[blackbettiecosplay]

“Bright solstice, Sabrina.” 

Have you folks watched the Sabrina holiday special yet? I’m watching it with some friends tonight.

I made a quick casual cosplay of Prudence Night for the holidays - hope you like it. Her full cosplay is coming soon. Prints will be available soon in my shop and as a Patreon rewards. 💖 

Like my work? Support my cosplay projects - Patreon or Ko.fi

📷 and edits by yours truly.

[dailyteamcap]

Rest in Peace legend.

[blackbettiecosplay]

THANK YOU!

EEE! Thanks for all the likes, love and comments on my Fallout 4 cosplay - and hello to new followers! 💖💖

Seriously, it’s so heartening to see all the love you folks have for this project - this cosplay was a labor of love and I can’t wait to do a proper shoot in December and share those as well. 

And of course, retro styling requires at least a few pin-up style photos. 😉

Happy Friday!

Facebook / Instagram / Ko.Fi / Patreon

[blackbettiecosplay]

Diane (Seven Deadly Sins) - Kumoricon 2018

Eee! I cannot contain how happy I am about the Diane photo set I got back from In Costume Media from our Kumoricon shoot! I look so good!!! 💖💖

And...I’ve relaunched my Patreon! (October wasn’t a good month to start - LOL!) See more of this set first by becoming a patron, along with some other goodies, like exclusive prints, the vector template for Gideon, and a step-by-step guide near the end of the month. 💖😘

Join the crew for WIP, BTS and exclusives here. 

Not into Patreon but still want to support?  Buy me a coffee on Ko.fi! 

Facebook / Instagram

[blackbettiecosplay]

Whoops, I made Bowsette over the weekend. :P

Here’s the costest (please ignore my dirty mirror - gotta clean that, yo).

Hoping to shoot this lovely the first week of October to commemorate the relaunch of my Patreon page. Sign up any time in October for access to full photoset (cosplay and pin-up). I’m planning to do a proper announcement once photos are done...but you’ve been warned.

BWAHAHAHA!

Facebook / Instagram / Ko.Fi

[blackbettiecosplay]

Fallout 4 Vault Suit (RCCC 2018)

This cosplay was a labor of love. I’ve wanted to make a vault suit for a while, but didn’t have the time and materials to make it happen until this year. It was originally slated for ECCC, but I wanted to do it right and not rush it, so I pushed it back for Pax West and then as it wasn’t quite ready, finally for Rose City Comic Con. The pattern is started from Yaya Han’s bodysuit pattern (McCall’s 7212) and then modified to be screen accurate to Fallout 4′s suit. I also referenced Brazen & Bold’s tutorial to make sure I was on the right track . FYI - their tutorial is super handy and definitely worth checking out if you want to make your own vault suit.

I can’t wait to do a proper shoot and a pinup shoot for this cosplay. I definitely plan on keeping this cosplay around for a long time. You never know when the world is gonna end, so I might as well be prepared. ;)

Photographer: Triple Click Photo / Grace S. 

Lipstick: Besame 1945

Pip Boy 3000 Mark IV (Cellphone edition): 3D Print designed by Ytec

Want to support my next project? Or keep me caffeinated during con crunch? Buy me a coffee on Ko.fi!

Facebook / Instagram

[blackbettiecosplay]

Red Moon Cosplay Solutions - Review

Alright folks, let me tell you folks about Red Moon Cosplay Solutions - the  cosplay supply shop that I recently got all my foam supplies for my Riju cosplay to try them out as a new source for cosplay supplies.

Red Moon Cosplay Solutions is an online cosplay supply retailer based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with everything you need to craft your next cosplay - thermoplastics, foam, wigs, dye, electronics, tailoring tools, etc. They also have a fun pirate theme throughout the shop - which I’m a complete sucker for - Yarr! But what really made me excited to test them out, was their selection of EVA foams. I don’t currently have a great local source for EVA aside from thicker mats at Harbor Freight or craft foam at Joann’s - so I was super excited to work with them and try them out. I  ordered 3 of their EVA foam packs - a 2mm foam sheet pack, 6mm foam sheet pack and 2mm 30x100 sheet.

The supplies all arrived pretty quickly for an international order - less than seven days, I believe. Everything was well packed and matched my original order. Working with these foams was so much better than craft foam, having the variety of thicknesses meant I could keep things lighter on the headdress and heavier for the belt and other pieces that needed to be more durable. Like most EVA, all three foam types were easy to cut, sand, heat and mold. Doing the detail work was a lot easier than craft foam and I had (and still have) plenty of that. The 30 x 100 sheet was perfect for Riju’s collar piece, and I didn't have to break the design into as many pieces as I would with smaller foam sheets. After trying them out, I have to say I was very very pleased with Red Moon Cosplay Solutions and plan to purchase more from them in the future.

In fact, they often have new cosplay products coming in - like translucent white EVA sheets, air drying foam clay and EVA scales. I've already place an order for their translucent EVA and foam clay, which I cannot wait to try out. I'll definitely post about those once I get them.

Onto the nitty gritty. They accept a variety of payment methods, including PayPal. They have a flat $20 CAD shipping for international orders (U.S. included) that takes about 7 days (like I said above, it was pretty quick), a range of shipping options for Canada and free shipping for orders over $175 CAD. So it’s a pretty good option even if you’re not based in Canada.

So yes, gotta give Red Moon Cosplay Solutions a thumbs up - definitely check them out. 

Red Moon Cosplay Solutions: https://www.redmooncosplaysolutions.com/

[blackbettiecosplay]

More Riju BOTW progress (and a test run)

I spent the next week feverishly working with the goal to have Riju finished for Kumoricon Lite and a very rough draft of her made it to the convention after a 24 hour crafting marathon that I wouldn’t care to repeat.

Wig - her wig and giant braid came together well enough following this Rapunzel wig method, but somehow I still didn’t have enough wefts to properly cover the braid and had to improvise with some red (but not the right red) hair from my local beauty supply shop. I plan to take it apart and redo that part in August. But overall, it looked really good. It also weighed a ton, but with some pins in the right spots I barely noticed and even played a masterful game of Jenga while wearing it. :P

Top/Skirt - I really wish I hadn’t been constructing these in the wee hours of the night, so I know that I made some poor choices in finishing (at least to my tastes) the top and skirt as well as some rushed screenprinting using painter’s tape. At least I got all the kinks figured out in the patterns.

Crown - Aside from the paint job, the tiara (which was slap dashed) and the gems (which need to be darker), I’m pretty darn pleased with how this came together. That said, the front piece got squashed on the return from the con, so I’ll need to redo that part and make it stronger to survive transit. Sigh...

Accessories - I super ran out of time on these ones, so aside from the collar and bracelets, most of the pieces were rushed. Some just need more detailing, while other pieces like the belt were definitely tests and need to be redone to stand up to wear and tear of a day at con. I’ll probably be spending most of my time before Kumo reworking these bits.

Makeup - Did I mention I didn’t sleep before the convention? So yeah, I made it work with what I had. I really want to redo her eyebrows with actual hair and get the right colored lipstick and actually do my nails. I also had to leave off the ears because on the initial test of the wig, it was so heavy, it pulled back over my ears. Once secured, that’s actually not an issue, so I could have worn them. Lesson learned.

All in all, I had a blast as Riju and was really proud of myself for committing to a costume that shows my tummy (my least favorite body part) without much anxiety. Kumoricon Lite was very chill and a good place to test my costume and my comfort level. So now I’ve got a bit of updates/edits to make before Kumoricon proper and I’m excited for the final result.

Want to support my next project? Or keep me caffeinated during con crunch? Buy me a coffee on Ko.fi!

Facebook / Instagram

[blacknerdproblems]

Repost from @popcrimesart @TopRankRepost #TopRankRepost 🌿🤫🌱 One last pic for today, I’m just so pleased with how these turned out!! Photo by @void1photography . @playoverwatch @blizzard #overwatch #cosplay #anaamari #overwatchcosplay #anaamaricosplay #poccosplay #cosplaygirl

[blackbettiecosplay]

Yesss @popcrimescosplay - SLAY!!!

[blackbettiecosplay]

Guhhhh Savannah Alexandra Art is killing it with these Pokemon Gjinkas - I just have to find time in my summer schedule to make and photograph these cuties. At first I was just gonna do Squirtle, but then Wartortle came along and...BOTH MUST HAPPEN. 

So just leaving these here for my wishlist/summer plans.

And if you haven’t already - check out her FB page or follow her on Tumblr, her art is stunning!

[blackbettiecosplay]

Riju (BOTW) Progress...

Not moving quite as fast as I’d hoped on Riju, but I’ve made some progress the past couple of weeks. I have a lot to do this weekend and next week because the con is July 28th!

Wig - Finally got all her wig supplies for the build (using this Rapunzel braid tutorial) - a wig base and wefts from Epic Cosplay in Dark Red, a lace square from Arda Wigs in a matching color, and two different kinds of braiding hair from iKickShins (one that doesn’t match in color but adds volume and one that matches but is too thin), plus batting for fill. Doing prep work this week and then putting it all together over the weekend.

Shoes/Bangles - Managed to get assembled and painted last week - the bracelets are vinyl tubing with some custom made closures and sealed with Plastidip. Both are painted with Jacquard Lumiere acrylic paint in gold.

Head-dress/Gems - not pictured, but the head-dress has been patterned and the support pieces cut. Will be cutting the foam, detailing and assembling this week. Also molded all the gems I’ll be needing and will start casting them tomorrow.

I’ve got my work cut out. It’s gonna be a busy weekend. :P

[blackbettiecosplay]

Mina Ashido - Boku no Hero Academia (Sakuracon 2018)

Plus Ultra!

Mina was a lot of fun to make - I got to experiment with spandex (including an iron on spandex for the purple bits) and making arm socks. This costume was patterned and made by me - horns, shrug, bodysuit, armsocks and boot covers. While I did purchase scleras for her cosplay, I had to skip them this time as I couldn’t get them in and still see to apply makeup (they don’t come in prescription) - thankfully I had Yellow Manson lenses as a stand in [my scleras were edited in Photoshop]. Matching the body paint to the gloves was difficult to say the least and it didn’t help that the pink body paint was a bit more translucent on darker skin, so it required a base of white paint first. It also didn’t help that all I had was grease based white to combine with my water based pink. THEY DO NOT MIX. Still this first run wasn’t too terrible. :P

Photographer: Grace S.

Contacts - Honeycolor / Armsocks base - We Love Colors Tights in Lt. Pink

Want to support my next project? Or keep me caffeinated during con crunch? Buy me a coffee on Ko.fi!

Facebook / Instagram

[epiccosplaywigs]

Full guide here. 

You guys have asked for a dye guide and here it is! We used Rit DyeMore fabric dye, Rit’s line for polyester/synthetic materials (not to be confused with just Rit Dye). It is far more pigmented as a wig toner than their standard blends since it was developed for plastics.

Swatches were made using our Classic White wefts (keep in mind that if you’re dyeing a wig other than white, the dye will not cancel out the original color but mix with it. ex: If you dye a yellow wig with blue dye, you will get a green wig).

300 mL (1.3 cups) of water was used with 19.7 mL (4 tsp) of dye. Water was kept at a LIGHT SIMMER (180F/82C), NOT rolling boil (212F/100C). Color took more evenly when water was at a simmer.

Individual swatches were placed in the simmering water at 1 second, 5 seconds, 1 minute, and 5 minutes.

Colors may turn out differently for you depending on concentration of dye, heat, time boiled, and how the wig gods are feeling that day.

It’s important to ALWAYS do swatch tests before dying your full wig. In addition, in the event that your fibers become curly after dyeing them, please use a regular flat iron (avoid chi irons) on low heat setting to straighten them.

Happy dyeing!

[cosplaytutorial]

10 Ways to Attach Armor

Tutorial by: Valkyrie Studios  Tutorial Link: http://valkyriestudios.net/10-ways-to-attach-armor/

[babooshkabykatebush]

La la la la la….

[arseniccupcakes]

Soo there’s been a bunch of discussion of the struggles that black cosplayers go through in the past few days (it sounds like there was some ish going on at colossalcon but I wasn’t there so idk) and I just wanted to take this moment to remind you that BLACK COSPLAYERS ARE JUST AS TALENTED AND PASSIONATE AS WHITE OR ASIAN COSPLAYERS, we just get heavily overlooked. I’m lighter skinned, conevtionally attractive and thin, so I have it better than quite a few, but I still get overlooked, called the black or “ghetto” version of a character, get sent racist bullshit, all kinds of mess, but I’ll never stop cosplaying because of it because this is my true passion, and other black cosplayers are the same way. Support us outside of #28daysofblackcosplay , gas us up even when we’re not doing characters who are the same shade as us, and if I’m the only black cosplayer you follow, fix that!!! #blackpride #cosplayingwhileblack #blackcosplay #cammy #streetfighter

[blackbettiecosplay]

This!!

I’ve been given crap when I cosplay non black characters - and I definitely have anxiety whenever I post one of those, preparing mentally for possible backlash. In fact, years ago, I left cosplay after other people told me I could only cosplay certain characters due to my skin tone or size. But I’m done with that. Yes, I’m well aware that I’m a plus size dark skinned woman, but I’ll cosplay any character I damn well please - whether they’re lighter skinned, male, skinnier than me or anything that I’m not. I’m in it for the costuming, recreating characters I love and supporting my nerdy obsessions - and that’s not stopping anytime soon!

If you support cosplay and it being for everyone - then support cosplayers, ESPECIALLY black cosplayers outside of #28daysofblackcosplay. Don’t just support/share/like us only when we’re doing characters that look like us - support our other cosplays as well.

Please seek out other black cosplayers other than myself - (in fact, check @arseniccupcakes above if you don’t already follow her) and support their work. You can find a great list of black cosplayers here: Facebook / Instagram

[inkxlenses]

Paolo Sebastian 2018 Spring/Summer Couture Collection: Once Upon A Dream (2/2)