Cosplay: Petra Ral

Photo not mine, just found it on Google Images

Petra Ral

COSPLAY: PETRA RAL

As promised I will now share to you my experience for DIY Cosplaying. This is my first time to do it and I will copy one of my favorite anime characters, Petra Ral. 

To give you a background, Petra Ral is a character from the anime/manga called Shingeki No Kyojin or famously known as Attack On Titan. She showed up on the second half of the first season when Captain Levi and the Survey Corps were first introduced. If you follow my Instagram, you will know that I love Levi's character so much and that is why I love Petra too. Petra idolizes Levi wholeheartedly and when she died during a mission under Levi's command, he was secretly devastated. It was never told and proved but their connection was implied, there are scenes that makes you think about their relationship and also the author himself hinted from one of the interviews in Japan that he already made it obvious on the story and he did not focus on them because his work is not a "Love Story".

Anyway, if you already watched the anime, it is heartbreaking to see Levi's reaction when he tore out the patch on Petra's jacket and kept it inside his pocket. Also, the part where he saw Petra's body being thrown away by his own orders is truly heartbreaking. Sigh... anyway, Attack on Titan is a really good show, the manga is even better! You should try it. I really recommend it, one of the best anime/manga ever!

Back to my real topic...Copying a cartoon is really hard since you have to adapt and change a lot in your face, hair and you have to get the closest look for your costume.

Cosplaying is expensive. Like for me, I do not plan to join cosplay contests, I just wanted to create my favorite characters and have it captured on photos for my own collection only. So why waste a whole lot of money, right? I suggest that you buy second hand costumes (like what I do) or just do it yourself to save money! That is what I do.

So, before I share it with you, I will just let you know that I am still lacking half of the costume. LOL. I am lacking the pants, the lower body harness and boots because it is so hard to find one and if ever I do, it is customized and it is too much for my budget.

Photo not mine, just found it at Google Images

Petra Ral in Scout Legion Uniform

To get you started, let me share with you the list of basic materials that you may need. 

1. Wig Cap

Creating different looks will require you a wig cap to hide your true hair. Invest on a good one. I tried buying the low quality and it cannot hold my hair in place! In the end, I have to buy a new one.

2. Elmer's Glue Stick

You will need to tame your eyebrows because you will cover it with a lot of concealers and foundations because you will draw a new eyebrows matching the character you are copying.

3. Concealers

Oh my god, you will need a lot of this. Why? You need to create a very smooth and blemish free face. Anime characters' skin are flawless.

4. Foundation

A foundation that has a heavy coverage to create an airbrushed look. 

5. Variety of lipstick shades

In copying the lips of the characters you want to portray, you may need to blend several colors just to get the correct shade.

6. Liquid Eyeliners

Yes, you need the help of liquid eyeliners so you can draw the excess eyes or marks from the characters you are copying.

7. Contact Lens

Sadly, if you really want to do it right, you have to copy the color of their eyes too. It depends on your budget.

8. Makeup Remover

Remember, you will be doing heavy coverage so your makeup will be thick. You will need a good makeup remover. I use Bifesta.

9. Costume

This really depends on your budget, like for me, I do not want to spend much so I just buy second hand costumes.

10. Wigs

This can be also expensive for each character has different hair styles and colors. One character means one wig. Try to rent wigs instead of buying. There are a lot of wig rentals online. Avoid the low quality wigs, it looks so fake that it will hinder the quality of your cosplay.

Basically, these are the items that I collected one by one to create the Petra Ral cosplay. The photos below are the my first try and I am not yet satisfied. I did my makeup in a a regular way so the costume and wig are the things that makes me look like Petra.

Since it is my day off today, I decided to play around with my makeup and costume. I recorded a tutorial but I still do not know how to edit it so I can share it to you step by step for now. Before I proceed though, I just want to apologize for the low quality of the next few photos of the tutorial because I only got this from the video that I made. I paused it and got a screenshot. Now for my tutorial, kindly read it below:

1. Put on your wig cap so it will no longer cause you problems of stray hairs while doing your makeup.

2. If you have a pair of contact lens, you can now put it on before you put anything else on your face. For now, I do not have a big brown contact lens. So I skipped it and proceed to the next step which is to hide my real eyebrows. I used Elmer's Glue Stick to tame my eyebrows. My eyebrows are thick and I need to create a short and thin eyebrows for Petra's look.

3. Conceal, Conceal and conceal. With the use of the Glue, powder and concealer, combine these three to cover your eyebrows. Doing this process is really tedious and takes a long time so you really need to be patient. Wait for the glue to dry before you put the powder and concealer over it. Repeat this process again and again until you achieve the luminosity that you want. 

I used Maybelline White Super Fresh Powder over my eyebrows and Suesh C204 Concealer to cover the real color and shape. If you can observe the photo below, my eyebrows already lightened after I put on the powder over the dried glue.

I also applied light concealer on my blemishes and moles to create a flawless look.

Maybelline White Super Fresh in Nude Beige

Lighter shade of eyebrows after the glue and powder.

Suesh Concealers, I used C204

I used my ring finger to apply the concealer lightly.

4. Apply your best concealing foundation. I used my MAC Studio Fix in NC20. I applied it using my Pro Studio Beauty Exclusives Angled Flat Top Brush to deliver non-streak look of liquid foundations, creating a more flawless look. After the application of the foundation, conceal again any blemishes that you see. 

5. Apply powder all over your face to soften the look and set the foundation.

6. Apply the eyeshadow and copy the look of your character. Petra Ral does not use any makeup on the show so it is easier for me. I just have to color my eyes naturally. 

I used my Real Techniques Eyeshadow Brush and BYS Nude 2 Palette. I used the shade Selfie as base. I also colored my eyebrows with this shade to even it out. Then I used the Morning shade up to the crease of my eyes. For the last part for the eye shadow look, I used the shade VIP on the crease so I can create a look of a bigger eyes and deepen my creases. 

For the eyebrows, I used BYS in Wow Brows. I used the lightest shade to draw Petra's eyebrows.

For the eyeliner, I need to make my eyes look bigger and I need to look like I have long eyelashes like the anime characters, so I draw additional edge to my eyes. I used my Sailor Moon Black Eyeliner.

For the mascara, I used my Get Lei'd Setting Mascara. Mascaras are not that important since it is not that noticeable with your heavy makeup on but putting something to make your lashes look thicker and longer will add more edge to your makeup. 

Finished Look - Close up for eyes

7. Apply your lipstick. Petra Ral's lips looks natural but glossy. So I used my glossy nude lipstick, Tom Ford in Sable Smoke. 

If you noticed, I did not put any blush on, anime characters are pale and they only blush when they are embarrassed or in love...so I skipped coloring my cheeks.

8. The last step, wear your wig and costume! Take a lot of photos! 

What do you think? Did I do it better this time? I really hope I can get the lower body harness, white pants, boots and the 3DMG too so I can have a proper photo shoot!