So while I didn’t take the right pictures to make any sort of formal tutorial for Lotor, I&rsq

So while I didn’t take the right pictures to make any sort of formal tutorial for Lotor, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my process and construction so I figured I would share some of my methods and patterns for anyone who might be looking for some direction for where to start with his (or his generals’!) costume. This costume took me about 2 months with about 55 hours of work put into it, so it’s a pretty involved process but I’ll do my best to cover everything. Let’s get started!First here are my breakdown sketches. On the body suit I ended up not doing the spats because of the shoes I chose to wear, but the rest is mostly accurate to the final product. I didn’t include any details about the butt cape in this, but it’s basically just a modified half-circle skirt attached to the body suit with two snaps at the front.So lets start with the Body SuitBefore I could pattern the body suit, I needed to make some structure to go underneath for those big shoulders, so using a pattern I made for my paladin armor I made a couple of pauldrons and sewed them to a tank top.Then I made a duct tape cast of half of my body that I used to figure out my patternsI used two non-stretch fabrics (gray and black), one knit fabric (blue), and one two-way stretch fabric (orange) for my body suit so that I could get the structural look I needed in some places but still get a tight fit. Here’s the completed body suit without the armor.(the knee sleeves aren’t attached, they just go under the greaves)Next up: ArmorI always suggest first watching Evil Ted’s youtube tutorials if you’ve never made armor/worked with EVA foam before. He goes into some more advanced techniques, but the basics are all in there as well! (you can start with his male armor tutorial)For my armor I used a combination of ~½ inch EVA foam for the pauldrons, torso, and thighs, and 4mm craft foam for the forearms, knees, calves, and some of the detailing. Instead of painting, I did fabric covering with 4-way stretch pleather (from Yaya’s line) and spandex. I also used Angelus leather paint for my calf armor, since the gray stretch pleather from the line was discontinued (I believe blue is being discontinued in stores as well, but may still be available online)I made some of my patterns by adjusting patterns I’d already made for my paladin armor, which were drafted using the same duct tape patterning method I used for the body suit (just adding allowance for the thickness of the foam). New patterns were drafted in duct tape then transferred to poster board. Here are my armor patterns:traced onto foam, molded, glued together, the whole nine yards. Then instead of paint, I chose to go with fabric covering. The way I cut the fabric depended on if i was making a sleeve or directly stretching the fabric over a certain piece. If you’re unfamiliar with fabric covering foam, here’s a video you can reference. It’s not the exact method that I used for most of my armor (generally, because my pieces were smooth with little detail work, i just stretched the fabric over the edges and glued, didn’t need to glue most of my fabric directly to the foam) but it’s still a great reference with very thorough explanations.the collar and back in particular required some interesting geometry in order to get the zipper in the back of my armor as well as the blue details in the collar. The zipper is sewn directly into the fabric I used to cover the foam, and the collar was done in two layers, one thick layer as the base and a thin layer with the cutouts.To help my neck armor and belt keep their shape, I put some wire in the edges. This can be done by digging out a trough in the foam with an Xacto knife and gluing in a wire. (I used hot glue since it’s pretty flexible) Then you can always glue some sort of covering on top to ensure the wire doesn’t slip out.Most of my armor didn’t require much fastening or assembly after covering, but when it did I used elastic to keep a flexible fit. Here’s an example with the inside of my knee armor:I used the same method for my belt.For the lights in the calf and arm pieces, I just used string LED’s from Joann Fabrics (they’re like 5 bucks per string) and 80 cent plastic folders from Walmart. I didn’t get any pictures of the progress though, sorry about that!Here’s a full body picture of the completed armor!Hair and MakeupMy wig is a white lace-front purchased from Wig is Fashion. They have a pretty wide variety of textures and lengths for a good price, so I’d recommend it as a place to start looking if you’re unsure!Because I anticipated wearing Lotor literally all day at AWA I decided to use a more durable body paint for my makeup. In the past I’ve used TAG body paint, which is very cheap, has even coverage, and doesn’t easily rub off. However it is very sensitive to water, making it less suited for extended wear, especially in warm/humid weather. That in mind, I invested in Temptu body paint, which is an alcohol based paint which makes it great for all-day wear. (PLEASE NOTE it is an alcohol-based paint which means it can cause irritation to the eyes and is not recommended for use on the face. Always test your body paint before wearing it for an extended time to make sure it won’t irritate your skin and please be VERY CAREFUL when applying. I always avoid applying paint directly next to my eyes and instead opt for an eyeshadow of a similar color)For my (very subtle) contouring, I used 3 different highlighters (pictured below) and a mid-tone eyeshadow for shading. For my eyebrows I used white lipstick and a bit of white eyeshadow.And here’s a close-up of my makeup! (Like I said, pretty subtle shading but I didn’t want my makeup to look theatrical with the style I was going for)Hope this walkthrough is helpful to anyone working on this cosplay! If you have any more specific questions about anything, feel free to message me or send me an ask and I’ll do my best to answer as well as I can! ^^ -- source link

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