Artorias the abysswalker

[SmilingJack]

Hi there,

i just finished my first cosplay ever. I have never done anything like this before...so i´d be really thankfull for every tipps you can give me for my next project.
First i planned to make the costume of EVA puzzle mats...but this stuff is way to thick, so i just did the chest and back piece with it.


Had to search for 2 weeks or so, but found a shop for evazote mats with just 5mm thickness.
But that stuff ist pretty flimsy...so the research began again...
In the end i covered nearly everything with smoothcast 65d, wich worked pretty well, but i definetly need more experience with it.


At that point a few weeks ago i began to panic because i´m running out of time. Just needed so much time to figure out how things work and what kind of materials i would need in the beginning, that i startet to just put things toghether and see how it turns out.
I also changed many of the details, so my costume is not really accurate to the game, specially with the details. Now its more like a Artorias/DS Fanboy costume :-D
Like i said, i ran out of time and still had to to boots and the sword, so those two are really a mess.

Maybe it was not the best idea to chose a character with full body armor as my first cosplay, but i was in the middle of a Dark Souls 2 playthrough and DS3 was just around the corner, so i had no choice.

And i think...for my first self build costume its ok...



Looking forward for your feedback.

 

[Ikras]

I'm loving the new trend with an increase in dark souls builds turning up here. It's great.

For your first build I would say that it looks really good. Making up your own designs is not trivial. It's a hard call with the flexing of the foam as well. Either you need a flexible coating or something hard like the 65D. You'll find varying viewpoints but I think that it comes down to preference and the section myself. Only comment I would say is that it looks like it's possibly a bit thick in some places in your picture. I think that it should self level if it's a thin enough coat but I've not any experience with the product myself. It doesn't look like it's come out like that in the finished photos so I'm not sure if you maybe sanded it back or if it smoothed out more after the image.
I've definitely found that deciding on a sealing/coating method is something that needs a lot of thought. 5 mm can work depending on how much bracing from other sections there is to help keep the shape, I wouldn't consider using it for any parts that are freestanding for example (other people may disagree with that, I'd go with the puzzle mats in that case. Yes they're fairly thick but they definitely have their place in a build) and I think that in this case your 65D will have definitely helped.

Depending on exactly what look you want, I would possibly argue for trying to weather your fabric portions a touch more. I've been looking into that a bit myself at the moment using a combination of sandpaper, bleach and tea. I've heard that washing it a lot can help too (no tablets or anything though) but I'm not sure if that's possible for you with the pattern already on it. Certainly something I would consider for future work. How did you go about doing the edges? Are those just cut or did you do anything more to them?

Boots are hard I think regardless of what timeframe you're working on. Many characters just seem to have unrealistically shaped/dimensioned feet in every case, so I would say that they're looking good. If they continue to bother you then that's always something that you could redo with more time for future outings. Otherwise, you have a better idea now of what's needed for them.

Out of interest, was is some kind of mesh you've used to hide your face or how did you go about it?

With what you're saying about details, to me, it's not massively obvious. I look at the images and think, that's artorias. I don't look at them and think, that's kinda like artorias but it's missing that detail there.

What are you planning for your next project? There might be resources/tutorials that would be worth looking at, depending on what you're planning.

You always start somewhere and for your first cosplay I would say it's a great job. Keep on going and improving, you're always learning new things.

 

[SmilingJack]

Thanks for your feedback Ikras!
65D stays pretty flexible if you don´t do more then 2 or 3 thin layers.
First i wanted to sand it down after every layer, cause (for me) it was really hard to apply without too much drops. But painted and weathered it gave everything a nice "right out of the abyss" look.

About the fabric...I really wanted to do some weathering, and got the pattern a bit destoryed with it, but i didn´t have enough time.

The boots are a part, wich i will definetly do again someday. Also the sword...on wich i have to find a way to make it look good and still be convention conform (thinking about doing it the LARP way).

I will post some pictures of the details i meant, when i get back from vacation. Will be in London next week for MCM London and sent my costume via mail (its freaking hard/expensive to ship something big like that costume to the uk and back to germany :-D ).
For example the small round plates on the belt...i didn´t want to do just a few lines here and there...so one is a sun for Solaire, one is a wolf and so on.

The mesh on my face is one of these.

I dont know yet what my next project will be, need some rest first :-D Maybe something post apocalyptic, or futuristic...or DS again
And i need to check out your Ornstein thread these days, looks pretty awesome!