My Garuda Cosplay...be gentle ^^;

[Spy]

Ok, so, Animazement just came and went this last weekend, and during this month, to pass the time as I waited for more FFXIV information, I decided to work on a cosplay. The thing is...I've never done a cosplay before. There were a LOT of difficulties with this cosplay. Such as matching greens, finding feathers, my body piece, the head and of course, the wings...lol let's just say everything had it's problems. I didn't even find proper contacts until the last few days!

Anyway, because of cost difficulties as well as time constraints, I had to make some alterations to the cosplay as well.

To Read about the process:

Garuda's eyes: Full, black sclera's were my goal...but they wanted $100 PER contact at the CHEAPEST. And for a 1-time use (And this being my first cosplay)...that was just way too much for me. So, I decided to go with red eyes, like FFXI's Garuda.

I ended up finding these for $45 for the pair.



The hair was a back and forth process. I originally wanted to do something exactly like FFXI's garuda, since my plan had changed to do the FFXI's face, but I couldn't quite figure out how to make it set quite right. So then I looked at FFXIV's head, but that just seemed too much for the time allotted to me. And then I came across this fanart of Garuda:

*MATURE CONTENT - Just to be safe - *

And I saw that as being a possibility. So I bought several spools of yarn, and crochet'd a wig together.



The Wings were the most difficult process. Originally, we tried to do articulated wings. I had found a tutorial online, but there were so many holes in the tutorial, that we ended up messing it up trying to figure it out. Plus the fact that trying to attach mesh to the frame while still maintaining it's ability to move was also proving difficult.



Ultimately, those wings were decided to be stored away a week before the convention (we plan to try them again when we're not feeling so pressured), and we went with a simpler process...ending up with this:



Only thing that proved annoying with this design was the harness that had to be continually adjusted at the con. But it worked.

The body itself was annoying. My goal was to get a full body green strapless bathing suit and attach feathers to that. I went to mall after mall after store after store and had no luck. Even looked online! The clock was still ticking and I was running out of time, so I found a relatively cheap 2 piece at Walmart and decided to use that.

I cut out foam feathers and hand sewed them onto the top piece,



Then made an attempt to decorate the bottom piece with gold lining, and a gold sprayed on pattern that I designed myself by cutting out of a foam board.



But when it actually came time to wear it...it looked horrible. So we scrapped the bottom, found something different, but they werent the right color green, so we had to paint them...unfortunately...it wasn't fabric paint >< and it ended up hardening the bottoms. Fortunately though, when we dampened them, they loosened up just enough to wear, and wear comfortably. But there wasnt enough time to pattern them as those didnt get finished until a day before the con.

The actual body was just a piece of green fabric wrapped around me with hooks sewed on, then I cut out sidings to sew onto that.



My favorite thing to work on, were the claws! I found some costume ballroom gloves, and hand-sewed talons found at Hobby Lobby on them, then cut out patterned fabric for the scaling on the gloves and sewed those onto the arms for a slight bit more detail. Then I applied black feathers to the ends....though some of them fell off before the con >< much to my frustration. Though I was happy with the end result of the claws..



The boots were just cut-out foam pieces sewn onto the boots edge...(leather is HARD to sew by hand!)

FINALLY, the end result...after putting it all together. My friend did my makeup. And although I intended the have feathers attached to my face like FFXI's Garuda, the spirit gum wouldn't hold them well enough...they kept falling off. So I ended up getting bits of feathers in my wig...ugh.

Click HERE to See it All together~!

Please keep in mind that this is my very first hand-made cosplay, and I don't have a sewing machine

______________

Working on this cosplay gave me a lot of respect for other cosplayers that make their cosplay's from scratch. But it was also very fun! ^^

[SkyeWindbinder]

That looks AWESOME! Now that's real art!

Mad props!

[Vergil_Renata]

Wonderful cosplay!

[Antanias]

Niiiiiiiice

[Spy]

Thank you very much! ^^ I'll be making changes to it now that I have more time.

Also, as a bonus, this is what I got in the Dealers Room:

[Evil-Siren]

yaay Spy, I'm glad you made a thread about your cosplay.
Haha seems like my begging was worth it xDDD

I'm so impressed by your cosplay, especially with the hands and the wings!!
You created them in such a brilliant way that my mouth stands wide open while watching your WIP shots :O
I really can't believe that it's your first handmade cosplay, cuz it looks so perfect ^^
Can't wait for more photoooos!!!

Hehe I will do a thread about my Dragoon later, when I have more Parts done (or once it's finished xD)

[Kinseykinz]

Good job

[Niqote]

Wow look at those claws~! I like them best hehe >w<
You look like you had a blast~! ^_^

[Goufunaki]

Now I know who to summon when my back itches.

Cool costume for a first, too!

[Forgo]

Ok, so, Animazement just came and went this last weekend, and during this month, to pass the time as I waited for more FFXIV information, I decided to work on a cosplay. The thing is...I've never done a cosplay before. There were a LOT of difficulties with this cosplay. Such as matching greens, finding feathers, my body piece, the head and of course, the wings...lol let's just say everything had it's problems. I didn't even find proper contacts until the last few days!

Anyway, because of cost difficulties as well as time constraints, I had to make some alterations to the cosplay as well.

To Read about the process:

Garuda's eyes: Full, black sclera's were my goal...but they wanted $100 PER contact at the CHEAPEST. And for a 1-time use (And this being my first cosplay)...that was just way too much for me. So, I decided to go with red eyes, like FFXI's Garuda.

I ended up finding these for $45 for the pair.



The hair was a back and forth process. I originally wanted to do something exactly like FFXI's garuda, since my plan had changed to do the FFXI's face, but I couldn't quite figure out how to make it set quite right. So then I looked at FFXIV's head, but that just seemed too much for the time allotted to me. And then I came across this fanart of Garuda:

*MATURE CONTENT - Just to be safe - *

And I saw that as being a possibility. So I bought several spools of yarn, and crochet'd a wig together.



The Wings were the most difficult process. Originally, we tried to do articulated wings. I had found a tutorial online, but there were so many holes in the tutorial, that we ended up messing it up trying to figure it out. Plus the fact that trying to attach mesh to the frame while still maintaining it's ability to move was also proving difficult.



Ultimately, those wings were decided to be stored away a week before the convention (we plan to try them again when we're not feeling so pressured), and we went with a simpler process...ending up with this:



Only thing that proved annoying with this design was the harness that had to be continually adjusted at the con. But it worked.

The body itself was annoying. My goal was to get a full body green strapless bathing suit and attach feathers to that. I went to mall after mall after store after store and had no luck. Even looked online! The clock was still ticking and I was running out of time, so I found a relatively cheap 2 piece at Walmart and decided to use that.

I cut out foam feathers and hand sewed them onto the top piece,



Then made an attempt to decorate the bottom piece with gold lining, and a gold sprayed on pattern that I designed myself by cutting out of a foam board.



But when it actually came time to wear it...it looked horrible. So we scrapped the bottom, found something different, but they werent the right color green, so we had to paint them...unfortunately...it wasn't fabric paint >< and it ended up hardening the bottoms. Fortunately though, when we dampened them, they loosened up just enough to wear, and wear comfortably. But there wasnt enough time to pattern them as those didnt get finished until a day before the con.

The actual body was just a piece of green fabric wrapped around me with hooks sewed on, then I cut out sidings to sew onto that.



My favorite thing to work on, were the claws! I found some costume ballroom gloves, and hand-sewed talons found at Hobby Lobby on them, then cut out patterned fabric for the scaling on the gloves and sewed those onto the arms for a slight bit more detail. Then I applied black feathers to the ends....though some of them fell off before the con >< much to my frustration. Though I was happy with the end result of the claws..



The boots were just cut-out foam pieces sewn onto the boots edge...(leather is HARD to sew by hand!)

FINALLY, the end result...after putting it all together. My friend did my makeup. And although I intended the have feathers attached to my face like FFXI's Garuda, the spirit gum wouldn't hold them well enough...they kept falling off. So I ended up getting bits of feathers in my wig...ugh.

Click HERE to See it All together~!

Please keep in mind that this is my very first hand-made cosplay, and I don't have a sewing machine

______________

Working on this cosplay gave me a lot of respect for other cosplayers that make their cosplay's from scratch. But it was also very fun! ^^

better then anything i could make lol Good job!! ^.^