torsdag 28 februari 2013

New Cosplay: Princess Celestia

I'm a brony.
And proud of it.
I really love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And on top of that, I'm going to a brony convention this summer: Crystalcon. Clearly, I need a pony themed cosplay.

To be honest, I've been considering doing one for a while now. It's tricky though, the amount of characters in the show are somewhat limited and whichever I choose I can be sure that there will be numerous others around as well. Time to think outside the box in order to stand out!

Firstly, I've decided to go for Princess Celestia. I do love the character, she's awesome. She also seems to be one of the less often portrayed ones in cosplays, at least in the cons I've been to so far.

She's also really pretty. That's important too.

So what do I know about her? She's pretty much a goddess in the realm of the ponies, for at the very least a thousand years she's been the ruler of Equestria, controlling the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, fighting off numerous powerful badguys and defeating them on her own. Sure, nowadays Luna takes care of half of the moving of celestial bodies across the sky, and she seems to be content to let Twilight Sparkle and her friends take care of any threats towards the peace. But before that, she must've done it all by herself, for centuries and centuries.

Initially I figured that I'd make a pretty white dress and add pastel and gold details to it, seeing how she's all pretty and a princess and all. But then again, considering her story and what she's capable of, she seems much more badass than a princess in a frilly white dress.

The term "Warrior Queen Celestia" popped into my mind.

She needs armour. And weapons. My sketches took a completely new direction. In the end, this is what I settled for:

A white, gold studded gambeson, white leather pauldrons, greaves and bracers. Golden gorget with a gem, mirroring the gold thing she wears around her neck as a pony. It always looked a bit too thick to be a necklace anyway. I don't want her with a sword and shield, but rather a pole weapon of some sort. A spear, halberd, naginata... I haven't decided on that quite yet, but probably one with a golden blade rather than steel, to match the rest of her looks.

Since deciding on this, I've made even more research on how to craft the things I need, as well as making some more in-depth sketches for a few of the parts.


The parts I will need to make for the costume so far are:

  • Shirt and trousers to go underneath: Most likely white cotton and rather plain as they won't be very visible
  • White gambeson: White cotton again, "gold" studs and possibly "gold" buckles for closing it.
  • White leather belt: Hoping to find at thrift store
  • Shoes: Will use my larp boots, unless I find nice white shoes that aren't too expensive.
  • Greaves&Bracers: Will make out of craft foam.
  • Pauldrons: Main parts out of craft foam, hoping to find thin white leather belts at thrift store to make the straps out of, putting "gold" buckles on them if at all possible.
  • Gorget: Craft foam again. Looking into ways of making the purple gem needed, will possibly have to cast one myself out of resin.
  • Hanging belt thingy: white fabric, possibly something shiny and satiny. Embroidered cutie mark in yellow and gold thread.
  • Belt bags: Since I'll otherwise not have any pockets. White with gold buckles, probably fabric rather than leather (even though leather would be neat)
  • Crown: Looking into wire wrapping techniques. Would be neat to make it that way rather than the solid and strange looking one she wears as a pony.
  • Weapon: I really, really want a larp one like this one but it's probably way beyond my budget. Will need to research other options.
  • Wig: Shouldn't need too much work, simply finding one I like of suitable colours.
All in all, there are a lot of parts to the outfit, but I'm really excited about it and really looking forward to working on it!

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