Diablo 3 Wizard (based on concept art by Glowie aka Wang Wei)
I started this cosplay in late January 2017, and debuted it in early February at Sigmacon. It took about 3 weeks of work to complete the base costume, although I am still working on other details, such as her spellbook and scrolls, and prop (still deciding on staff/wand/source). I’ll either update this post or make another one for those bits. I started with the cloth portions. The base dress is made of two parts. The back skirt is connected to the “vest” which are really just two strips of fabric which drape in front. The side and front skirt panels are attached to a waistband which keeps the vest and back skirt in position. I’m sure there are better ways I could have done this, but honestly it works pretty well. For modesty’s sake, I’m wearing a black leotard and dance tights underneath. The main fabric is a blue shot purple silk taffeta and I was over the moon to find it -- it’s absolutely gorgeous in person, and is perfect for the wizard aesthetic.
The waist cincher is self-drafted and made out of black stretch pleather, which I lined with some leftover suedecloth in order to stop it from stretching. It is also boned with plastic boning which is always a no-good terrible bad idea and you should never do it. I was worried I would not have enough time to source the spiral steel boning online, so I went with the cheap stuff I had on hand.
I used cotton sateen for the white skirt panels, a burgundy phoenix brocade for the breastplate and gold lame for the trim. I also bought a tiny bit of duochrome organza for the decorative thingy in the front. The skirt panels were basic A-lines so that they would have a bit of flow without too much gathering at the top.
Then, I moved on to the armor. After my disappointing effort with EVA foam for Sylvanas, I decided to go back to my roots and use Worbla for this. This time, I did the sandwich method instead of a single-layer wrapped around as I have done in the past. Although it uses more Worbla (double, obviously) I found that I liked the results a lot better. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s objectively better, but I just found the resulting pieces to be sturdier and, somewhat ironically, easier to form. I ended up using right around two and a half jumbo sheets of Worbla for this (yikes). I drafted the patterns using the good old Saran wrap and painter’s tape method. For the gauntlets, I added a “platform” on the inside so they would have the proper shape when sitting on my arms.
The concept art is unfortunately short on high-resolution details, so I just kind of winged it. I first sketched out a rough idea directly onto the base piece, then just added detailing until I felt it “looked” right. The boobie cups were shaped over a 140mm plastic ornament so I could get maximum roundness (huehue).
The gems were cast out of clear epoxy resin. Instead of tinting the resin, I painted the backs of the cured pieces with an iridescent flaky top coat first, then iridescent purple throughout the middle almost to the edges, and finishing with a black holographic on the edges and overlapping some of the purple. Next time I think I’ll embed iridescent flakes directly into the resin, but the nail polish on the back gave the whole piece a nice clarity that I find is otherwise difficult to get with tinted resin.
The gem seen above on the breastplate is a placeholder, as it wasn’t large enough. I ended up making a master out of hot glue using a spoon as a mold (ooh la la so high-tech), then casting RTV silicone over that to make a mold. I cast two of these -- one for the breastplate, the other for the spikey thingamabob on the front of the waist cincher.
The crown was an exercise in frustration. After a lot of wasted cardstock drafting patterns, I settled on this design, which I’m still not entirely happy with. I unfortunately didn’t have time to figure out a good way to secure it, and it ended up falling off my head the whole day. This is definitely something I’m going to rework, if not redo entirely for the next time I wear this.
The wig is a Jeannie from Arda Wigs, and I luckily didn’t have to do much styling to it. I did have to take in the wig cap for it to fit me, although the back-heavy nature of the wig meant it was sliding around my head a lot of the time. My current plan is to stub the base wig and perhaps permanently affix the ponytail on to it in order to stabilize it, but I will play around with it and see.
Then, painting! I first primed each piece with wood glue to get a smooth finish. I used about 5-6 layers of wood glue for each piece, although the boobie cups in particular got several more as they were very rough from being stretched.
Afterwards, I gave it a couple light coats of filler primer, then a very quick black base coat. I like to put down a dark base coat first so that I have an easier time when it comes to adding the weathering later on.
It’s really easy to get the weathered look after you have your darkest shade in place. I just dry-brush on the base color, which honestly does a lot of the work for me. Anywhere that needs extra weathering, I go in with straight black and feather it out. After that, I mix up a lighter version of my base color and feather it on the high points. Finally, I use a white Sharpie paint pen to outline all the details. This step is super tedious, but I feel like it really makes the pieces stand out in photos. I used to use a thin brush dipped in white acrylic, but the Sharpie pens are way easier to use. I have some comparisons below, with just the base colors on, and after weathering and highlighting.
The attachments were D-rings, paracord, and Velcro. It’s pretty difficult to describe, so I may take some extra pictures or even film a video of what the attachments look like some day. It all held up very well with the exception of the pauldrons, which I need to reassess.
And that’s basically it! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! <3
