fizzycosplay-blog

[fizzycosplay-blog]

Being a Tree Frog – Tsuyu Asui from Boku no Hero Academia

My first set was accepted by Cosplay Deviants and is now live. To see the full thing you can sign up here. It was shot by the lovely Bearded Cynic Photography. Disaster struck when I was getting into costume at the location. The goggles that took me three weeks to make snapped and I had to do a quick repair with Sellotape. Thankfully, this isn’t visible in the final photos and I’ve learned a life lesson about taking superglue with me to cosplay shoots.

The costume is a mixture of customised things bought from eBay or Primark and hand-made. No in-progress pics because my camera phone is potato quality and its focus is broken. With anything hand-made I begin by hand-patterning every piece on cardboard and then marking it out onto my material, whatever that happens to be. You can read more about how I made these below:

The Goggles

Being a pauper, I always try and find the cheapest materials I can. For the ‘eye’ parts of Tsu’s Goggles I used two cardboard tubes from the inside of toilet rolls for stability, with two polysterene balls matching in diameter superglued to the inside. I made a cardboard headband, then I made the remaining pieces from craft foam, glued it all together, and coated it in Worbla. This was my first time working with Worbla and I definitely need more practise but I found using sculpting tools helped me with the detail work. I primed the whole thing with white Gesso. Then painted it with acrylics. Finally, I sealed it with PVA glue which dries clear and is surprisingly durable.

The Harness, Belt, and Wrist Cuffs

I used the same method for all of these. The core is upholstery foam. I could only find darker-coloured foam so I wrapped each piece in masking tape both to hide the colour and to add stability. I then made the outer layer from white cotton.

The belt and cuffs were easy enough because I could just thread the foam core through the sewn-together tubes. I then sewed the ends together with strong embroidery thread. I messed up the sizing (making the belt way too big), so had to trim and repeat this step a couple of times. For the green details I found some perfect buttons on eBay. I cut tiny holes the same size as the button holes in the belt using a craft knife and super-glued them inside so that the backs of the buttons were flush with the belt.

For the gloves, I bought a cheap pair of magician’s gloves from eBay, and stitched the hand-made cuffs to them, putting a tiny bit of wide elastic inside them to help with fit. The buckle is just craft foam painted in the same way as the goggles.

Since the harness is an awkward shape I couldn’t just sew the cotton pieces together separately and then insert the foam. I sewed the cotton pieces over the foam with a combination of whip stitch and slip stitch, again using white embroidery thread since it’s stronger than regular thread. When that was done I added details with fabric pens.

The Bodysuit and Stockings

Again, these were more eBay finds. A green body suit in the right shape and a pair of thigh-high PVC stockings. My original plan was to use fabric paint for the stripes but even after repeated layers with opaque fabric paint, the colour on the yellow just wasn’t intense enough. So I switched to using elastic. This took many, many days of hand-stitching in zigzag stitch.

The Feet

This costume was originally for a convention so I had to balance accuracy with practicality. The shoes needed to be comfortable enough to walk in for a full say and I have hypermobility in both hips so I can’t wear heels for very long, so I bought a pair of cheap black flats from Primark. Originally I made the toes and heels from polymer clay but it was too heavy and brittle, even with a tinfoil core, and was difficult to secure onto the shoes. I switched to fleece which I have a lot of experience working with since I make plushies for fun. They were stuffed with toy stuffing and then sewn onto the shoes with black embroidery thread and a leather needle. The fleece toes and heel float slightly above the ground, which was to prevent them getting scuffed as I walked around.

The Wig

The wig I bought from Coscraft, which is a great resource for UK cosplayers. I made the bow from three twisted bits of garden wire, which I then wrapped in multiple layers of black duct tape to stop it bending and to cover any gaps in the hair. I bought some black hair extensions and twined those around the wire base, fixing them with superglue. I used G2B hair gel to fix any stray strands. There’s a lot of room for improvement here and I definitely need more practise styling wigs. If I were to do it again I’d try and find a better way of affixing the bow to the wig. I used a combination of superglue, elastic, and a knot in the wig itself, covered up with the extensions, but this wasn’t very secure and looked obvious. I’d also make the bow thicker and flatter to make it easier to apply the hair to.

But I’m trying to not beat myself up about my mistakes since I’m fairly new to cosplay and am still learning. Mostly by trial and error, but learning still.