Winter Elk

Scanned a secret santa illustration today for someone over on deviantArt in the Stylized-Animals group.  They requested an elk or a bison so I chose to draw an elk since the antlers enticed me.  Here's the finished product.

Veggie Trays!

Today was a busy day at work.  Made a lot of veggie trays.  I took some photos because I thought they were pretty :).  Even at my part time job I take any excuse to be crafty that I can.

Anime North 2012

So it's been a couple of weeks since Anime North, but I'm finally getting down to writing my after con report.  I had a slightly different experience this year in that I focused far more on cosplay than ever before.

Friday was a bit hectic.  Because of the sheer amount of pre-registrations the lineup to get in was crazy long.  It was also really really hot out.  Hopefully next year they increase the amount of people at the check in desk or something.

Friday I wore my King Kazma cosplay from the anime film Summer Wars. Mad props go out to Jen for taking awesome photos of my cosplay!

Friday evening was mainly walking around and exploring the con layout.  Then the Nominoichi which is possibly my favourite thing to go to at AN.  I bought a lot for really cheap.  We actually crashed pretty late Friday after eating the usual coffee pot noodles.

Saturday I put on my Falco Lombardi cosplay, which I also wore to the masquerade.  It was a new experience for me full of lots of waiting and anticipation, a quick rush, but I'm still planning to participate next year.  Met lots of new people in the green room and saw some pretty amazing stuff.  The caliber of costuming at AN has really picked up.  Here's some photos of the costume and a couple with a Fox McCloud I ran into.

 

I ended up winning best Novice props in the masquerade!  I'm pretty proud since I put a lot of work into my gun, holster, and reflector shield.  I was in the same den as the winner of the whole competition - the Cheshire cat.  Really awesome work all around.

Here's some photos I took of other cosplayers at the con, mostly from Sunday.

 

Good job everyone!  Some great costumes this year, though not as many walking around while I was.  Thanks to everyone for letting me take their photo (especially if I didn't ask due to my mask).

Next stop Fan Expo Canada!

Falco Cosplay Progress 2.0: The Sewing

In my last post I only showed finished props, but in this everything is still in progress!  I'm not a big fan of sewing, and as such almost all of this is either incomplete or needs some adjustments.  The following image shows some of the other materials I have including the fabrics for Falco's scarf and mask ties, the leathery fabric I'm using for his gun holster as well as the straps, and a simple brown belt I picked up at Talize.

Next up is his jacket.  It's very incomplete.  Still needs the collar and sleeves which involve quite a lot of pattern changes and interfacing etc.  I love the white fabric.  It's leather like in appearance but silky to the touch and lightweight.  The lining fabric is a nice pale smooth grey, which matches the dark grey fabric I'll be putting on the front/back exterior.

 

The jumpsuit is almost complete but I'm unhappy with much of it so I'll be changing a few things around.  It needs some tweaking in the sides, length and so on. I do like the fabric, it changes with the light!

And I tend to sprawl with my mess when I'm working on something.  This photo only shows a fraction of my mess...I'm sure it will only get worse!

 

When my King Kazma wig arrives in the mail I'll take photos of that as well as the vest I've purchased in laziness for that cosplay!  May approaches ever so quickly, wish me luck!

Countdown to AN Begins!

And with that countdown comes cosplay crunch time.  I've not worked on Falco in a while, but yesterday I decided to finish the reflector shield he wears.  Pretty pleased with the outcome, though it is different from the original design.

I never posted the completed gun on here either, here's an image of that:

I'm planning an additional cosplay for AN, King Kazma from Summer wars!  Ordered a wig online for it today.  Here's to hoping I can finish both of these on time!  In other news, Guild Wars 2 prepurchase opens tomorrow!  I'm having some issues finding an EB that knows anything about this, but hopefully tomorrow all will go well.  I'm aiming for the Collector's Edition :D.

Con-G Prep!

Con-G is just around the corner and so I've finally started working on some 'moichendize' for it.  I'm a bit out of the loop as for what's popular in the anime crowd these days so I'm just focusing on the things I still like and probably always will.  If anyone has suggestions that'd be great. I whipped out this HP tribute last night in the wee hours of the morning:

It's a bit more realistic than I usually work, but it was a nice exercise in backgrounds/atmospheric perspective.  May as well use fanart to experiment if it can't go in a portfolio :). I've also made some bookmark designs to add to the few I already had.  I'm thinking of also making a few more, possibly Batman, HP, or Reboot

I found Tanooki Suit Mario way too cute,  so I also drew this picture of him, tempted by a mystery box.

This is actually more fanart than I drew for the last convention I sold at already, but I'm hoping to get a bit more done...as well as jewellery and buttons, providing I can get the button maker to work properly! If anyone is going to Con-G, hopefully I'll see you there.  Also if there's any interest in a particular print, I'd be happy to set one aside.

Falco Cosplay Progress

So I've been once again struck with the inspiration that is cosplay.  I'm completely obsessed with my current project, Falco Lombardi, from Star Fox fame.  If you're not familiar with the Star Fox series then you've probably seen him in Smash Bros.

Mostly I've been working on the mask I'm going to use for the head.  I'm taking a decorative approach with this costume, as working that way just seems to interest me more.

 

I've worked on it more since, and it's closer to finished!  More photos will be on there way as I get closer to the finish line.  I also decided to give the blaster/pistol a go tonight.  With cardboard, foam, straws, and lots and lots of hot glue this is the result:

I'm pretty satisfied with how it's turned out.  I'm not too experienced with using cardboard to build things, but it seems to be fairly simple to grasp.  Hopefully with a paint job it'll look even better!