I can't cosplay males to save my life, pls teach me your ways
omg ok let’s GO
so for those not in the know, i cosplay male and female characters, altho let’s be real, mostly male. for reference, here’s a pic of me as two fairly similar characters, one male, one female:
there’s three main things i personally think about when im doing male cosplay:
body language
makeup
clothes & binder
first of all lemme just be clear: you do not HAVE to do any particular step here to do good male cosplay. these are just things i found to be useful. everyone is different, so take my advice with a grain of salt! :)
==> body language
the first and by far the easiest and cheapest thing to think about when cosplaying guys is your posture and body language. (EDIT 27/03/15: this gif is a pretty good demonstration of the power of body language)
personally when i first started cosplaying guys i just went through a fuckton of male model photos to copy poses, which also helps when you’re having photos taken. but i guess the main thing is that while stereotypical female body language tends to stay close to the body, a stereotypical male will be more sprawling and loose. things to think about:
keep your shoulders back to emphasize shoulder width; tbh even if you’re leaning forward, you still want to make sure your shoulders are more or less in a straight line
if you have a female body-type, you probably don’t want to lean on one hip when you’re standing because that emphasizes hip bulk that cis guys don’t have
similarly, if you’re doing walking poses or taking video, focus on walking from the knee/foot, not the hips
if you have boobs and don’t have a good method of binding, you might want to consider focusing on front-facing poses that don’t emphasize them. (i also read some photography sites that recommended front-facing poses as male power poses in general, so there’s that.)
this is an awful sexist perception and one example of why gender roles suck, but you will be more easily percieved as male if you look confident.
and practise dat smolder
==> makeup
personally i’d recommend wearing at least some foundation and some kind of powder to stop your face from looking shiny no matter the gender you’re cosplaying. however consider also using contouring, as it can be useful to change your face shape and make it look more masculine.
if you haven’t got a lot of experience in makeup, i recommend you look up some female makeup tutorials first and get to know your way around makeup tools and techniques. this is a pretty good female cosplay makeup tutorial to start you off: [x]
for male cosplay, my process looks a bit like this:
concealer (to cover things like scars and acne). add some to your lips or use nude lipstick to make your lips look less pink
liquid foundation
countouring
[x]
look at the diagram above: dark stuff where it’s dark, light stuff where it’s light. (i also darken under my jaw as shown in this tutorial, and for more angry characters, across the bridge of my nose). i have a cheap 15 colour contouring palette i got a while back, but tbh after a bit of experimenting i mostly use just two colours. look around, see what you can find on ebay or in drugstores.
powder foundation - to blot up wet makeup and stop your face from being all shiny; make sure you get your nose and eye area (you can also use translucent powder)
eyes - i’m kinda lazy about eyes, because a lot of my characters wear glasses; some people swear by eyeliner even for male cosplay, maybe for a more anime look, but i tend to do very little, maybe using eyeshadow under the eyes for characters like karkat
eyebrows - i outline and colour them in with eyebrow pencil then add eyeshadow. vary thickness and shape according to the character you’re doing; eyebrows are v expressive, and can entirely change the look
more powder
a lot of makeup tutorials tell you to use like special brushes or sponges for some things, but i mostly just use my fingers (except for eyeshadow. i kinda want a brush for that)
and if you’re going grey/putting on any kind of facepaint, all of the above still applies, except substitute your skin-coloured contouring with darker/lighter shades of your facepaint colour, and use baby powder to blot wet shit. when using facepaint you can also make your eyebrows thicker and darker (and you can check my grey-tutorial tag if you need facepaint-specific tutorials)
most importantly, unless a product shouldn’t go in your mouth/on your eyes due to toxicity, any kind of makeup can be used for any purpose. experiment with what you’ve got, because i mean you’re basically just colouring on your face.
==> clothing
if you want to cosplay a guy, dress like one. that sounds obvious, but i mean actually, wear guys’ clothing. girls’ shirts are fitted to contour boobs, girls’ jeans are wider in the hips and skinnier in the legs to best suit a female body.
for pants, what you want is something that goes down a little straighter, to give the illusion that you have less hip. i have a pair of men’s skinny jeans i really like because they have a fucking huge crotch that, worn low, make my hips look less prominent, but i also have a pair of normal men’s jeans that work pree well. try shit, keep what you like.
shirts are a bit of a moot point; while button-up shirts will hide boobs better than tshirts, you’re not going to wear button-up shirts for most cosplays. however, if you want to do a cosplay prom for example, consider getting a jacket, or waistcoat (cheaper and less hot), because those will make you look infinitely more masculine. and if you can, get it in black, because black matches everything and the shadows also help in hiding boobage.
so on that note… boobs. please bear in mind: ANYTHING YOU ARE USING TO BIND YOUR CHEST NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO MOVE WITH YOUR CHEST WHEN YOU BREATHE. no bandages or tying restricting fabric around your chest. that being said, there’s a few options you can try to hide boobs depending on your chest size:
layering shirts. i like to put something tighter on first then add a tshirt. also try taking a slim-fit shirt made of stretchy material and folding it over a few times. ok for smaller chest sizes, but im about a b and layering shirts doesn’t quite do it for me.
cut the legs off a pair of grannie pants. never tried this, but i feel like it also wouldn’t work extremely well for anyone above an a cup.
sports bra
and then there’s binders:
DO NOT BUY A BINDER A SIZE TOO SMALL, this can cause damage. get your measurements right, and let the binder fulfill its intended purpose
EDIT 30/08/16: no ebay binders. don’t fucking do it. you don’t want to end up with constant chest pain like me :)))
i recently found a tutorial for making your own binder that looks pretty safe that i’d like to try?
alternatively, this looks like a good list of places to get binders (but please don’t use the trans men binder programs unless you are a trans dude, be respectful of the programs’ intended purpose)
EDIT 28/03/15: this site has binders which i’ve seen people say are so good you can’t even tell they’re there. $35-37 before shipping.
EDIT 30/08/16:Â a good post about binders and where to get them: [x]
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that…. is all, really. again, bear in mind that this is just a reflection on my experience in cosplaying males; i only know what works for my body and face type, and i’ve only been cosplaying for a little over a year. really the best advice i have for anyone doing cosplay is to read voraciously. find tutorials, youtube videos, look for styles you want to emulate. spend time on it, and you will improve :)
YOU GUYSÂ
I just discovered a really fast way to do stubble.Â
Get a medium-large brush, get it wet, get some eyeshadow (or whatever you are using) on it, then pat it on your face in sections. You will get tons of tiny little dots while saving a bunch of time.Â
