Oldstuck

Probably the oldest Homestuck fan you'll meet. Seriously, I'm probably old enough to be your grandfather.

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Fake cleavage - a tutorial

For the Jade Harley 3 O'Clock in the morning dress, I couldn't use my usual fake boobs, since it's strapless and the top of the boobs and cleavage is showing. I also didn't want to use a chest plate because they can look fake and are uncomfortable. So I faked it another way. Read on for more. (Warning: wrinkled old man bare chest ahead.)

So the first step was to glue on an adhesive bra. I don't trust the adhesive it comes with, so I used Telesis 8; Pros-Aide probably would have worked just as well. Be sure to let it set before the next step. (Oh, preliminary step: I shaved my chest, both the part that would show and the part where I glued on the bra.)

Here it is closed, with my foundation on. I chose to go with a fairly deep tan for this character, but I'll be reconsidering that in the future. It's looking pretty good already, but the bottom is misshapen, and it could use some more enhancements.

And here are those enhancements, though I've done a better job in the past. I added a bit of contouring, both to highlight the top of the boob and to darken and enhance the actual cleavage.

And this is the finished product, with the makeup blended a bit better. I'm wearing a regular strapless bra, and I've helped out the bottom curve with a couple of "cutlets". In retrospect, I should have glued the initial bra on a bit lower; it's peeking out at the top. But it still looks pretty good, I think.

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My latest batch of new cosplays. Well, Kankri isn't new, but I haven't worn it in 10 years and I didn't have a good photo. The mesh contacts were not as obnoxious as I remembered them. Harley isn't really finished yet - I still need to make her baseball bat. Tutorial coming soon on the fake cleavage for the 3AM Jade cosplay.

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From Wondercon, the premiere of my god tier Jade cosplay. (Sorry, I don't know the tumblr for the John cosplayer.) Alas, the cover for the costail fell off, so I'm posing such that you can't see the robo-tail.

Update: John is @subjuggl8te

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And my final cosplay photo for this batch: From Halloween this year, my take on the title of a Scottish Country Dance. This year: Foxhill Court. The "fox" and "court" parts should be obvious; I'm wearing a name tag that says "Hon. F. Hill" (thanks to Kim for the idea on how to work "hill" into it). This is also the first time I've worn my Costail, which I bought on a whim a few years ago. But it won't be the last; I'm working on something for Wondercon that uses it.

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More new crossplays (sort of): Roxy Lalonde from Homestuck, both the "normal" version and the transmasc version from Homestuck 2/Beyond Canon. And that's Duff Goldman posing with me at Comic-Con.

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A couple of my latest crossplays. I've done Gwen before, but rarely with my face visible. And the Team Go Rocket grunt is new.

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Three different times (and places) that I wore my Snoopy cosplay -- Comic-Con, Wondercon, and returning home from Anime Expo. At Comic-Con, I was surprised and pleased when an assistant for Patrick McDonnell asked me to pose with him after his panel.

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when did you start cosplaying

Well, that depends on your definition of cosplaying. I started recreating actual specific characters, and calling it cosplay, when I discovered Homestuck, in 2015 (I've since branched out beyond Homestuck, as you can see). But I've been wearing costumes to conventions (and Halloween), mostly of more generic things like werewolf and vampire (both of which I've made my own fangs for), or zombie, or ape, or even a sea monkey, on and off since the early 1980s; that's when I started doing makeup. I've been winning my local Scottish dance group's annual Halloween contest, for which I need to represent the name of a dance, since the early 2000s. And I still remember my mom helping me make a Halloween costume of a bat (not Batman, an actual bat) in the mid/late 1960s.

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And also from Comic-Con: The first time I've worn Spider-Gwen with my face (partly) visible.

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My Homestuck cosplays from Comic-Con. Yes, that's Duff Goldman with me-as-John - he had a panel, and after, he not only took photos with everyone, he gave us each a cookie he had baked (the cookie from Kung Fu Panda).

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And finally for today, a couple shots of the Spider-Gwen cosplay in the wild. These were both pandemic era, when a visible mask was required; I don't wear it that way any more (though I do still wear an N95 underneath, mainly to reduce lens fogging).

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My take on Donald Duck, as seen at Anime Expo.

Some people thought it looked creepy, so I figured I'd take a picture that leaned into that.

And finally, if you're curious, this is how the bottom part was built.

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The three Homestuck cosplays I wore to Anime Expo (though the photo of Snowman is actually from Wondercon -- thanks to Roman Bargas for that one).

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My take on punky dead!Vriska. I like this one a lot, too. I made the horns (see tutorial elsewhere on this blog), braided the wig (the most wig styling I’ve ever done), repainted the belt buckle, assembled the wrist cuffs/studs (bought separately), and ironed on the logo on the shirt and the tattoo on the “arm”. I obviously need to figure out how to get the belt to stay in the right place, since it’s not functional; I’ll probably attach it to the “invisible” belt that’s doing all the real work.

Set courtesy of NBC’s La Brea at Comic-Con Special Edition, 2021.

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Also, fun story. The day I wore this, I was crossing the footbridge to the last day of the con and some locals coming the other way were like, “Oh, is there something going on this weekend?” That’s how low key CCSE was. The set above was one of only three off-site events. Hall H was used for registration. Hall G was completely empty. Hall A consisted only of the Funko booth and its (empty) line control. (Also, the next time I wore this, I did not commit to the bit as fully -- yes, I’m wearing white mesh “blind”/”dead” contact lenses here.)

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My take on punky dead!Vriska. I like this one a lot, too. I made the horns (see tutorial elsewhere on this blog), braided the wig (the most wig styling I’ve ever done), repainted the belt buckle, assembled the wrist cuffs/studs (bought separately), and ironed on the logo on the shirt and the tattoo on the “arm”. I obviously need to figure out how to get the belt to stay in the right place, since it’s not functional; I’ll probably attach it to the “invisible” belt that’s doing all the real work.

Set courtesy of NBC’s La Brea at Comic-Con Special Edition, 2021.

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OK, I’ve been remiss in not posting cosplays lately. This is the one I’m most proud of: Hit Girl from Kick Ass. I made the knee pads, the cape, the masks, the belt, and all the weaponry. I particularly like how the pistols turned out; they look good in photos, but fake enough IRL to pass weapons check easily. Also, note that I’ve added pockets in the cape just big enough for my wallet and phone (and a stylus, so I don’t have to take the gloves off).

This is far from accurate, but it’s probably as close as I’m going to get. The shoes aren’t canon, though I like them better than the canon; the skirt tartan isn’t quite right (ironic, since seeing the skirt is what inspired me to do this), and the big one, the body suit should be leather/pleather instead of spandex. None of which will probably change, though I may rework the (eye) mask to be better.

Thanks to Anime Expo for the great set.

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Vriska horns

I’ve made troll horns before, but they were fairly small (Karkat) or simple (Pyrope family) shapes. This was my first time making horns that were both fairly large and somewhat complex in shape.

I started, much like the clawsickle, with a rough foam shape -- though in this case, there was also a paper cone as part of the shape. I cut the basic shape with a craft knife.

Next, I rounded the horns with the rasps and file and sandpaper.

This shows the mounting system. There’s a wing nut hot glued to a piece of plastic (cut from a frozen food tray), seen on the right, which gets hot glued into the end of the horn, which I’ve dug out to make room for the nut. On the left, a temporary screw filling in for the mount that goes inside the wig; this makes sure the hot glue doesn’t clog the wing nut. The mounts themselves are in the last photo of this post.

Here, I’ve mounted the horns on a temporary stand (a takeout box lid) and started applying papier mache -- newspaper in diluted PVA (white) glue. You can see I’ve also cut and glued on the paper cone.

OK, a bit of explanation: (virtual) Comic-Con 2020 was between these two pictures, so I slapped a quick coat of paint on for some pictures. After that was over, I did some more sanding, shaping, and papier mache. I had a couple divots I needed to fill with the spackle.

Next, 2 or 3 coats of white as a primer to cover the newsprint and the old paint.

Then, the finish paint. You’ll note that there isn’t a container of orange. I mix it myself with the yellow and red, which is what the orange juice lid and coffee stirrer are for.

And finally -- this time, I remembered the can -- a coat of Frog Juice to give it more shine and seal it. Also, you can see the mounting plates here; they go inside the wig, with the screw sticking through. giving a totally invisible mount. These horns sit wide enough that I use the mounting plates as is; for a higher horn, like Terezi, I put some weatherstrip foam wedges on the mounts to give the horns the right angle.

Final weight: Each horn is 12-16 grams, and the mounting plates are each about 6 grams. Most of the weight in the horns is near the bottom, for the wing nut (about 3 g), horn base plate, hot glue, and in one case spackle. Still, I’m not sure this would work for a really long horn like Tavros; in that case, I’d probably need a different mounting system, like a full headband under the wig, and maybe some Loctite or a second screw to keep the horns upright. Actually, Tavros is a simple enough shape that it could be mostly hollow; Gamzee, on the other hand...

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the way these turned out. If I weren’t so burned out, I probably would have sanded some more after the priming showed where the papier mache was a bit rough, but I don’t think it’s too obvious once the final paint is on. Also, the bases are a bit messy, but I expect the wig to hide that.