Current location:	At work (I'm slacking off) XD
Current mood:	happy
Current music:	Devil May Cry BGM

Silent Hill 2, 3 & Origins Cosplay post
I mentioned a couple of days ago when I made my random Robbie the Rabbit post that I was also a Cosplayer and that I was thinking of making a Cosplay post. Here is said post. :3



I've been Cosplaying since 2001 and interested in the Silent Hill games since late 2005. In mid 2007 I decided to combine my two interests and start Cosplaying from the Silent Hill games.

My first Silent Hill costume was of Heather. I played the third Silent Hill game in mid 2006 but it took me a year before I decided to start Cosplaying from the Silent Hill games. It actually took me a long time to pick a character from the games to Cosplay as. I'm rather short and I can’t pull off looking sexy so that cut out a few choices (like Maria or Eileen). Heather seemed like a nice choice since she’s such a kick ass heroine.

This costume went through an update as you can tell from the appearance in the photos below. I wore it to a convention in August 2007 and then I redid parts of it before I wore it again to Anime North in May of this year since I was running a Silent Hill panel at the con. My Heather costume was made up of mostly store bought clothes with alterations to it. One of the things that I love about making costumes from horror games is that you can typically find clothes that work at a thrift store (or maybe even your own closet) and just make small changes here and there. For Heather that meant taking a pair of pants and turning them into a skirt (although the fact that the skirt is a shade of green that’s a bit too light bugs me a bit). I then took the sleeves off of an old turtleneck that I had dyed and used the cuffs from the sleeves as the armbands. The vest was a pretty lucky find. It was originally a light windbreaker type jacket (complete with hood). It didn’t have the pockets that I wanted, though, so I used the material from the sleeves that I removed to make the pockets. It ended up being a bit hard to work with because the material was so thin (and see through) and the arm holes were really big, but I like that the vest isn't too thick. I originally borrowed a pair of my friend's boots the first time that I wore this costume so I didn't really have most of the boot details. I later bought my own pair, painted them and added the fake buckle. I managed to find a really nice swivel flashlight after several months of looking which I was thrilled about. It didn’t fit very well in the pocket that I made though. (>.<);; The wig was also a new addition to my costume this year. I spent several months looking for a wig before I settled on the one that I bought. The colour turned out to be a bit darker than I had hoped though. I sharpied the roots to imitate Heather's dark roots and the costume was finally done. :3 My wonderful friend Crimson (who is a nurse in several of these photos) made my lead pipe for me. :D I owe a lot of thanks to my photographer friends Elemental, SolarTempest and Stillvisions for making Toronto look like the streets of Silent Hill for these photos. They're very talented and always blow me away by the quality of their photos. :3 Anyway, enough talk, on with the pictures:

My second Silent Hill costume was sort of random. My favourite game of the bunch is Silent Hill 2. It was the first one that I played and to me it's the most haunting and the one with the best story line. I was rummaging through my drawers one day when I noticed that I had a white turtleneck sweater that sort of reminded me of Angela’s sweater in the game. I found a nice black wig on eBay and I bought red pants at a second-hand store. The pants turned out to be really long and somewhat baggy, though, so if I ever wear this again I'll need to get a better pair of pants. The shoes were my regular pair of runners. I had to use a small bit of photoshop on them, though, since they had pink streaks which didn't work for Angela. XD I borrowed a kitchen knife and used the brick wall of the school I live across the street from as a photo location. lol I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of myself in this costume because I was standing outside of a school with a knife. My little brother took the photos so they weren’t very good. I really should redo this outfit one day and get nicer photos. (^^);; So for now, here’s just one pic:





Finally, my most recent Silent Hill costume was from Silent Hill Origins which is one of my favourite games of the series. I thought that this game, despite being made by a new developer, did a pretty good job at carrying on the Silent Hill game tradition. As a protagonist, I really enjoyed Travis and his back story. I decided to go to Ohayocon this year and late last year I was trying to decide what new costume that I wanted to make for the con. I realized that with my long hair I could sort of pull off Alessa's hairstyle from Origins. I already had a red tie and a white shirt with a super wide collar so I just had to make her dress. The dress was a pain in the butt to make since I kept screwing up on everything (I even cut into a zipper and had to buy a new one to install) but in the end I was pretty happy with the results. I did a photoshoot with my friend Stillvisions in the stairway of the Drury hotel at Ohayocon and it's probably my favourite Silent Hill photoshoot that I’ve done thus far. Kevin used a lensbaby to create some really spooky effects with his camera. (^_^) I should really wear this costume again sometimes to get more photos. I've always hoped that one day I could convince some friends to Cosplay the Butcher and Travis to have a Silent Hill Origins group. That would seriously make my year but I have yet to convince any of my friends to join me. XD Here are some photo highlights:









If you would like to see more photos of my Silent Hill costumes or some of my other costumes you can check my website for more images:
http://straywind.com

Photo credits:
SolarTempest: http://solartempest.net
Stillvisions: http://stillvisions.net
Elemental: http://www.elemental-photography.net/

I’m still planning to work on more Silent Hill costumes in the next couple of years. I currently have a wig, material and even shoes to Cosplay as Lisa from the first Silent Hill game. I decided to make this costume since I wanted to Cosplay a nurse from the games but I figured I would fail at pulling off a monster nurse. XD

Having said that, I'm starting to get the courage to attempt to Cosplay a monster nurse. I'm thinking a nurse from Silent Hill 3 might be fun to attempt. I've been inspired by a lot of fantastic nurses that I've seen on cos.com (and in person). I'll need to learn how to do some makeup and latex work before I attempt this though.

I'm also toying with the idea of Cosplaying Josh from Silent Hill Homecoming. I didn't like the game that much, but I still really liked the protagonist Alex and his tragic brother. This is probably more of an excuse to do another fun photoshoot. XD This would be a closet-type costume so I wouldn't really attempt it unless I found a pair of shorts and shoes that I could use. I would so want a Robbie doll if I do this. <3 Maybe I could find an Alex Cosplayer to terrorize. (^^);;

This probably won't be the end of it either. I would still love to also Cosplay James and Maria. I think I'm a little too obsessed with Cosplaying from Silent Hill but it's a lot of fun attempting to imitate the clothing of the characters and it's neat to find settings that are reminiscent of Silent Hill. You never know what you'll find in your city or town. :3

P.S. Thanks for all the comments on my Robbie post! I'm glad other people understand the terror that I face when I open my curtains every day. XD