May the 31st and June the 1st: Back from the con!
Got back Sunday half dead and I will get a con report up this year, promise! It'll even include precon and my Joe Biden fairy dream (I'm actually PROUD of how strange that one way). Animazement was amazing this year and by this point I have stopped feeling jealous of people on the internet who seem to have amazing groups of people to hang out with since I was with very awesome people all weekend. Still a bit jealous of those who have cosplay groups though, but I have plans for that. ;P
Anyway, overview of my cosplays for the weekend (and next year I think I'll have to post pictures of me with my normal haircut and then with my wigs on FB first so people from college recognize me, didn't help when I realized none of them had ever seen me in contacts either).
Kim- Apart from the fact that I really should've styled the wig (just too damn scared of messing it up) Kim was alright, made better when I found out that my cheese-grater-turned-lantern scared the crap out of someone who had a cheese grater phobia (and I'm not making that up!). Was a bit annoyed though that the only people at the shoot who recognized me (and I was pretty clearly in the new Spartoi uniform, and by new I mean it's been in the manga for about a year or so) were other people who did that version. I mean, I don't want to hate on all the fans who only watch the anime and don't read the original, but if you're cosplaying a series you should be pretty up to date on it (or at least planning on doing so later). I'll probably bring this outfit back for shoots in the future but since this one has a bit of a flashing problem and recognition issues I don't expect to wear it much else.
Christie-Really wasn't sure how often I would get recognized since this is from an OEL manga and I'm pretty sure I'm either the first or only person to make this cosplay. But, as Woku noted later in the weekend, if you cosplay from a well known series people only notice if your cosplay is really good/unique. If you cosplay from an obscure series, even if your outfit isn't perfect, people flip out. I had a few people ask me what I was doing and after I explained they were all pretty excited. Heck, one girl kinda chased me down to give me a hug and get a picture and I had one girl recognize me Friday night, didn't have her camera with her, and then finally find me on Sunday when I was wearing it again (which made me super happy). So, even though the outfit has issues (gaaahhhh, wanna remake most of it but I'm too lazy) I'll be bringing that back to other cons and see if more people know it. And send the picture to Svet once I find a good one, she loves fanart so I can only imagine she'd be happy to see more DramaCon cosplay.
Echo-This one also had flashing issues, both up top (realized that the fabric was a bit more see through that it had previously seemed, fixed that) and down below (booty sorts please!). Annoyed that, even though I made it really fast, I tried to make it as good as I could that fast and it just didn't seem to work. Have an idea or two for fixing it but there isn't a ton I can do. Not sure if I'll bring it back or not, but I still want to do Echo's festival outfit next year (oh dear lord, POOFY PETTICOATS AHOY!).
Erika-Erika turned out to be insanely fun to cosplay (I get to be a yaoi fangirl!). The outfit worked out better than I expected (even if I had to borrow El's hooker boots and need to make a proper hat) and it's pretty simple too. Do not recommend wearing a long black dress in late-May though, had that problem with a lot of my cosplays since I made them when I had to wear five layers to go around outside. Bringing her back for sure and hope we get a more varied group next year.
Didn't do much Monday, did get over to Ed McKay's to get a bit of store credit and the weather was so freaky! It got dark just minutes before we left, rained, rained harder (hard enough we were wondering if it hailed), repeated that two more times, and then monsooned once we were indoors. A lot of people were hanging out by the front of the store to see if it would let up enough for a run to the car. Cold water too, ugh, and the clouds were looking dramatic around here again today but didn't actually do anything. Saw a lot of them as I went job hunting down the Elm street area. Not as many places to hit up as I hoped, going for all the food ones, but the strange thing is that, walking down the street, you have no idea what decade it is. Between the 1930s-esque old brick with faded paint and new ivy buildings and the worn stone buildings which still have really detailed carvings, the trees, lampposts with hanging flower baskets, and even the buildings themselves (a lot of places for sale/rent, some modern-ish food places and a good number of indie shops) it feels like a retro that never happened. I like it but get the feeling it wouldn't take much for the area to go from retro to just plain poor. Of course, I bet if we weren't still in/getting out of this recession it would have fewer empty shops but I do wonder, it's going to take a bit longer to get out of it there. Need to get more photos of it once I get a new camera.
And that's it, got either an 8 am or 8:45 doctors appointment tomorrow morning (uggghhhh) so I really need to get off to bed soon. Not really tired though, think I'll grab some toast and a book to see if that helps. I do have that book of 1920s fashion too... Also need to get started on my mango (nanomango?) tomorrow, need to re-read over my nano and storyboard out the 30 pages, I think the first chapter should be around 30 pages, if not then I need to get to work on chapter two and send it off to shader for proofing I suppose. Signing off!
Anyway, overview of my cosplays for the weekend (and next year I think I'll have to post pictures of me with my normal haircut and then with my wigs on FB first so people from college recognize me, didn't help when I realized none of them had ever seen me in contacts either).
Kim- Apart from the fact that I really should've styled the wig (just too damn scared of messing it up) Kim was alright, made better when I found out that my cheese-grater-turned-lantern scared the crap out of someone who had a cheese grater phobia (and I'm not making that up!). Was a bit annoyed though that the only people at the shoot who recognized me (and I was pretty clearly in the new Spartoi uniform, and by new I mean it's been in the manga for about a year or so) were other people who did that version. I mean, I don't want to hate on all the fans who only watch the anime and don't read the original, but if you're cosplaying a series you should be pretty up to date on it (or at least planning on doing so later). I'll probably bring this outfit back for shoots in the future but since this one has a bit of a flashing problem and recognition issues I don't expect to wear it much else.
Christie-Really wasn't sure how often I would get recognized since this is from an OEL manga and I'm pretty sure I'm either the first or only person to make this cosplay. But, as Woku noted later in the weekend, if you cosplay from a well known series people only notice if your cosplay is really good/unique. If you cosplay from an obscure series, even if your outfit isn't perfect, people flip out. I had a few people ask me what I was doing and after I explained they were all pretty excited. Heck, one girl kinda chased me down to give me a hug and get a picture and I had one girl recognize me Friday night, didn't have her camera with her, and then finally find me on Sunday when I was wearing it again (which made me super happy). So, even though the outfit has issues (gaaahhhh, wanna remake most of it but I'm too lazy) I'll be bringing that back to other cons and see if more people know it. And send the picture to Svet once I find a good one, she loves fanart so I can only imagine she'd be happy to see more DramaCon cosplay.
Echo-This one also had flashing issues, both up top (realized that the fabric was a bit more see through that it had previously seemed, fixed that) and down below (booty sorts please!). Annoyed that, even though I made it really fast, I tried to make it as good as I could that fast and it just didn't seem to work. Have an idea or two for fixing it but there isn't a ton I can do. Not sure if I'll bring it back or not, but I still want to do Echo's festival outfit next year (oh dear lord, POOFY PETTICOATS AHOY!).
Erika-Erika turned out to be insanely fun to cosplay (I get to be a yaoi fangirl!). The outfit worked out better than I expected (even if I had to borrow El's hooker boots and need to make a proper hat) and it's pretty simple too. Do not recommend wearing a long black dress in late-May though, had that problem with a lot of my cosplays since I made them when I had to wear five layers to go around outside. Bringing her back for sure and hope we get a more varied group next year.
Didn't do much Monday, did get over to Ed McKay's to get a bit of store credit and the weather was so freaky! It got dark just minutes before we left, rained, rained harder (hard enough we were wondering if it hailed), repeated that two more times, and then monsooned once we were indoors. A lot of people were hanging out by the front of the store to see if it would let up enough for a run to the car. Cold water too, ugh, and the clouds were looking dramatic around here again today but didn't actually do anything. Saw a lot of them as I went job hunting down the Elm street area. Not as many places to hit up as I hoped, going for all the food ones, but the strange thing is that, walking down the street, you have no idea what decade it is. Between the 1930s-esque old brick with faded paint and new ivy buildings and the worn stone buildings which still have really detailed carvings, the trees, lampposts with hanging flower baskets, and even the buildings themselves (a lot of places for sale/rent, some modern-ish food places and a good number of indie shops) it feels like a retro that never happened. I like it but get the feeling it wouldn't take much for the area to go from retro to just plain poor. Of course, I bet if we weren't still in/getting out of this recession it would have fewer empty shops but I do wonder, it's going to take a bit longer to get out of it there. Need to get more photos of it once I get a new camera.
And that's it, got either an 8 am or 8:45 doctors appointment tomorrow morning (uggghhhh) so I really need to get off to bed soon. Not really tired though, think I'll grab some toast and a book to see if that helps. I do have that book of 1920s fashion too... Also need to get started on my mango (nanomango?) tomorrow, need to re-read over my nano and storyboard out the 30 pages, I think the first chapter should be around 30 pages, if not then I need to get to work on chapter two and send it off to shader for proofing I suppose. Signing off!