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CosBlog #70: Castlevania Tribute by Adelhaid & Faeryx
Konami’s Castlevania series boasts some of the most intricate and elegant costumes in the business. This reality makes taking on a character from the franchise a challenging prospect, but one that Adelhaid and Faeryx overcame, and then some. Check out the photos below.
Who: The Character
The characters are Alucard (Adrian Farenheights Țepeș) and Maria Renard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Alucard and Maria are a nice pair with uneasy relations. He is the son of the main villain of the Castlevania series, a vampire named Dracula. Alucard left his evil father and took the right side. Maria is a vampire huntress and she has some feelings for Alucard, but he stays emotionally distant. Alucard and Maria are the primary characters in several of the Castlevania games. They meet in Symphony of the Night.
Why: The
Decision
Faeryx: We like the series and have some more costumes based on Castlevania games. Our favorite part is Lament of Innocence, but Symphony of the Night is also very interesting.
Adelhaid: I am a great fan of the vampire theme and of vampire hunters. I knew that I would make Maria's costume when I first saw her in Symphony of the Night. Some years passed, and I forgot about the idea. And then my friend asked me to sew this costume. I was so happy! In other parts Maria is a child, she is very pretty and her costumes are cute. But the adult version is so womanly and gentle. I like it very much. Besides Maria has an owl. Owls are so great, you just need to put one on your hand for a second and you will have a cheerful smile all day long.
Faeryx: I like the design of the characters in this part on Castlevania. I've never made shields before, so I've chosen this version of costume. I worked on it longer than on all other details, I think. I asked Adelhaid to accompany me as we often make costumes together. And her real name is Maria, just like the character's.
What: The
Process
Adelhaid: It took us about one month to finish the costumes. We had no deadline so the work was not very intensive. Both costumes were sewn from velvet of different grades, satin, and jacquard fabric. The embroidery was made on our embroidery machine before sewing. The programs for it were usually made by Faeryx as she programs machine tools at work and has more experience in such affairs. We had no problems with sewing as we used good fabric and the costumes are not very complicated for people who sew rather often. The most difficult was to make the shield and Maria's shoes.
Faeryx: The shield is made from plastic and foam materials. First I've made the experimental model from paper as I wanted to join details in advance and correct proportions on this stage of work. When everything was right I started to make the plastic one. This material usually is used for displays at exhibitions. You can change the form of the plastic list at heating. The only problem I had was the size of the detail that I had to warm up in regular intervals. The wolf's head was much harder. I've spent some evenings, to receive the correct form. Than we painted the shield and it was finally complete.
Adelhaid: First I wanted to buy golden shoes and paint the pattern, but I had fabric left after sewing. I bought the jacquard from the warehouse so I had to take more than I needed. Still it was cheaper than to buy it at the store. So I covered one of my shoes with the same fabric that I used on Maria's sash. It was difficult to make it accurate and effectively connected. After that we made the buckles from the same plastic that was used on the shield. I was a bit nervous about them. But now after two festivals and photo sessions on the open air the buckles still look like new.
Where and When:
The Debut
We had two photo sessions before the first festival. In spring Adelhaid found the photographer who wanted to take some photos with wild birds. We spent some hours walking in park with an owl. Great thanks to Eduard who is the owner of the bird. The owl was friendly and very active. After that we went to the film set of Zapiski ekspeditora Taynoy kantselyarii (TV Series 2010) with our usual photographer JustMoolti. The film shooting was over and we were able to take some photos there with the permission of the administration. When you are on the streets of the fake town it is easy to imagine that you are in the past. The scenery is very beautiful.
After these photo sessions we went to a festival in Moscow (Anistage 2011). After Moscow we also visited another convention, Animania at Nizhny Novgorod. We found Dracula and Lisa cosplayers for our group and we won a special prize for the best make-up. It was a surprise as the make-up wasn't very complicated.
Links: The
Cosplayer
Adelhaid - http://adelhaid.deviantart.com/
Faeryx - http://faeryx13.deviantart.com/
The Gallery
Photographers - JustMoolti (Aleksanov Aleksey) and avallonis (Olga Mazurova).
Miss the past few CosBlogs? Check out the CosBlog Hub for a full archive of past costumes.
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