Mei Cosplay Tutorial: The aftermath of my airbrushing (Overwatch; Chang'e Skin)

So last time I wrote about testing out a few methods to do the gradient on pieces for my Mei cosplay. I had thought that using an air brush would be easier and quicker than doing a gradient dye by hand.

My result?

Well, I think I may have been wrong. I can't 100% say I am wrong since I am not only a beginner air brush user, but I have never done a gradient dye by hand before. I've watched multiple YouTube tutorials on it. And it doesn't look very hard; just time consuming.

Doing the gradient via the air brush was very simple. I made sure to practice on some cardboard to hone my skill a bit (this tutorial had some great tips for practicing!). I wasn't expecting professional quality work for my first project, but I didn't want it to look horrible either. Overall, it went really well. It was just very time consuming. I couldn't do more than one piece at a time. I had to take breaks because I have a small compressor and I didn't want to risk burning it out.

The downside to this? (besides it taking three times as long?) I had to clean the air brush out after each use (which took even more time). You can't let your air brush sit while you wait for the compressor to cool down. The paint will dry up on the tip and clog it.

I had started off with the sleeves. Which I instantly regret picking that piece to begin with. Why? Because if I mess up, it'll be highly noticeable. Did I mess up? Well, silly me had practiced about a month and a half before I sat down to work on the actual clothing. And I didn't practice before starting on the fabric.. so it didn't go well at first...

My results:

It started off kind of meh. I was a bit disappointed in how it looked. But, I was on a time crunch and just continued. I left it as is and it came out find over all!

Next I did the long band part of the shirt. Both this and the collar only had a lighter tone to it so I didn't go over board with making it dark. I cut wide pieces that I sprayed and then cut down to size. I loved it and started to get excited for the rest of the outfit!





Then I started on the pants. I cut each pant leg piece out and air brushed the gradient on it. I started off light and went darker until I was happy with the overall color. After I finished one, I cleaned air brush and let the compressor cool. Once cooled, I did the next piece of the pants. Every so often, I would lay the first leg piece along the side to match the color. I continued until I matched it as closely as possible. I also made sure to keep an eye on not only the color, but how strong the gradient was. So when I go to sew the pants, it will all match up evenly.

Once I did each leg piece, I laid them out to make sure the gradients all looked the same. I was very happy with the results in the end. While it took a lot longer than I expected, it was worth it. After this I just followed the instructions to sew the pants together like normal.

Final Conclusions:
Would I do this method again? Maybe for smaller pieces, yes. I want to try doing a gradient dye by hand sometime to compare the results. I probably have more control over the color using the air brush method. I can keep spraying until I get the darkness I want while if I dye by hand, it's hard to tell if I'll get the true color until after I've rinsed and washed out the fabric.

But like I've said before, I'm still new do the air brushing world. Maybe there's an easier way to gradient a large area? Maybe there's a specific brush I should look into getting? I will be doing more research on it in the future. But for now, I got the results I wanted. The color looked great. The fabric stayed soft and flexible, and was fairly easy to do (just time consuming).

Some Tips and Tricks:

• I learned that you have to make sure the fabric is pinned (or taped) down properly. It can't be loose and you cant just do the corners to hold it in place. The air brush will literally blow away the fabric and can cause creases. You would think it's not that big of a deal but it actually is. You will get more paint on the front of the crease and less behind the crease. While it makes a really cool effect, it kind of ruined the gradient.
• If you decide to tape the fabric down, make sure the tape is within your seam allowance. That way when there is a white square piece from where the tape is, it'll be within your seam allowance and not noticeable at all.
• Practice! Practice! Practice!!!! Really. Use cardboard at first. Then test it out on scrap pieces BEFORE starting on your project!! If you take time off between when you practiced and when you're starting your project, test it out a bit before you begin! I promise you it will help you in the long run and you won't waste good fabric.

Have you done any kind of gradient dying? What do you think about using an air brush versus hand dying? Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below!

~Serenity

The importance of testing things out... [Mei (Overwatch) Cosplay]

First things first!! Always test ideas out before continuing!! It would be really awful if you get everything set up and ready to go, only to find out that what you *hoped* would work, doesn't (trust me, I know from experience..). The fabric I plan on using for Mei is made of polyester, which can be a pain in the butt to dye. Now, dyes have come a long way within the last few years. There are dyes out there that will work on polyester (fabric used to have to be cotton in order to dye it). But, dying polyester requires you to boil water, which can damage the fabric. Plus gradient dying takes a lot of time and effort (and I'm just to lazy for that!).

My first idea was to use this new fabric spray paint made by Tulip called Color Shot. My friend recently used this to do black strips on a knit fabric for a cosplay (it was a red shirt). It worked out really well for her! It stretched nicely and wasn't to stiff! So that was my first thought. Now, these cans are tiny.. and at $6 a can, it'll become very expensive very quickly (which I'm not a fan of). Had I went this method, I would of made the gradients more spread out to try and not have to buy a zillion cans.

So my result? I loved it!! Well, at first... I tested it on the gold fabric to see how well it coated. It took two layers for the purple to not be translucent but overall, I loved the color. A bit on the darker side but I was willing to overlook it if it meant making life simple. So I let it dry overnight. Color still looks nice...but the fabric became stiff. So in the end, I decided not to go with this method. It was going to be to stiff to my liking and would probably feel really weird walking around in.

 

 

 



So onto my next test!! I've been debating on buying an airbrush kit for a long time now. And it's something that I don't mind investing in because like my sewing machine, I will get lots of use out of it. And as long as you take care of your equipment properly, it can last a really long time too! So I did a little bit of research. I knew A.C. Moore carried some in stores so I head on over to take a look at what they have.

Wow.

The price was shocking (to me). I did not have $400+ to drop on it. But I took a look at what kind of equipment and tools they have, so if I ever need something in a pinch, I know where to go. Funny enough though, a Hanzo cosplayer who was working on the wolf head of one of his skins, had posted about a new, cheap but nice airbrush kit that was slightly over $100. That sounded much better to me!! After hunting for a link to this kit, I checked it out on amazon. Came with everything you need to start! Compressor, a few brushes, hose, cleaning tools, bottles, and paints. Nice!!

If it's your first time airbrush, I highly recommend watching some youtube videos on how to use it and how to clean it. There are quite a few out there. And it's all really easy. Now you just need to keep up with cleaning it after each use and you'll be good to go for a long time!! Anyway..

I ordered a set of basic color paints (since I'm sure I'll use it in the future) and two different gold paints (I couldn't decide). After messing with the airbrush for a while, I finally got the hang of it and tested it out on some scrap fabric. I loved the purple on the white fabric (far right). The color is beautiful. Absolutely love it. Tested the same purple on the gold fabric (middle). Was not happy with it at all... it looked awful!! Then I tested out one of the golds (the other didn't come in yet). Didn't really like it. It looked very cheap and kind of like it as painted yellow then some kind of gold dust was smashed into it. Not a fan. But I hope the other gold works. I want a gold that will match my gold fabric as close as possible (so it all looks uniform).

 

 As for flexibility? The gold paint stiffened a tiny bit but was still over all flexible. The purple paint would out really nice. Still allowed the fabric to drape well. I ended up using the 3rd gold paint (which I found in a youtube tutorial).

 

Up next: the after math! I'll show you the result of my air brushing and my thoughts on it.

 

~Serenity