Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Chay-Ara Hol Hawkgirl Cosplay Update 2 (Mace Tutorial)

Well...Chay-Ara is proving much more difficult that I originally thought. The way I decided to do the wings....I don't even want to get started on explaining it right now, but I promise I will, and I will refer you to an easier wing tutorial!
Here's what I've done so far:
WINGS



 MACE TUTORIAL
Styrofoam ball, meet dowel, dowel, meet styrofoam ball.

Take a piece of card stock, roll it into a cone and glue it together with hot glue.

Probably a better visual for that step. Fill the cone tip with hot glue to make it sturdy, let it dry.

Glue those B******* in place.


VERY IMPORTANT: Cover the styrofoam in plaster putty/drywall repair paste. Otherwise when you try to paint it, your styrofoam will melt.

Paint that sucker, and add detail with dry brush!
Chay-Ara's top, yes I know..."it's different than the cartoon AND the comics" Well...I'm claiming artists privilege here. I love Ancient Egypt, and I wanted to look like a mummy! Yes...I know it's a crude dummy/helmet stand...but hey..I work with what I have.
My Stargate gauntlet...errr...Chay-Ara Hol gauntlet is coming along very nicely. I had to find the proper sized gems!



Scarab detail. It may be "Stargate" but it fits quite nicely into my Egyptian Chay-Ara Hol, quite nicely indeed.
PS! Don't forget about the Central Coast Comic Con, I will be BLACK CANARY on Saturday the 7th!!!! I will be a surprise on Sunday (That just means I haven't decided between HYDRA, Spoiler, and Zatanna)

As far as Chay-Ara Hol goes, I ran out of white shirts to rip up and soak in tea to make the skirt so I must get back to it soon!

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Stargate Gauntlet/craft foam armor/Chay-Ara Hol cosplay update

Aside from Green Arrow, I've been yearning to be Chay-Ara Hol (basically the ancient Egyptian version of Hawkgirl) and have been trying to get a hold of the Endless Flight run by Geoff Johns. Anyways...I was watching Stargate, because I lurve that movie...and saw the gauntlet fitted with talons, and thought that'd be a lovely addition to the Egyptian version of Chay-Ara. Hawkman gets a talon gauntlet...I get one too. A Stargate one. I saw a really awesome video on making jewelry for cosplay out of craft foam and that was it....I HAD to do it. This is just increasing my love for craft foam. Hang on...this is going to be a wild tutorial:
Reference pictures are so wonderful!

I first started by tracing my hand on a piece of paper to map out my design, and also have an accurate measurement of all the sections so I wouldn't have to keep stopping. I don't have a picture of just that, so ignor the semi-finished pieces in the following picture:


You see that chain metal fingerless glove type thing underneath the pretty part? I'm just going to make a crocheted version in that multi-grey silver yarn. poof. Ok. Moving on....I broke this down into 5 talons, 6 gems, 5 rings, and 4 pieces to the gauntlet. This tutorial is going to focus on the gauntlet, and the talons because those are all made out of craft foam. That's right 1-2 sheets of craft foam will run you around $1.50.
Onto the magic!
Make individual finger templates that are the length of your second finger joint to however long you want the talon. I noticed the one in the photo had the contour/half circle cut outs so I cut them out, traced them onto foam and cut that out as well.

Use a hair drier to heat them up individually, wrap the lower portion around your finger, and fold the talon portion in half, pulling and curving it down. It took me several hair drier hits to the talon part to get it to curve the way it did in the above picture.

Next I cut out the hand and wrist portions of the gauntlet, and started to lightly sketch out the raised edge outline that you see on those pieces in Stargate.

Here is a cool tip about craft foam: Press in with your pencil, but don't tear, to create what looks like embossed jewelry, the pattern on his gauntlet was a bunch of arcs. If you are unsure of how you want them layed out, lightly sketch it on and then press down when you have it marked.

To create a raised edge around it, you have two options. I chose puff fabric paint, which does come at the price of an overnight drying time. You can also hot glue on thin strips of craft foam, and seal the edges / corners with glue, and it will look welded. After that is all dry, hit it with the hair drier, and bend it to your arm.
Here is where you need to coat it in glue or mod podge. I like at the very minimum 2 coats. Once the final glue/mod podge coat dries, use acrylic paint in whatever color you choose.
And this is 2 coats of gold acrylic paint. After I find the gems, I will dry brush them with some green/black to give them that ancient look.
The next part is going to take a little bit of doing since I don't want to learn how to use resin at the present to make my own gems, and since I don't really feel like making a chain mail glove, as mentioned above I am going to crochet myself a finger-less glove in a silvery/metal-look yarn. I will post pictures when I assemble it!
I really hope Chay-Ara is finished in time for the C4, I know it will be done in time for Comikaze!!!! So...I hope to see you all there :D
Nerd Rendezvous