Ever thought about dressing up as your favorite character, but the whole cosplaying aspect seemed terrifying to you? Don’t worry! Today we want to talk about a few of the main points when you want to start cosplaying.
✦Choosing your cosplay
Before you even start anything, you need to choose your character. It can be any character that you like, from older anime shows to mainstream anime shows. The most important part of choosing is that you like the character and their design and are ready to spend plenty of time working on the costume.
✦Create a task list and do your research.
As soon as you have chosen your cosplay, start breaking down the cosplay into smaller tasks, for example, the three main tasks of the costume: wig, costume, and make-up. As soon as you have examined the costume and are aware of the costume details, evaluate your current skills. Knowing how much you can do currently is a good start for working on cosplay. If there is any skill that you need to learn the basics of, do your research on the internet or maybe talk to a cosplayer you know. There are plentiful videos and articles surrounding the skills that you want to learn or improve. You just need to know how to correctly find the exact thing that you need with key words or even a character’s name. There might be a lot of tutorials for the exact character that you are looking for.
✦Basic tools you need for cosplaying
There are a considerable number of tools needed for creating cosplay parts.
Here are some essential tools and materials to become more advanced in cosplaying:
- For sewing costumes: sewing machine, needles and pins, thread, scissors or cutting tools, measuring tools, and fabric for the costume.
- For prop creation: eva foam, craft knife/box cutter, heat gun, paints and sealers, sanding tools.
- For wig styling: wig, teasing brush/combs, hair straightener, curling iron, hairdryer, wig head, hairspray/styling gel, T pins.
Remember! You don’t necessarily need all of the items; it depends on what kind of skills you want to develop and the methods of creating your cosplays. Not all of the cosplayers do things the same way; each of us has different ways that we prefer or that define our style of cosplaying.
✦Don’t worry about accuracy too much.
One thing that people starting out worry about the most is that their cosplay won’t be accurate enough. There is no need to worry about it that much. Cosplay is about embodying a character; what I mean is your idea of the character. So in the early stages of cosplaying, don’t worry about it too much.
✦On what occasions can you wear your cosplay?
There is no actual restriction on when you can or can’t wear your cosplay, but one thing you need to consider is whether wearing cosplay is appropriate for the occasion.
But if you need something a bit more specific, here are some events or places where you can wear your cosplay:
Anime/Comic/Gaming conventions, cosplay meetups and photoshoots, movie premieres, fan events, themed cafes, events, parties, fairs, and festivals.
✦Want to become more professional?
If you intend to become more professional, prepare to spend a lot of time and patience working on your cosplays. To become more professional, you will need to develop multiple or even learn new skills for cosplay. In regards to gaining recognition at cosplay events and competitions, you need to learn how to have a good stage presence, embody your character, and show off your marksmanship. But if you aim to gain popularity on social media, learn to follow the trends and algorithms of the exact platform where you want to gain a platform and be ready to post engaging posts—it could be as simple as photos from photoshoots, a meme regarding cosplaying where you make a harmless joke, or a timelapse of you showing the process of working on your cosplay. It just depends on what you, as a cosplay content creator, want to post!
✦Don’t be afraid of expressing yourself; enjoy cosplaying.
At the end of the day, cosplaying is a way for you to express yourself and meet new people who are interested in the same fandoms as you are.
Cover: @_amenalyme
Edit: @hwk.cos
