Cosplay is a popular art form where fans create costumes and portray characters from video games, movies, or other media. Many cosplayers find inspiration from their favorite fictional characters and bring them to life through intricate costumes and detailed props. Cosplay allows fans to express their passion for different series and immerse themselves in creative worlds.
Introduce ourselvesWelcome everyone to the panel“ This panel is dedicated to Cosplay as a true art form, and like all pieces of art, there goes much thought , inspiration and care.”The goal of the panel“We hope through this panel to inspire you, we hope you’ll leave with ideas in which to incorporate into your own cosplays.”Segway: “We’re going to start by going through some costumes of ours and discuss our processes”
The biggest undertaking for us as a whole were the Steam Punk Sailor scouts. Here are four of the scouts pictured at Otakon in 2010. This was first a concept by Chiki and Jessica White, former cosplay pirate. It combined our love for the iconic anime series with a movement we were very interested in: Steam Punk. The idea was formed in 2008 but not brought into fruition until 2010.I don’t know how many ideas we’ve had as a group, we’ll think about things on our own or together while just hanging out. There’s not a formal process and you never know when an idea will strike you. There are no rules to cosplay, and there are no rules in art. There are never bad ideas either, not if you believe in it. We believed in the Scouts. The technique we used to create these costumes was a mash-up technique, taking two separate ideas and making them into one.
Here is Sailor Venus, she was one of the first scouts introduced at Anime Boston 2010.Each scout has individualized belts and accessories based on the character, we had to really research our scouts to create pieces that would fit.
Sailor Mars was one of the first scouts we debuted. Mars was Sydney’s scout. The general build of all the inner scouts are the same, just like the original scout designs are uniform we wanted to keep them uniform.
Sailor Jupiter original debuted at Anime Boston with Mars and Venus. Here she’s worn by Katherine at Animazement 2010.Because all 9 scouts were such an undertaking we debuted them over several conventions, I really recommend this if you’re building a big group. It cuts costs and stress as well as aiding to build an impression.
Shawna Beaston was the first person to wear Sailor Mercury. This scout debuted at Animazement 2010. When designing these we had specific guidelines. We analyzed the scouts original designs to utilize the most iconic elements. This is why all of our scouts have the short skirts, the bows in the front and back and we paid attention to the colors
If you’re doing a mash-up make sure to keep enough of the original character elements involved so they can be recognized. Sailor Moon wasn’t introduced untilOtakon 2010, this is Hannah as Sailor Moon.
Rachel introduced Sailor Pluto at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2010 with the rest of the outer scouts.With the introduction of the outer scouts we changed an element in our original design.
Each of the outer scouts feature new shirt designs to truly separate them from the inner scouts.This is Hilaree as Sailor Saturn, she also made the staff for Sailor Pluto.
Sarah,cosplay Pirate alumni was Neptune.Also with the outer scouts we introduced props. Like Pluto and Saturn’s staffs, Neptunes’s mirror and Uranus’ saber. Adding props meant even more design to consider, we had to make a choice to keep them like the original sailor moon design or to put more of a steam punk twist on them.
And lastly we have Sailor Uranus, cosplayed by Chiki. This group is a great example of mash-ups now we’re going to talk about original design.
This is where Sydney talks about her own inspiration for the costume, and the research process, ect…
This costume is the product of having a very vague reference image, sometimes this can be a great way for your imagination to play a part. Really connect the dots. This is my rendition of Amano’s concept art of Princess Lenna Charlotte Tycoon or Reina from Final Fantasy V.
Much of Amano’s concept art for the final fantasy games have a washed out look, or they vary from drawing to drawing. When you don’t have much detail that is when you have to sit down and decide for yourself what you think it should look like.
For my design I started with the very base, I created what I could discern from the reference images then built from there. For me this process took years of collecting inspiration and actual construction. Much of my inspiration comes from materials. I scoured thrift stores, crafts shops, antique stores, anywhere for anything that struck me. pay attention to everything around you, you never know what could inspire you.
Sydney also did her own spin on Amano’s Sylph.Let Syd talk about this.
Sometimes adding inspiration can be small. For this costume Morgan followed her reference image to create her Gabriel costume from the motion picture Constantine. Taking inspiration from the themes in the film she added a small detail of the medical bracelets on her wrist. Each medical bracelet is inscribed with one of the 7 deadly sins. This small detail can speak volumes about the nature of the character and what Morgan was trying to portray by cosplaying the Character.
Hannah is our resident “queen of steam”, this costume was built upon one item. Some people find inspiration by a singular object or piece of clothing. In this case Hannah started with the corset which is hand built and adorned with hand made paper. This was a part of a project for her College art class. All of the pieces she used to build the costume were inspired by and matched the corset. The key she used on her back incorporated her love for dolls. Incorporating your own personal obsessions makes for great inspired costumes, if you love it, you’re going to put a lot of love into it!
This next group was an idea by Jessica White a cosplay pirate alumni. She loves Carebears and when we made the costumes Lolita was a very popular fashion movement around conventions. Because Carebears work so well with a sweet loli aesthetic this mash-up worked. It’s very important that your ideas blend well together and do not conflict, or you will not have a cohesive garment.
Each girl was responsible for their own costume in the group. Jessica took an 80’s dance dress to create her look as Goodnight Bear.
Hannah’s costume was also originally an 80’s
Sometimes, you just go with the original reference image. Whatever you do, own it.
