Prop update

Oh man it's getting so close to Kumori-con. I seriously cannot wait. Our costumes and my wig have been ordered. It'll take 15 days for our lovely tailors to make. I'm really hoping these guys do a good job so we can buy from them again and again. We're impressed by not only the pictures but the prices. So our costumes, my wig and my head piece should be here by August 24th. I sure do hope so!

Now on to props!

I've been working my tail feathers off. Syaoron's staff is almost done. I just need to stop being lazy and put on varnish on the needed areas. Besides that it is done. And man does it look wonderful. I just hope I don't drop it anymore. I have a bad habit of dropping it when I get hyper and play around with the staff.

(I'll update with a photo later.)

The feathers are already done. Although I might put on some fresh paint and a layer of varnish before the con just so they look good. they are mainly for pictures so they weren't my main focus. I do wish however I took more time painting them because I did mess up a few times on the design.I cut one of the feathers shorter so it fits inside the sphere.

Now the sphere....Holy crap this was a hard prop to make. I should have done it all in wire but for now the magic clay model will have to do. Although I might start on making a full metal version in case the clay one breaks during the con. It's very delicate so it'll be used only at certain times for pictures. I had to re-do this once already. The paper mache didn't work for this piece so the second model is made out of magic model clay, gesso to make it hard and firm and varnish to stop any cracks from happening. Then it will be painted gold. Each swirl was made by hand, piece by piece was glued with hot glue. Sadly my hot glue isn't very good. Its cheap and is coming apart quickly. I may have to glue the parts coming apart with super glue in order for it to stay together for the con. I still am working with keeping the sphere in shape and staying together. So it's not painted yet.

The base is done (Finally!!!) and is a bit delicate. So I'm working on finding out how to keep it steady and from cracking. The hot glue is an issue so I'm thinking outside the box with it.

It sure does look good in pictures! I'm so happy. It still needs some touch ups but I'm just glad its staying together (for the most part) and is able to be held without having issues.





Right now I'm working on the hook that will be attached to the bottom where the tassel will hang. I use a wire base inside the clay so the clay keeps shape. Unlike the swirls I reenforced the base for the hook twice then wrapped (neatly) more wire around it so it's heavy and wont fall when the tassel is on.

 It's very firm and isn't too heavy. I just put on the clay and it's looking very nice now. The hook will be attached on the bottom with super glue so it wont fall apart like the swirls have with hot glue.

Here is the tassel for the bottom. It's not as long as I would have liked but the Asian market didn't have many tassels. So I had to get what the very kind man sold. We got one huge one for the staff and this one which matched the larger one for the sphere. I think with it being smaller it'll be less pressure on the bottom of the sphere so it will work out in the end.

This is a good luck tassel!

It's very fine and soft. I love running my fingers through the bottom.




Of course there is still something missing. The sakura flowers on the side of the sphere. I don't have fabric to make them yet. This will be a easy project. Simple sewing and gluing. So this will be the finishing touches on the sphere.


I'm so excited!!!!!

Things to come

I want to start getting into this blog more (as well as my writing one) So I'm throwing around some ideas right now of things that I could post either weekly or every other week. Besides updates on my own projects (There will a update on props in the next day or two) So I decided since I'm getting ready for Kumori-con and everything is going great I'll focus on the character I'm cosplay.


Topics I'll be covering over the next few months.

1. Make-up -Tips,brands,character make-up, tutorials, everything from fake nails, to fake eyelashes.-
2.Sewing -What should be in your sewing kit, some good sites to learn how to, and more.-
3.Bought costumes -ProsVSCons, Good sites, How add on to the costumes, ect.-
4.Wigs -How to style, wash, prep and pack, put on, Long wig care/how to keep them on,ect.-
5.Poses-Tips and tricks,ect.-
6. Body image-Sites for safe weight lose, good apps (Kindle Fire/android), how to be comfortable.-
7.Props and accessories-Everything from which to pick, from where to buy/how to make.)
8.Reviews- Cosplay costumes/wigs/make-up products/everything that is somehow related to cons.-
9. Con review -I'll TRY to do during the con, blog about it each night during the con weekend.-
10.What to bring/traveling-How not to over pack, what's important, how to be organized. -
11. Dealing with big costumes- How to survive the heat, dirt and how to keep neat.-

I'll be starting with this very soon. Starting with make-up.



Upcoming cons

September- Kumori-con
December- Newcon
(2013) April- Sakura-con

Cosplay check list

Shoes []
Syaoron's wig [x]
Sakura's wig [] Ordered
Sakura's hanfu dress [] Ordered
Syaoran's outfit [] Ordered
Colored contacts []
Sharon wig []

UPDATE: Our costumes and my wig are booked to come to my house around August 24th!!! 

Prop #1-Memory feathers [100%]
Prop #2-Syaoran's staff [99%]
Prop #3- Sakura golden sphere [70%]





The two characters I'll be going over are Sharon from Pandora Hearts and Sakura from Tsubasa. I found it funny I chose two characters that are both royal (Sharon=Duchess, Sakura=princess) and are both starting with the letter S. Truth be told I love BIG dresses, fancier the better for me. Even if they are a pain in the royal arse. Of course I chose the characters because I like them. That's most important. So I'll also go over how to chose a character as well.

So that's just a little what to come. Right now I need to go get ready to go see the job guy and hopefully the job I want is still open. Wish me luck.

-Jessica

Goals for Kumori-con

1.Lose ten-twenty pounds

Losing weight is very important for me right now. No ladies I'm not about to complain about my pant size. I'm having health issues and am feeling bad in my body. I'm not doing it to be skinny or to wear the latest jeans. Although it'll make me very happy to see the sleeves on my Sharon gown baggy.

My plan (Eating a healthy diet. No added sugar/salt. NO SWEETS) is
5.min of jumping on the mini trampoline
5.min of cardio (I have a awesome free app on my Kindle Fire for this)
5.min of toning yoga. (Yes, yoga does help you lose weight.)
 Walking three times a week. Running/jogging twice. 

2.Practice my photography.

I've been getting back into photography and want to start taking photo shoots at cons. So I really need to show what I  got and learn the in and out of my camera. Although it's not the best it's what I have and I need to learn how to use it better.

3. Get a job

Two years of searching has gotten me no where. Maybe I'll be lucky and find one before the con. I have a wedding to plan after all. We're hoping to get married next year on April 27th, our seventh year together.

5. 50k

I badly need to catch up on my writing. Its my dream of getting published I have to really work on focusing on it. I'm having health issues right now but hopefully afterwards I can focus back on my writing. If I have to bring work with me to K-con so be it. I really need to get it done. Luckily my word count goal is only 70K. I think I'll be able to do it now that I've switched up the plot a bit.


 Goals make those three days of con time even better, especially if you've been able to complete them all. I didn't add any cosplay goals to this because with losing weight I'll be busy enough. My only real cosplay goal right now is finish my props.

Vic Mignogna

Is coming to Sakura-con 2013!!!! I better plan a FMA themed cosplay. Plan to wait in LONG lines to sit in on his panels in order to get his autograph, which means more huge ass lines. This was the whole reason I wanted to go to Sakura-con when I was younger. We barely missed him during our first Sakura-con, he went the year before but not that year. I'm really excited for this. He's one of my favorite voice actors. Who plays much loved characters from many good animes, such as FMA and Tsubasa. So I'm really pumped up now. Can't wait to see who else is coming. Maybe the lovely voice actor of Yuko.

Oh goodness I would die and very happy girl.

Photo shoots

I am officially doing photo shoots for Kumori-con 2012. I'm so excited. This is really going to be good for me. Until then I'll be practicing and learning how to use my beast of a camera so I'm able to create the best works of art I can possibly do. I'll be posting my examples and shoots on this DA account

http://coswitchphotography.deviantart.com/


I decided on the name Cosplay Witch because I'm magical. ;)

And it may had something to do with Yuko who is now my favorite manga character. But anyway. I'm still thinking of how many openings I want to do and what times, ect. So I won't know how many people are signed up just yet. Although I did post on the forums. I already have two people interested and I might be the official photographer for their group as well.

Photo shoot, posing tips.

So since we never got our pictures from the so called "professional" photographer (Rant to come) I've really wanted to get some good photos of our costumes but am not willing to trust another person to do so for us. So I decided since we wont have anything to do on day zero of Kumori-con that during that day (We'll leave early) we'll set up my camera on a tri-pod and do some photo shoots during that day as well as day one and maybe day two. Since we wont be able to change while waiting to check into the hotel (around 3-4) the first part of the shoot will be lolita. I'm really loving my lolita outfit now that I've finally figured out fake eyelashes and added fake gems under my eyes. I have a lot to do to my wig, that has tangled because of the wind during Sakura-con. I'm going to try the boiled water curl technique to make big curls. 


So this is the plan so far. I'm really excited because I might start doing photoshoots for cons and this will give me a good chance of showing my skill off.


Day zero:
Morning/afternoon: Lolita (Sweet lolita.)
Late afternoon/evening: Sharon/Sakura (Maybe. Might not have time.)

Day one: Sharon (Pandora Hearts) and Break

Day two: Sakura and Syaron. (So excited for this!)

Day three: None, maybe more Sakura. Unsure.


I'm really thinking of doing small shoots for Kumori-con or Sakura-con. It would be fun for the those moments where there isn't much to do. Plus once I gain the skill and the friends/clints I could charge a small fee. Most likely around 5$.


Now on to posing. Because you can't have a good picture without POSING!!!! Believe me we made this noob mistake and our pictures always turn out the same. Sadly we changed this for our picture shoot and never got the pictures (They were so cute!)  But we learned if we want good pictures to enter into cosplay contests we need to pose. And believe it or not but posing is rather easy. (I might be going off topic and jumpy, forgive me I'm not well right now. Going to the doctor this week.)

Since Tsubasa is our new cosplay I'll use that as an example.

Since we do couple cosplays posing is rather simple and easy, we can do the same type of posing for each cosplay. It also helps we're engaged so we aren't shy of holding each other. I'm going to link a few good posing examples from DA at the end but I may not post all of them now because I'm starting to feel icky again.

Here are some poses we plan on doing for our Tsubasa cosplay

Fierce....



He's ready to attack, keeping Sakura close with his staff drawn. Sakura looks worried, maybe scared. Those emotions should show, even if your using your eyes. And yes, you can put that emotion in your eyes. It will show up in photos.

 
Romantic...

 Again Syaron's expression is fierce, he's ready to protect her. While she's more in awe, loving staring out at the camera. Both are turn sideways but are making sure to face the camera while holding holding each other close, their hands touching. It's softer than the first one, more personal. You can sense they are in love but are still a bit shy.

Fun...

Big smiles. Wide, open eyes. Even the pose, how their bodies are is fun and care free. Notice Syaron is still in character. He's smiling but it seems off, maybe forced or caught off guard.








-----Will finish tomorrow.-------

Kumori-con plans and goals, plus Sakura-con ideas

I haven't written on either of my blogs for a while and it's annoying me that I have more views than posts on here. So I'm going to try to post more. Since there is only...two months left until Kumori-con I thought that might be the best topic to write about.


[x] Booked hotel room
[]Ordered costumes
[x]Ordered accessorizes (Wigs, shoes,ect.)
 [] Finished props


Day 0- Lolita
Day 1-Sharon (Pandora Hearts)
Day 2 Sakura (Tsubasa)
Day 3 Sakura/lolita (Undecided)

For day zero I've planned on doing my pink lolita outfit since it's moveable and we won't be doing much besides packing up and driving over to the con space. I really need to get some good pictures of this outfit so I'm hoping after we check in and settle down in the hotel room that I can have my hubby take some of me in the park near the hotel.

Day one is when the fun starts. Although Sharon's outfit isn't very fun for me. It gets dirty easily. Plus the wig is....LONG. So it's a bit stressful to wear. If my friends from high school don't do Pandora Hearts this year then I'll most likely only be wearing it in the morning and afternoon or until I get sick of it. I plan on making more of Sharon's outfits. We may not be going to the photo shoot either if our friends don't go.

Day two is going to be the best day. I'll finally be able to wear my brand new cosplay, Sakura. I'm really looking forward to wearing the Hanfu since I've always wanted one. Plus it's light weight so I won't be dying in it like Sharon's gown. We will be going to the photo shoot in this cosplay.

Day three always seems to be dead so I think either Sakura or lolita will have to be my choices. Last year we left early. This year I really don't want to so we'll most likely hang out in the park doing some photos of ourselves. Since I no longer trust "professional" photographers (I will do a huge rant about this later.)


Goals:
1. Make some new friends
2. Do one thing I wouldn't normally (Cosplay Chess!)   Doing photography (Private shoots) instead
3. Go to at least two panels
4. Take photos (Of us and other cosplayers)

Not many goals but maybe I'll come up with more as time goes on.








Sakura-con 2013

Will be very awesome since Sakura-con is ALWAYS awesome. So far we're planing....

Sakura
Yuko (XXXHolic)
Sharon (Pandora Hearts)

Maybes

Undertaker- Black Butler
Antoinette- Harvest Moon Grand Bazaar
Riza Hawkeye- FMA




I'm really hoping to get more involved in cons. Doing cosplay chess, panels (Although none this year, sadly. ;_;) ect. Just to get the full affect of cons. I'm also planning on starting up sewing and embroidery, so if I'm able to do so I'll try to make our costumes for Sakura-con. :D