This post has been underway for a while, and I am pleased to finally present you with this complete Keyleth cosplay tutorial. It’s a long walkthrough, so I’ve made sure to section all the different parts of the tutorial with a description and an accompanying gallery. It should be easy to navigate through, especially if you’re just interested in certain parts of the costume. If you wish to see my whole cosplay, you can find my Keyleth gallery here.
But before we dive in, I want to emphasize that this tutorial contains my interpretation of the art in the Vox Machina: Origins comics. Perhaps your eyes will spot something in the art that mine didn’t. In any case, I hope this post can help and inspire your interpretation and process. Remember to adjust measurements to your fit. I’d also like to apologize in advance since English isn’t my first language, but I hope the intention is still clear.
Happy crafting!
Headdress
What you’ll need: A pen, pattern paper, worbla scraps, a heat gun, primer (I used gesso), brown acrylic paint, glue, a gemstone and hair clips.
I measured my head for the size of the headdress and made a rough sketch of the design on paper. I then made a copy of this to cut out to see if I liked the shape compared to my head. Remember to take the wig into consideration when sizing! I corrected anything I didn’t like on the original sketch. Once I was satisfied, I cut it out and taped down the design to my worktable (photo 2).
Then I grabbed my many worbla scraps, heated them and started rolling them together to create a shape on top of the design (photo 1-2). Please remember to be mindful of the heat gun. Once I had covered the entire design (without attaching the antlers to the main piece), I carefully heated it up and started shaping it to a foam head. When I had achieved the right shape, I started blending the antlers and ‘lower spikes’ into the main piece (photo 3-4).
Afterwards, I primed the headdress with 4 layers of Gesso, since it’s what I had at hand. Priming with a brush left stroke marks and I quite liked that, since it added texture and made it look (slightly) wooden. I then painted it with 2 layers of acrylic paint: first a darker shade of brown and then a lighter shade using a coarse brush.
Since the gem looked very specific, I sculpted my own with some leftover monster clay, made a mould and cast it in a clear resin with green mica powder mixed in. I gave it a clear coat of primer afterwards and attached it with hot glue (photo 5-6). But frankly, any gem should work just fine. To make the headdress stay on, I glued two small clips on either side of it, and that’s all it needs to stay put (photo 8).
After finishing, I noticed that Kiki has small white flowers attached to the antlers and I decided to add some as well.