Am I Gonna Apologize For Not Posting? Ever? NAaaah. XD I Rarely Have Time To Draw While I'm Away For

This hat!! and I have been in a battle of wills for 2 months!! I've made hats before but nothing as... ambitious. I knew it had to be purple ostrich leather because that's basically fantasy dinosaur skin, its synthetic, but even so a big splurge for me (50usd from aliexpress), its so cool. So that was problem one, never made a hat out of heavy pleather before, I tried heat shaping it, didnt work due to the suede-y backing material. Problem two was making the cone easy to separate from the brim for easier packing but honestly wasn't a problem at all because velcro is awesome. Problems three through infinity (ongoing xP) was my need to have a fancy musketeer-inspired brim shape that would also be stable enough to mount a huge feather from the edge, lol! I'm still stuck here. I made a framework from plastic canvas, music wire, floral wire and the last of my worbla, and a small socket from a piece of plastic tube (dogpoo bag roll core lol) and a tiny metal corner brace. All of this would have been absolutely overkill for a real feather but turned out to barely be enough for my handmade yarn feather. Thinking of making an organza feather but I really love the realistic texture of the brushed out yarn soooo. Further experiments needed. Wire core is too floppy and steel rod core is too heavy so carbon fiber rod is on eventual to-buy list. Right now the feather shaft is a combination of wire, vinyl tube, ribbon and two metal headbands that I flattened out which is actually really great wire on its own! Feather will get its own post, it ended up being kind of complicated too (...also unfinished) Part of my annoyance is thinking that just making the entire brim out of worbla and/or varaform would solve a lot of my structure issues AND help the hat weigh a bit less but waaay too spendy for me. I'm going to make do with my scraps, aida cloth, felt, wire and glue. ITCHING to rip off all the fabric and start tweaking nowwww Because hat brim will also be supporting the weight of leds and LOTS OF BLING Its so heavy already aaargh! Problem infinity plus one? Securing it to my gigantic wig??? I'm going to try using chopsticks as hatpins lol https://www.instagram.com/p/B2OshoojEDg/?igshid=1qwksvo6y2w98

hey sorry I know this is late since u made that post last year but I rEALLY need to know. How did u make your face all skull-like? did you make the skull mask yourself?

Sorry Im so bad about replying to messages! I got the mask from http://www.mostlydead.com/products/skull-makeup-effects-appliance-maskIt was actually kinda small for my face but its really meant to be worn with a hood. I definitely want to sculpt my own someday but this one is great! Theres lots of skull prosthetics out there but that ones my favorite, most of them try to make it look angry/"evil" and I have Opinions about that. ;p

I know this was posted a million tumblr years ago but it's... STILL bothering me so rant forthcoming! This... was just so heartbreaking... like I seriously took the Pini's behavior personally because Elfquest was a HUGE inspiration to me as a kid and Leetah has always had a special place in my heart as a character (because representation IS important don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise) and I've considered cosplaying her many times. I still have trouble understanding why so many white cosplayers are so OBTUSE about brownface seriously. Just don't do the thing. Its like every damn halloween when all the articles go around asking "is your costume racist?" Probably. Wear. Something. Else!

Posting from mobile and won't let me make a cut so tl;dr I guess.

Its offensive to treat brown skin like a costume because poc and especially darker skinned poc everywhere have to deal with BS specific to their skin color that white people don't ever have to, its dehumanising and disrespectful to dress up to look like people who get discriminated against for FUN. I guarantee you many poc have had experiences where they wish they could just wash their skin color off at the end of the day. PLUS it usually looks TERRIBLE :p I've seen some white cosplayers whinge about it cos nobody gets mad about dressing up as blue or green or purple-skinned people COS THATS TOTALLY THE SAME THING? What would you do if a suddenly real purple person came up to you and told you your purpleface was offensive- make up another fucking fictional skin color for your justification??

Cosplayers already rank so low on the "geek hierarchy" for having the NERVE to be SO openly geeky. Black cosplayers get called the "ghetto" version of whatever character they're dressed as, women who dare to show any skin dressing as characters usually designed by MEN get creeped on (and omg don't get me started on the creepy creepy treatment of mlp cosplayers by bronies)... People post photos without permission to point and laugh, women, poc, fat cosplayers, cosplayers who aren't super goodlooking, or technically skilled at making stuff ALL get majorly harassed and god forbid if you're several of those things HOW DARE YOU HAVE FUN IN PUBLIC. USUALLY even at a place where THE ENTIRE PURPOSE is nerds getting together to have fun in public.

It's gross behavior that stifles creativity and that will always be really infuriating to me. Personally it hasnt been something I've experienced much because my cosplay wishlists have always been entirely giant robots and power armor. :P Currently daydreaming about Striker Eureka, Samus, SEVERAL transformers, Bunny/Barnaby Brooks Jr, and the yellow Power Ranger I share a name with (another special place in my heart for her! She came on tv at a super important impressionable time in my nerdy childhood for sure). But cosplayers deserve to oh I dunno, NOT get harassed, whoever they are.

This is an art/creativity blog. So before anyone gets mad that I made some sort of "sjw" post instead of art just know that you can't divorce that stuff from reality. POC are artists and nerds too, OBVIOUSLY. I know people in general have trouble treating each other with respect but just... try? Its worth doing. This specific way of treating people decently is NOT that hard. Dooooon't brownface. THE END. Kinda dreading any attention this might get me but it's just been on my mind so much cos I'm going to get back into cosplay this year and I just wish it was possible to be a huge nerd and have a good time without also risking having to deal with tons of BS over it? Maybe?

....That would be great ffff

Planning to Honeybee at Wild Wild West Con, btw :D STEAMPUNK ROBOT BEE FAIRY BALLERINAAAA

ElfQuest, the Pini's, and Racism.

This is something I’ve been putting off writing for at least a month, because it’s been so hard on me. When I say hard, I mean just kind of spirit-breaking to even revisit in my memory. If you care about what I am saying, if you really care about racism in the artistic industries and such, SHARE THIS. Read this, and if you REALLY feel it, SHARE IT. Please.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I adore - sorry - adored ElfQuest. Wendy and Richard Pini were my role models for a long long time. I started reading the series when I was very very young. Sure, there’s questionable content, but to me it was a fantastically constructed world. There was also something about it that stood out to me in bright vivid colours.

There were elves of colour in it. Deep, rich, beautiful brown elves with their own distinct (although vaguely familiar) culture. Elves in a fantasy setting that felt no need to be justified. Elves that I, as a minority individual, could cling to and feel as though I belonged to their world.

Now, if you have already made your mind up on whether or not you want to accept what I’m going to write, don’t click on. If you become offended, if you decide to come after me for writing this, be very very aware that you were warned that the content of this may upset you. You had the choice to move on, and to be ignorant of the following information.

Read More

I did some fun holiday-appropriate stuff last week (dark harbor @ the queen mary) but didn't do anything on actual halloween because I was

dead tired

moroccan table, a set on Flickr.

Painted this last summer for a dear friend. Only just now took the photos off my camera ffff.

Got a cutie to watch over my new sewing area 83c

Do you still draw elves? I miss Errikan...

I miss him too, friend :( tbh I'm really struggling lately, creatively and otherwise, I don't have passion for anything anymore, just trying to exist until things get better

got infected by marvel brainworm for le reasons obvious. Everyone's got their character they want to see join the Avengers next, mine is Monica Rambeau/Photon which is never gonna happen. Its not like she led the Avengers or anything. BUT still I wanted to imagine her fitting into Earth-199999 continuity, costume redesign, fiddling with origin story etc. I aped her sexy detective look off Lisa Bonet's character in the US Life on Mars cos I loved her, don't judge me.

It's just that UGH she's such a cool character and her powers are AWESOME and because I am a huge nerd who's been reading a book about quantum mechanics (I'm not as smart as I think I am but I don't let that stop me) it did occur to me that using the powers to their greatest creative potential would require extensive working knowledge of quantum electrodynamics and radio physics. Thankfully she has help from resident radiation expert Bruce Banner :3 I can also imagine her tapping into Tony's uplink with J.A.R.V.I.S and asking him to calculate the best wavelengths to cause maximum damage and it would drive Tony so, so crazy. I just can't help but imagine him being a little possessive of his butler supercomputer :p

If you want to paint yourself and your friends weird colors for Halloween season (OR if you’re a nerd who cosplays at every opportunity, or even when there aren’t opportunities because you’re obsessed with makeup like meeeee) I would like to reccomend airbrushing :D

Top photo is my airbrush kit which fits in a toiletry bag from ikea. It includes a mini compressor which you can get for about $40 on amazon.

I use a $20 Badger airbrush from Michaels. I honestly use it more often than my nicer double-action professional airbrush because ngl I get tired of cleaning that thing out. Paint doesn’t actually go through the Badger air gun at all so its easy to clean.

BEST of all, if you also make props or paint fabric for costumes, you can stop spending money on spray paint! Seriously, airbrushes are where it’s at.

THE KEY ITEM is the Badger to Master brand adapter! The most annoying thing about airbrushes is there’s no standard sizing and shapes for ANY brush item or accessory between brands. I got mine in a set from Amazon for about $9. This way you have the choice to use any compressor instead of the expensive air cans.

Anyone who’s tried to do white makeup knows how ANNOYING it is no matter what! Creme makeup has good coverage but it’s gross and gets everywhere no matter how much powder you use to set it! Airbrushing lets you get 100% coverage with water-based liquid body paint. I got the best results with two layers of white and two of Ben Nye final seal (a layer of sealer FIRST helps the color stick and adds a small amount of protective barrier from sweat/oil). The key is to get full coverage with the thinnest possible layers, it flakes off more easily the thicker the paint is applied. Diluting liquid makeup with sealer instead of water or mixing liquid helps too, I don’t have a brand preference and have Ben Nye and Mehron colors, and some more expensive alcohol-based brands for experiments.

Examples! My QT frans (and me, whatever lol) :3 I painted em and they did the rest of makeup and powder. Powder pigments for colors and shading seem to work best before paint is entirely dry, if it gets too dry for blush/shading/etc, I’ve had good results with a light spritz of sealer to make it tacky again. Riles glows in the dark because Mehron has glow body paint so I had to try it, NATURALLY! Also used pure glow pigment as ~gremlin blush~, TKB has it I want to buy it by the pound, lol LOOK AT THAT SPOOKY GLOW THO

OK hope that was informative enough, I’m trying not to make this twenty pages long ok? K.

Eads, CO