miniapplejack

I 'm back from Brony Fan Fair 2012 and my first attempt at cosplay (I've been to a lot of cons over the years, but never participated like this... I blame ponies). I had a lot of fun doing it, lots of compliments and photo requests, but I also learned that I have a LONG way to go towards being a decent cosplayer. It's not that I expected to be that flashy, but I can't believe how much work I put into my costume and it still looked like I just threw it together. First thing I need to learn is HOW TO SEW PROPERLY. Also, SATIN is the wrong material to work with (my outfit surprisingly stayed together, but shredded in a few choice places leaving a trail of strings like a shedding cat or dog, how embarrassing). Fortunately, I got some really good advice on how to improve technically.

Which leads me to the bigger, yet more subtle problem I had. When people asked to take my picture, I wasn't sure what to do. Since my character of Starswirl the Bearded isn't mentioned in MLP:FIM than Twilight's Nightmare Night costume, and a mention in It's About Time, I couldn't think of what to do as far as "posing" for a picture. So I just stood there and smiled like anyone would for a normal photo. I did notice that most cosplayers really try to stay in character for their shots, but it's hard to do when you know little to nothing about the character other than how they look. It's something I need to work on.