Community Focus - Littleblondgoth

Moin moin (hello in German), Guardians! I have the great pleasure of introducing you to the subject of our next Community Focus: Angel, a.k.a. Littleblondgoth, from the United Kingdom! Angel is a very talented cosplayer who has done amazing cosplays for Destiny 2. We met last year at the UK Dawning event, where she embodied an impressive Hunter. But I will let her tell you who she is and how she got into cosplay...

Angel, it is a pleasure to meet you. First, please tell everybody who you are, where you are based, and something that no one knows about you that you might like to share with us.

Hi! I’m Angel, but you’ll find me online as Littleblondegoth or Littleblondgoth depending on how many letters I’m allowed in my account name—damn that extra ‘e’ in the UK spelling! Anyway, I’m a digital designer from Southampton in England who uses what little spare time I have to make costumes of characters from my favorite video games.

I actually got into cosplay pretty much by accident. I’ve loved games, sci-fi, and fantasy for as long as I can remember, but never had much of an awareness of all these other aspects of fandoms. Life and work just kept getting in the way, I guess. I went to my first Comic Con out of curiosity more than anything else and bought a costume to wear because—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy the experience. Yeah.

Twelve years later, cosplay has given me opportunities to do things and push myself in ways I never dreamed of when I clicked “Buy” on that very first outfit. I do a creative job, and since that initial convention, I wanted to put that creativity to good use and craft my own things to wear. Cosplay is a chance for me to be that much more analogue. Ultimately, there’s something very satisfying about figuring out a design problem and making it by hand.

I'm also very lucky that my partner has always been incredibly supportive of what I do (and tolerant of the mess I tend to make while I’m doing it). He’s created a few costumes and props himself over the years, but these days, he says he prefers to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. He shoots and edits all my photos, so it’s a real family affair. He also helps me figure stuff out, wire up any electronics I might need, fit and mark the things I can’t reach, and,(this is probably familiar to a lot of cosplayers’ other halves out there) carries literally everything whenever we’re at an event. Sorry about that, honey.

Thank you for the nice introduction. How did you get into doing Destiny cosplay specifically?

I’ve been playing Destiny for a long time. I’m not quite a day-one player, but I first picked it up just before The Dark Below and haven’t really put it down since. There was just something so appealing about the design of the world and the characters that inhabited it—the blend of reality and sci-fi with a just a touch of fantasy thrown in. I suppose it was inevitable really. Armor was my comfort zone back then, so I made my Destiny 1 Titan with a hodgepodge of armor pieces, and my partner made his Hunter.

We wore them to EGX Expo that year, and as luck would have it, a team from Bungie were there for the launch of The Taken King, so we got to meet them. We found a Xur cosplayer handing out strange coins as well as another Hunter, and we ended up doing bad dance emotes by their stand. That still ranks as one of the best con days I’ve ever had, along with meeting Nolan North. He even said “Eyes up, Guardians” as he signed my Ghost. Brilliant.

In fact, I was a guest at Film & Comic Con two weeks ago, and I was almost overwhelmed by the sheer number of Destiny players I ran into. So many people came over to chat because they recognized me as a Hunter, or since I had my Suros Regime with me, “My Guardian is literally running round with that gun right now.” In fact, I think the weapons stole the show half the time. Alright, most of the time.

One of the great things about this community though is that 30 seconds after meeting a stranger, you can be having an in-depth conversation about your favorite class or build and hopes for what’s coming in The Final Shape (lots was the general consensus).

Yeah, when you meet the community in person, it is always a great feeling. Getting to know each other and talk about the game we all love is one of the greatest things that happened to me, too. How do you decide on the next projects you are going to do?

It’s not always a conscious decision, more that I find myself starting to look at a character differently and thinking what it might take to create them. That’s when I realize there’s going to be another thing to add to the list of stuff I want to do.

All of the costumes I’ve constructed have been characters I’ve genuinely liked and connected to whilst playing. I think that’s the biggest part for me, wanting to embody that person because they’ve resonated with me in some way. I have to love the design as well and be reasonably confident that I can make it work on me. I also like to take on things that will help me improve and make me just that bit better than I was last time, especially if I'm making something for an event or competition. I feel like I have to outdo my last attempt. But a lot of the time, my choices aren't driven by logic... When you know, you know.

To be honest I can´t imagine how you can get better. The costume I saw in person at the Dawning event was just perfect. But can you walk us through your process when you start doing these amazing cosplays?

Once I’ve got a character fixed in my mind, the first thing I like to do is sketch out an idea for the end vision and start sourcing materials. I love this stage, as I get to hunt down just the right kind of fabric or shade of paint or piece of trim. The texture and feel of each piece is incredibly important to me, so I spend a lot of time ordering samples and laying them out next to each other to see what works.

I’m also really interested in how the color and direction of lighting will affect a costume when we take photographs, so that plays a part in my selections as well. Do I want something to appear matt or shiny? Transparent or opaque? I chose a deep grey taffeta for my Warlock Savathûn, for example, because of how the weave and sheen of the fabric would react to the red and green Throne World color lighting gels I wanted to use.

I’m very low-tech when it comes to the actual making part. I don’t have a lot of kit. Most of the time it’s just me, a sewing machine, some foam, and a scalpel. I work out my patterns on paper and construct with a fair bit of trial and error. Sometimes I’ll make a piece two or three times until I’m happy with how it looks and fits. On the plus side, I often use those discarded pieces to test the paint job out or reuse the material for another item. I do have to admit though, I definitely have days when it can feel more like a process of hating everyone and everything until somehow it all comes together at the end. But it does always manage to come together.

I feel like I’m always learning with cosplay; there’s new skills to be picked up and existing ones to be mastered with every build, even if it can be daunting trying something for the first time. I always wanted to cosplay my Vanguard Dare Hunter, but the thing about Hunters is that there would be a lot of difficult sewing involved, and that gave me the fear. I'd made a lot of armor before, but never dipped my toes into sewing much. It actually took the pandemic for me to get a grip and knuckle down to teaching myself how to draft the patterns I needed and become friends with my sewing machine. But going through that has done wonders for my confidence in tackling garments, and now I'm actively looking at costumes that have some kind of fabric element.

Thank you for these great insights—but now I wanna know if you have a favorite Destiny character you would like to cosplay?

I’m not sure how on earth I’d manage it, but I would absolutely love to have a go at creating Caiatl. Ever since she showed up in the system, the Cabal Empress has been one of my favorite characters. Her backstory in the lore books was interesting to start with, and then seeing how her story arc has progressed in game... The way she dealt with the Psion traitor had to be peak Caiatl for me. I’ve even deliberately kept her hanging around the Hall of Heroes in Neomuna, so I can study her and try to figure out how I’d approach her costume. Is that weird? It’s weird, isn’t it?

I’ve never built anything like a ten-foot space rhino before, so it would be a huge challenge. No one has ever attempted her before, that I know of. There are a few ideas floating ‘round my head about how to make it work, so we’ll have to see if I’m brave enough to give this one a go. What do you think? Am I?

Wow, that would be so cool to see you one day as Caiatl! But do you have any projects currently in the making that you can tell us about?

There’s so much I’d like to do, and so little time to do it in! I’ve almost finished making my next Destiny cosplay. After making a Vanguard Hunter, I thought I’d do an Iron Banner Warlock. (I feel like I’m building out my own personal fireteam here.) The colors and style of the Iron Fellowship set really grabbed me, and I thought it would be a good chance to hone those newly acquired sewing skills and test out the airbrush I treated myself to recently. She’s around 80% done, but I need to finish off the red fabric panels and construct some gloves before she’s ready to photograph and put out there.

There are a few other smaller, half-finished projects lying around the house that I want to pick up and actually complete at some point. There's one box that’s got Crow’s shirt, trousers, and some scale mail that I ought to get ‘round to looking a. Another has random pieces of a Destiny 1 Mara Sov lurking inside, where I ran headlong into that fabric fear, only this time it manifested as, “Oh my god, I forgot she wore a leather jacket, please send help.” I suppose I like to think of them as my rainy-day projects. At least, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

Outside of Destiny characters, I think Bo-Katan from the Mandalorian is high up on my list, as is a Diablo IV Necromancer. Creating Savathûn for the Cosplay Cosmodrome was my first time working with foam clay. I had such a blast sculpting and painting all the bones that now I want to do more!

Angel, thank you for everything. I would love to chat with you even more, but then this Community Focus would never stop. So, at the end here, you have space for your message. Do shoutouts, say thank you to the community, whatever you’d like. It’s your space.

One of the things people have always said about Destiny is that the real story is the friends you make along the way, and I think there’s more than a grain of truth in that. I’d like to give the biggest of shoutouts to my clan and fireteam—Kimear, Webby, Stuzilla, Bear, Buck, and Pac—because these guys have made such a difference in my enjoyment of the game. They helped me get over my nerves and clear my first raid. They go get drinks, snacks, and even whole meals while I die over and over doing jumping puzzles. They’re my Destiny home, and it wouldn't be the same without them.

I also want to thank all of you for taking the time to let me ramble on about two of my favorite hobbies. It’s been a pleasure! I'm not necessarily the best with social media, but you can mainly find me on Instagram. I'm always happy to meet new people, chat Destiny, and help other people with their cosplay journey, so come and say hi.

So, Guardians, that’s it for your latest Community Focus. I hope you liked it. Again, thank you, Angel, for your time and your story.

Haut rein (let´s go in German),

Timon