One look at the her stunning makeup, and you’d think Pipa Wolf has spent time on Hollywood backlots. But she confesses that her secret weapon to absolutely gorgeous costume makeup is YouTube.
Geeks Unleashed: I CANNOT stop looking at your make up jobs. Tell me, do you have makeup artists involved or do you do it yourself?
Pipa Wolf: Aha, well thank you! I’ve been told that a few times before; which I find pretty weird because I cannot do my own makeup at all. But cosplay has taught me an awful lot about my own face! I do all my makeup myself, but I’ve learned to invest in proper photography makeup and watched so many tutorials on contouring (drag queen makeup tutorials are a massive help if you’re ever struggling). Once I got contouring down, the rest is just panting your own face pretty much!
Lilith – © Wojciech Zuchowski Photography
GU: The amount of work that goes into your pieces is quite astounding. Tell me a little bit about the creative process of a build. How long can it take to have a piece finished?
PW: I’m currently starting on a new project, and I’m beginning in my usual way of research. Nothing can be created without a solid amount of research. Right now I’m doing a character from a fantasy game set in 1273, so I’m looking into a lot of historical methods and researching the correct fabrics they would have used at the time. I also collect as many images as possible: in-game designs, concept art, cut scenes, and anything else with the character in it that I can build an almost complete 360 image.
Next will be planning. I break the design down into parts and sections; figuring out what materials to be used for each and roughly how to build them. Any tricky parts, I design by hand through a variety of sketches and bouncing ideas off other cosplayer friends. Next is budgeting and building, sourcing everything and at the best price that is also affordable (cosplaying is expensive!). After that begins the long process of the build: the painting and the finishing which is unique to every costume. Time is also unique to a costume. To get to the build usually takes me around a month, but after that it can be as short as a week or as long as a couple of months. On average, I work around 12-15 hours a day on a costume, shorter if it’s during university months.
© Will Satchwell Photo & Design
GU: There’s a lot of scandal in the press at the moment surrounding the sexualisation of female cosplayers. What’s your view on this?
PW: I think there is a massive difference between sexualisation and fetishisation of cosplay. Someone making an extremely accurate costume that happens to be skimpy is not sexualisation, it’s copying the design. Someone looking at that and going, “they’re attractive!” or “I’d bang them!” is fetishisation or looking at the whole concept of the person in a costume as a sexual object. Making something sexy is not asking for sex. I’ve cosplayed as two succubuses now in pretty “sexy” outfits. And as someone who likes to cover up, I took Queen of Pain on to be empowering to myself.
I’d quite like to be as attractive and sexy as the character, I’m not at all in real life; it’s a persona. If people want to be sexy, go for it. I can guarantee they’re the most vanilla people the rest of the time. Give them a break and don’t make everything into some sort of sexy fan service. They are the fan.
GU: Do you draw inspiration from other cosplayers? If so, who?
PW: Well, as a worbla user I’m going to go right for the usual and say Kamui. She’s the first person who actually got me into cosplay when I saw her work. Other artists are AllieCat Cosplay (her work is beautiful), IronManda and Smallfry Creations and prop artists like Sketch McDraw and Volpin Props who’s finish on their work I just dream of being able to create. Also all my friends. Seriously, I don’t know how I’d even stand cosplaying without them, especially Kyokyo Cosplays and Usako’s Cosplay Corner. Many a night has been spent at their house living on tea and chicken nuggets while sewing our lives away.
Naga – © Kevin Pack Photography
GU: What’s been your most challenging build thus far?
PW: Naga, definitely Naga. I’ve never cried over a cosplay before. I try to challenge myself with each build though, the challenge is a huge part of the fun for me!
GU: How do you find modelling in front of a camera? I find cosplaying at a convention is another world to modelling. Do you agree?
PW: It’s a bizarre experience. I did a small amount of fashion modelling for a company called Me&Yu a few years ago. It’s usually five shots and change outfit a hundred times, posing in a way that shows off the clothes. With cosplay, I find is its about every inch of your costume and trying to show everything off in a way that’s not too overpowering. Also you only have one outfit rather than a hundred! A lack of mirrors means that cosplay modelling happens a lot more in post production!
GU: What’s coming up for Pipa Wolf?
PW: Next I’m working on Ves from The Wicher 2 in the hope of entering a competition CD Projekt Red are hosting. I also want to practice my sewing and get it up to scratch! After September, I’ll be designing my own game character from start to finish as a University project with the outcome being a full cosplay that will be wearable and in a gallery exhibit for a short time!
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