[AB] Concept Sketches and Game Plan

After work, I got home and tried to sketch an image of Mokou. I think for a 10 minute attempt at reproducing ZUN's "Great" artwork, I did a decent job.

Now with Aderpable eyes that look... arguable normal

I also found costumes online. I laughed at the $99-$120 I'd pay for a pair of flat red pants, a white button-up shirt and cloth suspenders.

Curtsey of hellocosplay.com
The pants actually don't look bad, nor does the shirt and $99 is pretty cheap, but I'd rather do it myself!

The upper-priced ones came with bows or you can buy them separately, but the costume itself didn't feel "Andy" enough...

Curtsey of  hellocosplay.com 

Also they didn't come with shoes. I found out why........

Curtsey of hellocosplay.com. Not bad boots, but I think repurposing my old boots would be cheaper!

SIXTY NINE DOLLARS AND NINETY NINE CENTS! For a pair of brownish boots made of leather that I would only wear for one day, and they're probably unable to get a 13 double wide size for me... Nope!

This lead me to my decision, I would analyze the costume and make it myself! Or edit old clothes if I had them!!!

So, with a very helpful mother, I began thinking. She suggested making the pants myself. I liked that idea, because then I can make them super poofy, no problem! I might even be able to do the MC Hammer Slide! She also said don't worry about the shirt as much, another good idea.


PANTS~!

I discovered a fantastically simple and easy tutorial on how to make poofy pants thanks to FelixCorvus This tutorial seems really straight forward.

With an idea of how to make poofy pants, I did a typical Andy thing and drew out the directions in my own words... Thank you Intro to Biology Prelabs! No matter how annoying it was to wake up at 06:00 to finish it for a 09:30 lab! (Don't tell Doctor B.)

Not bad in my opinion. I owe a lot of this to FelixCorvus's tutorial, and the dress tutorial up top.

Cosplay (dot) com had a good tip for making poofy pants also, basically you take tights or comfy pants, then sew on extra baggy pants and stuff them with something called tulle or crinoline. It seems like it could work, except I might favor cotton or some other soft thing so I can bring my legs together and move without carrying too much weight, or spending too much money. Or I can just wear baggy pants like a champ.


SHIRT~!

I found a cool tutorial on how to make puffed sleeves on a dress. I am not making a dress, nor do I plan on making a shirt, so this tutorial will probably not be used, but its a really cute dress and if I have kids one day, or nieces/nephews, I'd like to make it!

If I wanted to use it, maybe I'd make a poofy "sleeve" that would be fit and gathered on top of a shirt I already have, and hey, I have an "aged" short-sleeve button-up shirt from concerts past I am not using! PERFECT! Just need a thin, red band to go around each arm!

SHOES~!

In my crusade to not spend $69.99 on shoes, I haven't thought about them at all... Maybe I'll go to a used shoe store and try to grab some for cheap, or I'll just wear an old pair of boots I spray painted HA!

WIG~!

I found a wig on Etsy, after asking my fellow members of the Anime Club for advice. They had great ideas... however I didn't want to spend over $30 on a wig, especially since there's probably $10 worth of shipping from China/Japan/UK/Taiwan/Pakistan/NOT USA. The wig should be prepared in 4-7 days, then it is ready for shipping! I'm quite excited!

One meter of snow-white hair! Oh dear!
Curtsey of uFashionWigs at Etsy.

SEALS~!

I'm planning on making the seals on her pants out of sticker paper, printing the designs, or fabric and using fabric paint or something. I may even velcro or iron them on, so I can wear the pants as pants or as cosplay pants, who knows.

In total, and from the artwork I have seen (many reference pictures) She has anywhere from 6-10 seals per pant leg. She also wears six bows in her hair in addition to the massive bow atop her head and two smaller ones on her boots. All these bows appear to be made from the seals also.

Yay for chicken-scratch!

 I think it would be fun to make each seal unique, so I took an index card, split it into equal parts, and drew random "seals" on each line to see what designs I could come up with.

Like Alien Pyro-glyphics! Get it, because they are fire-proof seals... ha ha ha.

I then decided to try and find the "right" size for the seals. I used my dissection kit as a size guide, since it is long and rectangular, it seems to be a good size, so I traced it out on graph paper for extra straight lines!

I found that 1.5 boxes is a good thickness for the lines, with one box between shapes. The borders of the seals will also be 1.5 boxes I think, or perhaps 2 boxes.

13x27 boxes of smelly sharpie.

SUSPENDERS N' STRAPS~!

I believe I will simply drape over and (perhaps) pin the suspenders to the shirt, since the pants have a "hakama-esque-fly-type-whatchamacallit" that the suspenders are attached to. I fear if they were actually holding up the pants, they would compress it too much and it would lose the effect of being splayed out and stiff.  I'm planning on using simple cloth for these, but I may try to borrow a pair and just make them lose.

For the arm band things, I'm likely going to use cloth, or if I can find a simple elastic band-type device I will use it.



Tomorrow my mom and I are going shopping for fabric! I believe I'm going to draft up some pants templates, perhaps suspenders, and we'll see what they have for "seal fabric."