Costumes and Cosplay – How To Be A Better Supervillain, Part 2
Now, when I wrote part one of this blog, I promised you that part two would be ‘along very soon’.
That was, in fact, back in May – five months ago. Well, in that time I’ve been doing many things – I moved to a Tiny House and began work on it, I have embarked on many Cycle Adventures and I have started reviewing independent cafes – and writing blogs related to all of these things!
Until recently I didn’t have much time or space (or, to be fair, inclination) to finish the video I started making, but finally I got my butt in gear and did it.
This was partly prompted by the fact that How To Be A Better Supervillain (With Vincent Saxby), for which the costume was made, was due for a second revised performance – in the end it had to be cancelled due to unfortunate circumstances, but many of us agreed that more time to practice and polish was not a bad thing. And for those who wanted to come along, don’t worry – we will be getting ready for another run asap!
Costumes & Cosplay: Mega Man (Mega Buster)
Hey kids!
So, at the moment I am working on a big costume, inspired by the palace guards from popular horse-based animation My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic.
Shut up, they’d kick your butt.
You can find loads of progress photos for that on my Twitter as I am constantly banging on about it – here are a couple to give you an idea:
Costumes & Cosplay (and Loose Ends 9): Dr. Girlfriend
Hello everybode!
Okay, it’s time for the final Cosplay catch-up, barring some fun bits and pieces… and we are nearly up to date! As you can see from the title, this is also part of Loose Ends – you see this is by way of completing (or ending) the two-year cycle of laziness and non-engagement on my part, which I started explaining here.
Back in 2014, I decided I wanted to make a costume every month (an ambitious and some might say fool-hardy mission, given that I was self-employed at the time and therefore a) working every hour sent and b) broke.
But even if I got behind schedule (as I rapidly did) I should have stuck at it. But I lost momentum as I so often do in these cases – I also lost confidence, which is a far bigger thing. Hopefully, this time, I will do better. Only time will tell.
But here I present to you the full cycle of videos about my Dr. Girlfriend Cosplay!
N.B.: if you don’t know anything about Dr. Girlfriend, she is a character from the awesome cartoon The Venture Brothers, whose Wiki page you can find here.
Video 1: Intro
This was the video I made way back in 2014 to introduce the project – note my misplaced confidence that I’d be ‘back soon’, and my boyish enthusiasm.
Think I will DEFINITELY cut the ‘two angles’ approach to filming this – it didn’t work!
Costumes & Cosplay: Riff-Raff (Space Suit)
Hello everybode!
Well, we’re nearly done playing cosplay catch-up – as this was done with the full series of videos on YouTube, there isn’t much point in writing much about my Riff-Raff (from The Rocky Horror Picture Show) Costume – I’ll just let past me guide you through this one!
Part 1: Intro
Progress Photos
I posted quite a few of these on my Tumblr – I hope to be able to do this on future projects too, as otherwise there is a big period of ‘radio silence’ when making a complicated costume. I have posted a few recently of my twitter too.
(Click on the images for a larger version)
Costumes & Cosplay: Sexy Hawkeye
Hello everybode!
It’s cosplay catchup again, this time…
Hawkeye
But not just any Hawkeye- a sexy one! Okay, so back in 2013 discovered The Hawkeye Initiative, a playful take on the rather ridiculous drawings of female anatomy in mainstream comics, particularly Marvel/DC superhero fare.
The concept is simple: find a female character in a ridiculous pose (bonus points if it is deliberately and unnecessarily sexualised) and then draw Marvel’s Hawkeye (comics or film) in the same position. Here’s an example…
(NB: I really tried hard to find attributions for this picture, but given the maze that is Tumblr I couldn’t – please do let me know if you know who drew the adjusted version!)
I was incredibly tickled by this – not only was it funny, sexy and creative, it was proof that a feminist agenda (in this case flagging up some of the ingrained sexism of mainstream comics) doesn’t have to be po-faced and preachy.
I wanted in – being a fairly mediocre artist there wasn’t much I could do through the regular medium, but I was already wanting to make a costume (primarily for J-Con in Derby but also just for fun) and I noticed some people had already taken this to the next level by posing in cosplay.
Cue probably the most complex and labour-intensive costume I have ever made, and also the first real ‘making of’ video – I think, though I don’t remember exactly, I knew the music I wanted to use (The Madeon Remix of Deadmau5’s ‘Raise Your Weapon’) and that played a big part, allowing me to visualise how cool both the video and the costume would be.
Now some of the following material might be considered NSFW – you have been warned!
Costumes & Cosplay: Dust Devil v1 & HEV Suit v1
Hello everybode!
Okay, I’m cleaning out my costume closet for y’all as promised…whether you wanted it or not!
These blogs will be as much for me as they are for anything else, almost a continuation of my ‘Loose Ends‘ thread where I find catharsis looking at old projects, discussing their shortcomings and successes, helping me come to terms with things, but I do hope you’ll find some pleasure in them too.
1. “Dust Devil”
Okay, first off the bat is something I made in May 2011* for a party hosted by my good friend, Mr. Wayne Goodchild, author, awesome-creator and professional crazyman, and the lovely Hayley McPhun. The theme was ‘Superheroes Based on Household Appliances’, so I decided to create the Dust Devil, a hero derived from the Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. The basic costume was a backpack with a hoover-gun, with an awesome t-shirt Britta made based on the ‘Soots’ from Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away.
D’awwww.
Costumes & Cosplay: A Change for the Blog
Hey all!
Okay. So it’s been a while since I posted. A lot has happened since then. A lot. Suffice it to say it included major and unexpected life changes.
In any case it meant I wasn’t really in the mood for posting these past months, but now I’m back and feel equal to sharing things again.
So, after talking generally on this blog about my film projects (hence the name SpektiFilms), my writing and all manner of silliness, I have re-jigged it slightly to focus mainly on one particular silliness – that is, as the title of the blog indicates, costume making and cosplay!
A (hopefully sweet) taste of things to come.
Now for those who were enjoying my ‘Loose Ends‘ thread do not be concerned – I shall be continuing that theme on various topics and with hopefully some things ‘tied up’, but going forward mainly costume is the thang.
This has long been a passtime of mine however due to not posting anything on this blog between April 2012 and August 2015, very little of my recent costume efforts have appeared here.
I am going to rectify that now.
SpektiJim 