Hello Adventurers,
This is the creation process of Butters, a Dungeons and Dragons dragonborn cosplay.
I will be using male pronouns to describe Butters but the only cosplay I have done of him so far is in a dress because he is fabulous, and dragons don't care about gender.
Dragons
In Dungeons and Dragons there are many types of Dragons mainly Chromatic, Metalic and Gemstone dragons.
Silver dragons are ice/cold spitting dragons with small backward facing horns and dense dorsal fins.
Black dragons are acid spitting dragons with large ram-like horns out the side of their heads
Original Character
Butters is originally a baby Black/Silver Dragon in a Dungeons and Dragons game. Where he was prophesised to either save or destroy the world.
This is because black dragons are normally evil and silver dragons and normally good creating an unpredictable change of either.
Butters was named such as he's from my first D&D game called Exotic Butter. (a FNAF reference)
In the cosplay aspect I took butters and imagined him as a playable character. I have not chosen exactly what class he would be but with a name like butters I'm thinking a Baker.
The Creation Process
Base
Butters was built from the Giganotosaurus dinosaur mask released for the latest Jurassic world movie.
I chose this base specifically because of the moving jaws as this element makes the character more interesting.
I originally wanted the Raptor mask but it was sold out area at the time.
Smoothing
The original mask is super textured, but I wanted a smooth base, so I used Apoxie Sculpt, a two-part epoxy sculpturing clay, to smooth the mask as much as possible.
Because you have to use gloves when using Apoxie Sculpt it is easy to get wrinkles from the gloves in your work, fix this with a slight sand.
Due to the 24-hour processing time of Apoxie Sculpt I did it in patches, smoothing all the texture apart from the larger eyebrow crest scales.
To prevent the jaw from being glued close I set a sculpting tool between the teeth while the Apoxie was drying.
Dorsal Fin Spines
The original spines are made from Apoxie over a mixed medium armature, but they get removed and replaced during the rebuild.
Horns
Butters has a miniature nose horn, chin horns and two large 3D printed side horns designed based on D&D Black Dragon horns.
Paint
After the eyes were inserted, the whole mask was painted black. Due to the type of plastic the straps are made from any paint on the would flake off, so they stayed green.
The teeth were painted during this process and had to be cleaned soon after.
Custom Mannequin Head
Butters has a custom mannequin made from surfboard foam shaped specifically to holds the mask. I made this because standard mannequins are not the right shape nor strong enough to hold up the very front-heavy mask.
Dorsal Fin and Dry Brushing
Fabric was added in between the dorsal spines to complete the fin (at this step) and the whole mask was dry brushed with silver to add the metalic shine and depth.
Right after this step the dark green pupils were painted but then removed.
University Assignment
Project Presentation
This mask was originally a university sculptural assignment of semester 2 2023, representing the personification of Dungeons and Dragons characters as part of a brief where we needed to build on and constrain the body. For this the mask creates a larger jaw, but the eyes constrict vision as they are coloured and only semi-transparent.
After this assignment Butters was shelved until about May 2024.
The Deconstruction
When I returned to the project, I basically undid half of the original work removing the old eyes, which just popped out, and the dorsal fin which were pretty hard to remove due to going all the way through the strap.
The new design consisted of a foam dorsal fin and Indvidual scales down the sides and back.
The first step of reconstruction was to add a deconstructed cap on the inside, so it sat correctly on my head, and so I had a base to attach the scales onto.
Drafting Scales
Butters' scales are made from 2- and 5-mm EVA foam but deciding on the orientation of scales took about a week of back and forth designing. At one point there was no dorsal fin, but it left the back to bland.
In the end I stripped the scales I had started attaching off and attached the dorsal fin first and it would affect the scale application and positioning.
The Dorsal Fin 2.0
Originally made using a paper pattern the dorsal fin goes over most of the top and back of the head with reenforcing spines all the way down to add diminution, strength, hold the spine straight and break up the shape a bit.
Attaching Scales
The foam scales are attached in a symmetrical scale/armour style. The whole thing was then spray-painted black (which undid some of the face's dry brushing) and I dry brushed the whole head silver to match the rest of the design.
EVA foam has a specific texture which I intend to emulate when I make his armour following the same scaled design for consistency. I still have to decide on an armour design to start this step.
Butters debut was Comic-Getton 2024, and it was a great day vending with the Toowoomba D&D Club and seeing a whole bunch of other cosplayers.
If you liked this piece stay tuned to hear of other cosplays and events into the future.
© 2024 Sarah Mitchell