So: You Want to Know Why I Cosplay?
Why on Earth *do* I cosplay?
I once heard it said that it's the ultimate artists collaboration when a cosplayer and a photographer work together.
The cosplayer, recreating another artist's (Or whole group of artists) efforts on a character down to the finest detail. The photographer, recreating a scene or creating a new one based off of the original piece of art. Putting them together, it's kind of immersed collaboration that ultimately took potentially hundreds of people to influence one image. That's incredible to me and I think about it a lot.
Photo by East Evens Photography! Click to see more of his work! He took this hallway shot of me at a convention and created this REALLY cool piece!
It depends on what you mean by Cosplay.
There are so many aspects of "cosplay".
When you think of recreating a character from an image, there are SO many pieces.
(Pisara Wig’s Facebook Cover Photo) - (Click to check out their AMAZING wig work. Aspirations, man!)
There's the hair of the character - the wig; Creating this can involve styling, ventilating, wefting, adding in highlights, essentially sculpting with hair glue, using heat to soften fibers to be the way you want them, and cutting it. That's a lot of different skills. More than I can say I'm confident in.
The clothing the character is wearing is also a complex task. It may just require a bit of sewing, but even then there's a lot to sewing. It may require beadwork, it may require applique, maybe even metal-working. What if it's armor? Foam sculpting? Worbla? Cardboard boxes?
Mikleo from Tales of Zesteria - costume breakdown, torn right from the animator’s bible for the game.
The shoes? Do you have to make boot covers? Is there armor on the shoes? Do you need to make buckles for the sides?
Props and accessories? Oh man that's way to diverse, don't even get me started. There's resin casting, foam casting, wood working, sculpting
Point being. I love creating. But I don't like making just one thing over and over.
I love that I can learn and utilize new skills and continue growing as a crafter. I can cast resin all day long, and I'll love it for...not the whole day. It would start to feel like a chore and not like something I enjoy pretty quickly.
I love being able to learn new things. I love being able to get better at new things. I'm not perfect at any single one of them, but I love DOING it. I'm learning to be better at wig styling and all the nuances that go along with it. I'm LEARNING how to make what I see in my mind make it into the physical world. And I'm learning how to use new skills to make it happen. That's why I love cosplaying.
So...It's a complicated question. Why DO I cosplay?
I guess for me personally, it ties into the sense of accomplishment, along with the act of creating, and being able to wear something that I made.
I do also cosplay characters with costumes that I didn't make, and I do enjoy wearing those costumes, but the above doesn't really apply.
So why do I like cosplaying those characters? Characters whose costumes I didn't make, but I love to wear?
So here's some examples I guess.
2B is a really interesting character from an amazing game with beautiful graphics, an intense storyline, and intriguing gameplay. The combat system is really cool as well as gorgeous to watch. All in all, I love the game. and I love 2B as a character. I love cosplaying what I love. I think the only sense of accomplishment I get from wearing 2B is probably being able to walk more than 10 feet in those boots...
Kirigiri is a fun one because I have a group that I cosplay the character with. My friends and I all dress up from the same game and hang out together. We can be silly and in character, throwing one-liners at each other as well as complete strangers. The game itself is a really unique visual novel-esqe murder mystery game in a game. I can interact with other characters and we can all nerd out about aspects of the game we love, or little known facts about characters.
I suppose that's the other half of it for me.
The sense of community that touches on my extroverted side. Whether it's joking with my friends and just having another reason to hang out with them. I like cosplaying with my friends and it makes cosplaying more fun for me.
So I have 2 things then. The sense of accomplishment and everything that goes into a cosplay and creating it, and the sense of community and freedom you get from being able to be someone other than you.
I hope this blog reads a little better than my last one. I’m definitely still learning how to make it work. Thank you for reading, and feel free to ask any questions in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them! <3
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