My Next Cosplay is…

Fiona! I am doing the version from Shrek Forever After. This appealed to me because I think it will stand out in the crowd! I love characters that require some unique makeup. (I had a blast being Asajj Ventress.) So the bright green skin will surely get noticed! I also wanted to do a completely handmade costume. This is a great way for me to learn how to make armor and a weapon.

This outfit including the armor (but not the sword)

I will be attempting to make this battle axe!

I used Wolfe FX for my Asajj Ventress body paint, but they didn’t have a green that I felt was ogre-like. So I ordered this body paint by Mehron in the color Lime. It came a few days ago, and I’m very happy with it!

The wig is from Arda. The style is Buttercup and the color is Pumpkin. They make very good quality costume wigs. I plan to tease this some so it looks more like I’ve been in battle.

Fabric is from JoAnn’s.. The light brown and string is for the shirt. The darker brown is for the belt. And of course the plaid is the skirt. I got some strips of leather to make the wrist band, but I might use fabric from the shirt instead.

Made the necklace and dagger hilt out of Crayola Model Magic.

This stuff is SO easy to use. It dries into a very lightweight foam. But is still sturdy.

I love how the necklace turned out! The dark green was a tad too dark, though. So I repainted it to be a little brighter. It’s drying right now or I would have taken a new pic.

After painting the hilt of the dagger I attached some foam to the end. So this is convention friendly 😉

The armor requires more steps.. I used this tutorial by One Delightful Day.

I have never made armor before, but this tutorial made things really easy. I skipped adding the wire to the back edges because I don’t think I’ll need to bend my pieces much. This step in the above photo shows me cutting out the foam and adding the gauze-like fabric to the back to reinforce the foam.

Next I put Gesso on the pieces to act as a primer for the paint. If you just try to paint it without Gesso you won’t get a very good result. So definitely don’t skip this step! This is a picture of just ONE coat of silver. One coat was all it needed!

(Click to view larger)

This is after I added some more paint to give it a distressed look. I’m sure there’s lots of techniques you can use. I just wet my paint brush with water and dabbed some paint on. Then I smeared it with a paper towel. I learned that if you try too hard to get it right you’ll end up going crazy. Remember it’s supposed to look old and messy.

Just need to attach elastic or velcro or some string (not sure which yet, lol) so it can go around my arm. I think it looks cool!! Not bad for my first try.

This is the belt buckle cut out of foam. I forgot to do this when I made the other pieces of armor so I haven’t distressed it yet.

:+:+:+:+:

So there’s still a LOT to do .. Like make the shirt and skirt and weapon!! Ahh! But I am having tons of fun with this costume. I can’t wait to debut it at Dallas Comic Con in May. I already bought my VIP ticket, too! Huge thanks to everyone that has LIKED my Facebook page. I said I would announce my cosplay if I hit 100 Likes, and now I’m already at 109!!

Have you seen Shrek Forever After?

Are you going to Dallas Comic Con?

Will you be in a costume?