I´m back!

Has it really been a year? Why yes, it has!

I´m sorry to have left my blog quite unattended.....but I wasn´t feeling motivated towards keeping up a blog at all, not even my personal one. I´ve kinda drifted away from lolita fashion since, but I´m still cosplaying strongly! My first year teaching has also been quite wonderful and successful, in my opinion! (I´ve still got one moth left; God, how I´m gonna miss my kids!)

Anyhow, here´s a bit of a preview of the things I´ve been up to in this past year. I promise that I´ll get more into detail about each cosplay soon!

(As always, special thanks to the two photographers in my life, who are also awsome friends: Jonathan and Flor. Though this pic was taken by my wonderful friend Nane. <3)

Expomanga Sunday Cosplay: Ikkitousen

Hello everyone! Long time no see! I promise that now that the rush for the exams and the cons are both over, I´ll be updating this blog with more cosplay stuff, from tutorials to just random pics of my cosplays and other people´s cosplays.

I´m going to start this out of order, because I want to dedicate a slightly larger post to my Saturday cosplay, and I still need to look up nice pictures (I ended up epic failing at taking pictures at the con....luckily I got lots taken).

On Sunday (The 13th?) I was initially planning to cosplay Youko from the 12 Kingdoms anime and novels. I´ve always wanted to do that cosplay, and have spend a pretty penny buying jade beads and such to make nice accesories.

I wanted to do this version.

Unfortunately, we had a heat wave this past weekend, and it´s only now that the tempreatures are edging back (in fact, we´re going to have a cold snap this weekend....crazy weather). As you can see, Youko wear 3 top layers and 2 bottom layers.....which is not compatible with 30ºC+ weather.

In a last-minute change, I was forced to speed-sew something much much cooler which would allow me to wander around the con without fainting (or getting many pictures taken, really).

I teamed up with my friend S and we cosplayed from Ikkitousen. It´s a manga also known as "Battle Vixens". The name says it all, right? I cosplayed this girl:

Her name is Choun Shiryuu.

And here is the one picture I´ve managed to get taken of me.

Not bad, not bad. Must learn to raise my leg higher. The wig is white, but.....I don´t own any grey ones. Most of the figures tend to favor whiter hair anyhow.

I plan on taking a few more soon; ones that properly show off the skirt´s pleating. It turned out really nice, in my opinion.

Hauls: Minitaladro (Minidrill)

Hello everyone! Long time no see! I just wanted to share today what I bought yesterday to help me with my future prop-making projects for cosplay.

I have no idea what it´s called in English, though--feel free to tell me! It´s like a mini-drill, oly it has a lot of different attachments which can be used for a lot of things--from sanding to drilling to shaping, apparently. I´ve never had anything like this, but I can definitely see its multiple future uses!!

I won´t be using it for my Goddess Harp, since I´ll be constructing that out of softer materials, but I can see how it´ll really help me out with detailing in pieces (such as Lady Sun´s Hula Hoops!).

This is one of those things that I´m really glad I found on sale for a decent price.

Expect pictures of the Goddess Harp construction soon--I´ve been away from cosplay awhile due to studies, but I hope to be back soon.....

Mulan Photos

So, it came to my attention (yesterday no less!) that I haven´t shared pictures of some of my less recent cosplays.

Specifically, of my Mulan cosplay. I made it for a Disney Princess group that got together in May 2011. I kept on putting off showing the pictures because, well--I have no good pictures of the outfit (only ones from after hours of sweating and wandering around and stuff all day, pretty much). But I´ll share the few I do have. Since I plan on fixing a few things of this cosplay, there´s a rather large chance of my re-wearing it and therefore getting nice pictures of it. Hopefully. If not, there´s always my garden, which has a pond--yay for Mulan-staring-at-pond pictures? I need to buy myself a tripod. Preferrably one of those monkey ones that bend and twist around anything so you can get interesting pictures.

My one and only professional picture of the cosplay.

Our whole Disney group (technically, it was a Kilala Princess group, but it evolved)

Jasmine was one of the group organizers; she´s insanely nice. We (Anastasia and I) helped her sew her outfit.

My makeup was SO messed up by the end of the day.

Sadly, it blurred. We have no idea why. : /

Mulan is mad. Anastasia is evil. ´Nuff said.

The whole outfit was made out of Mikado silk (yes, that´s why it´s somewhat shiny) and chinese brocade. The only non-silk or brocade item in the whole outfit is the central pink belt, because I was looking for a nice solid pink color that was close to the one from the Mulan images, and that was the closest I found.

The silk was OK to sew, but the brocade was horrible. Slippery-slidy and it kept on having lose threads. I was forced to  do zigzagged and folded over seams to make it work.

Version 2.0 will have a more corsetted blue part; as it was I went with a traditional folding patterns and then added a zipper. Thank god the sash was tied tightly; it really pulled the outfit together, hahaha.

My favorite part of this cosplay? The flower haircomb (which I ordered specially online) and the sword. I also wanted to get a Mushu, but those are insanely hard to find now, apparently. People at the Disney store said I´d have to wait for a Mulan movie re-release to get one. *irritated* And Ebay is no help at all (60USD plus shipping for an 6inch plushie? As if!).

Mulan has always been my favorite Disney princess, so it was a pleasure to "be her" for a day.

To all of you Mulan haters who say she isn´t a "real" princess: Disney says she is. There you have it, the almighty creator has decreed her status. Deal.

Photograph mention

My photographer got mentioned on a Marvel fanpage! : 3 So exciting!

Check it out here:

Maaaaaarvel!!

Lady Thor: second round of photos

Here goes the second round of photos of Lady Thor with the same credit going to Eylin da Cyel:

Skrull version of the Avengers

And lastly, a "street snap" that got taken of us at the Con:

How to be a Happy Cosplayer

I found this (translated into Spanish) on one of my friend´s blogs. They, in turn, found it on Deviantart, here.

It is a really interesting illustrated list of what a cosplayer needs to keep in mind in order to be happy. I especially agree with the one that explains "Life vs. Cosplay"....especially since I had to make that very same choice for this last Con in December: study for my teaching exams, which might determine my future and get me a job....or sew two cosplays for the con. I chose the former, and am very happy about it. In the end, I did get time to complete one of the two cosplays, which isn´t that bad, and still satisfied my cosplay craving.

Do you agree or disagree with any or all of the listed "have to"s?

Next goal: Japan Weekend Madrid 2012

Next goal is set: Japan Weekend Madrid on the 11th and 12th of February, 2012!! I´ll be completing my Lady Sun outfit for then, and praying it won´t be too cold. I had enough of that with Lady Thor in December. *shivers*

(She is so darned cool. Now I just have to practice with the Hula-hoops of Doom and be able to actually wield them somewhat, at least for photos.... =.= As soon as I paint them, I´m gonna start practicing).

LipDub Video at Expocomic 2011

Well, while at Expocomic, this girl walked up to us and said "I´m doing a Lipdub video for Expocomic. Wanna be in it?" Despite my hesitation, Loki prodded me into it. I´d never done a lipdub before, but she had (my Loki has experience!!).

So we´re in it!! Only one of the scenes that she taped us is in it....2 seconds of fame and glory (or not XD). We´re at 2:02. It´s funny, the one I liked was the one where we posed and said "I´m sexy and I know it" but the one that got put on was my awkward dancing. RoFl. 

I´m happy that you don´t actually see my face. Because, wel.....awkward dancing is awkward. 

Lady Thor: first photos

I finally have two photos of my Lady Thor cosplay. I hope to get more soon, since I was lucky enough to get together with an Avengers group who had a wonderful and talented photographer, so.....she took photos of everyone and has promised to photoshop nice thunder effects into Thor´s images!

 

I´m Photoshop-impaired. I really admire people who can manage feats like that. It´s even more admirable when the photographer in question is actually a talented photographer. So, on to the photos:

This photograph is by Eylin Da Cyel. All credit  of photo-taking genius and photoshopping is hers. Here is her facebook, and here is her deviantart (she goes by the name "Whitelemon").

After that, any pictures would look a bit amateur. Here is the other one I currently have (hopefully, more will turn up later).

A full body shot, with Powergirl (who I´s just met) and my Loki. A lot of people found it funny that Thor and Loki were both genderbent and actually getting along well. 

Here´s a crop of my outfit. It´s a shame that my hair is covering my silver discs and cape-brooches (a shame. I really fiddled around with them to make them functional). I´ll definitely be doing a decent 2.0 version of this cosplay for the Avengers movie release in May. 

Tweaking the brooches and fixing my wig´s hair (into larger front braids, probably) will be first on that list. Well, right after fixing the tiara. I dropped it minutes into the con and had to haphazardly tape part of one of the wings so that it re-attached to the tiara (Or rather, the section of the tiara with the wind unglued from the headband I used as a base....). In the end, what worked better than tape was a bobby pin (yep. I was surprised too). My friend Loki also had a similar problem with her horns.....

Lady Thor props: hammer and winged headband progress

Almost done!!

As of tonight, this is what everything looks like:

 

The only thing left to do is paint them, glue the wings onto the forehead-headband and wrap the hammer´s grip. All of which can hopefully be accomplished tomorrow morning. Yay!!

Making the hammer was a killer--covering everything with "fun foam" so that it´s even and flat is one thing, but making up for mistakes while cutting and uneveness while doing that is another....What´s great is that it´s extremely light: the only thing that really weighs in the wooden dowel. The actual head of the hammer is as light as a feather. Swinging it around will be easy and fun.

Crossplay: Female-to-male

What is "crossplay"?

It is a term coined from the mix of "cross-(gender)" and "cosplay". It refers to any situation in which a person decides to dress and act like a character (anime, videogame, book, etc.) of the opposite gender. While it can be used to refer to both male-to-female and female-to-male costume-wearing, it is used more generally to mean the latter. It´s less socially accepted for a man to dress as a woman, than the other way around, and therefore easier to find a female posing as a male than the other way around.

My personal experience is in the realm of female-to-male crossplay, naturally. I don´t have any male friends who have ever been willing to dress like a woman (much less crossplay), to my regret. Hopefully someday.....I would love to have a reverse-pair cosplay: girl cosplaying as guy and  guy as girl. Fun!

I´m fascinated by "gender bending"; I really enjoy reading manga that deal with this topic because it´s delightful (and a guaranteed laugh) to see all of the characters scrambling around in awkward situations without knowing that the reason they´re feeling awkward is that the "guy" they think they fancy is actually a girl. Or viceversa.

The one cosplay that I have determined I will do, without a doubt is even more confusing: I want to crossplay a guy crossplaying a girl. Meaning, essentially, it´s plain cosplay, but not quite, because you have to retain a "male" personality. Where can you find this insaneley strange plot device? Well, it´s  a regular boy-as-girl manga, only the reason the main character crossdresses is not because he wants to--it´s because he´s a member of a kabuki troupe, and he´s one of those boys who "plays" a woman. It´s called KUNISAKI IZUMO NO JIJOU.

Anyhow, it should be obvious--a woman generally doesn´t look like a man. So, when it comes to disguising oneself, you really have to pay attention to, amongst other things:

1. Your chest. Chest-binding of some sort, even it it´s just a sports bra over your A-cups, is important. 
2. Your hips. Boys....don´t have them. So it´s up to you to disguise them. Sometimes padding works, or the place where your pants lie on your hips, or just wearing a looser top. Whatever you can adjust from the character´s outfit.
3. Your butt. Ours tend to be curvier. Sometimes you can make them seem less with the cut of your pants.
4. Your face. Guys tend to have higher or at least more prominent cheek bones. While you can´t actually change your facial structure without the use of surgery, the clever use of contouring and reflection makeup on your face can make them seem more prominent. 
5. Your walk. Guys walk differently than girls. They sit differently as well. Observe the nearest guy to you and compare. What does he do when he walks or sits down? What doesn`t he do?

 And even then, the differences between a guy and a girl will probably still be obvious:

Do pardon my derpy face and wierd armor bump....it had been a long day and it was my first "real" cosplay. But you get it, right? Our facial structures aren´t that similar. To say the least, my chin is more delicate than his (XD). My face is thinner. Truthfully, when it comes to handsome anime characters, girls usually have the advantage: anime guys are somewhat "girly". To be handsome or beautiful in an anime generally calls for softer features. Some "guys" will be best played by "girls".

To set an example out of the anime and manga sphere.....what did the best elves in the Lord of the Rings movies all have in common?




Legolas.....

Haldir and Co....... (Haldir was a bit of a chubby-face elf, though. XD).

Random elf #4......

And the rest of the elf parade!!


(.....I totally want their robes.)






So, have you seen it yet? All these pretty boys that every single woman that watched LotR sighed over (you know you did, admit it!!) have in common.....their "ethereal" features! Or, in other words, they´re girly. Their facial features are generally thin, long, and more towards the rounded edge of things. (No rugged elves. Leave that to the rangers, along with dubious hygiene.).

Basically, elves=effeminate men=good crossplay material.

To generalize: effeminate men=good crossplay material.

Not to say that a woman can´t manage "rugged" or "bearded":

Yep, both of them are women.










Anyhow, I find this a really interesting phenomenon, and as a part of "cosplay", I will definitely come back to it another day to continue.  Meanwhile here is a website that has some interesting tips for crossplayers: Cosplay Island.

To finish everything off, I leave you a picture of my favorite crossplayer of all time: Pikminlink. Her face will always make my heart doki-doki, no matter that she´s a girl, she´s Link come to life.

Meet my Darling

Well, since I haven´t been able to post any progress pics of my Female Thor lately--because I´ve been and still am studying for my exams--I thought I might as well show you a picture of that great machine that´s behind the construction of all of my cosplays. Darling has accompanied me in my cosplay journey ever since I sewed my first cosplay-oriented stitch.

It´s really old for a sewing machine: about 15 years, probably; I inherited  it from my mother, who´s not fond of sewing (makes me wonder why she even bought the machine, frankly). It´s a SINGER sewing machine; without a lot of the fancy stuff that machines can do nowadays.....but hey, at least it has 10 kinds of stitches and is easy to use. The only problem it´s had so far was once, when the light bulb burned out and I had to change it.  

I keep on discovering more about this sewing machine every time I use it. The most recent thing I noticed: it actually has a little "blade" on its side so I can cut thread when I´m done sewing without resorting to scissors.

I love my machine; it´s a great brand; whenever I have to buy my next one I´ll definitely be getting a Singer, because they´re built to last.

Cosplay inspiration: Pikminlink

I admire and fangirl Pikminlink beyond the limits of fangirling. This is the Link cosplay and crossplaying that I aspire to.

All credit for the image goes to consplayers.com.

On Closet Cosplay and Hetalia

While I´m not a fan of "closet cosplay", I must admit that sometimes this sort of costume comes in handy.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a "closet cosplay" is any cosplay that can (and is) made out of items that you can pull out of your closet or wardrobe and put on. No modification or sewing is needed, just an eye for coordination and a brain capable of computing and generalizing.

This kind of cosplay can lead to attempts such as this one:

 Sorry, you´re cute, but......two pigtails and a Death Note do not make a Misa-Misa cosplay....you need something more in-character and similar to what she´d wear, at least...

On the other hand, it can also lead to attempts like this one:

In which the color of the vest might be off, and his formal outfit not worn, but the general look of the character and what he´d wear is pretty much spot-on.

Why mention this kind of cosplay? Well, I´ll probably embark on my own casual closet cosplay soon. With exams coming up, and having had to cancel (probably) one of my December cosplays.....I want to dedicate what little time I have to Thor.

Yet, I have been invited to a casual Hetalia Invasion of IKEA in two weeks...I have no time to make anything decent, and no wish to spend time doing so. I still want to meet people (new people!!), and I still want to wear something nice if I can, so I´ve submitted (pending approval by the Hetalia group coordinator) my idea:

The idea is cosplaying Female England, Gakuen version (the blondie to the right). This is apparently from "Nyotalia".......a genderbending of the Hetalia characters.....go figure.....I´ve only watched the first season of Hetalia, frankly.....I might pick up where I left off, though. I´m fascinated by genderbending.

So, I have the tartan short skirt; I have a white shirt, I have the wig, I have the hair clips, I have the beige-ish v-neck sweater.....I even have school-issue shoes and a red neckbow (which I might substitute for a red or black tie.....as I´ve seen in other images of her). If needed, I even have a black blazer (it´s apparently a part of the uniform, though it doesn´t appear here). I´m only missing the black socks (I only have a pair of  navy blue and a pair of white  kneesocks), which is easily remedied going to the cornerstore.

I could technically go with either a tie or a bow, or a black v-neck (which I also have) instead of a beige one....As well as a solid red skirt (which I don´t have--lucky there´s a tartan uniform version!).






So, that is a closet cosplay. I literally have everything I need for this character, without having to buy anything--after all, I could probably use the navy blue socks if I wanted to. The tartan might be slightly different, or the beige lighter than in the pictures.....but it´ll still be recognizable as the character.

I think that that´s what´s especially important with closet cosplays. Since it´s something you get out of your wardrobe and supposedly don´t modify, it´s natural that it´s not exactly the same as what the character is wearing in its series. What´s important, really, is that it´s similar or it´s something within the style of what that character would actually wear. Insomuch as an animated character can pick what to wear, of course.

What do you think? Do you like or dislike this kind of cosplay?

Next cosplay projects: December 2011

So, I won´t be cosplaying that pumpkin girl this Halloween.......in the end I can´t go to the Con in Barcelona.....what a shame.... *sigh* darned economy.

But instead, I´ve set up not one, but two cosplays in the "to-do" list for December. Sun Xiang has been relegated to next February. Sorry, Lady Sun!!

The two that I´m going to sew and make are:

Aramis, from The Three Musketeers (because I have been fangirling him ever since I read the book in 5th or 6th grade). So.....a crossplay. A complicated one, at that (so many layers! so many textures!). I will have to wear a moustache and goatee, hahaha. S will be my Athos, so we´ll actually be missing one musketeer...the aparently least-loved one, Porthos.....

December cosplay number two will be (*dramatic drumroll*):

Thor, the goddess of Thunder. Yep, the goddess of Thunder. Thor actually gets turned into a woman in the Earth X comics universe. It´s situation that I love, since I adore genderbending, gender awkwardness and wierd situations. I´ll be accompanied by S as Female Loki. We will probably participate in our first cosplay contest with this pair.

Needless to say, I might modify the costume a teensy bit.....if I lower the boot length, I might not look like I have....erm...."thunder thighs"? Never said better. I think that OTK boots would make any woman look like she has huge thighs, personally. So I might end up doing another of "Lady Thor´s" versions instead of this one. One thing is for sure though: I AM making a Mjölnir: no ifs, ands or buts. I want a Hammer of Doom.  I´m getting Madonna flashbacks every time I look at her chest, though. *facepalm*

Princess Zelda: full outfit shots

Well, I hope to be able to take nicer pictures within a few weekends, in my garden. I have to re-do my wig, though, because I unbraided all its sections on Saturday. I was afraid of the wig hair deforming. I´ll make a Zelda Hair tutorial while I´m at it, I think.

Birdie wanted me to poke him. No, really. 


I like how nicely you can see the side-skirt design in this picture.

My elf ears were my favorite part of the whole "makeup" for Zelda. They are so darned fun to wear. Not many people think about it, but her ears are an essential part of her character!!

When Birdies attack. Boy, was it hot in the con. It was even worse when you had to hold a very fuzzy plushie that naturally warms as the day goes on. I literally found the solution ot the problem by using my head.










All three photos were taken by my friend S. yay for the photographer! Though getting a professional photographer sometime would be really really cool, for once....

Zelda Progress: Dress & Painting

I didn´t take any pictures of the making of the dress because it was such a huried process, and had a lot of trial-and error in it. I am never again using a sleeveless dress as a base pattern for a dress with sleeves--it´s too complicated to fit the sleeves in the end, especitty when like me you´re not used to attaching sleeves. *sigh*. Also, I somehow made the dress too big for me, so despite my wish to make it a one-pice, seamless dresss (well, minus the side seams), I had to add darts at the front and back. I also cut the top too muchh: the boat neck ended up being too wide to be held up by my shoulders alone, and showed off my bra straps...luckily, Zelda ties her capelet under her armpits and around her back, so the bra straps and neck weren´t a problem at all. It still bothers me a bit though, so  maybe I´ll remake it sometime.

The finished (sewing-wise) dress, ready for me to paint the patterns on. I drew the designs on first in my trusty silver chalk pencil (which is conveniently erasable with a regular eraser).

Closeup of the rectangular design in silver.
 

After that, I traced over the outline in  gold fabric paint.

I started filling it in to make the solid design I needed.... And this was the end result:

Closeup of the neck area with the embedded jewel section..... I really like that wierd sort of squarish curl at the top. It was fun to paint.

The sleeves also had a square "U" design on them.  It was hard to make a pattern for it; I ended up grabbing a measuring tape and just going with that.

There we go. both sides painted, all designs complete. I averaged around two hours for each side (painting the rectangle design) and about forty minutes per side for the other designs (boat neck, sleeves and front pendant section). Took longer than I thought it would. I had to paint it twice, so that the gold color was "solid" enough, and there was no magenta from the dress bleeding through. All in all, I used about a whole small bottle of paint for this whole project. Whew. 

I haven´t taken any pictures of the capelet...it´s a semicircle, roughtly 70cm in diameter, with two ribbons sewn to the ends. It perfectly reaches my elbows, like it should. I made it using some leftover raw silk from my Mulan outfit and another leftover piece of white cloth that I had lying around. I needed to use two because both of them were too thin to use by themselves.