The Art and Craft of Cosplay: Lessons Learned from a Lifetime of Experience

As I look back on my decades-long journey as a cosplayer, I am constantly reminded of the importance of community and camaraderie. My first cosplay experience was sometime between 2007 and 2008, although I had known about San Diego Comic-Con for at least a decade prior to that, and I had become familiar with the term "cosplay" itself over several years before that. Despite my familiarity with the concept of cosplay, it wasn't until I attended my first con that I truly understood the depth and richness of the community.

San Diego Comic-Con was like a planet in our galaxy of cosplay - a place where creativity knew no bounds, and the energy was electric. But as I delved deeper into the world of cosplay at Con, I discovered another, even larger universe: DragonCon. Oh, how I wish I had known about DragonCon 10 years earlier! If only I had taken the leap and joined the community sooner, I would have experienced so much more joy and wonder in my early days as a cosplayer.

For those who are new to cosplay, or perhaps considering taking the plunge for the first time, let me share with you a valuable lesson I learned from my own experience: the power of community is not something to be underestimated. When I finally joined the world of cosplay, it was like discovering a whole new universe - and one that welcomed me with open arms. The people, the creativity, the passion... it all came together in a way that left me breathless.

But what about those of you who are struggling with your latest project? Perhaps you're having trouble mastering a particular skill or technique. Well, I'm here to offer some advice: don't be afraid to seek help and guidance from more experienced cosplayers. In fact, I'd argue that seeking out the wisdom and expertise of others is one of the most important aspects of the cosplay community.

Take, for example, my friend RPG Gamer Guy, who is struggling to create a stiff tail on his Dark Priest costume. Don't worry - there are several solutions to this problem! One approach is to use some wire, heat it up, and then apply fabric to achieve the desired shape. Another option is to use buckram, a type of hat-making thermal mesh that can be molded into a shape when heated. This stuff is amazing! Not only does it hold its shape when cooled, but it also provides an excellent base for working with cloth.

And if you're feeling stuck, don't forget about the world of professional fashion and design. Shows like Project Runway have inspired countless cosplayers to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation in their work. Chris Marsh, a talented designer who appeared on the show several seasons ago, is a particular hero of mine - his designs are truly breathtaking, and I've always been in awe of his ability to create intricate, elaborate pieces that seem to defy gravity.

Of course, no discussion of cosplay would be complete without mentioning buckram. This magical material has become an essential tool for many cosplayers, who use it to create a wide range of structures and designs. From hats and wigs to costumes and accessories, buckram is the ultimate game-changer - and I should know! When working on my own projects, I often find myself turning to buckram as a solution to a particular problem or challenge.

As for working with layers of fabric, I must say that it's one of my favorite techniques. There's something so satisfying about combining different textures and materials to achieve the desired effect - whether it's creating a dramatic cloak or adding depth and interest to an otherwise simple design. And let me tell you, when you're working with heavy felts like those we used on our Knights of Ren project, you quickly learn that sometimes, more is more! The weight and bulk of these materials can be surprisingly effective in achieving the desired look - and they add a level of dimensionality to your work that's truly hard to beat.

As I reflect on my own journey as a cosplayer, I am constantly reminded of the power of community and collaboration. Whether you're just starting out or are an experienced pro, there's always room for growth, learning, and improvement - and the best way to achieve this is by joining in with others who share your passions.

So, if you're feeling stuck or uncertain about your next project, don't be afraid to reach out to fellow cosplayers for advice and guidance. Whether it's seeking tips on crafting techniques or simply wanting to share your own experiences and insights, the cosplay community is full of people eager to help - and I should know! As a Tested member myself, I can attest to the many perks and benefits that come with joining this wonderful community.

From behind-the-scenes peeks at our latest projects to advanced word and exclusive content, being part of the Tested team has given me access to resources and experiences that I never thought possible. Whether you're an experienced cosplayer or just starting out on your journey, I encourage you to join us - we can't wait to see what amazing things you'll create!

And so, dear fellow cosplayers, as we look to the future of our beloved hobby, let's remember the lessons we've learned along the way. Whether it's about community, collaboration, creativity, or simply the power of imagination, there's always something new and exciting on the horizon - and I for one can't wait to see what we'll create next!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ent asks do cosplayers usually want to be who they cosplay um sometimes that's a funny one you know i like i noticed that i can't dress up as villains for the most part i i didn't realize that i had a problem dressing up as villains until i realized i had never dressed up as a villain okay i played kylo ren but he's a troubled villain i sort of understand kylo i think you know like we do um i love the immortan joe costume from uh fury road but i couldn't possibly wear it i would not there's nothing i want out of that character physically uh however dressing up as indiana jones i totally want to be indiana jones 100 i have wanted to be indiana jones since i learned of indiana jones when i was 15 years old uh yeah 82 right 82. um so sometimes yes sometimes no sometimes i mean the the largest thing is that it is aspirational it gives you that excuse to try on that power armor and feel that power and see that silhouette yeah i mean but also like a lot of times you don't know until you finish the costume and you look at a picture of it you move towards it i mean i move towards the costumes that i move towards just because i notice that i can't stop thinking about this or that costume so i move towards it but it's not like i think wow i really like mandalorian and i'd like to be mandalorian so let me put out a mandalorian costume and then i can beat him it's more like wow that best car armor man it has a swagger i'd like some of that swagger yeah let me try and assemble it and see who makes what and see if i can get the experience that i'm looking for more research more research more research the answer is yes let's keep on moving and this is the central thing about cosplay that i want to like it's a journey of self-discovery like every other endeavor that involves your point of view and your time because your biggest enemy in achieving excellence is always going to be yourself and so to get good at anything or to achieve a level of experience that maybe more than you think you can do or is a new experience that you haven't tried before those are things that as you move towards them as you move towards the thing you can't stop thinking about you're learning about yourself you're like i have pieces i made 25 30 years ago that are still teaching me about my own aesthetics just by being there and there's something really unique when you when you when you make something that's really beautiful to you when i make sorry when i make something that's really beautiful to me even sometimes 20 30 and in some cases of mine 35 years later that piece seems like a mystery like i can't remember knowing what i knew to get it across the line back then but i learned something about myself in the doing of it and that's what's extent in the piece of all the cosplays andy butler wants to know that you've done which one required the most character study and acting they i would say jack sparrow except i don't think my jack sparrow was was great so i don't think i did enough study and performance work on my jack sparrow costume when i wore it at san diego cost comic con however i did do the joker from the dark knight from the bank heist which is in a blue suit with a blue duffel bag and the clown mask and i worked really hard on the specific head-leaning head-leading shuffle that heath ledger did with his dark knight joker and my wife was a terrific performer in her own right we've taken many improv classes together over the years she gave me a lot of guidance uh i did a lot of work shopping of that performance with her and most cosplayers that i know they find someone to workshop their their cosplay performances with that one was i scared children with that joker costume i totally remember a kid being like mommy i don't like my gosh i was like yeah i don't like scaring kids but i thought that i had was pretty cool um oh michael elwell says um in your cosplay over the years what is the one thing you learned that you wished you had known earlier how welcoming the community is seriously my first cosplay i think is 2007 2008 one of those two and i had known about san diego comic con for at least a decade before that and i had known about cosplay for about that long and even though the name cosplay i can't remember when that shows up in culture but i was amazed by the community that i found and when i went from san diego comic con to dragon con that was really the education in the in the in the cosmology of cosplay because uh yeah with if if each con is like a planet where cosplay happens uh dragon con is a gas giant it's a huge planet um the cosplay there is deep and strong and goes all night long um but yeah i would have gone to my i would have gone to i didn't go to a con and what yeah i didn't go to a con until 2007 i would have gone 10 years earlier uh if i had known how much fun it was seriously yeah rpg gamer guy says i've been trying to make a dark priest costume but i can't seem to make the tail of the cloak stiff enough so that it can stick out how do i go about doing this um there are several ways you could go about doing this uh you could take some warbler and heat it up and apply fabric to it after it is in the shape that you want but there's also a type of hat making thermal mesh called buckram it probably has other names if you know other names or specific product names for buckram please put them in the comments i learned about it on beach blanket babylon does every does anyone if anyone was an avid watcher of project runway uh over many seasons you probably remember the incredible chris marsh who made the dress out of safety pins and did huge wigs he was the wig master at beach blanket babylon when i worked there in the early 90s and him and alan greenspan not the economist the maker of all the giant hats and dresses uh for for beach blanket babylon there was a hat that was the shape of san francisco with all the buildings on it yeah val diamond wore some unbelievable things in that show anyway buckram is a hat maker and wig makers like a space filler so it's a lightweight white mesh it looks like screen when you get it warm it like any thermal plastic it can be molded into a shape that when it cools it holds that shape really well hot glue will hold to it and grab it forever um so that i think that kind of thermal mesh that you can sculpt its shape is probably your best bet it can be difficult to work out a transition when you have an internal structure and you're adding it to cloth so you might have to consider layered materials for the coat that you want to make because if you only make buckram into a curve at the bottom of your cloak then it's going to cantilever against where it meets the cloak and you'll start to see this hinging and if you want to hide that you could hide that with layers of felt uh maybe maybe super 77 together i did some work like this when i did when when daryl maloney and i did the knights of ren for silicon a few years back um and i was working with some heavy felts in order to get the the weight and the gesture that i wanted they and it turned out they had to be heavier than i really thought when i first started making that costume um hat makers use some interesting materials especially because hats have to remain quite lightweight and you know just like i love going to a joanne's beauty supply to go see what new tweezers might await my perusal i love looking at any other industry for the interesting shortcuts that it that it has that they have thank you so much for watching if you'd like to support us even further you can by becoming a tested member uh details are of course below but it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time you get advanced word and behind the scenes photos of some of our projects questions you get to ask direct questions during my live streams and we have some members only videos including the adam real time series of unbroken unedited shots of me working here in the shop they are weirdly meditative thank you guys so much i'll see you on the next onet asks do cosplayers usually want to be who they cosplay um sometimes that's a funny one you know i like i noticed that i can't dress up as villains for the most part i i didn't realize that i had a problem dressing up as villains until i realized i had never dressed up as a villain okay i played kylo ren but he's a troubled villain i sort of understand kylo i think you know like we do um i love the immortan joe costume from uh fury road but i couldn't possibly wear it i would not there's nothing i want out of that character physically uh however dressing up as indiana jones i totally want to be indiana jones 100 i have wanted to be indiana jones since i learned of indiana jones when i was 15 years old uh yeah 82 right 82. um so sometimes yes sometimes no sometimes i mean the the largest thing is that it is aspirational it gives you that excuse to try on that power armor and feel that power and see that silhouette yeah i mean but also like a lot of times you don't know until you finish the costume and you look at a picture of it you move towards it i mean i move towards the costumes that i move towards just because i notice that i can't stop thinking about this or that costume so i move towards it but it's not like i think wow i really like mandalorian and i'd like to be mandalorian so let me put out a mandalorian costume and then i can beat him it's more like wow that best car armor man it has a swagger i'd like some of that swagger yeah let me try and assemble it and see who makes what and see if i can get the experience that i'm looking for more research more research more research the answer is yes let's keep on moving and this is the central thing about cosplay that i want to like it's a journey of self-discovery like every other endeavor that involves your point of view and your time because your biggest enemy in achieving excellence is always going to be yourself and so to get good at anything or to achieve a level of experience that maybe more than you think you can do or is a new experience that you haven't tried before those are things that as you move towards them as you move towards the thing you can't stop thinking about you're learning about yourself you're like i have pieces i made 25 30 years ago that are still teaching me about my own aesthetics just by being there and there's something really unique when you when you when you make something that's really beautiful to you when i make sorry when i make something that's really beautiful to me even sometimes 20 30 and in some cases of mine 35 years later that piece seems like a mystery like i can't remember knowing what i knew to get it across the line back then but i learned something about myself in the doing of it and that's what's extent in the piece of all the cosplays andy butler wants to know that you've done which one required the most character study and acting they i would say jack sparrow except i don't think my jack sparrow was was great so i don't think i did enough study and performance work on my jack sparrow costume when i wore it at san diego cost comic con however i did do the joker from the dark knight from the bank heist which is in a blue suit with a blue duffel bag and the clown mask and i worked really hard on the specific head-leaning head-leading shuffle that heath ledger did with his dark knight joker and my wife was a terrific performer in her own right we've taken many improv classes together over the years she gave me a lot of guidance uh i did a lot of work shopping of that performance with her and most cosplayers that i know they find someone to workshop their their cosplay performances with that one was i scared children with that joker costume i totally remember a kid being like mommy i don't like my gosh i was like yeah i don't like scaring kids but i thought that i had was pretty cool um oh michael elwell says um in your cosplay over the years what is the one thing you learned that you wished you had known earlier how welcoming the community is seriously my first cosplay i think is 2007 2008 one of those two and i had known about san diego comic con for at least a decade before that and i had known about cosplay for about that long and even though the name cosplay i can't remember when that shows up in culture but i was amazed by the community that i found and when i went from san diego comic con to dragon con that was really the education in the in the in the cosmology of cosplay because uh yeah with if if each con is like a planet where cosplay happens uh dragon con is a gas giant it's a huge planet um the cosplay there is deep and strong and goes all night long um but yeah i would have gone to my i would have gone to i didn't go to a con and what yeah i didn't go to a con until 2007 i would have gone 10 years earlier uh if i had known how much fun it was seriously yeah rpg gamer guy says i've been trying to make a dark priest costume but i can't seem to make the tail of the cloak stiff enough so that it can stick out how do i go about doing this um there are several ways you could go about doing this uh you could take some warbler and heat it up and apply fabric to it after it is in the shape that you want but there's also a type of hat making thermal mesh called buckram it probably has other names if you know other names or specific product names for buckram please put them in the comments i learned about it on beach blanket babylon does every does anyone if anyone was an avid watcher of project runway uh over many seasons you probably remember the incredible chris marsh who made the dress out of safety pins and did huge wigs he was the wig master at beach blanket babylon when i worked there in the early 90s and him and alan greenspan not the economist the maker of all the giant hats and dresses uh for for beach blanket babylon there was a hat that was the shape of san francisco with all the buildings on it yeah val diamond wore some unbelievable things in that show anyway buckram is a hat maker and wig makers like a space filler so it's a lightweight white mesh it looks like screen when you get it warm it like any thermal plastic it can be molded into a shape that when it cools it holds that shape really well hot glue will hold to it and grab it forever um so that i think that kind of thermal mesh that you can sculpt its shape is probably your best bet it can be difficult to work out a transition when you have an internal structure and you're adding it to cloth so you might have to consider layered materials for the coat that you want to make because if you only make buckram into a curve at the bottom of your cloak then it's going to cantilever against where it meets the cloak and you'll start to see this hinging and if you want to hide that you could hide that with layers of felt uh maybe maybe super 77 together i did some work like this when i did when when daryl maloney and i did the knights of ren for silicon a few years back um and i was working with some heavy felts in order to get the the weight and the gesture that i wanted they and it turned out they had to be heavier than i really thought when i first started making that costume um hat makers use some interesting materials especially because hats have to remain quite lightweight and you know just like i love going to a joanne's beauty supply to go see what new tweezers might await my perusal i love looking at any other industry for the interesting shortcuts that it that it has that they have thank you so much for watching if you'd like to support us even further you can by becoming a tested member uh details are of course below but it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time you get advanced word and behind the scenes photos of some of our projects questions you get to ask direct questions during my live streams and we have some members only videos including the adam real time series of unbroken unedited shots of me working here in the shop they are weirdly meditative thank you guys so much i'll see you on the next one\n"