#i just love this big braid mei design SO MUCH

[sunfloweeey]

wife material for the girls 🎀

[creaturefeaturecommando]

So it took two hours but I'm in because my brother used my mom's phone number for mine and my cousin's phone number for his, even though it got us yelled at. First things first, ima look at the new designs and say what I think

D.VA: Not digging the ponytail, her bangs are ugly

Doomfist: At least they gave him shoes. No more grippers on the field.

Orisa: I guess I like what they did with the hair

Reinhart: OOOH BIG DADDY BAM A LAM OOOOH BIG DADDY BAM A LAM

Roadhog: That mowhawk is ugly as fuck, yee yee ass haircut

Sigma: What did they do to my baby-honey-precious ? He looks so...plain now. I hate it.

Winston: What shampoo do he use ? His hair is so much fuller, but the outfit... is meh..

Wrecking Ball: Deadass forgot this hamster yo existed so I don't care.

Zarya: That ponytail. Hell fucking no. Why do they look like they tried to soften her features ?

Ashe and Bob: I don't like how they shortened Ash's hair but it ain't bad. But nothing special.

Bastion:...Ew.

Cassidy: Got rid of his whole tan. Somehow whitewashed a white man. Blizzard probably got tired of people headcanoning him as Latino and went "Enough of that" (jokes on them, there's pale/white Latinos tho) and y'all still could've gave him a better name. I'm all for "Cassidy" but the "Cole" part is just ugly.

Echo: She didn't get a new design for some reason

Genji: Eww. Why's he wearing clothes. But ngl, the fit is drippy so he gets a pass.

Hanzo: Blizzard hates voluptuous man tiddies. Noted. Guess they only like the sort of titties their employees can steal employees breastmilk from.

Junkrat: THAT'S NOT MY BABY ! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOUUU ?!? WHO YOU IS ?!? WHO YOU BE ?!? But naw, seriously, they erased everything unique about junkrat and yassfied them. Fuck this.

Mei: So fucking cute but her OG outfit is cuter.

Pharah: Really just yeet her earrings away for no reason.

Reaper: I hate his new pants. Instead of showing off those marvelous thick thighs, they made them look clumpy.

Soldier 76: Seeing his face just feels wrong.

Sombra: An actual improvement, I just wish they gave her actual fucking shoes.

Symmetra: No more thighs, but I actually love the outfit. I do not like how one piece of hair is sticking out though.

Torbjorn: I like it but it's nothing special.

Tracer: She looks less dorky. I'm kinda sad about it.

Widowmaker: Damn, no more exposed chest but I do like the outfit. I don't care for the braid though but I love her new headpiece.

Ana: It's alright.

Baptiste: I hate his haircut and I don't care for the outfit. They massacred my boy.

Brigitte: It's alright

Lúcio: Boy looks like he got some damn pool noodles in his head, what did y'all do to him ?

Mercy: It is very meh.

Moira: So y'all just deciding to do all of my fucking mains dirty, huh ? Junkrat, Sigma, Baptiste, now Moira.

Zenyatta: It's just fucking meh.

So basically they decided to turn everyone into the equivalent of an unseasoned, raw, chicken breast. The only Main of mine that looks alright is Ashe, but not only that, most of my mains are locked.

Also, none of my skins got transferred or my voice lines. So yeah, the game is garbage. Can't wait to see the hot mess that is the gameplay, if they stop kicking me out every 15 minutes and making me wait in a que of 2000.

[tigerseye46]

tell us about ur new oc!

Thanks for giving me an excuse to talk about her! I have a lot.

I’ve actually mentioned her before but before I figured everything out. I rp her in a server with my friends.

Her name is Huáng Xiàróng (煌 夏荣 Brilliant Summer Glory)! Her name used to be Yuán but I changed it. I’ve created one design for her, I don’t draw often so it’s not the best but I tried. I’ll post her demon form and picrew of her human form at the end.

Originally she was supposed to be a motherly figure. That… uhh did not exactly go as planned. I kinda made her feral instead- also she used to be a straight up villain.

She’s a rabbit/bunny demon. Specifically a Manchurian hare. She has a mix of black, brown and gray fur with three spots on the side of her face which are replaced by freckles in human form. She has a notch on her ear and some spots there too. She has slight wavy hair with braids in the back.

Her hair is black with green strands, kinda like Mei which was completely unintentional and I only realized that now. Her eyes are green but they change to red when angered and brown when annoyed. She has a frilly dress. She has a tattoo on her back, 戰士 meaning warrior. Her height is 6 feet and 2 inches. She’s around 3000, maybe a bit younger and physically looks 35 - 40.

Small tw here, she has scars from years of fighting.

Abilities:

She can shapeshift to various things including a normal bunny form and a bigger, more terrifying version of herself.

Like most rabbits, she’s extremely fast (super speed).

She has the ability to control and manipulate fire.

She can jump high.

Super strength

And friend suggested the ability to possibly summon and ride a cloud.

Backstory: (I’m just going to copy and paste her backstory that I used for smth)

Xiàróng was born in the Qin Dynasty to two rabbit demons. Her parents were fierce demon lords that loved to mess with humans with their army. Her parents trained her in the hopes that she would follow in their footsteps and she did. She became a fierce warrior with a strong love of fighting and battling.

She led her armies into villages, messing with humans and demanding offerings. She loved the absolute terror that popped up on their faces as her army swept in. She enjoyed the amusement she felt every time they thought they could defeat her along with the absolute adrenaline that came with fighting.

Her parents were extremely proud of her and at times, fought with her but they mostly stayed regulated to their hideout. One day, they passed away in the field of battle, she rose and took their place. Xiàróng became better known as a fierce rabbit demon lord and grew her armies, even allying at points with some other demons.

She became renowned as her parents always hoped she would be. She loved her army and always made sure their efforts were rewarded. She treated them as a second family to her and they shared a deep bond.

One of Xiàróng’s generals told her about a monk journeying west to get scriptures and if she eats him, she can become immortal. While initially excited at this prospect, she declined when she found out that the person guarding him was the Great Sage. She then made sure her army never crossed paths with Sun Wukong and the rest of the pilgrims.

She continued onward and she thought the whole thing could last forever.

But obviously, nothing lasts forever. Humans started advancing and her demon army started falling, either passing away in battle, getting tired of fighting or deciding that they wanted to move on and pass off as humans to live normal lives, sometimes a mixture of the last two.

Xiàróng never stopped fighting and refused to quit until she faced a fierce opponent in battle that caused her spirits to wane. She eventually realized that with humanity’s advancements she longer had the edge that she used to. She decided to sadly give up fighting about 500-1000 years prior to modern day. In her current identity, she works at a boring office job to survive all while longing for the good old days. 

The group finds her when they need her to face an opponent she had previously faced, possibly the same one that caused her spirits to wane.

(She also had might or might not have had a kid at one point when she was still a warrior. Mildly debating on the kid thing but I’m probably going with it.)

Likes and Dislikes:

She absolutely loves fighting, she loves the thrill that comes with it. She values hard workers as she had to work hard to get to where is. She loves to reminisce about the good old days when she was feared and respected. She likes the summer season. Her favorite colors are red and green. She likes drinking tea. She adores the outdoors. She likes (also dislikes) being alone. She likes people who value their family. She is a big fan of action movies. She likes exercising. She likes organization and plans. She loves her motorcycle and weapons. She loves being the leader of projects as it gives her a sense of power. She loves fire and is often entranced by it. She likes using her jumping abilities. She likes exploring nature.

She dislikes the modern advancements humans have made as she believes it puts her as a disadvantage and is part of the reason she is no longer feared. She dislikes mundane office work as she believes it to be below her skill level but does it to survive. She dislikes people who desert others as some of her army left because they were tired of fighting and wanted to move on. She hates being called cute. She hates slackers. She hates people who underestimate her. She dislikes interacting unless she has to.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths:

Xiàróng is extremely proud of her abilities. She is extremely brave and will gladly take action when need be. She is rather confident. She is observant because of her years as a demon lord. She is a strategic individual since she spent so much time with her generals planning out attacks. She is also rather smart from her years of teaching from her parents about different subjects. She will give her honest opinion if someone asks her. She is hard working. She is tidy and always makes sure to keep both her workspace and house clean. She actually has a motherly side to her and is rather gentle when interacting with children and is capable of being gentle when others are having a bad day, although this depends on who they are. She is agile.

Weaknesses:

Her belief in her abilities cause her to have excessive pride in them. Her bravery leads her to take reckless actions. Her longing to reclaim the past and become once again known as a fierce demon blinds her to the possibilities that come with the future. She holds on too much to the past and practically clings to it. She has a short temper and can snap easily. Her honesty leads to bluntness and people not liking her because of her opinion. She can also be rather dishonest sometimes. She acts as if she knows better than others since she’s been alive a long time and has a wide array of knowledge.

General Personality:

Xiàróng is not a sociable person, although she used to be back in the old days when she had her demon army. She can be quite dramatic especially when she’s explaining her past to people. She has a loud personality that appears when she’s explaining her history. This is a subtle and desperate attempt to reclaim what she used to have. Although, other than that, she is rather quiet and prefers not to interact unless absolutely necessary. 

She prefers to keep to herself a lot of the time despite rabbits being social creatures. She feels out of place and longs for a world where she can go back to fighting and a time where her army was all together, laughing and smiling. Fighting is all she’s known for the longest time and believes that’s what she’s mostly good at. 

Since some of her army has either passed away or left to find better lives, she is not a big fan of letting people close especially in a world of humans since these were people she once used to attack and mess with. She does rarely encounter some of the demons that used to be her army. She’s short tempered and aggressive. She appears cold due to her isolation and circumstances. Under her cold personality, there is a loud, bright and caring personality waiting to get out if she lets someone get close, maybe if she did, she could go back to the way she used to be.

She doesn’t care about the group at first until they keep dragging her along. She is terrified of Sun Wukong because of his reputation and is kinda wary of his successor but helps him out. She purposefully annoys Pigsy and has debates with Tang. Also I kinda ship her with Sandy but we’ll see how that goes-

Trivia:

Talents: Foraging, cooking, singing, Can expertly play pipa (Chinese lute) and piano, gardening, great medical knowledge, wrestling, sword fighting and spear fighting, stealth, hand to hand combat, whittling, excellent leadership skills, making strategies.

She has a motorcycle that she takes good care of.-Romance movies are a guilty pleasure of hers.

She is ambidextrous.

She’s bi.

She has a tattoo with the characters 戰士 meaning warrior on her back.

She has a small house in the woods near a mountain range outside the city.

She was around when the Journey to the West was happening but avoided the pilgrims since she didn’t want to risk angering Sun Wukong if she tried something.

Hobbies: poetry, training with her qiang and jian, exercising, running, singing, gardening, cooking, playing the pipa and piano, foraging, whittling/wood carving, origami, watching television

Her surname Huáng meaning brilliant refers to the family’s cleverness along with wanting to shine. Xià means summer, summer represents something in China such as the direction south, the color red, the sound of laughter, the heart, fire and a creature called the red phoenix. Red, in turn, symbolizes happiness, vitality, good luck, good fortune, energy and passion. Róng meaning glory is because her parents were hoping she’d be renowned by people all over.

Picture:

Link to the picrew I used for human form: https://picrew.me/image_maker/332600

Human form:

[marivictal]

I was training expressions with the class 1-a kids and decided to make some aged up headcanons. they are all in the 3rd year U.A. and i will say all the hc I had for them.

Midoriya- cut his hair short but let the bangs grow because Uraraka liked them, he uses tiaras and hairclips (that uraraka borrowed him) while training or studying, has two scars in his face, one in his nose and one in the right cheek, besides the ones in his hands and arms.

Uraraka- when she asked Mei to help her with her sickness, she designed an equipment that improved her costume a lot, but she had to make an undercut to it to work, that is why she decided to grow it out, to hide both the equipment and the undercut. she has to ask for help when she put it, because it has to be in the right place, so she only takes it off when sleeping or when it gaves her headache for wearing it too long (usually she asks deku to put it for her) she also has a lot of scars in her hands and arms because of villains trying to inutilize her quirk and 2 dots in each side of the neck (courtesy of Hatsume prototypes).

Tsuyo- was in a fight with a villain and a part of her hair got stuck in a machine and she had to cut it, and after the fight she chop it all off except for a little part she keeps in a ponytail to looks like a tadpole tail. has scars mostly in her thighs but they aren’t a lot.

IIda- got tired of his haircut and made it shorter, didn’t change much but makes some good jokes nowadays, his scars are in his legs and near the engines and he broke a leg one time but got patched up by recovery girl.

Kaminari- he, Sero and Kirishima got a bet of who could grow their hair out for the longest time, Kirishima won because Denki wanted to impress Jirou and made a sidecut, didn’t work and he lost 11,243 yens that day (100 dollars), don’t have any scars but tattooed half his left body with thunderbolts.

Bakugou- after a villain with a quirk that stuck people hands in their back, he did the same thing Deku did in the first year festival sports he exploded his head and freed himself, causing a huge scar in his nape and the irregular haircut he has now (not my hc but I fully accepted it) he also has the scar that begins in his right nose and splits to his ear and his neck that the same villain he fought made, has a huge scar in his shoulder made by a building falling in his arm.

Kirishima- won the bet with Sero and Denki, having the longest hair between the guys, his roots are black and he didn’t dye his hair for one year, he says that when he graduates he is going to dye it all again but the class doubt it. Everyone loves to play with his hair, especially Mina and Bakugou, that is why he has so much different hairstyles but always falls to the tied in a ponytail with gel. His scars are from the battle in the mission to rescue Eri and he didn’t get more after that, they are in his left lips and forehead, his right cheek and neck, one that goes to one side of his nape to the chest plate, an X in his left shoulder and his right biceps, the huge ones in both of his arms, one in his left hand and the last one in his left hip.

Sero- His hair was long in 2nd year but in a fight with a villain with swords they almost cut Sero head off failing in the last second, making the scar in his nape and the hairstyle he has now, he only lost 5,624 yens to Kirishima because it wasn’t his fault that he lost the bet. Sero also has some smaller scars in his arms caused by villains going after his quirk.

Mina- she wanted to try a new style so she let her hair grow, when her horns keep growing she wanted to cut all off because of the pain to untangle her hair of it but Kirishima didn’t let her and made a deal with her, he would take care of her hair and she would take care of his, this led to them becoming really close and she always sleeping when he plays with her hair, now they talk to each other about everything and even their crushes (she tried really hard to make Bakugou date him, but she didn’t needed to) she has a scar in her collarbone and some in her hips.

Jirou- She wanted to cut her hair really short and make a side cut in the end of her 1st year but a villain got a part of her right ear, she freaked out and started to grow her hair to hide her quirk, it only started working after she lost half her other ear and gain small scars under both of them. She still a punk and has a tattoo in her back with ravens and musical notes.

Todoroki- he is less awkward now after spending so much with the class, but he is a little shy, one day, Momo asked if he saw that his hair was big enough for a ponytail and tied it to show him, he got flustered but liked it that way and let it grow a little more to fit better, the length brushes his shoulders and he doesn’t have any scars besides the one in his face.

Tokoyami- got over his goth phase but he still likes some dark thinks, one day he saw a character in a game Denki was playing and feel in love with his design so he tried to grow his feathers to resemble it, but since he couldn’t braid his feather he took some strings and tied in his sides to look like braids without being it, has a scar in his left eye and a little crack in his beak, it hurts sometimes but he doesn’t mind it, and he didn’t lost sight either.

Momo- she was getting tired of her hair always falling in her face in battles even when she tied it, so she implored her mother to let her cut her hair to improve her work and the moment her mother approved she cut it as short as she could and that was the result of her bob, the next year when she showed up to classes everyone was shocked of how mature she looked with this hair. Sometimes she must wear hairpins but only when she studies and Todoroki likes to tug it behind her ear every time they are close. She doesn’t have scars because of the fluidity of her body to create matter.

Rikidou- was tired of styling his hair and let it fall back in the afro it originally was being nicknamed muffin-man because of it, he doesn’t mind tough. Didn’t get in a lot of fights to gain a lot of scars but he has one in his left shoulder.

Aoyama- wanted to “French up” a lot more than he already was so every day he curls his hair the be like it is now, some days is curlier than others. Don’t have scars (he repudiates them) so he makes everything he can to not have any.

Ojiro- wasn’t taken serious by the villains so he tried to change his hairstyle to look more intimidating, grow it a little and pushed to the back instead of the front, now he is usually called as a lion than a monkey now (even though he didn’t mind being called monkey-boy by his friends), has a lot of little scars in his tail and a big one near the beginning of it.

Mineta- didn’t change much, he just grows like 10cm (4 inches), besides that he isn’t too afraid of every villain anymore, and he fell to class 1-b and Shinsou but he is still a former class 1-a member and hangs out with his friends (he stills is a pervert and everyone, except Denki, gets mad with him when he acts like one).

Shouji- just wanted to change a little so he got rid of the huge bangs and grew the back his hair a little, and since he can multiply his arms he only has scar in his collarbones and shoulders. Nobody even seem the ones in his collarbones because of the mask.

Kouda- got a little braver, so he doesn’t hide with the animals all the time anymore, stills a cute pie and grew his “hair” to tie in the back, but most of the time his hair is free. Don’t like be in the middle of a battle so he doesn’t have any scars.

That is all I have for now, if i think of something more i will create a new post.

@cake-ademia @hatefilledpoptarts @chapelseed @c-jay321 @bianeko

[imagine-aph-everything-blog]

Any girlfriend headcanons for Liechtenstein, Taiwan and Ukraine?

Honestly I view especially these three as just major lesbians I'm sorry if you were expecting hetero headcanonsLiechtenstein (Lillie Zwingli)- Vasch has made sure that if she ever dates, it'll only be girls. - If you've ever played Zen's route in MM, he's kinda like that. He teaches her that men are wolves and she'd be much safer with a woman. - Male or female, there will be a shit ton of threats from Vasch. Be prepared. - Loves to braid her GF's hair soooo much. - Makeovers and nail painting!!! She does this at regular sleepovers but with the one she truly loves, she'll do very intricate and delicate designs. - Super nice and smol to cuddle- A literal angelic touch. - Handholding!!! She loves handholding so much!!!- Just refuses to do the dirty because big bruder told her that she'll get preggy and die- The sweetest, most softest girlfriend to ever exist. Taiwan (Mei Xiao)- Whenever she holds hands with her GF she absolutely loves to swing their hands. - Has soooooo many cultural clothes she'd love to see her lover in! - Would most likely be a sub. - Kinda has a thing for MDLG. Not even the sexual part, it's just the thought of having somebody to protect her and love her and just help her out- Lots of hugs from behind. She loves her GF so much and ugh she can't help herself sometimes- Whenever she's just with her GF for a lazy day in, she like, never wears pants. Ever- Her underwear is super cute too and she kinda likes it when her GF checks it out- The cutest cuddles ever. She just completely entagles herself with you and it's just the sweetest- Takes the best care of her GF whenever she's sick (or in general)- She's physically weak but will do whatever it takes to make her GF safeUkraine (Katyusha Braginskaya)- Will make literally the best mommy ever. - Will be a surprisingly great dom, too- The most ticklish being ever. She literally usually can't cuddle because she's just so ticklish- Her tiddies make it difficult to cuddle too - She's comfortable enough to walk around her GF without a shirt (depending on how long they've been living together, anyhow). Like Mei she has like the cutest undies too!- Very precious- That is all

[aureus-ignis]

When I was young, I fell in love with the Pokemon series. I loved the RBY and GSC games, I watched the anime on TV every weekend, bought the movies, played the TCG, and collected the PokeSpe manga zealously. But as the years went by, the newer Pokemon games failed to hold my interest, and I soon stopped following Pokemon entirely. Last year, the generation of Alola was announced, and after watching a few trailers, I found myself drawn to the music. The adorable Rowlet also caught my eye, and on top of that, it seemed like the story was going to be interesting. A conservation society full of nice people dressed in white that looked strangely sinister at times? Hell yesssss. So I decided to buy the game... and then I fell deeply in love. Once again I was in Pokemon heaven (or hell).

So when Mei asked me if there was any series we could cos together that'd be fun and simple to do, I suggested Gladion and Lillie, since their costumes are fairly simple (c o u g h). She agreed, and that was the beginning of it all.

I started working on stuff around mid-June this year. People who know me know that accuracy is pretty high on my list of priorities, and I was determined to get the not-very-logical hair of Lillie and Gladion as good as I possibly could. Lillie's problem, of course, was the thickness. She has two insanely fat braids that had to be made up of almost all the hair on a normal human head, yet somehow still has a thick wide mane of loose hair behind her. So I had to spend time wefting as many extra rows of fibre into the wig, and then crafting removable bases for the braids from batting and more wefts.

Testing!

Batting base WIP HAHAHA

And the final result was worth it <3 <3

Next was Gladion. When it comes to the subject of pulled back hair, I've gotten to the point where I can ONLY accept lacefront. Anything else is too fake for me. For me, cosplay has always been about portraying the characters as if they were real, no matter how zany and strange their designs may be. I wanted the hair to look almost as though it grew on me. I ripped out almost the whole front to get rid of the fringe, and sewed in longer wefts, adjusting the direction of the hair to the left so that they would comb back naturally. Then ventilating hell began

Darkness, my old friend, we meet again. ;___; My hooking skills have improved since I first started ventilating, but it's still a long, tedious process. School started before I could finish, and I had to work on everything else too...

The realization that his uncut wig looks like Mercy from Overwatch HAHAHA

But as with Lillie, the final result was worth it <3 <3 <3

With regards to his costume, I'd actually had the hoodie and pants tailored because I ran out of time. I'd wanted just the base made so I can do the rest of the details myself, but the tailor forgot and did everything for me... and ended up messing up the accuracy. It was a disappointment, so much so that after STGCC was over, and we planned to have a shoot at the end of the year... I decided to remake everything from scratch. I'm terrible at patterning, really, and Gladion's biggest problem was THE STUPID GRAVITY DEFYING HOOD. Ultimately I couldn't get it to look exactly like the original (because I didn't want extra seams and all, but it was close enough. And the second time round, all of the holes were in the correct areas HAHAHA.

I'd made his first waistpouch myself, but for some reason, despite my careful measurements, the size turned out far too large the first time. So I had to remake the whole thing a second time. The hardest part is sewing the damn thing together, because I'd had to put two layers of hard inferfacing for each piece and sometimes the needle just wouldn't. Go. Through. OTL In version 2, I had more time, so I paid more attention to getting the shape accurate. The stupid thing tapers towards the bottom and has a curved side. Even more stupid, the strap goes from FAT TO THIN TO FAT for some reason. But I succeeded!

New VS Old

Next was the Z-ring. Gladion's official art doesn't have one, but he obviously wears one in-game. I felt that it was important, because Nanu gave it to him. So I had to dig out references from the game screenshots 8D;;

This is how a lot of my prop drafts look like. ALGEBRA IS MY FRIEND.

Also crafted the Z-crystal thanks to Pythagoras' theorem 8D; I used liquid quartz to glue the clear acrylic sheet together without leaving traces.

Final result! I'm pretty happy with it =>

Before STGCC, there was one more segment that I worked really hard on. After we'd decided to do SuMo together, I thought of making a Nebby plushie for Mei to carry. Yes, Pokemon Center had already released their Nebby plush by then, but... For one, it's smaller than life-size. For another, the shape looks more like a sunflower than a starry cloud. I didn't want it to look like Lillie was just carrying a toy; I wanted to give the impression that Mei had an adorable, soft, beautiful real-life Cosmog. But how on earth would someone with very terrible patterning skills make a 3D cloud plushie that could be dyed for Nebby's distinctive gradient colouring, and still be nice and soft to hug?

The answer is, I struggled.

Set up a spraying booth to airbrush the gradient on. Due to a problem with shipping, I couldn't get my compressor in time, so I ended up having to splurge on compressed air cans, which were horrendously expensive oTL.

BUT LOOK AT THE FINAL RESULT. LOOK AT HIM. <3 <3 <3

Let it also be known that I tested to make sure he could fit inside Mei's bag the moment I finished the base HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-----

So that was part 1 of Project Alola! We went to STGCC together and met lots of Pokemon fans (quite a lot of people were very happy to see Nebby, in particular XD), and Laki offered to come shoot with us as Moon since she already had the costume. We then planned to have our shoot at the end of the year during my holidays.

As mentioned, I'd already planned to remake my entire costume and waistpouch, but aside from that... I had the mad idea that I wanted to make a Silvally prop. It's something I'd considered for STGCC too, but I was really short on time then, and Mei told me to FINISH EVERYTHING ELSE FIRST THEN DO IT IF YOU HAVE TIME.

The problem is... Silvally's official size in the Pokedex is 2.4m. That's 80cm taller than myself. )o) Sure, I could scale him down, make a tiny lap plushie like all the other cosplayers, but what would be the point? Although I'd never cosplayed from the Pokemon series before, I'd always thought that if I were to do so, I'd want to make life-size Pokemon so that it'd look like I actually have a Pokemon partner, and not just a Pokemon toy. But I'd thought then that my projects would be starters like Pikachu or Charmander or Cyndaquil, or maybe one of the Eeveelutions. Not a giant horse-dog like Silvally ^^;;;

I had to consider the fact that my house isn't very big and I'd have barely any space to keep him. I had to consider how I'd be able to transport him, and how to construct him so that I could take him apart. I also had to consider the amount of money I'd be spending on him, because honestly, cosplay is not a cheap hobby. Materials in Singapore are especially expensive. As an unemployed student, I'd be splurging a lot if I decided to go ahead with this crazy project. When I told this to Mei during one of our dinners out, she suggested just making his head and taking halfbody shots so no one can tell that he has nobody. Like a hobby horse, except it's a hobby Silvally.

Good idea.

So when school finished, I started drafting him out, and the basic paper draft itself took like three giant sheets of patterning paper taped together HAHAHA.

The base

Honestly, even though I had an idea of how I'd make him, I wasn't completely sure if it would work. As I've said repeatedly I really, really suck at patterning. I can never seem to envision where to cut darts in a piece of EVA foam to get the shape I want, so half the time I was just taping drafting paper on and folding and taping excess parts off, then that that up for a trial-and-error pattern.

With paper mache and paper draft pattern for the mouth.

That's how large the whole thing is 8D'

Apart from the making of Silvally, I'd also spent time searching for reference pictures and sketching storyboard ideas for our shoot. I went to check out the our shoot location (Sentosa Island) a few weekends back, so that we could decide where exactly we wanted to shoot. In hindsight, there were a lot more shots I could have planned to bring out the personality of our characters more, but oh well ;w;

The shoot itself went pretty well, for the sun was quite kind to us, and hid under clouds for most of the day. Sei's working style is quite different from mine, but she was very gracious and did everything I asked of her. Sakami and Greg were wonderful helpers, and some of my best memories from the day include our hilarious videos, and the shenanigans with the Pokemon.

I've already thanked my wonderful team mates, helpers and photographer in another post, so I won't go into details here. But everyone was very kind and obliging, and listened to all my ambitious plans, allowing me to be a bossy director. I'm very, very grateful to all of them.  

So now, a bit of reflection on Silvally, and the whole project.

The patterns for Silvally weren't perfect, and I messed up a lot. The final result was definitely far from what I had hoped for. Most noticeably, the top of the head is bumpy holey because I ran out of gesso to fill and sand. But the proportions also came out a bit off, and the neck piece patterning failed on the right side. But when I finished painting... I felt very, very happy. I'd gotten some small bouts of joy when I finished each stage of the crafting process, when I looked at what I'd done, but looking at the final product was just.... incredible. It wasn't as beautiful as it could have been, and I still regret all the imperfections that are so obvious to my eyes, but....I was so excited. I couldn't wait for the shoot.

Perhaps it was partly because I hadn't really been sure if I'd be able to make things work, so the success tastes that much sweeter. Some of my friends had told me I was crazy. I kept asking myself if I were crazy. All that money and time and pain sunk into a project that I'm not even getting paid for, with a success rate that seemed really low. My mom telling me straight out that I was 'too ambitious'. Was it worth it? Would it have been better to make a smaller, much more perfect prop, than an actual sized, flawed one, with half the effort and money? Cosplay is already an indulgence, but had I crossed the line into foolish waste zone?

When I looked at my completed Silvally, the answer didn't hit me like Mjolnir. I still don't know if it was the right thing to do, or if I was an irresponsible child wasting the money that could have gone into feeding me better food.

But it made me happy. So happy. I nearly cried as I stood there for a few minutes staring at him. He was truly a labour of love. I spent hours spraying gesso and paint because I love Silvally. I spent days sanding until my arms want to fall off and my eyes are dying from dust because I love Gladion. I spent hours cortorted in weird positions with a paintbrush trying desperately to stay within the pencil lines, sweat dripping into my eyes, because I love this art. Sure, the process itself was often painful; I suffered multiple burns from hot glue and a hot iron and cut my fingers open way too many times. I still hate hand-sanding with a burning passion because it's tiring as hell and I get blisters on my oversensitive skin. But the thought that all of the suffering helps to build the final piece of art that I envision makes me grit my teeth and soldier on.

Cosplay is my art, something that I would put 500% of me into. Whether the crafting of insanely large props, or the preparations for the shoot, or the styling of my entire team's wigs, or the endless sewing adventures on plushies.

Because I love it.