continue reading
Arms, Armor and Awesome 