Billy Ray Cyrus Impersonation Cosplay Costume

[greenmachines]

Update 4-6-25: first round trial photos finished:

Back to original post:

Few people are as style eclectic yet equally memorable for specific styles as Billy Ray Cyrus. Among the true champions of variety, we find, Adam Ant, Johnny Depp, and not least, Billy Ray. Over the years I have worn the mullet, the tri color Bobby Ray Stewart shag and now the "folktown funk you up" native American tribesman and Four Corners couture long, long hair.

Billy Ray has style genres like Picasso had color periods (same for Adam). His current look has morphed in from American 50's biker, 80's leather and Hawaiian beach casual and is now clarifying into Native American 1800s immersion in European style. The freedom loving plains tribes, european gentleman and Southwest cowboy rolled slowly into the mix that became the long haired, formal wear vest, jacket and pseudo ties, coupled with a range of Stetson hats/British hats and riding boots. The only thing Billy Ray is missing is the Native style of wearing a beautiful gun. What he does not miss is the use of Native jewelry decoration but goes a bit too modern for my taste and should join Adam and Depp in their display of original chokers, rings and string ties (usually a necklace and pendant).

Because I am currently focusing on this newest Billy Ray Cyrus look, this thread will start with my work toward an impersonation cosplay costume where I interpret, if not match, his style but also include the makeup and or prosthetics needed to look like Billy Ray himself.

Here are some recent Billy Ray outfits in line with my intended build:

 

[greenmachines]

I knew that my elements would include:

1) a hat, due to my receding hairline (cowboy but can be folk style)

2) clothing in similar styles, t shirt, coat, jeans. He currently wears dark shirts, dark coats and blue or black jeans (usually boot cut)

3) sunglasses (he has worn about a thousand styles so just being within his style is enough, large lenses)

4) Jewelry, crosses, Catholic medallions, Native American style rings and pendants

5) avoided earrings because current style is hair over ears

6) guitar face is custom drawn, and I believe, by him

7) full beard and shaped facial hair, including eyebrows

8) Tan, tan, tan skin

 

[greenmachines]

I had several hats to choose from but fell back on my personal felt hat (second picture):

 

[greenmachines]

For clothing, I found a similar military style black overshirt and a blue tshirt which is a common combination for Billy Ray. Pants are generally always jeans, whether black, blue or gray.

Mainly, following this look:

 

[greenmachines]

Sunglasses can vary greatly for Billy Ray but usually fall in the category of large sunblockers, not just casual cool.

note the branding printed directly on the upper part of the lens?

Mine for this shoot:

 

[greenmachines]

The running theme in coats is "make it black or take it back". He rarely wears another color but I imagine denim and/or brown would still be in his style.

 

[Leinads]

You’re going to be able to pull this off beautifully. Considering how well you nailed the others, this seems like the perfect next-phase project (disguise!)

 

[greenmachines]

You’re going to be able to pull this off beautifully. Considering how well you nailed the others, this seems like the perfect next-phase project (disguise!)

Thank you!!

After having figured out how difficult wigs are for me, I have placed my order of projects based on my current hair length and the possibility of wearing a hat.

 

[Leinads]

Hey, that’s smart and makes perfect sense. On a side note, let’s hope that logic carries over to your next bold move: Timothée Chalamet cosplay.

 

[greenmachines]

Hey, that’s smart and makes perfect sense. On a side note, let’s hope that logic carries over to your next bold move: Timothée Chalamet cosplay.

He has already made some amazing characters come to life and he was definitely on my radar but his hair scares me to death. If I could pull off a fully sand prepped nearly wrapped and match only the "Lone Ranger" inverse portion, I would take it on for sure. I am already deeply interested in many of the props. My one major issue is chest. I am an inverted v on stilts. I have a very hard time hiding the chest, not a barrel but definitely old school superman that skipped leg day. But I'm a sucker for complex builds so I don't doubt it will happen. My current list is Aquaman, Mel Gibson's patriot, Robin Williams (toys, same body style), Wyatt Earp (tombstone edition, another skinny), Jareth (Bowie, another thin), Boromir (the meme pose, no size issue), The Six fingered Man (tiny chest), Young Adam Ant (stand and deliver, thin), Ozzy (current years but possibly a throwback no size issue, big guy), Jared Padalecki (supernatural because Walker seems to have shut down, nearly my twin), Kurt Cobain (still trying to figure out angles to hide the size difference), and Ron Swanson (parks and rec, another body double here). With quite a lot of research already complete on all but with not nearly the personal time to start a thread for each.

So, basically I am aging then un-aging then aging then ...... for about 10 more years, heheheheh.

I was at the optometrist this week and the assistant was new so she finished a bunch of stuff then asked the other lead tech to double check her work. The lady came in, about 25 or so, and she looked over everything and said "you are good to go" but the other lady said, "no, i need to do the reading test" (close up). The young lady said, "no, that is an age limit thing, you can skip that". The original tech was insistent so the young lady looked at my chart, "oh wow. You really do need to do the test. Oops, carry on.", then looked at me and said, "certainly don't look 53". I asked the other tech if everyone has to do this test after 50 and she said, "No, it's after 40." If cosplay keeps me young, so be it. I would likely be either solid gray or solid white if I stopped for even 3 months.

 

[greenmachines]

I have a small trove of costume jewelry. Low value stuff that looks impressive when put in the right picture. I couldn't find a good closeup of his rings but they present as bulky, rock style with the likely cross on at least one. This is my pile chosen for Billy Ray:

Most all of his rings are on one hand, so you need to have varying sizes as well.

 

[greenmachines]

His necklaces change just as often. I was focused on keeping chains similar to his but having 2 or 3 different chains in the one pose. This is a common thing for him and at different lengths from choker to 24 inch, mid sternum. I had a lot of varying chains from the Adam Ant build so then it was a matter of choosing 3 lengths with nonsimilar chains.

I gather a lot of chain from garage sales, thrift stores and closeouts, even decorative lamp pull cord and similar.

Here is one closeup of a Billy Ray (actual) set:

I decided on the native style set and found example of two of his favorites in closeup from sales locations online. I through them through a 2d to 3d swap program and then cleaned them up in Blender, added the loops and sent them to the printer:

 

[greenmachines]

Here is the pic if Billy with the arrowhead:

My first successful one needed a loop backer but it kept breaking off so I used a separate one and super glued it to the back:

Which is when I found this in my jewelry collection:

My other scans produced a set of nickels that I continued to correct:

My Adam Ant nickel ring used for size comparison. When done, I added the leather cordage (bad picture, the nickel flipped over)

 

[joberg]

Well, you're off to a very good start; I guess he's wearing boot cut jeans. I didn't find his type of cow-boy boots yet...Are you going to wrap some kind of long fabric around his hat? Apart from those, I'm eager to see the next updates!

 

[greenmachines]

Well, you're off to a very good start; I guess he's wearing boot cut jeans. I didn't find his type of cow-boy boots yet...Are you going to wrap some kind of long fabric around his hat? Apart from those, I'm eager to see the next updates!

I followed the wrap/bandana/rag trail:

and decided on his use of the bandana as the rider's necktie. We all know what that particular use was back in the range days but here it is just decoration. I chose the blue like he is wearing in the arrowhead necklace picture.

And as the necklace section was now 3 and the bandana, I felt I could get away with a non pendant chain. I chose a chain that did mot match the first two but in the end I think a better mix will include at least one of the military dog tag chains. He very commonly wears that. Zit is what I refer to as lamp pull cord.

He does wear one loop earring in each ear but I opted for hair coverage on my test runs.

Because his poses will include the beard and mustache, and because I go in and out of full beard in like 3 week cycles, my test pics were done in a hurry. No full body shots, yet and nothing with a background, just my photo room white sheet. My first pic was a rew days earlier but I will post it first (prior to all the prop work done do far.)

Note that I did no beard fill and am missing specific likeness sections under the mustache. The pics I did with the props above had some slapdash beard work done, which led to my "venting" thread post about shortcuts and chemical burns. So, Public Service Announcement, use the spirit gum, skip the superglue.

 

[greenmachines]

I knew I wanted his newest guitar, the hand decorated owl and music man, folk guitar look. I scoured the internet for clear views of the guitar and found only some of the face.


I printed this, in mirror (he is a lefty)



Then flipped the test shots to become a lefty.



I measured my target so my initial prints would be closely scaled upon printing:



and taped it to my daughter's beginner's guitar.




The guitars were not the exact same shape and I was just doing test shots, so no photoshop done to reshape, yet. This left a gap that I covered with my hand. Will definitely need a full photoshop intervention to get better overlay prints.

 

[greenmachines]

Well, you're off to a very good start; I guess he's wearing boot cut jeans. I didn't find his type of cow-boy boots yet...Are you going to wrap some kind of long fabric around his hat? Apart from those, I'm eager to see the next updates!

Thank you!! I totally forgot what his jeans were called and I kept calling them large leg.... not a real clothing description. As you stated, Billy Ray wears Boot Cut jeans.

 

[greenmachines]

my favorite feature of the print overlay? My daughter's guitar is NOT an acoustic electric but the print does an amazing job of adding this seemingly real feature:

 

[greenmachines]

So, the wife had informed me that their schools Hobbit reading party was coming up quick and I procrastinated..... I am Bard the Bowman at these events. So, yesterday was Bard which meant the beard was coming off so I did my panic finishing touches and got these first round Billy Ray poses. This does mean that the next round will be after it grows back. The Patriot will likely happen in between.

I started with the hair dye. Face and head:

A mix of auburn and darkest brown.

 

[greenmachines]

And then cleaned up the edges:



Then silhouetting. This is a crucial stage for disguise level impersonation. I imagine the black and white political cartoon bobblehead style lines that would represent my target face, eyebrow outline, hairline, beard shape, mustache shape, eye shape. I then put these on my face by either shaving or adding hair but am also willing to stain/paint/draw shadows and hairs, depending on the distance of the shot.

joberg has caught me on several previous builds where my drawing-in was not good enough so convinced me to apply the single strands with spirit gum and similar. Pros-aid is wonderful for single pose attachment of stranded hair additions. It is not recommended for action shots as it stays tacky for a long time and will bird's nest if you are not careful.

One of my favorite tools for silhouetting, the shaving version, is this little single blade shaver:



But, after the excess is cut away, we need to add in where my hair does not match his. Prep starts with spirit gum on open skin, wait for it to be tacky but not goopy:

and then the hair, holding a row of strands between thumb and forefinger, lay them tip first against the skin and only let the first 1 to 2 mm touch. Hold for about 3 seconds and let go. Trim the hair to the desired length. I have some faux hair but will of cut a short section of my own that is already dyed.



For finishing touches (shots more than five feet away), drawn hairs, using makeup and skin safe pens (micro tip) will cover a lot of ground quickly to fill in open patches. This will apply even over spirit gum for single shot poses: