[Dusk and Shu cosplay] Arknights: Convention Photo Post from Echoes of Snow and Wujiaochang

Getting straight to the point, our convention schedule this time started at the Echoes of Snow Arknights-only event in the afternoon, followed by moving to Wujiaochang in the evening. The main characters cosplayed were Dusk and Shu from Arknights. The focal points of this styling were the hair, eye makeup, and accessories, so prep work took a substantial amount of time. On the left, Dusk's styling featured blonde hair with long blue highlights, paired with reddish eyeshadow to enhance character expression and large-diameter colored contacts to sharpen the gaze. She wore a geometric square necklace with a baked metallic lacquer texture that had noticeable weight. On the right, Shu's styling featured black hair with teal-green highlights, softer eye makeup, warm brown contact lenses, a white T-shirt with a black collar, long bar earrings, and long teal horns. Styling the wigs was a massive undertaking: layered cutting front to back and splicing hair wefts required plenty of hairspray to maintain their shape while walking and shooting, while also allowing quick adjustments. The silicone elf ears needed to be glued onto the ears in advance, then blended with foundation into the skin. In the afternoon at the Echoes of Snow venue, the lighting was quite complex, so I brought a portable fill light to ensure good results. Many fellow fans and passersby came over for taking photos with cosplayers at conventions; since our characters were easily recognizable, we were delightfully busy. Along the way, we met a very passionate photographer who even taught us some great posing and transition techniques. In the evening, we headed to Wujiaochang, shooting mainly inside the mall where the cool lighting accentuated the hair highlights and horn colors nicely. Also giving a shout-out to Ji—unpacking a ten-yuan bill from the freebies was such a fun surprise that holding it felt almost unreal! That's definitely one of the charming parts of convention culture. As for post-processing, since people love that faithful 2D reproduction, I kept the natural facial features while using liquify tools to fine-tune face contours and eye proportions, enhancing the catchlights in the eyes. In color grading, I slightly brightened skin tones and compressed the shadows to make the skin look pristine and clear, while sharpening hair texture and the metallic luster of the necklace. The hair extensions and wefts were made of premium wig fibers, giving them a great sheen under lighting. The blue highlights on the left and teal highlights on the right used multiple layered hairpieces to create smooth gradients; although a bit heavy to wear, they looked exceptionally photogenic. Running around conventions is exhausting—especially hauling heavy props and rushing between venues in full costume—but seeing how well the photos turned out made all the fatigue vanish. That's pretty much all for this photo post; hope everyone can feel the joyful vibe from that day! The makeup and styling felt like a great success, and if given the chance next time, I'll definitely experiment with different styling combinations for these characters.