Kritzelkatze Cosplay as Undine from Tales

Featured Cosplayer:
Kritzelkatze Cosplay as Undine from Tales of Symphonia

We talked with Kritzelkatze about her costumes and the hobby, read the interview below!

CosplayTutorial:
My what big ears you have! How did you go about making the ears?

Kritzelkatze:
The ears were actually quite the experiment xD Once again, craft foam proved to be a cosplayer’s best friend: since I had no experience with other methods, I tried out the first crazy idea that popped into my mind, glued three layers (back, front and thickened upper edge) onto each other and tried attaching them to my own ears with spirit gum for fitting. They didn’t come off too easily, and even though I still felt their weight after I had taken them off, it was comfortable enough to stick with it and cover them in paper maché. Then I just had to paint them and add some light and shadow to create the 3D illusion.

CosplayTutorial:
Why did you choose a bodysuit over just bodypaint? Can you share some pros and cons?

Kritzelkatze:
To be honest, going with a full bodypaint never occurred to me. I wasn’t even sure my partial paint would survive an entire day, save a weekend, at a convention – especially if you wanna be able to greet friends with a hug without ruining their outfits ^^ Sewing a suit also meant the purple tattoos had to be painted on only once, cutting the get-into-costume time to roughly 2-3 hours instead of at least twice as long. Also, the con was in spring, and I almost froze to death even with my corsage underneath. Which brings me to another reason to decide for a suit: I feel a lot more comfortable when I can manipulate my body shape a bit and don’t have to worry about sucking in my stomach all the time It took two helpers to get into the suit though since it stretched just enough to serve as the second skin I wanted it to be. And of course, the fabric’s edge became more visible as the paint did rub off a bit over time. Still, the benefits did outweigh the drawbacks by far and it was the right choice for me.

CosplayTutorial:
On your facebook you mention that cosplay allows you to tackle “a few big challenges every year.” What was the biggest challenge for making this costume?

Kritzelkatze:

In this case, getting it done at all I guess ^.^”

I had never before been that close to just say “screw it”. So much went wrong and many tedious things had to be re-done until time and even my patience ran out, but a friend’s comment (“The Doctor and Rose told me it’s gonna be brilliant!”) saved the day. I mean, after that, how could I not pull myself together and do everything in my power to finish it? ;D
However, the character design intrigued me right from the start because I could try many new things: an unnatural skin color, figuring out how to get that water-like flow into the skirt, sewing a bodysuit for the first time, creating the ears, making and painting a water sword… it all made me want to do it so much, and in the end, I’m very proud that the hard work did pay off =3.

CosplayTutorial:
And the last question is just a bit of fun. How would you finish this sentence? “You know you’re a cosplayer when…”

Kritzelkatze:
Good question!
You know you’re a cosplayer when you enjoy your time in costume and get curious stares from strangers because you look out of the ordinary!
After all, it’s a combination of costume and play, thus being a character for a day and displaying your love or admiration for that character while meeting other fans and making new friends is what makes cosplaying so special. No matter if you have the time and skill to create an elaborate costume or pick a less complex one to simply have a great time with friends, at the end of the day, for each and every one of us it’s the same kind of passion, isn’t it?

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