With the usual caveat that these plans will most likely get disrupted and delayed by real life issues or by new plans, here is what I would like the next year of cosplay progress to look like (in no particular order): Priority A-1: Holtzmann, Rock Star Alice, and Cersei Embroidery
All three of these costumes are very close to completion. Depending on my health and a few other factors I can see myself finishing all three by the end of the month. Priority A-2: Kevin After having aleady made Holtzmann's jumpsuit, Kevin's should be relatively easy (and slightly less time-consuming, for what that's worth). I don't normally put projects which will be worn by others onto my list, but having him there should help keep me on track. I can't procrastinate too much on this garment, since the pattern and materials still need to be passed on to the rest of my GB squad. Priority B: "Single Pattern" coat and Nightingale. One old costume and one very new garment, both of which I want to have done for Costume-Con 35. The McCall's coat will be my entry for the Single Pattern contest, and Nightingale will be for the historical masquerade . . . OK, I don't know if I will enter the historical masq, but since I had the event in mind (for Costume-Con 32) 4 years ago when I started sewing, I figure having the deadline won't hurt. Priority C: Sam Sparks, Captain Marvel, Gwenpool Sam is a costume I started and set aside many, many years ago, and now Mr Stark is encouraging me to finish it, so maybe i should just get that one off my plate. I put Captain Marvel on hold in Oct 2015 so I think it's time to go back to her, especially with my friends' hype over the new Marvel Vs Capcom teaser. Marvel's gown will be fun to have alongside, and the only new-new costume I've added is Gwenpool, which will be my first experiment with using a sub-dye printed fabric for a suit! And if I happen to actually finish those 10 costumes? You bet I have a list of 30 more just waiting for my attention. But let's be realistic here, there's no way I'm getting more than 5 of these done in 2017. What about events? I don't actually have many conventions planned yet. I'm doing Costume-Con 35, Anime North, and YetiCon for sure. I will be at FrostCon (in a couple weeks) with Cosplay for a Cure, and will probably be joining them for a handful of other GTA/Southern Ontario events. I would really like to hit up an AmeriCon again (probably NYCC since the fall is better timing for me) but the cost of travel and exchange rates will probably get in the way (again). ... and speaking of money: I've been talking about doing this for years, but I'm now at the point of really needing to get some of my storage space back, and I could use a few extra $$ in my pocket for some big expenses this year, so I'm going to be selling a bunch of old costumes and costume parts. Full sales posts will be coming up later this month, but as a teaser, some of the costumes up for grabs are Mrs Impossible and Triana Orpheus, Gabriel, Kim Pine, Dorothy, and Alice. Here's to lots of fun costumes, actually meeting my goals, hanging with friends and making new ones, learning new skills, and all that other good stuff that comes from this hobby. Let's do this!!!
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I can't believe we're at the end of 2016 already. October seemed to last a reasonable length of time but November and December have been a blur of work and cosplay and streaming and oh gawd why did I decide to make so many gifts for Christmas??? Oh, and spending the last 2 weeks being QUITE ILL. But let's not get bogged down in that too much. Costumes It was once again an odd year for new costumes. Flashback Tizzie was a "casual cosplay" which took far too much work to make and which only exists because Sha suggested wearing elf ears at G-Anime. I did at least get to start work on my actual Tizzie costume via the necklace (and also play with Worbla's TranspArt a little). Weirdmageddon Wendy was another quick and dirty variant costume put together for my birthday party. Rock Star Alice isn't technically finished, but since I've worn her a few times and the missing part is just a prop, she's added to the list. This Alice is an original design to go with the Rock Star Disney preincesses that the Cosplay for a Cure girls made. Looking forward to group photos as soon as my instrument is done. Chihiro wasn't made by me. The costume was made by Kurumasha as part of our Anime North group cosplay efforts. Since I wanted to keep wearing the outfit, I added the wig and shoes so I wouldn't be a "generic bathhouse worker" while solo. R had been in my to-cosplay for a while, and since Unplugged Expo was a week before Halloween this year, I figured it was time to crossplay again. Luci and Ammy were both originally just makeup tests I did one weekend after picking up WicDiv. Both turned out so well that they each became a comfy, "low effort" costume to take to cons. ... and finally, Holtzmann. The costume I did because everyone was asking when I will do it LOL. "Fashion" version was for Halloween since it's more work appropriate than just about everything else I own, and I finished the uniform just in time to take to DTAC. There's a little more work to do on her, but since it's more than wearable, she has earned a spot on the list! You might be thinking, that's a lot of casual/off the rack costumes, even for Mai Sheri, and you'd be right... but a lot of my effort went into still unfinished costumes (like Cersei, Alice) and a lot of the rest of my sewing energies went into costumes for other people. That's right, I went back to my roots and made a new Pokemon hoodie (this time Blastoise for Mr Stark)! And a Wooper bathing suit (with tail/skirt) for Hikarimoro; who doesn't like water-Pokemon pool parties? I painted up a shirt and sculpted a pendant for The Video Ninja so he could be Baphomet for Kurumasha and I at Snailoween. And then there's my last project of the year: a kid-friendly costume of Princess Zelda from Hyrule Warriors (her Daddy is in charge of making the crown). .... but back in January, I posted a plan for the year. let's take a look at that again, shall we? .... UGH. On one hand, there isn't much to talk about here, but on the other, it does go to show how bad I am at sticking to my plans, and also how easily those plans can be set aside to play with new ideas instead. I'm sad that I didn't finish any of these costumes (or even touch most of them), but I am quite happy with what I did make this year, so there's that. I still haven't figured out a way to lay out my plans so that I stick to them though. Maybe in 2017. ......and with that, my workbench sidebar gets wiped clean! Conventions My original plan for 2016 was to attend fewer convnetions than I did in 2015. And technically I did, but 12 cons vs. 13 isn't much of a cutting-back success story hahaha. I did go to fewer "just for fun" though. This year, most of my cons were volunteering - either as masquerade staff or with Cosplay for a Cure. Due to that, I also took a lot fewer photos and didn't write up blog posts for all of the cons. G-Anime (blog) Toronto Comic Con (blog) Kitchener ComiCon (blog) Civil War Geekery Con (blog) Ottawa Comic Con (blog) Anime North (blog) Yeticon (blog) ConBravo! (blog) Fan Expo (blog???) Hamilton Comic Con Unplugged Expo Toronto Fan Days Holiday Show (blog) And of course, all the cosplay-related events like Free Comic Book Day, Mississauga Picnic (blog), Centre Island (blog), co-hosting a GoT trivia night, BrianCon36, Wine Parade (blog), Snailoween, Halloween, and I started a bad habit of cosplaying while streaming games with The Video Ninja (no comment. OK, more comments later). The number of cosplay events in Toronto continues to be crazy, espeically with the increase in geeky bar/food venues. *is still overwhelmed* Other Stuff First off, there's all these other things that I made! (I sewed a whole bunch of Christmas gifts too but since there's not geeky, they don't matter) I made five lumas for various charities/fundraisers, plus a Hawkeye one. Also, there's a selection of hats; Castle crashers, Pokemon GO trainer, and Link. Unfortunately, the "Tutorial Tuesday" series I started last year didn't last very long, but on the up-side, the stencils and FX makeup ones were received very well, so I'm happy with that! I will do more tutorials if people ask and if I think it's something worth teaching. Streaming has somehow become a thing this year??? Mostly because Dan the Video Ninja got himself all set up on twitch and after doing a couple guest-type spots I caught the bug. We started with the Yooka-Laylee toybox, then a pre-Halloween sit down with Costume Quest 2 (video isn't available but there are some highlights in this compilation), then I tagged along for a chunk of his Extra Life fundraiser. Now we're streaming a play through of Ocarina of Time, every Thursday night, at 9:30pm EST. If watching game streaming is your thing, or you want to bug us on chat while I Save Hyrule, find us at twitch.tv/dan_thevideoninja (or watch social media for the #JenSavesHyrule tag LOL). And if bite-sized edited down versions are more your thing, it's all getting a youtube edition, too. While the discussion of where things are going in the future is the subject of my next blog post, I wanted to touch on just a few things here. Some big life changes are going to be happening in 2017, so cosplay progress and convention attendance are both going to be more unstable than usual. Along with that, though, comes the potential up-side that I'm going to be selling most of my older costumes - anything that I don't wear anymore or which doesn't fit. Sales posts should be coming before the end of Jan (and will be on all my social media feeds too)
Anyways, thank you to all my readers and friends and family for a fantastically supportive 2016, and I'm looking forward to the things we can do together next year. While I'm still finishing up some of the accessories for my Holtzmann costume (making boot toppers, side shields for my glasses, and getting my hair done) and Mr Stark is still up to his elbows in proton pack assembly, I have managed to accumulate enough photos to open a new gallery page. I wore Holtzmann out to DTAC this month with a special substitute "proton pack" made of a large (but probably not large enough) mass of tangled christmas lights and my old Crystal Entropy gun. Unfortunately, because I wasn't sure that the outfit would be ready until the last minute, I didn't book any photo shoots, but some lovely photographers nabbed great photos in the hall, and I should have more photos coming later thanks to an impromptu mini-shoot with Skyleaf Creations. Looking forward to having this outfit at 100% (whatever that means for something with a ton of optional bits) in early 2017! ... and while we're talking about it, how about a collection of progress photos of the jumpsuit? I haven't done these progress posts on my blog lately (pics just go live to my instagram and FB pages) but I miss it a little. Somehow I ended up taking fewer "selfiecon" photos this year, despite being at more events (I'm going to blame either being on staff or working with Cosplay for a Cure at most conventions for some of that) so I was determined to get as many as I could manage at DTAC; my last con of 2016. Photos below! ... and a bonus few non-selfie hall shots from other attendees... My Holiday Holtzmann ended up in a couple of convention videos, too... this one on facebook, and the one below (I'm at 1:05) Hey guys, Pokemon Sun and Moon are out, so it's time for more 1st gen Poke-hoodie photos! Mr Stark and I went out to shoot our hoodies with Dream Land Photography a few weeks ago. I designed and sewed both hoodies (and you can really tell that Dragonite was made in 2009 vs Blastoise in 2016... my hood/face techniques have come a long way). In our first real collaborative effort, Mr Stark has made the shell for his Blastoise but wasn't able to bring it with him to the shoot. Next time we'll both be going all out ^_^
Like every year, I ended up with several Halloween costumes and events this year, and so one post will rule them all. Firstly, on (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend, Mr Stark, The Video Ninja, Dream Land Photography, and I all went out to High Park to shoot some costumes, one of which was the Space Warrior outfit that I made a year ago. Unfortunately, it's been a warm autumn and the leaves hadn't really changed colour yet, but I'm just happy to have some photos of the costume. Next year's squad goals: a whole group! Next up was a very last-minute decision to go to Unplugged for the day to give Bear Sailor Moon a hand with the masquerade, and with it came a very last-minute costume: R from Warm Bodies. R is a character which I've had on my cosplay list for a couple years; just waiting for the right opportunity. While the hoodie is way too big (that's what happens when you only have one hour for shopping) I'm pretty happy with the distressing and my makeup. Hope I have the opportunity to wear him again ^_^ (and while we're here, have a few Unplugged floor photos...) Snailoween was the main event for October this year, with Kurumasha once again coming in for the weekend and we managed to pull together a (small) costume group! Kurumasha, The Video Ninja and I all went as characters from The Wicked + The Divine; I put the finishing touches on my Amaterasu, Kurumasha went as Badb, and I put the Video Ninja in a Baphomet outfit. It was great to be there with my peeps and spending the night dancing with friends - and to top it all off we took home a couple of small gift cards for the store ^_^ Of course I couldn't walk away from the season without dressing up on Halloween itself, even though dressing up is not a thing that people do at my workplace. So, I decided on a "stealth" costume - a non-uniformed Holtzmann. I think I did a decent job replicating her look using stuff found in a quick outlet-store shopping trip (and already accumulated for other reasons ~_^). I've got some sweet non-selfie pics in the queue for a later post.
Back in the summer Paul Hillier and I paid a visit to the University of Toronto to borrow their campus for some King's Landing photos. Every picture is perfect. What else can I say? The set is up on my Game of Thrones gallery page.
Last year I had a blast walking in the Niagara Wine Festival parade, so I had to be back this year, marching with Cosplay for a Cure again! Almost all of our group this year was different than last years group, but it was just as fun (and we didn't get nearly as slowed down by mobs of children hahaha. I wore the Chihiro outfit that Shawna made for me with new shoes, new wig, and very new magic scrunchie. Nobody knew who I was, but I was still happy to be repping the brand in pink ~_^
I didn't get as many photos as last year but I hope you enjoy these! It's been difficult to post this photo set from YetiCon, simply because I love every shot that Elemental took! Kurumasha and I brought out our Flashback Hannah and Tizzie costumes and barely held it together in front of the camera. OK, sometimes we didn't hold it together. Honestly, this set is more Needle Panic than Rat Queens, but it was lots of fun and Kurumasha is so awesome for always being willing to join me for my graphic novel cosplaying whims. Can't wait to get together again at Halloween this year ~_^. Lots more of this costume on my Rat Queens gallery page.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!
I'm going to be posting lots of photos as we approach Halloween, and i'm starting with my girls from The Wicked and The Divine. Back in February I did makeup tests for several characters, and over the summer found placed to wear relatively complete costumes of both Lucifer and Amaterasu. Galleries for both costumes are hanging around on my casual cosplay page. |
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