I am my lord’s shield, his weapon.
I want to take a moment to talk about this cosplay. This cosplay means so much to me. Lan Fan is one of my favorite characters. I’ve always wanted to cosplay her, but never thought I could do it. A few years ago, I mentioned to @skateurgencycosplay that I wanted to cosplay Lan Fan, but needed a Ling to go with it. She graciously agreed to do it and we set it aside for some future time. Well at the last minute, we decided to do something new for Daisho and thought this would be perfect. We decided this back in August and I had Gencon right around the corner. I couldn’t start until September. I made this in two months, almost totally by myself.
Nearly 100% of this is handmade. The only things I didn’t make were the wig (which I cut and styled), the shoes I glued my boot covers to, and the leather strap on my automail arm. This costume tested my abilities like nothing else, and while it’s far from perfect, I couldn’t be more proud of myself. In years past, my involvement in my cosplay wasn’t always so hands on, frequently with others jumping in and just making stuff for me. This time I modified patterns to sew the main costume, I templated and built my automail, I frickin made patterns and sewed my boot covers and gloves having no prior experience doing so, I used worbla for the first time to make a segmented hand, and I made my first mechanical prop. Not to mention, my painting game was on point with my mask, which I did totally free hand.
I don’t want to brag and seem full of myself, but I’m just so proud of how far I’ve come in doing things myself. And I also want to use this to encourage new cosplayers to try new things and to say that you can do it to. If you put in the time and effort, you can pull off that cosplay you’ve been dying to do. I spent a lot of late nights and well over 100 hours working on this. And while I did a lot alone, I did get help from my parents and friends, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but don’t let that be a crutch. Try everything you do yourself, because one day, you may not have those people around and you’ll want to know how to do it.
It would also be remiss of me to not mention @mangosirene ’s fantastic Lan Fan work log videos that helped me work past a lot of templating issues and my overall build for my arm. Mine may not have worked out the exact same as hers, but it was invaluable during the process. Thanks again for that wonderful resource.
This has gone on way too long so I’m gonna shut up now. If anyone has any questions, do not hesitate to send my an ask. Nothing makes me happier than sharing what I know and helping out any cosplayer that needs it.
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