Before I talk about this year's Toronto ComiCon, it's been a while, so I want to catch up on a few things real quick: I'm going to lots of cons this spring! Every other weekend, in fact, starting last week with MTCC. Here's what it looks like:
I'm making lots of things! On top of costumes for myself and collabs with friends, I'm pushing my boundaries with props, which includes having entered Worbla's TranspART contest. I really hope I manage to succeed at actually making something which isn't a disaster! ... That's probably enough of a brief catch-up for now! Moving right along.... Toronto Comicon a.k.a MTCC a.k.a MTAC! I went in to Comicon this year with a plan: buy some makeup, buy a wand, cosplay with friends, and take selfies. I had even avoided scheduling any shoots ahead of time, because I just didn't feel like it. Anyways, neither of the makeup or wand vendors which I had hoped to shop at were at the show this year, which was disappointing. I didn't get my new costume done on time so I wasn't part of the group that i had wanted to join. And I kept forgetting my camera at home, so I only grabbed a few selfies with friends and cool people on Saturday. BUT, I did get to hang out with friends for most of the weekend, saw lots of great costumes, and was kidnapped for mini shoots by Dream Land Photography, Santiago Ortega, and a huge group of Game of Thrones cosplayers. Stopped by the body-painting panel by Evie E and Shelle-Chii and picked up one new thing to try with my makeup in future. Oh, and I got lots and lots of street-passes ^_^ As usual, here's a little gallery of my selfie-con pics as well as some of my favorite shots which have popped up so far Additional photographers: OOC Photography, Tim Bermingham, Michelle Flannigan, Very Frank Pictures. And bonus content: I got the opening shot in Neffy A's video!
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I'm working through my back-log of posts! I don't have a whole lot to say about the con because I didn't go to any panels or events and didn't even shoot anything, but I did get to debut my latest casual costume, "flashback" Tizzie from Rat Queens, and I took a handful of photos of my friends and I. Here are my photos from G-Anime this year - mostly selfies and elfies ^_^
This is part 1 of Cersei progress photos - with part 2 to be added once I actually finish the work! The slideshow below takes you though the steps of how I painted the embroidery on the sleeves and bodice of Cersei's gown. I have patience for lots of tedious work but didn't want to deal with real embroidery on this project, so I used acrylic paint and a detail brush to paint it on instead. To keep things even and symmetric I made adhesive stencils which I then painted inside. Cersei's dress is a continual work in progress, and has been more and more complete each time I have worn it. The next stage is adding the big red lions to the skirt, and this post will be updated as that part comes along. Cersei gallery page. This one's a pretty bare-bones look at the con, mostly photos; partially because it was a one-day event and partially because I spent most of my time hanging around the Cosplay for a Cure photo booth. I had decided to head out to London for FCCC when they announced Twinzik as cosplay guests, but ironically, in one way or another I ended up hanging out with all the cosplay guests except for them! I did get to go to their wig-styling panel, but didn't manage to catch them in the hall to actually say "hi". Oh well, better than nothing. So most of the day was spent socializing! Catching up with old friends, getting to know new ones better, and making it selfie-con by request of everyone else there LOL. Did a tiny bit of shopping and got a pic with Chip Zdarsky at the end of the con since his table was right across from the booth and I'm a fan of Sex Criminals. Overall, everyone there was really friendly and engaged and I had a really positive experience in general. It was a pretty solid small (but growing quickly!) con. So enjoy the photos! And shout-outs to my hosts and everyone I chatted with over the weekend in absolutely no particular order... Etherbloom, Skyleaf Creations & Leslie, Elemental, VickyBunnyAngel & Tricky, Candy Cosplay, Mel Colley, Seena Cha, Otaku Crypt, Gina G & Sam, Evie E, Spider-Dan, Mango Sirene & Night Eyes, London Batman, Dr Stevil, The Marvelous Girls of KW, Alex Rose, Amanda, and Nicole. I have attended a cosplay picnic at Toronto Centre Island almost every summer since I started cosplaying, and this year was no different. The island is a pretty versatile location for photos between the parks, gardens, beaches, fountains, midway/rides, and petting zoo... and I just think it's an enjoyable place to spend the day!
I feel like I ended up going a little overboard this year though, since I doubled-up on costumes for the first time, and ended up booking 3 shoots as well. I won't normally book more than one shoot per convention/event, mostly for budget reasons, but also because I stress out trying to make sure I have enough time for everything, especially at the island where some travel is involved. In the end, I wore Cersei (got first stage of embroidery - sleeves - done just in time) and then L.A. Woman Kate Bishop, because I figured that Cersei would be too hot to comfortably wear all day, and I was right. In Cersei I shot with Alex Rose in one of the gardens, with SleepyMeow at the hedge maze, and snagged some nice unplanned photos with The Video Ninja, Everage, Very Frank, Joe's Garage, and ZombieKat89 before changing into the very comfortable Kate Bishop outfit. I hadn't planned on actually getting photos in Kate, since it's a very casual costume I only brought to be comfy while still cosplaying, but luckily for me the timing worked out for my shoot with Burditt, and I also got to shoot again with Paul Hillier and Everage. Both my Cersei gallery and my Hawkeye gallery have been updated with some of my favourite photos from the event, but the gallery below includes a lot more of the fun shots from the day ^_^ For several years I was going to one convention per year in Québec, between Con*Cept, Anticipation, Otakuthon, and G-Anime, but this year was the first time in a while that the timing to make the trip worked out! I was able to get the time off, and volunteering for WCS Canadian Preliminaries staff helped with the cost, and I had a great time ^_^ Friday was a very long day, starting with settling into the WCS greenroom before 8 am and not getting back to my hotel room until well after midnight. Most of the day backstage was pretty boring since my job was to guard the props belonging to the WCS entrants, but I did have good company from the rest of the staffers ^_^. Things got more interesting once workmanship judging started and I was a more active Den Mom and runner. Even then, most of the teams had brought their own designated helper, so greenroom emergencies were few and far between. Some pretty ridiculous photos might eventually surface of Kurumasha and I helping Melting Mirror with her wings though! I say it every Anime North, and I'll say it again now... I like working masquerade Greenrooms. I like being helpful and giving back to the community with my time and energy, and I like having the chance to interact with all the cosplayers. The show itself didn't run late into the night, but we stayed behind until all the entrants had left, just to make sure that the room was fairly tidy. Then we had a late-late dinner with friends. Then back to the hotel. It was a really really long day. Saturday and Sunday, on the other hand, were all about just bumming around the Palais des congrès in costume! Saturday was Cersei and included a private shoot with Elemental, and Sunday was Postal Twili Midna and I spent a lot of the afternoon keeping an eye out for Legend of Zelda cosplayers (and other awesome people) to hand out mail. Didn't got to any panels or workshops or concerts or game shows - I literally just walked around the con enjoying cosplaying. And while it wasn't terribly exciting, it was really nice to spend a couple of days doing that without trying to rush anywhere. And since I spent lots of time being visible, I even showed up in a bunch of photographers' galleries and a couple of cosplay videos! Unfortunately, neither costume was particularly good for keeping my own camera accessible, so I barely have any photos of my own! In fact, the only one of note is the selfie I took with an older gentleman on Saturday night; partially because I think he makes an awesome Maester (although that wasn't what he was cosplaying), but also because he was very nice, polite, and actually a con attendee. He was the kind of person I needed to run into after having two consecutive encounters on my way into the building with men who didn't have the first clue about anything geeky and just wanted to hit on women in costumes. It definitely wasn't the most pleasant way to end my Saturday night at the con, but unfortunately it's one of the realities of an event where the lobby and outdoor areas are open to the public and in a busy part of the city. In any case, overall I had a great weekend hanging out with a lot of friends, wearing less "casual" cosplay than at most other cons this year, and eating lots and lots of BBQ pork buns (that's what happens when staying in the hotel in Chinatown hahaha). I stayed in Montreal an extra day after Otakuthon ended which was fantastic for just getting to chill, eat awesome food, and enjoy the weather walking around the city. If its possible to join staff for WCS Preliminaries again next year, I'd happily go back.
Extra shout-outs: Link Speaks, The Otaku Crypt, Naredo Photo, Takumi Cosplay Photography, Carl-philippe Aubin, Toodletots, Alain Dahan, MrJechgo Photo, PascalFl
This summer is turning out to be incredibly busy as I'm being much more ambitious than usual with my event plans. Also much, much more ambitious than usual with cosplay plans! Here's how things are shaping up at the moment:
Game of Thrones One of the costumes on my (long) list that I want to make is Cersei from Game of Thrones. Although I didn't put it on my list of "next 10" back in January, I ended up bumping it up on the schedule since Shelle-Chii invited me to her Thrones-themed birthday party and Elemental convinced me that I could put it together quickly. In the end, Elemental was mostly right. I got the dress completely sewn in time (although I did miss the beginning of the party because I insisted on hemming it hahaha), but I didn't get the belt done at all. Luckily Elemental had something almost perfect for me to borrow to wear to the party. I have since finished the belt and I'm going to try to do a little bit of the embroidery detail before the cosplay picnic this weekend. Below you'll find photos from the party, and the dress with my newly finished belt. I've also decided to toss in the closet/modern/whatever version of Ygritte (my other planned GoT costume) from my trip to see the costume exhibit, since Mage posted the photos she took recently ^_^ The actual Ygritte costume currently consists of a large bag of faux fur in my storage room, a small swatch of experimental home made imitation leather, and a wig.
Phase 2 things
I managed to squeeze in a couple of "fun" projects around my costumes recently, because taking breaks from big things is good and my creation-motivation has been unusually high for a while now! I made a baby-luma on order for the new child of a friend of the Video Ninja. Apparently the baby liked it, just like his big sister's ^_^ I also threw together a new shirt for summer, which was a frustrating exercise in creative pattern placement. I bought the fabric last year not really paying attention to how big the piece was and not realizing it wouldn't be enough for the dress I wanted, but it was so pretty I had to do something with it. And I think it looks nice with my Majora's Mask leggings from Lunaria. I was tagged by Ragz to post my 2015 cosplay plans... I posted something similar already in December, but this is a more... complete... list.
Top row is actual goals for 2015: "Modern Mai" from Avatar fan art for whenever (with KW Iron Man as Zuko), Extremis Pepper (have to get off my butt and finish the glove), cover-art Kate Bishop from Hawkguy with Chris & Carrie and friends' Hawkguy group and/or Brian's Wiccan aiming for C2E2, Twili Midna from Twilight Princess/Hyrule Warriors for Anime North (dream costume; WHY WON'T YOU MAKE YOURSELF???), and Nightingale from Atomic Robo to wear with Featherweight as Robo (pants and boots done, need to finish the jacket, wig, and hat). Second row is stuff I don't even have hopes of finishing this year, but since I have stocked fabric/wigs/etc for all of them if I find myself with free time will be putting work into them. L-R: Lolita Thor, Journey protagonist, Ygritte, Espeon, Miz Mishtal. Realistic completion on second row is 2016-2017 - just in time for Costume Con to return to Toronto! lol I think everyone I would have tagged already has been, but if you haven't: feel free to pile on (and leave a link in the comments ^_^ ) I missed getting to see the Game of Thrones touring exhibit of costumes and props last year, mostly because I hadn't *really* gotten into the show yet. But a lot of my friends did go, and seeing their photos afterwards made me wish I had. So this year, now that I'm kinda loving Westeros and *may* be planning to make at least one costume based on the series, I made sure I didn't miss it. The show hit Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox between CostumeCon and Anime North, so I was already psyched to see the pretties. I went with Yavarice, Hikari-moto, and Mage, and it was awesome getting to ooh and ahh over everything with them. The photos below are just a couple of my favourite shots, but I have posted my whole gallery of 100+ photos here. I'm definitely not a pro photographer, but I hope that some of the images might be useful to others looking for costume/prop references. Enjoy ^_^
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