Hey lovely people! I now have a bit of spare time on my hands and thought I would do some tutes/breakdowns of my two recent cosplays.
A lot of people have been asking me about my Ysera shoulders, so I thought why not show you guys how I made them!?
First of all, I collected a bunch of reference photos. I used Wowhead’s 3D model viewer - I screen capped the hell out of it for all of my reference photos. Another good reference is the Tier 8 Druid Shoulders as they are basically the same, only Ysera has paw prints on both sides inside the crescent moons :)
From there, I had to break down my reference photos and make a base for the shoulders to build up from. I had to make the shoulders as light as possible as they were going to be balancing off one another and on my bare skin. This is why I opted to using EVA.
For my base I needed something circular to work off so I used a styrofoam ball.I hollowed out the inside so that it can then sit snug on my shoulders and act as a cushioned base. Here the foam is all stuck down with tape so I could adjust the foam until I was happy with the shape. I then glued the foam to the styrofoam with contact cement.
Once the foam was stuck to the styrofoam, I covered the edge with expanding foam to create the sloping shape of the shoulders.
Once the expanding foam was set, I carved it down to shape to create the slope effect. I then glued on my foam pieces at the front to the expanding foam with cement glue. I then covered the expanding foam with masking tape - this is to protect the foam as it is quite brittle and soft - it also covers all the holes.
I then added a foam strip to the underside to make the second lip/layer the shoulder have and cut the foam with a stanley to create the tree shapes.
And that’s my base done! :D
On the shoulders, there is paw prints that surround the edges which are all identical to one another. Instead of sculpting 14 individual paw prints, I moulded and casted them :)
I sculpted my master with Smooth On’s Free Form Sculpt. Once I had my master I moulded it with silicone and casted it with a polyurethane resin.
MAKING THE FLOATING ORBS + LIGHTS
On the shoulders there is a glowing orb on each side that appears to be “floating” amongst the branches. To give the illusion that the orb is floating, I used a thick armature wire that I wrapped around the orb to suspend it. I bent the wire into the shape of the branches, as it also be my support for the branches that will be sculpted over the top of it.
Amongst the armature wire is my wiring for the lights. There is a single bulb LED that is connected to a battery pack - the bulb sits just on the opening of the orb and the battery packs sits underneath the shoulders between the two layers of foam with a small switch to turn it on. I taped all the wires into place pulled taught, so it doesn’t move and holds shape.
The orb is a DIY Christmas bauble that I painted green with glass paint. To make the orb glow, I filled it with a sheer organza and glass beads for the light to bounce and reflect off.
Once I had the structure of my lights/branches and base of the shoulders done, I paper mache’d it all to give overall strength to the shoulders and still keep them light. I chose to paper mache as I didn’t mind having wrinkles and imperfections - it created more texture for my bark/wood appearance.
Once the paper mache was dried, I began to sculpt out my branches. To keep it light, I used Smooth Ons Free Form Air.
Here is a test of the light on in the orb!
Here is all of the branches completely sculpted! When the sculpt was drying I went back into them with a scalpel to create texture to the branches.
Now that I was happy with my branches, I made the crescent moon and paw prints details. The moons were sculpted our out of Free Form Air on a base of worbla. The paw prints were made with craft foam and covered in worbla. The small leaves on the branches are also made from worbla.
I glued down all the decorations with a two part epoxy glue.
Once all my deco was glued down and had hardened, I cut into the paper mache (base of the shoulders) with a stanley knife to great a woodgrain texture and effect. Once I was happy with the texture, I primed my shoulders with an acrylic primer, ready for painting :)
I painted the shoulders using acrylic paints and oil paints for shading. I started with a basic brown base and then built up my layers with various shades of browns, working my way up to lighter colours. Once I was happy with the base, I went back in and shaded with a dark brown and black oil paint. Using oil paint, you have the freedom to smear and and work back into the paint as it takes about a day-to two days to completely dry.
Hint: make sure you have plenty of time to wait for your paint to dry if you use oil paints!
AND THE SHOULDERS ARE COMPLETE
Here is the end results!
To attach them to my body, I made a buckle and strap system that linked the shoulders together and then clipped up at the back - so I am encased in between them both. The weight of each shoulder balances it all out and the support from the styrofoam balls hold them in place on my shoulders.
I hope this tutorial helped you guys in some way or another!
If you have any questions or want to see more in depth WIP shots, send me a message to my page - Elizabethmaree Cosplay!
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