Stats
SCHROEDER
 Peanuts


Costume Stats:
Costume Completed: 2013
Debut: Dragon*Con 2013
Convention History:
Dragon*Con 2013
Photo Castmates:
Charlie Brown: Hartley Horn
Snoopy: Chinako
Sally Brown: Sabine Scholz
Lucy van Pelt: Shiva
Linus van Pelt: Mike Boylan
Peppermint Patty: Scarlet
Marcie: Gale
Little Red-Haired Girl: ChibiRinoa
Photo Credits:
Lionel Lum
Schroeder, along with Linus Van Pelt, is one of Charlie Brown's closest friends and often is outspoken in standing up for his friend. A music prodigy, Schroeder loves classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, whom he considers his hero. Schroeder spends much of his time expertly playing complex arrangements on his toy piano, despite the impossibility of the instrument playing such a range of notes. Despite his disinterest, Schroeder finds himself to be the object of affection for Lucy van Pelt, who constantly leans on Schroeder's piano listening to him play, much to his annoyance. When Lucy's family briefly moves away, however, Schroeder struggles and is shocked to discover she has become his muse and he can't play without her.

Construction Notes:
The costume part of this cosplay was easy enough; I bought black shorts and a purple shirt, then painted on the black stripes with fabric marker. I liked using the marker instead of paint because it gave the shirt a "drawn on" cartoonish look. Sneakers out of my closet and spray-in blonde hair dye rounded out the look. I spent most of my time on this costume making Schroeder's piano, which I thought would really help sell the costume and be fun to use for our photoshoot. To make it, I hand-drew the piano top and bottom on poster-board, doing some trial and error to figure out the proper sizing to scale the prop to me. I then cut the pieces from thick red foam board, then cut two long strips for the vertical part of the piano. To get the strips to curve, I scoured the interior side to weaken the board and allow it to collapse into the curve but maintain a smooth surface on the exterior. The keys were strips of white and black poster board, spaced out appropriately. The legs were made by hot gluing four elongated trapezoid pieces of the foam board. Once everything was assembled I used a red marker to fill in any exposed white pieces. To fit the piano in my suitcase I left the legs off originally and glued them on in the hotel room; I had planned to just throw it out after the con but it came out better than I anticipated. It was such a huge hit I decided to keep it and had to have it shipped home.

Photoshoot Pics: