strikertheta

[strikertheta]

Stopped by tekko for a few hours yesterday with @strikerthetacosplay

[strikertheta]

WE ARE MONEY Protag: me Futaba: @strikerthetacosplay

[strikertheta]

“All the things you’ve said, And the things you’ve done, Can you carry it with no regrets, Can you stand the person you’ve become?” - Bastille

I went to MagFest for the first time this year and a highlight was getting to cosplay Dragonbards with my D&D group. It was so much fun and everyone looked so good! Getting to bring my grumpy dragonborn boy to life was such a good way to start the year!

Photography: The amazing @vintage-aerith Horns: @lilstarprince (twitter) Bottom photo left to right: Verthandi Aurajon: @tsubasahime Nesrinn Aussiria: @strikerthetacosplay Melygrista Rach'il: @ohnoslothattack Hanz Ornica: @narrendor Basye Charir: @phoskios

[strikertheta]

I wrote a tutorial so you can cheat at embroidery by using your sewing machine. Enjoy!

[strikertheta]

“And I’m in this, and it’s been so long It’s hard to know what you did right and what you did wrong Will the scales stay balanced at the end of the song? Coz it’s all that I really wanted to be was strong” - Lazy Habits

DRAGONBARDS: Nesrinn Aussiria @strikerthetacosplay Hanz Ornica @narrendor Mell Rach’il @ohnoslothattack Verthandi Aurajon @tsubasahime Basye Charir @phoskios photos by @vintage-aerith

[strikertheta]

BotW Link Cosplay: The Bracer

It’s worbla time! That’s right, I decided to make Link’s bracer out of worbla. I wasn’t originally planning to due to budget issues, but Arda wigs suddenly stocked new sheets of black worbla, including size small, so I could afford to buy a sheet. This was my first time using the material, and I was excited. Overall, it was a total blast! Here’s what I did:

Tutorial by:  penandneedlecosplay Tutorial Link: https://jennyjackprose.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/botw-link-cosplay-the-bracer/#more-728

[strikertheta]

Choose your fighter Dragonbards style! 

It was an honor dressing up with the D&D Crew at MAGFest! I still can’t believe it happened! 

Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsRPsy3rn5E

From Left to right:

Verthandi Aurajon: @tsubasahime

Basye Charir: @phoskios

Nesrinn Aussiria: @strikerthetacosplay

Mel Rach’il: @ohnoslothattack

Hanz Ornica: @narrendor

[strikertheta]

Critical Role cosplays! Percy, Percy again, Dr. Ripley, Silas and Delilah Briarwood!

I had never considered Percy in pinstripes and now I adore it.

(Please feel free to ask if this is you and you want to be tagged! And also thank you for letting me hold you all up in the coffee line.)

[strikertheta]

Getting back onto the cosplay horse by starting work on my D&D character for MagFest! I've got to work on a bunch of armor next but getting started on a project again has been really great!

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I have passed through fire

Keyleth: StrikerTheta

Photography: StarryAry Photography

I realized that I never posted any of my Keyleth pictures over here! I went out into the fields at Colossalcon with the lovely StarryAry and she took some gorgeous photos that I’m absolutely in love with! I relate a lot to Keyleth so getting nice pictures of my cosplay means a lot.

[strikertheta]

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE GOOD NEWS OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, CHICAGO SCREWS??

Ya’ll…if you haven’t ever used these, sit down and take a peep. I needed to redo the belt covers for Leliana’s armor due to the fact that it took me, like, 15 minutes to put that stuff on when it should have taken less than 5. Originally, I bucked at making actual functioning buckles because I didn’t have time and I was hella lazy. (OHHOHOHO HOW THINGS CHANGE)

Enter CHICAGO SCREWS.

They’re the magical little bits of hardware often used in making belts and doing other leather work. They come in two parts - a male end and a female end (don’t laugh, it’s the truth).

I found a sizable pack on Amazon for a good price and bought that prompto. The finish isn’t the prettiest, but they were cheap and this is cosplay. ;)

I used my Dremel to drill small holes through the foam of the armor. I made some straps ahead of time with the intention of them becoming new belts and just reused the bridle buckles from the old covers. Added the buckles, stitched as necessary and punched a hole where the screw would go.

The female screw I inserted through the back side of the foam. It takes a little effort and can be tricky to do. Widen your holes if needed. Add the prepared strap over the top, secure with the male end and TA DA functioning belts that look good and will actually stay on your armor.

I used foam for my armor but you could absolutely use chicago screws with Worbla builds and the like. Just check the post length to make sure it’s long or short enough to accommodate your materials.

Go make some fabulous belts now!

[strikertheta]

how do you decide what to do with your face in pictures? there are a lot of tutorials on posing but they mostly just talk about the body and i feel like my face looks boring or weird in most pictures

AS ALWAYS this stuff takes practice. You get more comfortable the more you do it, but there are tips and shortcuts to help you achieve something more in your control then just smiling and hoping you look right. 

My favorite tips are the, “MMMM”  “me” “haha” and “you” tricks! And what they are, are words to say to yourself during your pose to help train your face into specific structures. For smiling for example, specifically with your mouth closed, practice saying “MMM” when you pose! It creates a really natural curve to your mouth, without making your cheeks ache and contract when you force yourself into a fake smile. I know this all sounds stupid, but seriously try it. Try it in some selfies, practice agnling your head. Say it out loud if you need to!Here’s me saying “MMMM” to make a closed lipped smile! 

For an open mouthed, natural, teeth smile, say “Me” when you pose!! You can either say “Me” as you smile for a prounouced smile, or simply say it as the shutter goes off to catch a more candid looking, happy state of your face. 

These are all “me” poses, where im literally saying the word under my breath to train my face. 

Saying “You” so youself as you exhale through your lips, creates a very neutral, easy, UN TENSE, looking face. Its my go to for everything. YOU poses are awesome for static poses, where you just need your face to look normal, natural, and pretty. Lol. It’s great cause if you dont do this and keep your mouth closed, you often look boring or too stiff. Sayng “you” activates your muscles and livens your face enough that you dont look dead or lifeless. 

These are all You poses. I’m literally saying that word a I pose. And some of these I say YOU while putting a little smile in there by thinking happy thoughts.

I don’t use “HAHA” as much, but it really is just like you might think. Saying HAHA out loud as you pose creates that easy going, natural look of laughing. 

As you might tell, Posing is a lot about ACTING as well as knowing your body. 

SO GET LOOSE. In between photos im CONSTANTLY moving around. And after a few shots im cosntantly stretching my mouth wide, making fish faces, puffing my cheeks, RELAXING my muscles so they don’t do that horrendous School Day smile that we all dread. 

And again PRACTICE. Get in front of that mirror and try out a bunch of stuff. Try DIFFERENT WORDS to see what saying them dos to your expression. Try angles and poses at home, so when the camers in front of you, your ready. 

Then youll be able to do more complicated stuff too. 

[strikertheta]

I love your ignis cosplay. Question where did you get the patch for the shirt and where did you get the leg thing? And do you have any advice on making his hip thing.

Thank you so much! Ignis is my favorite chocobro and deserves more love!

The patch is from the lovely people at Quid Vis who you can find here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/QuidVis It was a custom request that I asked them to design but I’m guessing that if you request that patch again they can put up a listing for you!

The leg pouch I made! It’s the same black vinyl as the hip belt. I cut out 4 rectangles, a bottom piece and a flap piece from that fabric and put thick interfacing and a layer of cotton on each piece. I sewed it all together into a pouch and made straps out of the same fabric.

I outlined how I made his hip thing a bit in this post: http://strikerthetacosplay.tumblr.com/post/157930874632/hi-i-noticed-you-were-doing-a-casual-ignis But please feel free to ask about anything that isn’t clear!

I hope that helps, feel free to ask if you have any other questions!

[strikertheta]

So I'm plunging into Ignis hell atm and planning on doing his main outfit but I've got to ask - how did you do his casual shirt? It turned out so legit. O.o

Welcome to Ignis hell, it’s a great place to be! (Also, I hope you don’t mind me answering this publicly, let me know if you aren’t!)

This got long as it tends to so under a cut!

The shirt is this fabric from Joann: http://www.joann.com/apparel-knit-fabric-heavy-weight-sknit-as-is/15217599.html#start=30 (It seems like it’s only in remnants online, but the last time I was in my local store there were yards of the stuff so it might just be an in store fabric.)

I used a T-shirt I already own that I liked the fit of and just cut out a pattern around it. I then did my tried and true method of throwing the fabric onto my dressform and just kind of pinning it, taking it off the form, putting it onto my body to adjust, putting it back onto the form to see how it looked, and then sewing it. My general approach to sewing is throwing fabric onto a dressform and winging it honestly.

I sewed the body of the shirt together and left the sleeves separate. The ‘leather’ parts are the 4-way stretch vinyl from Yaya Han’s collection, I wanted a stretch since the shirt is a knit and I wanted to be able to move my shoulders somewhat. The edging on the sleeves is just a rectangle and the back piece I cut out along the shape of the back of the shirt and sewed that directly onto the knit. After that was on I added the sleeves. I did it that way so that it would be a nice edge around the shoulder seam. This is it before I added the button up part and the collar but it’s a good shot.

The patch is from the lovely people at Quid Vis who you can find here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/QuidVis I did a custom request for the patch, but they have the files now so if you wanted you can probably just request the patch!

I hope that helped!

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So I’m still slightly jetlagged from this past weekend (36 hours with no sleep yay planes!) but I’m absolutely ecstatic about my trip to Wondercon! Everyone I interacted with was so kind and I got to meet so many amazing people, including several I’d been following and finally got to see in person! I couldn’t have asked for a better first experience on the west coast honestly, I definitely need to go back and just visit L.A. to see the city. All the Critters were just wonderful and the Talks Machina panel was worth the trip!

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I do not want to die who I am. I’d like to live long enough to be someone else.

I got absolutely amazing pictures of my Percy cosplay at Katsucon this year! The weather was unseasonably warm so the beach worked out really well for the shoot and Siffy did such great work!

Percy: @strikerthetacosplay

Photos: Siffy of The Sisters Mischief

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cosplay ask: 3, 30

3) What are your next three cosplay plans?I'm not going to include Keyleth in this because she's already started. My next three right now are Prompto and Moogle Chocobo Carnival Noctis from Final Fantasy XV and Emily Kaldwin from Dishonored 2!30) What is your ultimate dream cosplay?I've had Dark Knight Dressform Rikku from Final Fantasy X-2 on my list for probably ten years at this point so it's a tie between that and anything from CLAMP!