#larp character

Another quickish doodle of my PC for the Wyvern Rising LARP to accompany some off-season writing, with an equally quickish backdrop and some Cinderella vibes.

I feel as though I haven’t been able to draw anything in months, so ended up with a quick Procreate sketch of my character, Isaera, from the Wyvern Rising LARP..

Starting a little early this year, but after a successful test-run of my garb updates, I wanted to throw together a quick reference image for my Wyvern Rising LARP character, Isaera.  She’s been on hiatus for about four years now, so I’m chomping at the bit to get back to both her and the game this coming Spring!

SLF Aurelius - Keystone LARP Commission

Aurelius is a good example of how little memory I have - I actually met and played across from this character for a good term or so of LARP, and so when the client messaged me, he figured Aurelius would be the one to ask for, since I’d actually met him IC. Alas, without the references he sent along, this drawing would have had just a black tunic, boots and a shivy dagger - which, honestly is just embarassing! How could I forget the mask and the axe??

I had a ton of fun returning to my usual bread and butter of SLF LARP characters, and I’m really glad the friend who commissioned this one is happy. :)

I made a pouch! This has been a part of my “one item a week” endeavour leading up to Swordcraft Quest, Australia’s biggest medieval LARP event. I picked a few items of mine that really weren’t up to scratch and needed an overhaul and have worked towards crafting well made items with quality materials. 

This bag is inspired by a 14th century pilgrim’s pouch and apart from the alcohol based dye and kangaroo leather thonging, is largely historical. 

Top - 1.5mm cow leather
Bottom - thin sheepskin
Lining - 100% wool
Thread - 100% linen, waxed with beeswax
Fittings - Pewter, mostly from Billy and Charlie. 
Dyes - Angelus alcohol based dyes. 

This bag took about ~40 hours to make and I’m very pleased with it. It is made to fit my iPhone 8, credit cards and ID, so that I don’t have to leave them in my tent at the event. 

If you’re interested in my inspiration behind this bag or want a breakdown of how I made it (which is not a step-by-step how-to, mind you, but more of a rambling about the process), you can check out a youtube video I made about it here. Feedback and questions welcome!

A breakdown of my Chesterwick archer kit for my alternate character “William ‘Willy’ Hunter, inspired by 14th century longbowmen. These photos were all taken in October so it’s actually quite different now, but this gives you the general gist of it. 

1 & 2 - Underwear and boots. 14th century braies, hose and undertunic from Historic Enterprises combined with ArmStreet’s best selling “forest boots”. 

3. My sad, old ArmStreet gambeson. This is basically a thinly padded linen jacket that provides just a little bit of a buffer from my mail, which I put on next.

4. Struggling into my mail. The struggle is real. Note I have a bag over my head to prevent the riveted rings from grabbing my hair and ruining my day. 

5. So this is not the MOST fitted mail you can get (I need to take in the arms a bit), but it’s a miles above a lot of the other stuff you see people using for LARPs. Unfortunately I don’t really have a source for this - I bought it off a friend who ordered a bunch of it, and I managed to get a great price because it wouldn’t really fit anything beyond children. I added my sword belt/ scabbard here as well.

6. Hood and coif. The hood actually belongs to a friend (but I made it for him). A coif is a little linen hat, usually worn under another hat to keep it safe from sweat etc.

7. A straw hat! When I was getting dressed it was still really sunny out. I later swapped this hat out for a wool hat once the sun went down (as seen in the last picture)

8. LARP arrows in a quiver covered in a fox and my 25 pound longbow. It shoots nice and straight and isn’t super heavy so no one gets hurt!

9. Picture of me at the game later that night. 

Hopefully someone finds this interesting. It’s much less complicated than a lot of my other costumes but people still seem to love it.