The Artful Dodger and steampunk Ariel want to be part of your world

Early this past January, Australian cosplayer Isobel Murray—who uses the stage name of The Artful Dodger—did a splendid cosplay of a steampunk version of Ariel (from The Little Mermaid) based on an illustration by Hungry Designs that she had once seen.

She debuted the Ariel outfit at the Brisbane Supanova Pop Culture Expo and it became an instant hit as site after site, starting with Geeks Are Sexy, posted and reblogged a genuinely excellent set of her convention cosplay pics. In just a few short months, the number of followers on Murray’s fan page went from 0 to an impressive 3,435 at last count (but it’ll probably higher than that by the time this post goes public).

I’ve been following this talented artist since that first post by Geeks Are Sexy and am pleased to see her riding a well-deserved wave of success. Earlier this month, partly due to all the attention from her Ariel cosplay, she was also invited to attend the New York Comic Con to exhibit in the main hall with her own booth! Holy crap!

But perhaps the crest of this wave occurred just yesterday, Feb. 21, when none other than Wil Wheaton himself posted the original steampunk Ariel pics on his Tumblr blog.

Not bad for a cosplayer who only just started her fan page on Facebook last November.

Now, all this would be reason enough for us cosplay lovers at Pop Mythology to be fans of the lovely Artful Dodger, but there’s an even bigger reason why we will always be this lady’s fans and support whatever she does. She and her frequent collaborator The Blake Image Photography have both been awesomely generous and gracious enough to allow us to be the first website to post this brand, spanking new oceanside set of studio quality photos of steampunk Ariel!

This is gorgeous stuff, so enjoy it and, by all means, head over to The Artful Dodger‘s FB page and The Blake Image Photography‘s official site and check out more of their stuff.

But wait, wait! Before you scroll down and lose yourself in Ariel’s enchantment, it is mandatory to play this song. Because first we got to create da mooood:

Links:

The Artful Dodger

The Blake Image Photography