It happens to all of us. Burn-out, discouragement, and lack of time are all things working against us to finish whatever project we are working on. Today, I wanted to talk about these bumps in the road of every cosplayer's journey. This is all just my own personal experience but I think it resonates with a lot of people.
How I get over periods of discouragement
I would be lying if I said that I never threw a paintbrush across the room while crying due to a major mistake that I made while painting on expensive fabric that was no longer in production (oddly specific I know...). However, we all make mistakes but that doesn't stop those mistakes from killing our mood to create. I've spent countless hours trying to get something right only to finally "finish" it and be completely dissatisfied with how it came out. The most important thing to do at this stage is to step away for a little while.
I know this sounds like "giving up" but its more about taking a break. Being frustrated is likely to cause more mistakes, more frustration, and more unhappiness. After that totally made up incident above...I took a break from silk painting for about 2 1/2 weeks. I didn't touch anything on my cosplay until I could look at my project with a set of focused eyes. After that little break, I was able to come up with a way to integrate my mistake into the design and no one was the wiser. I actually have a famous Bob Ross quote taped above my sewing machine in my craft space.
"There are no mistakes, only happy accidents"
I love this quote because it helps keep all things in perspective. When I have a clearer head after a break or after I calm down, I am able to come up with creative solutions to my "happy accidents". If you find yourself getting frustrated, take a break and come back later.
How I get motivated to work again
Maybe your problem is that you took a break and now you find yourself never wanting to work on the project. This can happen particularly if you are burnt out of cosplaying. I like to jump right into the next cosplay after I finish the previous one I was working on. This was fine for awhile for me, but as my normal job became increasingly more stressful, I found myself barely having the energy to play games at the end of the day. The thought of working on anything for cosplay became a chore and that's not the best mood to be creative in.
After about 3 months, I realized that I had not touched my current cosplay (Kerrigan at the time) and decided that I needed to make a plan to get started again if I had any hope of finishing her. I looked at what still needed to be done, then I chose the easiest possible thing to work on. For Kerrigan, it was to continue sculpting the body suit. I told myself that I would just spend some time sculpting after work. I didn't set a time limit or anything, just do some sculpting. It got to the point where it felt like I blinked and realized that I had been sculpting for 3.5 hours already and made huge progress. Sometimes that is all I need, just a little nudge to get started with some low-pressure goals and the love for the hobby comes back.
Sometimes though, getting started isn't the problem and I grow to dislike the character I am working on. It takes a lot for me personally to get to this point, since I am so picky about who I choose in the first place, but it did happen. For Kerrigan, from Star Craft II, I had spent nearly a year on the cosplay and was nearing the point where I was going to cast my creature suit. Only problem, I had lost too much weight from getting healthy and the suit would not fit me because the body cast I had sculpted everything on top of was now too large. This is one of the few times that I actually cancelled a cosplay. I found the thought and expense of starting over to be too stressful and cancelled the whole cosplay. After that, I became hesitant to start another cosplay since I had lost confidence. It took me quite some time to start Vi, mostly due to financial reasons, but after the extended break I had found a character that I really resonated with. It took finding that character to get me out of the slump I was feeling and after completing a few pieces, my confidence began to return. I have known some cosplayers to put one cosplay to the side if they get burnt out of that character for a bit and work on something else. Just set a limit so you don't have a closet full of half-completed costumes.
Some other fun things I do to get my hyped to work on something is to play the source game again, listen to fun music, and watch cosplay music videos. Every time I am working on something I have my earbuds in playing some fun music which I can just play and forget. Lately I have really been into 80's synthwave music since it usually doesn't have any words and is upbeat or energetic. You can also try going to YouTube and type in something like "Anime Expo cosplay music video" and you will see tons of amazing videographers showing off cosplayers at conventions. These are really well done and gets me thinking about how much fun I will have at whatever convention I go to next.
Just one last thing, I personally force myself to work on only one cosplay at a time. It helps me keep my focus on the problems I need to solve for that particular cosplay. This artificial limitation also helps push me through these tougher periods because "I can't start on character Y until I finish character X". This is just a personal choice I make because these limitations actually motivate me. It doesn't create resentment for the character I am working on, it just gets me excited for the next project even more.
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