Galacta: Daughter of Galactus - My Experience Joining a Cosplay Contest For the First Time

I'm finally out of my 2 month hiatus (at least for a little bit), since I'm just working on small modifications for my cosplay for this year's C2E2. This year, I decided to join the Crown Championships of Cosplay because I wanted to experience participating in the contest and I wanted to see what my chances were with my cosplay idea for this year.This is my first time competing in a cosplay contest.

I call this piece: Galacta- Daughter of Galactus hovering above the earth in this diorama-like cosplay.

Here's some behind the scenes photos I have during my photo shoot with Elias Zachary (more pics on the photogallery below):

The dress and corset modifications were all hand-sewn. My sewing machine broke during the entire process. The earth design is made up of over 700 pieces of tulle, all hand-stitched individually, in 3 shades of blue and 2 shades of green. It took about a month to finish the "earth" part of the skirt alone. The helmet, arm guards, and jewelry are made of Worbla. The helmet uses gesso for a rough metallic look. I used LED lighting and it required some wiring. It this is my first cosplay using Worbla and LED lighting.

Here is my first sketch of the cosplay, with one of the photos of the character on the right:

Joining the contest is very surreal for me in a way. I have always been asked to be a cosplay judge since I cover cosplay events on my website. However I've never competed in a cosplay contest. So this time, the tables have turned- the judge becomes the one being judged. Whether I qualify, win, or lose, I think this will be a great learning experience for me.

I'm always excited to see what my friends and other cosplayers bring to Saturday's main event. People bring their best and most unique cosplay and there's always a big surprise every year. C2E2 is my version of Disneyland in Chicago -its my happy place and I look forward to it every year.

I know that I've done a great job with my cosplay when I make someone smile after they see me. Not only do I enjoy seeing people recognizing who I'm cosplaying as, but seeing the look of joy or nostalgia when they see the character come to life. The shared feeling of fandom for a character I am cosplaying is a truly great feeling.

I'll be adding the behind the scenes and cosplay progress photos later on, but for now enjoy the photo gallery of pictures that Elias Zachary took during the photo shoot and my edited versions where I put the galaxy background behond me. Let me know what you guys think!!!

I picked Galacta, because first of all - not a lot of people know that Galactus had a daughter. Second, she's a cool character, but has only been in a few appearances on Earth 616 - I would have loved to see more of her in the future. And third, I would also love it if she updated her blog/twitter account, which has not been updated since 2009. Find out more about the character here.

Let me know what you guys think! See you guys at C2E2 this year!

UPDATE: February 20, 2016

Being that I wasn't so confident about qualifying the Crown Championships of Cosplay on this year's C2E2, I decided to join the cosplay contest at NWI Comic Con 2016. Long story short, I won Judge's pic! Wow! I was really not expecting that at all! I didn't wear the entire outfit and I basically wanted to put the cosplay into a test run.

UPDATE: February 26, 2016

The moment of truth has arrived - I finally got my confirmation letter from C2E2 that they chose me as one of the qualifiers for the competition. This is honestly so surreal for me, being that the competition grants the creme de la creme of cosplayers to battle it out in the competition. I'm so shocked and delighted from this news! So grateful for all the support I received from my friends -