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Description
For more on my cosplay shenanigans, find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ferashacospla…

*
Hear ye, hear ye - here's the first "official" photo of one of my most ambitious cosplay projects so far, His Majesty Jareth the Goblin King.

HOW TO MAKE A JARETH

1) COSTUME: The costume is not as complicated and difficult to make as it may seem, but it's still kinda tricky. As usual, Shunak - my BFF and partner in crime for all my cosplay adventures - was in charge of the project, while I worked as his apprentice providing manual labor, pimping up the details and finally handling the paint job.

The armor is made of EVA foam - inexpensive, easily accessible and a delight to work with. After Shunak tailored it and coated it with wood glue, I spray painted it in black and painstakingly drybrushed the armor with several shades of bronze and gold, to give it its trademark "beetle shell" glow. Jareth's sigil is of Fimo polymer clay, and for the relief pattern on the breastplate, Shunak used, believe it or not, plain hot glue. The collar is of faux leather, held upright by corset wires, and decorated with chicken bones cast in resin, modeled after actual boiled chicken bones (it took us two attempts to do so - the first batch of bones got stolen by Shunak's dog, as they still smelled like soup). The cloak - described in the fandom as "made of rotten velvet" - consists of a cheap black curtain and some tulle, ripped to shreds, sewn in layers onto another piece of cheap curtain, and then weathered by pulling out threads, piercing holes and leaving it outside to gather some dust. (Pro tip: the cheaper the curtain, the more it will look like rotten velvet). For the rest, I used an old faux leather shirt, a pair of leggings, and these silly boots I bought three years ago in Madrid on a whim, knowing that one day they would serve some purpose.

Oh yes, and there's the sock. The part of the costume that always gets praised the most for "attention to detail". Fun fact: first I simply inserted the sock in my pants, but as I was leaving the apartment, my husband stopped me and meticulously rearranged the thing - up to the point that it almost looked like "sock origami" - because he said it needed to look "more realistic".

2) WIG: I made the wig myself. First I tried going for one of those "80's rock star" wigs that most of Jareth cosplayers employ, but I wasn't happy with it. It looked cheap - it had that awfully plastic Halloween shine we couldn't get rid of, its color was more yellow than blond, and no matter what I did to it, the hairstyle always ended up resembling Tina Turner more than Jareth. So I gave up on it, and made my own thing by getting a naturally blond wig in the style best described as "middle aged mom". Then I mercilessly teased the wig until it lost its shape, and sewed extensions into it.

There is one very deliberate inaccuracy concerning the wig - namely, as you've probably noticed, the hair is quite longer than it should be. I left it like that on purpose, for two reasons. First, no matter how hard I try, I cannot look like David Bowie. (No one can. Because David Bowie was David Bowie. And to quote that tweet I absolutely believe in - I'm not saying that David Bowie was holding the fabric of the universe together, but... *gestures broadly at everything*) By giving my Jareth longer hair - which can sometimes be seen in fan art - I tried to establish "ownership" over the character and make that step from "cosplaying David Bowie" to "cosplaying Jareth the Goblin King". The second reason is paying a small homage to one of my favorite artists, Yoshitaka Amano. Amano was a huge fan of Bowie and his take on the Goblin King. In fact, he was fanboying him so hard that he based the design for one of his best known characters - Emperor Mateus of Final Fantasy - on Jareth. And Mateus has exactly this hairstyle - spiky 80's hair on top, with smooth, longer locks up front.

3) MAKEUP: Oh boy, that one was a real challenge. Jareth's makeup has to be theatrical and dramatic, glamorous and visible, yet manly and strangely "natural" on his face. In my first attempt, I relied on some tutorials I found on YouTube and went with the whole sch-bang of glitter and glow. I used a palette of sparkly grey and black eyeshadows, with silver-dust creamy whites for highlights and goldish lipgloss to finish the look. It looked nice, VERY nice indeed, but a) it was way too elaborate, b) it made me look girlier, and c) I resembled more the Black Swan than the Goblin King. So once again, I dropped the tutorials and improvised.

I kept the makeup at the minimum:
- black eyeliner and pencil for the eyes. I employed my "anime male makeup" technique, which I use for cosplaying bishounen to make my eyes smaller and narrower - down with the cuteness, hooray for squinting manly slits
- acrylic paint for the eyebrows. Forget about eyeshadows, pencils, eyeliners, brow kits or similar products that can melt or smudge - for cosplay eyebrows, I always use acrylics. The precision is amazing, it stays on the entire day, you can achieve any color you want, and most importantly, it's not toxic for your skin.
- instead of glittery eyeshadows, I used a matte palette of natural browns and greys, and focused more on contouring the nose and cheekbones than on painting the eyelids. The trademark black lines from the corner of his eyes are done with eyeliner and three different shades of charcoal grey. I did use some creamy whites for highlights, but only a little, and well blended.
- I completely dropped the lipgloss - while screen accurate, that's the step that made me look too girly. Instead, I again relied on "anime male makeup" and neutralized my lips with a mix of nude lipstick and concealer, accentuated with matte light brown shadow under the bottom lip and in the corners.

So there you have it, that's how I made my Jareth. To complete the project, Shunak took over the post-processing of the studio photos, editing them in the style of Richard Amsel, the cult 80's poster artist, to fully emphasize the retro nostalgic feel. In the following days, there will be many more pictures coming up!

Thank you for your attention, and happy anniversary of our favorite childhood film!

*

Full credits:

Makeup and wig styling by me
Armor by Shunak (pattern, bones, hot glue and EVA foam wizardry) and me (manual labor, details and paint job)
Collare and cape by Ana&Marina of She&She, pimped up by Shunak and me

Photo by Guru, edited by Shunak

You can find Shunak here on dA as Shunkarion

Description
For more on my cosplay shenanigans, find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ferashacospla…

*
Hear ye, hear ye - here's the first "official" photo of one of my most ambitious cosplay projects so far, His Majesty Jareth the Goblin King.

HOW TO MAKE A JARETH

1) COSTUME: The costume is not as complicated and difficult to make as it may seem, but it's still kinda tricky. As usual, Shunak - my BFF and partner in crime for all my cosplay adventures - was in charge of the project, while I worked as his apprentice providing manual labor, pimping up the details and finally handling the paint job.

The armor is made of EVA foam - inexpensive, easily accessible and a delight to work with. After Shunak tailored it and coated it with wood glue, I spray painted it in black and painstakingly drybrushed the armor with several shades of bronze and gold, to give it its trademark "beetle shell" glow. Jareth's sigil is of Fimo polymer clay, and for the relief pattern on the breastplate, Shunak used, believe it or not, plain hot glue. The collar is of faux leather, held upright by corset wires, and decorated with chicken bones cast in resin, modeled after actual boiled chicken bones (it took us two attempts to do so - the first batch of bones got stolen by Shunak's dog, as they still smelled like soup). The cloak - described in the fandom as "made of rotten velvet" - consists of a cheap black curtain and some tulle, ripped to shreds, sewn in layers onto another piece of cheap curtain, and then weathered by pulling out threads, piercing holes and leaving it outside to gather some dust. (Pro tip: the cheaper the curtain, the more it will look like rotten velvet). For the rest, I used an old faux leather shirt, a pair of leggings, and these silly boots I bought three years ago in Madrid on a whim, knowing that one day they would serve some purpose.

Oh yes, and there's the sock. The part of the costume that always gets praised the most for "attention to detail". Fun fact: first I simply inserted the sock in my pants, but as I was leaving the apartment, my husband stopped me and meticulously rearranged the thing - up to the point that it almost looked like "sock origami" - because he said it needed to look "more realistic".

2) WIG: I made the wig myself. First I tried going for one of those "80's rock star" wigs that most of Jareth cosplayers employ, but I wasn't happy with it. It looked cheap - it had that awfully plastic Halloween shine we couldn't get rid of, its color was more yellow than blond, and no matter what I did to it, the hairstyle always ended up resembling Tina Turner more than Jareth. So I gave up on it, and made my own thing by getting a naturally blond wig in the style best described as "middle aged mom". Then I mercilessly teased the wig until it lost its shape, and sewed extensions into it.

There is one very deliberate inaccuracy concerning the wig - namely, as you've probably noticed, the hair is quite longer than it should be. I left it like that on purpose, for two reasons. First, no matter how hard I try, I cannot look like David Bowie. (No one can. Because David Bowie was David Bowie. And to quote that tweet I absolutely believe in - I'm not saying that David Bowie was holding the fabric of the universe together, but... *gestures broadly at everything*) By giving my Jareth longer hair - which can sometimes be seen in fan art - I tried to establish "ownership" over the character and make that step from "cosplaying David Bowie" to "cosplaying Jareth the Goblin King". The second reason is paying a small homage to one of my favorite artists, Yoshitaka Amano. Amano was a huge fan of Bowie and his take on the Goblin King. In fact, he was fanboying him so hard that he based the design for one of his best known characters - Emperor Mateus of Final Fantasy - on Jareth. And Mateus has exactly this hairstyle - spiky 80's hair on top, with smooth, longer locks up front.

3) MAKEUP: Oh boy, that one was a real challenge. Jareth's makeup has to be theatrical and dramatic, glamorous and visible, yet manly and strangely "natural" on his face. In my first attempt, I relied on some tutorials I found on YouTube and went with the whole sch-bang of glitter and glow. I used a palette of sparkly grey and black eyeshadows, with silver-dust creamy whites for highlights and goldish lipgloss to finish the look. It looked nice, VERY nice indeed, but a) it was way too elaborate, b) it made me look girlier, and c) I resembled more the Black Swan than the Goblin King. So once again, I dropped the tutorials and improvised.

I kept the makeup at the minimum:
- black eyeliner and pencil for the eyes. I employed my "anime male makeup" technique, which I use for cosplaying bishounen to make my eyes smaller and narrower - down with the cuteness, hooray for squinting manly slits
- acrylic paint for the eyebrows. Forget about eyeshadows, pencils, eyeliners, brow kits or similar products that can melt or smudge - for cosplay eyebrows, I always use acrylics. The precision is amazing, it stays on the entire day, you can achieve any color you want, and most importantly, it's not toxic for your skin.
- instead of glittery eyeshadows, I used a matte palette of natural browns and greys, and focused more on contouring the nose and cheekbones than on painting the eyelids. The trademark black lines from the corner of his eyes are done with eyeliner and three different shades of charcoal grey. I did use some creamy whites for highlights, but only a little, and well blended.
- I completely dropped the lipgloss - while screen accurate, that's the step that made me look too girly. Instead, I again relied on "anime male makeup" and neutralized my lips with a mix of nude lipstick and concealer, accentuated with matte light brown shadow under the bottom lip and in the corners.

So there you have it, that's how I made my Jareth. To complete the project, Shunak took over the post-processing of the studio photos, editing them in the style of Richard Amsel, the cult 80's poster artist, to fully emphasize the retro nostalgic feel. In the following days, there will be many more pictures coming up!

Thank you for your attention, and happy anniversary of our favorite childhood film!

*

Full credits:

Makeup and wig styling by me
Armor by Shunak (pattern, bones, hot glue and EVA foam wizardry) and me (manual labor, details and paint job)
Collare and cape by Ana&Marina of She&She, pimped up by Shunak and me

Photo by Guru, edited by Shunak

You can find Shunak here on dA as Shunkarion