I thought about talking a little more about choosing inspiration for my work. With such a wide variety of art and resources out there, one would think that finding the right character and prop references is a piece of cake, right? Well, that might not always be true. Although finding reference pics of characters that are currently popular is a breeze, the real work begins when you try and find that one damn picture where you can see the back of the character or another obscure detail. This is especially true when trying to find references for armours and other mechanical parts of the costume. There are a few things I like to keep in mind when looking for the right references. Firstly, I need to decide on a version of the character (or prop) that I am about to make. For me this is no easy task, mostly because I can be indecisive as hell when it comes to choosing the next project. I can watch a certain series, get hooked on it and immediately want to make a costume of that oh so cool character I saw...only to change my mind after a couple of weeks. So the key word here is- consistency. I now choose a character that fits my personal profile- roughly my body type, the right psychological profile (I can identify with him to a certain extent), and is doable within the time frame set for it. And of course having cosplayer friends that often “nag” you to be a part of their cosplay collaboration never hurts, either. Now that that’s out of the way, I can hit the internet for those coveted high-res photos of your character version. Depending on the obscurity of the character this can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a few weeks...but it always pays more to have more photos, and in every pose imaginable. Forums and specialized blogs and wikis can be of great help here. If you can zero in on the fandom of that character then, you practically have it made. There are also many cosplaying forums that specialize for this very purpose. When making armour (or any kind of complex costume) there is a neat little trick I use to find simple and comprehensive reference images. I just search for action figures and figurines of that character. This way you can see the costume you’re trying to make that has already been analyzed,
broken down and reassembled by someone reasonably good at it. This does not mean that this will give the perfect reference- many small modifications will be made to adapt it to something I could use , but it gives me a very good starting point. I would advise being flexible when choosing a character version of your costume as well. Although I do like it when I am able to do character justice completely, sometimes it pays to
cut an odd corner here and (without ruining the character, of course) add a few details there. For instance, you certainly wouldn’t have enough time and resources to create an interior of a complex mechanical suit or even the back of a character that is always obscured by his cloak. The proportions of the characters costume also often need to be adapted to your own, and that is a topic for itself. You can even draw references yourself, If you have the talent, but this can be a bit tricky, because you are pretty subjective about your favourite character. I would advise it only if you really know what you are doing and the original reference pics are really hard to find.