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My concept for this cosplay was, "What's Tamiyo look like at bedtime?" In her card art, Tamiyo wears a complex updo and very businesslike attire. I wanted people to see an intimate side of her while still being respectful of her understated aesthetic and demure personality. I built the set for the photo shoot out of stuff from my basement, including items from my Japanese grandmother who passed away last year. I wanted to depict Tamiyo in her own space in a room that reflects her curiosity and elegance. A muted palette seemed right, and I included items that could be mementos she might have collected on her many journeys.
So let’s start with two important Tamiyo beats: ears and socks.
Soratami toe cleave: Enjoy it; this is the only foot pic in this article.
Ear pattern!
In retrospect, it should have been wider and longer. (Insert that’s-what-she-said joke here.)
Well, what we lack in stature we make up for in enthusiasm. Yeah, Frenzied Goblin, I wrote you.
I cut the bottom off my Rose Festival Princess gown to get that fabric. It was a nice, crisp, white color, and I liked the matte satin texture, but you can see how it’s being troublesome puffing up.
See how narrow they turned out? Good weight, though.
I really just needed to iron the ears to counteract the stiffness of the fabric and flatten ’em, but I couldn’t find the iron for the life of me. So I enlisted friends to help me squash the ears flatter beneath the sewing machine and some Neal Stephenson.
Building the Pajamiyo set. Those are antique chairs from Japan, acquired a long time ago from a nice elderly couple in Milwaukie, via Craigslist of course.
Color-testing pajamas.
I had about six hours to complete this, start to finish. Starting being making the ears. The ears went surprisingly quickly; the Soratami whiteface did not. I think I spent the majority time budget of this project doing makeup. Only when I was halfway in did I think, “Oh yeah, there are probably YouTube tutorials for this . . . ” Dur. I was using a cake makeup (see pic below), and from the video I watched, it seems a liquid white foundation would also be useful for this kind of look.
The two white wigs were $12 each via Amazon Prime. The makeup was like $10. I owned the vintage pajama I ended up using for Pajamiyo . . . You’d be really surprised at what you can find in my basement. Seriously. So, cost-wise, this cosplay wasn’t a huge hit, but labor-wise, it was a Bolas and a half. Part of it was because I was just playing all the roles: doing makeup, styling, set designing, and shooting it alone. But part of it is just that TURNING YOURSELF ALL WHITE IS HARD. I was literally sweating and panting by the end of the day, but I think the results were worth it. I hope you all agree . . . And with that, ready for some results? Okay.
So, yeah . . . I was pleased with how things turned out. Tamiyo’s a pretty cool cat, and I enjoyed getting into her skin and trying to bring a few private moments of hers to life for all her Magic fans out there. The pictures are in line with my preference for photo-journalistic treatments (rather than the ubiquitous cosplay glamour shots we see all the time), and I was mostly satisfied with lighting result from the late afternoon sun through the window combined with the powers of my touch lamp.
I was always kind of bummed that the attribution from my flavor text on Prosperity was switched from Venser (he’s dead; did you know . . . ) to Tamiyo, but after I got used to it, it made me even more fond of her, and now that I did this cosplay, I just really want to write some fan fic about her. Maybe I will. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.
Till next time, may you find true riches in the mazes of your mind.
-MJ
