#garak cosplay

[enjoythepetrichor]

I'll take good pictures in good light tomorrow, but 🥹🥹🥹🥹 Garak's little mustard number is FINISHED 🥰🥰🥰🥰

[spocks-kaathyra]

how did you make those holy shit!!!

jfjskdk okay I'll take any excuse I get to talk abt this more

How I made my Cardassian prosthetics

Disclaimer: I'm no expert, it's my first time doing this!! All the resources I used can be found online. In fact, here's a playlist of all the youtube videos I followed, in case you don't want to read the whole post. You can pretty much make any facial prosthetics following these steps, not just Cardassian ones.

What you'll need:

Plaster bandages, plaster of Paris (a lot more than is pictured here), modeling clay, and liquid latex. You'll also need some things you probably already have around the house, like vaseline (or cooking oil), plastic wrap, wood glue, rubbing alcohol, q-tips, cotton balls, and setting powder (or baby powder).

Step 1: Face cast

The goal here is to make a plaster copy of your face that you can sculpt your prosthetics on, by covering your face with plaster bandages and then casting that in plaster of Paris. This is the video tutorial I followed for this step. There are many methods, and you'll find tutorials for all of them on youtube, but this is the easiest way if you're doing it by yourself, and it results in a perfectly useable face cast for our purposes. And, if you're cosplaying Garak like me, it's a great way to get into character by experiencing claustrophobia for the first time in your life!! (Jk it's not actually that bad. I lived.)

The video explains the process better than I could, but here's some tips I learned from doing it! Wear a shirt that you don't mind ruining. Go a bit closer to your eyes than I did here. When you're propping up your mask in a bowl, make sure you're not squishing any parts of it or tilting it! I ended up with a dent in the chin of my face cast because I accidentally dented the mask while I was casting it. And make sure you have enough plaster of Paris! I probably used 2-3 pounds for this part. Here's what I ended up with, before sanding or sealing it with wood glue:

Step 2: Sculpting

This is pretty self explanatory, but also probably the hardest part. Just use lots and lots of reference photos. I've got a pretty good stash for Garak, if anyone's interested hdjkfhk. I found that gifs made better references than still photos, since they give you a better sense of the 3D shape. You want to make sure you're using modeling clay that doesn't dry. You don't need any fancy sculpting tools! I used my trusty palette knife to get the small details, but you could probably accomplish the same thing with, like, a spoon and a toothpick. It depends on what kind of clay you're using, but you can dip your finger in a solvent to smooth out the surface of the clay and blend the edges into the face cast. I used rubbing alcohol, but I also heard people recommend acetone. Once you're happy with your sculpt, you can move onto the next step!

Step 3: Casting negatives

This step is technically optional. The video I followed also outlines an easier way that skips this step, by simply building your prosthetics directly on the sculpt. But casting negatives allows you to get a lot more fine detail, and a smoother finish on the final prosthetics, so that's what I chose to do. Basically, you pour plaster of Paris over your sculpt, and it hardens into a mold you can use to build your prosthetics on.

Again, the video explains it better, but some tips! If it's possible with your sculpt, do it in small pieces instead of the whole face at once. I did the chin, nose, and forehead separately. If you try to do the whole face, there's a greater chance of it getting stuck or breaking. Of course, if you were doing, say, Odo, then it might not be possible to do it in multiple pieces. Another thing to watch out for:

If your underlying face cast has any "undercuts," or places where it's, like, concave, then if plaster gets into those areas and hardens, your face cast and your negatives will lock together, and you won't be able to use either of them. For me I was worried about the sides of my nose and under my bottom lip. As long as those parts are filled in with clay, then you should be fine. It's okay if your clay sculpt has undercuts! You can see in the (shamelessly stolen) diagram that their sculpt has a lot of undercuts, but that's okay because the clay is soft and won't lock with the plaster, it'll just come off. The video I got the diagram from was also pretty helpful, even if it's meant for casting with different materials than I used. Here are the completed negatives:

Step 4: Making the prosthetics!

Now you have negatives! Your sculpt may or may not be intact, but if your negatives turned out okay then that's fine. This step is also covered in the video for step 3. Using a stippling sponge, foam brush, or q-tip, stipple thin layers of liquid latex onto your negatives. I found that a q-tip worked best, even if it took longer to cover larger areas. Make sure the edges are very thin, so you can blend them into your skin when you apply the prosthetics. Wait for a layer to dry before adding more latex on top of it, or you'll end up with fucked up results like I had:

(Left: first draft, where I didn't let it dry enough before layering more. Right: second draft. Much better!)

Build up bulky areas with pieces of cotton balls, then cover the cotton with a thin layer of latex. Emphasis on thin! It'll take forever to dry if you saturate your cotton with too much latex. This step mostly involves a LOT of waiting. When the latex is fully dry, brush everything with a liberal amount of setting powder or baby powder to prevent the latex from sticking to itself as you peel it out of the mold.

And now you have your prosthetics! You can tear away some of the excess latex at the edges to make it fit your face better. I ended up tearing away almost all of the edges around the eye ridges, so it would blend better and I wouldn't have to get adhesive so close to my eyes. Tear, don't cut! It'll result in a more natural edge that's easier to blend. This video shows how to apply prosthetics. Use whatever prosthetic adhesive you want! I used spirit gum because it's what I had on hand.

Now you can go forth and live out your lizard alien dreams!!

[frenzy-draws]

Turned myself into a cardassian! I kinda look like Dukat lol

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

underrated garashir scene is when Garak makes THIS gesture right in Julian's face

[lonelymoonrambles]

HELLO

I would like to bring something to your attention:

That is all, thank you.

[oomox-oclock]

I’m not furry enough for this

[palpablestupor]

It's my favourite outfit on him, I'll die on this hill forever and ever. Yes the dark outfits are nice but the patient needs some camp queenery in the form of garish mustard patterned fabrics to survive :(

i am sorry i am forever a garak ugly yellow outfit lover ……………..i love it so much. Fave outfit

[uss-exile-ncc-440548]

Reblog and put if anyone you know has related you to a Star Trek character?

[dickwheelie]

the reason we never see garak and bashir do sherlock holmes holodeck larping was that unlike geordi and data they both wanted to be holmes and they couldn't convince the other one to switch. garak would be like but you're a real doctor and bashir would be like yeah but i'm also a genius and garak would be like well i'm mysterious and aloof and a drug addict and bashir would be like well i'm taller. and it goes on and on so eventually they just book a holosuite thinking the other one will change their mind but then they both show up in sherlock holmes cosplay and they both refuse to go home and change, and they try to do the story with two holmeses but it just devolves into them arguing for two hours until quark kicks them out and they never try it again. so unfortunately we never get to see that episode but it would have been so funny if it existed

[enjoythepetrichor]

It's done!! Garak's little mustard number commission is all done <3

It took custom-printing 2 fabrics, several broken needles and a lot of figuring out shapes, but I'm really happy with the result.

You may perchance catch this cosplay in person at Leipzig Book Fair in March :3c

It doesn't show on my dress form but there is a layer of neoprene in the chest area because, and I quote my commissioner here: "If I can't be busty Garak, why am I even here?"

[auroraborus]

Garak already owned one from his cosplay days (how he learned to tailor) but never mentions it because he now considers it cringe

Something about Garak turning up in "Our Man Bashir" in a fitted tuxedo in the same style as Bashir's, showing that either:

He replicated one just before hand (and therefore that not even the station's tailor wears tailored clothes)

He's been spying on him each time he goes to the holosuites with the intention of reverse engineering his outfit

Bashir commissioned the original suit from him, and Garak decided they needed matching outfits.

[spocks-kaathyra]

my second born son <333

taking suggestions for who to make next!!

[frenzy-draws]

Happy Halloween!! Here’s some cosplay pics of my Cardassian cosplay since I love it and it’s also my most popular post here!!! Hope you all have a great time this halloween!!

[dogwithapog]

there's a lot of thoughtful analysis out there about deep space nine s2e5 "Cardassians" but i just want to call attention to garak's watermelon cosplay

brother it's giving 🍉

[spocks-kaathyra]

ik this is a month late but:

going feral whenever garak wears this fit because it’s my fav. the black/red/gold combo is so elegant and deadly. every time he wears it he’s doing some bad bitch spy shenanigans

[ineskorth]

So - some OMB love. I wanted to copy the old Bond posters from the 60s (Thunderball, Goldfinger etc) als close as possible with all their roughness and hard contrasts and awesome colours. Also, we all know that Garak is cosplaying Pussy Galore but not 100%, so I adjusted his clothes a little bit. Now it's even more Pussy! Julian was already wearing Bonds light grey suit from that scene on Goldfinger's ranch, I just added the waistcoat. Thanks again for your comments and tags on my previous illustrations <3! My wedding was a really nice event :D