It will be three years this April that I first ventured into cosplay and it was Northern Ontario Expo, our local comic con, which finally gave me that push to take the deep plunge into the world of costumes and costume making.
I had always been very fond of costuming as Halloween is my favorite time of year.
I grew up as a certifiable geek thanks to my parents.
So when I had the opportunity to take part in a costuming event and combine my love of sci-fi, I jumped at the chance.
Over the past three years I’ve dressed as Disney princesses Merida of Brave, Elsa from Frozen, two different versions of DC Comics Harley Quinn, Velma Dinkley from Scooby Doo, Amy Pond of Doctor Who and April O’Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This year, I decided to challenge myself and create DC Comics superhero Hawkgirl,a design based on the animated series Justice League, for the 5th Annual Northern Ontario Expo.
After months of research, reading tutorials and talking to other cosplayers, I finally began work on the costume starting with two time consuming pieces; the wings and Hawkgirl’s helmet.
The helmet consists of one mask base, craft foam and plaster.
By using a simple mask to form where my face would be and then measuring the circumference of my head, I started cutting craft foam to resemble the helmet the character wears in the TV show.
The plastering wasn’t so bad; however sanding it later wasn’t exactly my favorite task in this endeavor.
With a final coat of paint and sealer the helmet is now ready for wear.
One of the most obvious obstacles that I had to research was the wings. Hawkgirl is a superhero that can fly thanks to giant hawk like wings, hence the name Hawkgirl.
I decided to forego the real feathers and decided to hand cut and paint foam feathers to match the wings portrayed in the series. They turned out well, although pretty time consuming as I had to cut out quite a number of them, varying in sizes.
The most difficult part of this piece was the actual harness for the wings.
I was intimidated to take on such a big task since I basically had no idea what I was doing.
Taking the advice from my fellow winged cosplayer’s, I used a thick and bendable electrical wire to create the wing shape.
Essentially, I shaped the wire into a curved ‘V’ shape and glued a plastic board onto each wing.
The plastic board allowed for the foam feathers to easily be glued onto the harness.
The bottom of the ‘V’ shaped harness allows for the harness to slip under the top of my costume and is secured by elastic straps around my shoulders.
The rest of the costume wasn’t as difficult.
I’ve been slowly getting better at sewing; the costume is made of lycra-type material to give it that superhero feel which is quite easy to sew.
I also made Hawkgirl’s mace, constructed out of a Styrofoam ball, a dowel, plaster and of course, more craft foam.
You can never have enough craft foam!
Hawkgirl is my most challenging costume to date.
There were a lot of errors on the way, but it’s a part of the learning process as a cosplayer.
Some things you just need to learn as you go, for example how to get super glue off your fingers.
If you’d like to see the full costume, you’ll need to stop by this Saturday at the fifth annual Northern Ontario Expo at the McIntyre Arena.
Maybe even in a costume of your own.
