Anime Central Cosplay
So as some or most of you know, I'm going to be going to Anime Central (Or ACEN) yet again. It's funny how it’s been about five years that we've been going to the show and each year gets more elaborate for me with the costumes I pick. Unfortunately my sewing skills are in the lacking so I have to make my costumes from pre-rendered outfits. However that has yet to stop me from creating some cool cosplay, and on the plus, it's making me interested in sewing again and I'm planning on learning to make a costume for next year over the summer; Hopefully will not be too hard to tackle.
As for costumes this year I'm going with five cosplays! Two from the east, two from the west, and one based on a book/musical that has no real predisposed costume; First and foremost I'd like to note that the influence of one costume came from me finding the right color dress for it, rather than just me seeing the series and dressing as her. Although now that I'm watching it, it seems like a show I would probably get into if certain animation dubbing companies would kindly bring it out state side. But I digress...
Carmen Sandiego
My original pictures of this costume were lost thanks to certain family members, but I'm going to try to get a lot of photos this year. Carmen was created two years ago back in 2009 for Acen, and as I'm a huge fan, I wanted to try to cosplay something that I thought people would get a kick out of seeing. I was pleasantly surprised last year when I saw a number of Carmen’s walking around. Hopefully I can get more shots, and take a photo shoot as her before the convention.
The coat that I have was purchased through the Spiegel’s catalogue, by the way very nice company, and the hat that I have was ordered through a hat company in California. It's actually rather cool that I wound up wrapping a yellow spandex band around it from my father's costume as a means to give her the trade mark fedora. The gloves are Isotones winter gloves, and really nice feeling, shoes were bought at a small shop at the mall nearest me. Yes I know in a way it's cheating since there are people that will build this outfit from scratch, but I'm not there yet so I can't.
Carmen holds a special place in my heart as she's a character that I really loved as a child and was happy to play in public.
Princess Sara, Orange Pearl Voice, Ultimate Variant
Princess Sara of the Indian Ocean is the oldest member of the Princess Idol group of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. At first a villain known as the Black Pearl, she gave herself to the main antagonist of the series due to her lover not showing up to meet her (at least in the anime version). She later reforms and helps the hero's defeat the bad guy locking herself up with him as a means of sealing him.
When I first saw her I was happy to finally find a more busty older female lead to try to cosplay, and the fun thing is that she works as a person. Confident for the most part, Sara is sort of the older sister type, which is a plus for me on a personal level, though she makes terrible choices in the fact that she destroys her own kingdom out of anger for losing her lover.
Her costume design is rather simple, and I lucked out finding a correct color prom dress to use to make this outfit. Because I can't slit the dress up the side as she has, I decided to make her out to be the Ultimate form, if the girls had one. Right now I haven't had a chance to get the dress adorn with the proper ruffles and such due to the fact that the dress had to be altered some. (Zipper had issues and had to be replaced.)
What I am working on is her necklace. Each of the girls has one, and in Sara's case it's the orange pearl, a sea shell necklace that holds the magic of her abilities in a small pearl. I'm going to base the design of it on this lovely creation by Il Girasole, who made these lovely versions of the necklaces for the main three players.
Also I'm working on Sara's gloves, my plans are to use armature wiring to get the stay up effect and, if that doesn't work, then thin Popsicle sticks cut in half to act as a stiffening agent. The mic is what is really going to be a killer as I need to find the right type of hair brushes to alter. Between I'm putting foam, then painting.
Wanda from the Fairly Odd Parents
Okay this one wasn't one I was planning on doing this year, but asked to do, and how can I say no to such a cute idea. My friend is coming with me to Acen this year, and he suggested (since he has the green wig for it) that we should do Cosmo and Wanda from FOP. Now I haven't had time to keep up with the series but Wanda and Cosmo certainly made a fun pair to cosplay as, and their outfits are not too hard either.
I already had the yellow shirt and black pants and black shoes. The only thing that I'm going to be making for her is her crown, and wand and styling her wig. For the crown I have some very nice foam, which I'm going to cut and hot glue, along with a thin wire into her wig to hold it up. Her wand and Cosmo's wand will be made from wood and foam.
Also along for the ride will be a created baby Poof, and a book of Da Rules. Both of these my friend asked to make with me when he comes for the week before Acen, so that is our plan. What else is there to say other then he's bringing the wings, and I am going to have a fun time styling the wigs. More on that when the time comes.
Rinslet Walker From Black Cat
I outright admit I adore this character and have since I first picked up the Black Cat series, but I was never sure how to create her look since a lot of the time she was usually dressed in a variety of costumes. My choice though was this one since it seemed the best one to do in case of cool weather.
She's a hundred percent finished as of this day and time. Again almost all her pieces came from my own wardrobe, saving for the wig. I've created her heart pendent which took a day to do, but was a lot of fun.
I used red and gold acrylic paint over a base heart that I purchased to create as close a replica as I could to the heart. The necklace will be two different chains that I found that suit what I need to give Rins her trademark chokers.
I've also made some rather cool cat bombs for my friends cosplay as Sven Vollfield. Each bomb has been painted with two layers of white gloss base, three layers of white, and then three layers of red acrylic paint, followed by painting the cat face on with size 2 brush for the details, which took forever to do and get right.
White Masquerade Domino From Phantom of the Opera
This one has no picture for the full image since this cosplay is based on the background dancers and singers at the Masquerade sequence of Phantom of the Opera. My sister and I wanted to pay tribute to it without having them wear something way to heavy and bulky for the weather. So we came up with a slightly modern twist and still kept in character.
While I'm playing the white domino she is playing the Black one. Her character is a regal lady, and her outfit will show this with a long half skirt, and various items that imply well off woman of wealth, while mine is the fool, clown, or what have you dressed as a clown angel being that attends to the lady.
So far what we have done is the outfits, and we're working on the props now.
This is my sister's mask that she has finished,
My Hat which I think I should trim some of the curls
And my mask which is unfinished but I hope that it soon will be.
I still have a lot of work to do on that one. I hope to get it done soon.
As for costumes this year I'm going with five cosplays! Two from the east, two from the west, and one based on a book/musical that has no real predisposed costume; First and foremost I'd like to note that the influence of one costume came from me finding the right color dress for it, rather than just me seeing the series and dressing as her. Although now that I'm watching it, it seems like a show I would probably get into if certain animation dubbing companies would kindly bring it out state side. But I digress...
Carmen Sandiego
My original pictures of this costume were lost thanks to certain family members, but I'm going to try to get a lot of photos this year. Carmen was created two years ago back in 2009 for Acen, and as I'm a huge fan, I wanted to try to cosplay something that I thought people would get a kick out of seeing. I was pleasantly surprised last year when I saw a number of Carmen’s walking around. Hopefully I can get more shots, and take a photo shoot as her before the convention.
The coat that I have was purchased through the Spiegel’s catalogue, by the way very nice company, and the hat that I have was ordered through a hat company in California. It's actually rather cool that I wound up wrapping a yellow spandex band around it from my father's costume as a means to give her the trade mark fedora. The gloves are Isotones winter gloves, and really nice feeling, shoes were bought at a small shop at the mall nearest me. Yes I know in a way it's cheating since there are people that will build this outfit from scratch, but I'm not there yet so I can't.
Carmen holds a special place in my heart as she's a character that I really loved as a child and was happy to play in public.
Princess Sara, Orange Pearl Voice, Ultimate Variant
Princess Sara of the Indian Ocean is the oldest member of the Princess Idol group of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. At first a villain known as the Black Pearl, she gave herself to the main antagonist of the series due to her lover not showing up to meet her (at least in the anime version). She later reforms and helps the hero's defeat the bad guy locking herself up with him as a means of sealing him.
When I first saw her I was happy to finally find a more busty older female lead to try to cosplay, and the fun thing is that she works as a person. Confident for the most part, Sara is sort of the older sister type, which is a plus for me on a personal level, though she makes terrible choices in the fact that she destroys her own kingdom out of anger for losing her lover.
Her costume design is rather simple, and I lucked out finding a correct color prom dress to use to make this outfit. Because I can't slit the dress up the side as she has, I decided to make her out to be the Ultimate form, if the girls had one. Right now I haven't had a chance to get the dress adorn with the proper ruffles and such due to the fact that the dress had to be altered some. (Zipper had issues and had to be replaced.)
What I am working on is her necklace. Each of the girls has one, and in Sara's case it's the orange pearl, a sea shell necklace that holds the magic of her abilities in a small pearl. I'm going to base the design of it on this lovely creation by Il Girasole, who made these lovely versions of the necklaces for the main three players.
Also I'm working on Sara's gloves, my plans are to use armature wiring to get the stay up effect and, if that doesn't work, then thin Popsicle sticks cut in half to act as a stiffening agent. The mic is what is really going to be a killer as I need to find the right type of hair brushes to alter. Between I'm putting foam, then painting.
Wanda from the Fairly Odd Parents
Okay this one wasn't one I was planning on doing this year, but asked to do, and how can I say no to such a cute idea. My friend is coming with me to Acen this year, and he suggested (since he has the green wig for it) that we should do Cosmo and Wanda from FOP. Now I haven't had time to keep up with the series but Wanda and Cosmo certainly made a fun pair to cosplay as, and their outfits are not too hard either.
I already had the yellow shirt and black pants and black shoes. The only thing that I'm going to be making for her is her crown, and wand and styling her wig. For the crown I have some very nice foam, which I'm going to cut and hot glue, along with a thin wire into her wig to hold it up. Her wand and Cosmo's wand will be made from wood and foam.
Also along for the ride will be a created baby Poof, and a book of Da Rules. Both of these my friend asked to make with me when he comes for the week before Acen, so that is our plan. What else is there to say other then he's bringing the wings, and I am going to have a fun time styling the wigs. More on that when the time comes.
Rinslet Walker From Black Cat
I outright admit I adore this character and have since I first picked up the Black Cat series, but I was never sure how to create her look since a lot of the time she was usually dressed in a variety of costumes. My choice though was this one since it seemed the best one to do in case of cool weather.
She's a hundred percent finished as of this day and time. Again almost all her pieces came from my own wardrobe, saving for the wig. I've created her heart pendent which took a day to do, but was a lot of fun.
I used red and gold acrylic paint over a base heart that I purchased to create as close a replica as I could to the heart. The necklace will be two different chains that I found that suit what I need to give Rins her trademark chokers.
I've also made some rather cool cat bombs for my friends cosplay as Sven Vollfield. Each bomb has been painted with two layers of white gloss base, three layers of white, and then three layers of red acrylic paint, followed by painting the cat face on with size 2 brush for the details, which took forever to do and get right.
White Masquerade Domino From Phantom of the Opera
This one has no picture for the full image since this cosplay is based on the background dancers and singers at the Masquerade sequence of Phantom of the Opera. My sister and I wanted to pay tribute to it without having them wear something way to heavy and bulky for the weather. So we came up with a slightly modern twist and still kept in character.
While I'm playing the white domino she is playing the Black one. Her character is a regal lady, and her outfit will show this with a long half skirt, and various items that imply well off woman of wealth, while mine is the fool, clown, or what have you dressed as a clown angel being that attends to the lady.
So far what we have done is the outfits, and we're working on the props now.
This is my sister's mask that she has finished,
My Hat which I think I should trim some of the curls
And my mask which is unfinished but I hope that it soon will be.
I still have a lot of work to do on that one. I hope to get it done soon.