Nov 30, 2015

BioShock Cosplay Brings Little Sister To Life

What is it about BioShock that makes Emma Rubini dedicate years to perfect her Little Sister cosplay? Is it the amazing storyline? Maybe it’s the iconic characters?  

 “The first time I saw a Little Sister I didn't want to cosplay her because I felt like so many people had done it really well. But the character grew on me and eventually I embraced my fate!”

You should also know that Emma didn’t just stop at one character. She has done two other characters in the BioShock series. An awesome armored Big Sister and a Splicer.

It just so happens that Emma’s also a huge Borderlands superfan and cosplayer.  We’re talking Tiny Tina, Handsome Jack, and Gaige costumes as well.

That’s an awful lot of 2K Love!

We were so impressed with all she’s done with our games, we had to talk with Emma about how she created her Little Sister cosplay. Follow along below for a walkthrough of how she does it.

My Little Sister cosplay is probably the costume I’ve had for the longest amount of time, and it’s one of my favorites that I’ve made.  And why wouldn’t it be?  It’s pretty comfortable, I get the chance to represent my favorite video game, and walking around as a creepy little girl for the day is a nice change of pace.  It was the first BioShock cosplay I made (I’ve made four now).  It’s also one of the ones that I’ve improved on the most.  I originally made it for Dragon*Con 2013, and over the past two years I’ve remade or at least revamped nearly every part of it.  I don’t expect that I’ve stopped improving on it by any means, it’ll probably always be somewhat of a work in progress; but currently, I’m very happy with how it looks!  Would you kindly keep reading, to find out how I did it?

Dress Weathering

Little Sister was one of my first forays into weathering and distressing my cosplays, which is now my favorite part of the process! For starters, I made the apron out of an off-white fabric as opposed to pure white, so from the get-go it looked a little dirty.  For all the dirt, I used black drawing charcoal and brown conte crayon (which is sort of like a more compressed charcoal that comes in more colors), and of course add a little fake blood.  I wet the charcoal or crayon first so that it’s easier to achieve different shades.  Keep in mind that the charcoal looks a lot darker when it’s wet that it does when it dries, so don’t be afraid to go a little heavier with your shading!  Here’s a picture from this past Dragon*Con, almost two years after I weathered it originally; it’s held up pretty well!

ADAM Syringe

This prop has given me a lot of grief over the years, and I’ll probably improve on it more in the future! Where it is right now is a pretty good place, though.  I started with a vintage gas pump nozzle that I bought on eBay.  The rest of it is made of PVC pipe, a paint bottle, a red LED glow stick, Model Magic and EVA foam. The needle is simply a wooden dowel that I’ve painted silver.  There is actually no liquid in my syringe; instead, I heavily weathered the bottle (with acrylic paint) and used a red LED glow stick to mimic ADAM’s red glow.  The best adhesive I’ve found to use for this prop is Gorilla Glue, with a layer of hot glue over it in some spots, such as where the bottle piece meets the nozzle, as it can be hard to get the syringe to balance in the proper position while it dries.  I also add a plastic nipple for a baby bottle to the top.  This picture is from Dragon*Con again, with an awesome Gatherer’s Garden prop made by Team BioShock!

Big Daddy Doll

My Mr. Bubbles doll may be my favorite prop I’ve made.  I knitted him in just under a week.  I considered making the baseball doll from the second game, but I figured I’d take a little creative liberty and make a plushie instead!

Makeup

When you see the yellow eyes in my photos, it’s not edited—it’s how I do my makeup!  When I close my eyes, it looks like my eyes are completely yellow, meaning I can walk around a con comfortably but have a cool effect for pictures.  My Little Sister makeup has taken some trial and error over the years; for a while I would just do bruise makeup under my eyes, for a while I used contacts, and finally I decided to try this effect that mimics the Little Sisters’ glowing yellow scleras.  I got the idea from my friend Dzduck Cosplay.  I’m happy I've finally got the makeup to a place I really like! Here’s how I do it.

  1. I start by outlining an eye shape on my eyelids.  This helps guide exactly where I want the scleras to be, and will give a rough idea of what the makeup will look like when it’s done.  Even at this step, you can start to see the effect!
  2. I then fill it in with white eye pencil (I use Nyx Jumbo Pencil in Milk) as a primer.  The white background makes the yellow brighter!
  3. Then I darken around the eyes.  On the top I use only black, while on the bottom and my cheeks I fade from black to bruise (purple) and abrasion (red). I use crème makeup for this, but you could probably use eye shadow too.  Personally, I opt to be pretty dramatic with my dark eyes, while some other Little Sister cosplayers are more subtle.  It’s up to you how you want yours to look!  Be careful not to get any dark makeup onto the white! If you do, though, it’s not the end of the world; you’ll go over it with yellow.

  1. Then comes the yellow!  I do this in four layers of increasingly darker yellow pigments.  First, I use a water-activated face paint which acts as a seal for the white; then I go in with a yellow eye pencil; then on top of that, bright yellow eye shadow; and finally, some darker golden or ochre makeup around the corners and edges to add dimension.  While you’re working on your eyes, it can be difficult to gauge how it really looks, since you have to close your eyes to get the full effect, so take lots of selfies!
  1. Once I’m done with the eyes, I attend to the rest of my face.  I contour my cheekbones, and add highlights to my jaw line to make my face appear rounder and younger.  I also lightly brush my lips with foundation, which helps to wash out my skin and make me look paler.  I’m already pretty pale, but if your skin is darker, you may want to use a lighter foundation on your whole face to make yourself look sicklier.  After all, Little Sisters do have a sea slug imbedded inside them; that’s enough to make anyone a little pale.

  1. Next I add bruises and abrasions on my arms, legs, hands and neck.  I use Ben Nye’s bruise and abrasion wheel for this, it’s a really great palette!  I’ll also wipe some charcoal on my legs and arms to look like dirt.  I think my next improvement for this costume might be to make bloody stockings!

Then it’s done! I can generally do this makeup in 5-10 minutes, it’s become one of my easiest cosplay makeups.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it!

 

Emma Rubini

 

You can check out all of Emma’s amazing costumes on her pages.

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