Cosplay Foundations


Book Description

Don’t let your costumes fall flat! Give them the support they need Get the right fit every time! Elegant and professional cosplay foundations, fitted just for you. Create a capsule wardrobe of foundation garments, including corsets, bodysuits, hoops, crinolines, leggings, and more! Sew the perfect silhouette for any costume, from historical gowns to structured armor and anime builds with multi-award-winning cosplayer Casey Welsch. This visual guide includes more than 400 step-by-step photos, patterns, and all the inspiration you need to give your garments a professional look that lasts with well-made foundations. From armor to anime! Sew a whole closet of foundation garments for cosplay Get your best fit yet when you create fabulous corsets, hoops, petticoats, and more with award-winning cosplayer Casey Welsch Improve your skills with more than 400 how-to photos, a glossary, and resources Add longevity to your costumes with foundation garments that protect them from perspiration and wear and tear




Level Up! Creative Cosplay


Book Description

Expand your costume-making skills and go from beginner to confident maker! Picking up where Creative Cosplay left off, this new volume prepares costume enthusiasts to create out-of-this-world effects from head to toe! Cosplayers of all experience levels have much to gain from Amanda’s expertise as a national cosplay competition winner and judge. Learn the basics of making an original costume pattern, using prosthetics and latex, and customizing fabric through dyeing and painting. Transform yourself into the character of your choice with Special Effects (SFX) makeup. SFX makeup uses prosthetics and smaller on-skin materials to create illusions — such as wounds, scars, deformities, or supernatural features — directly on the skin. Get the scoop on sergers, embroidery machines, and using a digital cutter Pick up industry secrets on the basics of LED work, body painting, and SFX makeup Create a DIY costume repair kit for conventions, and market yourself in the cosplay world




Creative Cosplay


Book Description

An inspirational guide to sewing cosplay Boldly enter the world of cosplay and gain the confidence to design the costume of your dreams! Award-winning cosplayer Amanda Haas helps you translate your ideas from fiction to reality as you research costumes, shop for fabrics, mash-up patterns, and present your cosplay at a competition. A gorgeous photo gallery will have you frantic to join the cosplay community, while the author’s seasoned advice will give you the courage to take the first step. Bonus project: Sew a bum bag to carry your keys and other essentials to a con. Learn the art of making and wearing designer-quality costumes that will transform your persona. Turn fiction into fashion! A step-by-step guide to designing your own cosplay Dive into the fun world of cosplay with the author’s trusted advice Step up your cosplay costumes with inspirational photos, techniques, and more




Fabulous Cosplay Footwear


Book Description

Complement your cosplay builds with the perfect shoes—custom-designed and sewn by you! Regan Cerato and Kelley Kullman of the renowned duo Cowbutt Crunchies show you how to make every type of leg covering a cosplayer could ask for, from removable boot covers, to sleek tights, to thigh highs that won't roll down! Armed with clever patterns for fancy footwear that can’t be found in stores, you’ll create award-winning accessories that truly push the envelope. Whether you’re a new or experienced sewist, this handbook will help you turn your cosplay dreams into reality. Sew attention-getting boot covers, shoes, and leggings with the award-winning cosplayers behind Cowbutt Crunchies Build your skills with this step-by-step guide to creating cosplay footwear at home Forget fruitless shopping trips—make the exact footwear you need for any costume




Cosplay: A History


Book Description

This look at the colorful and complex history of cosplay and fandom fashion examines the relationship between franchises and the cosplayers they inspire and the technology that helps bring the details of costumes to life.




Cosplay Crash Course


Book Description

Cosplay lets you step out of your own skin and into someone else's shoes (or boots, or paws...). This beginner's guide helps you walk that walk with confidence in an awesome costume of your own creation. True to the cosplay spirit of collaboration, Cosplay Crash Course shares favorite tricks and techniques from some of the community's most imaginative artists. Step by step, you'll learn how to turn ordinary fabrics, inexpensive toys, easy-to-manipulate thermoplastics, wigs and other humble materials into original costumes you'll wear with pride. Whether you're making fabulous feathers, metallic armor, wicked horns, lifelike claws or form-fitting boots, this book puts it all within your reach. You'll even learn awesome hair and makeup effects to complete the look. Use this inside advice to fast-forward through years of trial and error; learn to select the best fabrics and adhesives and to make practical choices for comfort and wearability. Armed with the know-how in these pages and a spirit of adventure, who will you become? Everything you need to dress your part! • 25+ step-by-step projects for creating authentic-looking props, costumes and accessories • Easy techniques and clever shortcuts from nine international cosplay artists • How to manipulate wigs, extensions and your own hair to create unique and expressive looks • Awesome makeup effects, from tattoos and zombie bites to tricks for making faces appear more feminine or masculine • Bonus tips for striking a pose and snapping dynamic, in-character photos




Introducing Japanese Popular Culture


Book Description

Specifically designed for use in a range of undergraduate and graduate courses, while reaching specialists and general readers, this second edition of Introducing Japanese Popular Culture is a comprehensive textbook offering an up-to-date overview of a wide variety of media forms. It uses particular case studies as a way into examining the broader themes in Japanese culture and provides a thorough analysis of the historical and contemporary trends that have shaped artistic production, as well as politics, society, and economics. As a result, more than being a time capsule of influential trends, this book teaches enduring lessons about how popular culture reflects the societies that produce and consume it. With contributions from an international team of scholars, representing a range of disciplines from history and anthropology to art history and media studies, the book covers: Characters Television Videogames Fan media and technology Music Popular cinema Anime Manga Spectacles and competitions Sites of popular culture Fashion Contemporary art. Written in an accessible style with ample description and analysis, this textbook is essential reading for students of Japanese culture and society, Asian media and popular culture, globalization, and Asian Studies in general. It is a go-to handbook for interested readers and a compendium for scholars.




A Guide to Film and TV Cosplay


Book Description

“This guide offers background information about how contemporary cosplay has developed as well as nuts and bolts practical information.” —Booklist Have you ever wanted to escape into a comic book and become your favourite superhero? Or run away into the world of Disney princesses? Well, who says you can’t? Maybe it’s time you get your cosplay on! Cosplay is a hobby that is sweeping the globe, you can see it at comic cons, book launches, movie screenings and even on popular TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory and Community. A mix of exciting craft skills, heady escapism and passion for pop culture, it’s easy to see why cosplay has become so popular with people no matter who they are, because now they can be anyone they want, and so can you. But how, why and where could you have a go at starting out in the wonderful world of cosplay? With a little bit of help from this handy, dandy guide to cosplay, you can learn about the history of the hobby (it’s been around longer than you’d think!), get your head around picking you’re first costume, find out how about all the amazing skills people are using to make these costumes, and perhaps even try a few yourself. Who knows, you might be rocking out as Captain Marvel or Flynn Rider at the next big comic con! (And don’t worry, there’s a guide to comic con in here too.) “Swinyard captures the ethos of cosplay and its significance, particularly in marginalized communities. Highly recommended for any nonfiction collection.” —Library Journal




Yaya Han's World of Cosplay


Book Description

The authoritative guide to cosplay written by a legend in the community, and packed with step-by-step advice and fascinating investigations into every aspect of the art. Cosplay—a portmanteau combining "costume" and "play"—has become one of the hottest trends in fandom . . . and Yaya Han is its shining superstar. In this guide to cosplaying, Han narrates her 20-year journey from newbie fan to entrepreneur with a household name in geekdom, revealing her self-taught methods for embodying a character and her experiences in the community. Each chapter is information-packed as she covers everything from the history of cosplay, to using nontraditional materials for costumes, to transforming your hobby into a career—all enhanced with expert advice. Illustrated throughout and easy to use, this practical manual also delights with fascinating stories from the past decades' global cosplay boom. It's the perfect gift for anyone interested in learning (or improving their skills in) the art of cosplay.




The Costume Making Guide


Book Description

Bring your cosplay dreams to life with your own two hands! The Best Cosplay Tutorial Guide Ever! Get ready to impress ordinary mortals with your superhuman costume-making skills. You can do it no matter what your experience level with this, the first full step-by-step technique book on cosplay--with no sewing! Internationally known cosplayer Kamui Cosplay (a.k.a. Svetlana Quindt) shows you how to easily create elaborate costumes and successful props out of items available at your local arts and craft or hardware stores: turn foam into a realistic axe, create a breastplate from scratch and use a glue gun to modify just about anything. You will even learn the best and most accessible techniques for working with specialty cosplay materials such as Worbla! Packed with more than 30 step-by-step demonstrations that teach the skills you need to bring all your favorite characters to life no matter the genre, Kamui Cosplay deconstructs the work that goes into making a complete costume, from the first thought to the final photo. Tutorials cover design planning, fabricating body armor, 3D painting techniques and more. Best of all, you can adapt every lesson to use in all future fandom projects spanning video games, books, anime, movies and even your own original characters! Includes: • How to choose a costume and find good reference art • A short shopping list of necessary materials and tools for beginning cosplayers • Basic safety tips • A beautiful photo gallery featuring inspiring images from other cosplayers • Next steps--how to grow your workshop, take professional photos, participate in contests and join the cosplay community