Some Gods for D&D

A while ago my boyfriend started writing up a Dungeons and Dragons campaign and I said I'd illustrate some of the gods for it.  Finally I got around to finishing these two today.  Hopefully there will be more to come.

Melora:

Goddess of love, happiness, misery, and turmoil.

Sorin:
God of thunder, lightning, and festivals.

Halloween just around the corner, and some art!

I've been working on a costume for Halloween lately.  After a little bit of thought I chose to go as Rupert the Bear.  I grew up watching this show, and every so often the theme pops into my head to this day.  On top of that, his outfit is rather simplistic, and stylish to boot!  If you don't know who Rupert is, check out the TV intro here:

If it still isn't ringing a bell, go watch the show, because it's great.  Thus far I've finished the cowl, purchased the sweater and the pants are on their way.  I think it's pretty managable before the big day :).

Other stuff in the works: 

Falco Cosplay - 5% done

Rei Ayanami Cosplay - 60% done (some alterations left and minor costume additions)

Thor Cosplay - 0% planned (for the Avengers movie)

Sewer Urchin (the Tick) - 0% planned (for FanExpo 2012)

I recently purchased two new wigs for my falco and rei cosplays, can't wait to wear them to an event!

And last night I randomly got the urge to draw, so I put it to use on a contest entry for Con-G!  They were looking for an image of their mascot, Kon, and I can never resist drawing a dragon.  Here's both versions, with and without the logo.  The winner gets a free con pass and artist alley table.  As my only other selling experience was at FanExpo, I'd like to see what a smaller con is like!

I've got some other art pieces in the works as well, hopefully the next couple weeks prove to be productive!

Fan Expo 2011

Luckily I was able to make it down to FanExpo this past Sunday.  It was a pretty swell time.  I mainly went to get Tom Felton's autograph, but in the end got a photo op with him and also went to the Q&A.  He's a pretty nice chap.  I didn't take too many photos at the convention as my hands were almost always full and I spent most of the day standing in lines, but here are some of the ones I did manage to get!

 Here's the cosplay I chose to wear down.  I picked it simply because it's my most comfortable to walk around in.  However it did prove to be quite warm when I was in the tight packed crowds.  I think I may also have scared a kid or two purely by looking their way, oh and Tom Felton probably thought I was a total weirdo as well, but oh well.  Gotta be yourself right?

These are some of the robots from the upcoming Real Steel.  Unfortunately the trailer for this movie pretty much tells the whole story, and makes me cringe to boot.  Despite this I still have an urge to watch some robots kick the crap out of each other so I may just have to see it...not in theatres though :P.

I really enjoy this model of Abin Sur.  The Green Lantern movie was kind eeeegh, but I did feel the aliens in it looked pretty well done.  Especially Sinestro, he was pro. 

Couldn't resist snapping a shot of this giant Lego Hagrid.  Super props go out to whoever put this together.

I thought this costume of Hawkman was really well done.  I don't particularly enjoy the character, but I can appreciate a good costume all the same.  I would absolutely die to see a well done Martian Manhunter, but that'll probably never happen.

 And I had to ask this Rufio for a photo, just because, it's Rufio, and I'm pretty sure I've never seen something so cool before. 

And last but not least, the swag.  My lovely autograph from Tom Felton.  It was really cool meeting him, unfortunately though so many people were there to see him that everything was really rushed.  The photo op especially.  I can't blame them really, wanting to get through everyone quicker, but I don't feel like I really met him!  Not to mention the fact that I'm not terribly social with people I don't know.  All the same it was nice to be there, he was very kind.  It must have been a very tiring three days for him, I imagine resulting in some serious hand cramps.  Someday I'd love to be able to actually sit down and have a real chat with some of the Potter cast.

I guess the next events on the way are Dot-con in November, D-Tac, and Con-G.  Hopefully I can make it to at least one of those.

Cheers!

Potterfest

Just this past Saturday was Potterfest here in London.  I had a good time, and dressed up in my Slytherin cosplay.   The turnout was a lot greater than expected.  Props go out to Robert Watson for organizing the event, I hope you keep it going in the years to follow.  I've got lots of photos of various things like cosplay progress and swag and so on.  

 The first 100 attendees got a copy of this letter signed by JK Rowling!

 A chocolate frog!  These were really tasty...my first one melted a lot before I could nibble on it, and it still tasted fantastic!

 Zack won this for his Lupin costume, a time turner!  I stole it because I love it and I made his costume :)  (he actually gave it to me, but I would have stolen it otherwise :P)

 A hand knit Slytherin bow I purchased!

 A wand pouch I bought so I can carry my wand around in style.

 The ticket!

 A complete photo of my swag, without the letter and chocolate frog.  There's some bubbles, playing cards, a sticker, a plastic frog toy, and the narnia book was given out to all adult participants in the costume contest.  All around a good haul.  Nothing better than free stuff from an event! :)  Now onto cosplay...

 My two snake rings!  I bought one at the Folk Festival and the other at Sunfest.  Together they made my hand quite slytherin.

 Some robe detailing...I sewed the entire robe myself, the cording was the most annoying part by far.  I used a satin for the lining and a simple black cotton for the exterior.  I think my favourite part is the fastener.  The patch was purchased from Patch Palace ages ago, and is no longer available unfortunately.

My scarf, as well as the tie I made on the left, and the one I purchased from ebay on the right.

 My wand.  Completely handmade by me using a curtain rod, leather scraps, buttons, ribbon, some chain, my trusty glue gun and a dragon heartstring of course.  I fashioned it loosely after Draco Malfoy's wand from the films, with the dark handle and dark brown wand. 

Our costumes!

This was the smallest event I think I've been to like this, and it was really fun.  Potter fans are certainly a tight knit group.  I hope the fandom never dies.  Next weekend is FanExpo!  I'll be going on the Sunday and wearing an old lolita outfit.  My main plan of action is getting Tom Felton's autograph.  Hope to see some of you cool dudes there.

Window art by me!

Yesterday morning I got up at a ridiculous hour to go in and paint the windows at Chapters North London, to help promote the Harry Potter party they'll be hosting there on July 13, 7-9pm.  I worked from 5am to about 2:30pm and these are the results.  Basically the goal was to make the front entrance look like the gates of Hogwarts.  This was my first time ever painting windows, so it was an interesting experience.  Sorry for the glare!  The windows were in direct sunlight almost the whole day!

A flying boar!

 

I also painted the house animals on a window to the right, Hufflepuff came out looking the best to my chagrin!

 

I'll definitely be at the party as well as the midnight opening for the film, dressed up in my Slytherin gear.  Costume photos to come!

One more sleep!

 Final post before leaving for Anime North!  Tonight Jen came over and whipped up some awesome anbu tattoos on me with henna.  I think they look fab, best anbu tattoos at the con for sure!  They should darken up nicely by tomorrow afternoon :)!

And here's a ridiculous shot of myself wearing my Saiyaman helmet with the changes made to it.

Now off to finish packing and organize my thoughts!

Final pieces!

I've finally finished my costume completely! Yaaaay! And here are the final two images for it.  The first is my anbu vest, which was quite difficult to make only because of the fabric and batting it's stuffed with.  I'm pretty sure I'll never combine the two again, and stick to plain cottons for my next several costumes :).  The second image is my anbu sword, base being a plastic halloween ninja sword.  I've painted it, added fabric and details and made a holster of sorts for it to attach it to my back.

And here's some terrible quality pictures of myself in the full costume...

Lastly, my improved version of my Great Saiyaman helmet.  I feel it's much better now, more true to the original design, despite the differences that do still exist.  I still have a few other touch ups for this cosplay, but nothing unmanageable in the next few days.

My next planned cosplay is Draco Malfoy just in time for the final midnight opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, mid July.  I'll also be picking up the 7 movie passport hopefully tomorrow :D, exciting exciting!

Leg Wraps and Wig Test

I have mostly nitpicky small things left to do for this cosplay, and these leg wraps were no exception.  Unfortunately I'm mildly handicapped when it comes to using scissors to cut straight, so I had a few mishaps in terms of consistant size.  Also turning everything inside out really sucks when you have something 1cm wide.  I will probably need a couple safety pins to keep these up during the day but that's okay!

This leg wrap is something all anbu seem to have, so I made it and decked it out a bit more because, well it wouldn't be me if I didn't add something weird to it.  Not sure if I'll actually end up wearing it....I really should have made it slightly bigger but oh well.  The shorts here were a six dollar purchase from Value Village, which saved me from having to sew something similar.

And finally I managed to get my mask ready to wear, so I figured I'd do a wig/mask placement test.  I think it all looks pretty good together.  Love the wig so much, but I'll have to be careful to hide my hair at the bottom back as it's definitely made for a slightly smaller head, it'd be perfect if I had less hair. 

With some whisker scars and makeup it'll be super cool! :)

Gloves, Kunai, and a Sneak Peak! :P

I had no idea how to approach these.  I sat around for a while looking at photos of what other people had done, but still had no idea.  I didn't want them to be too squishy, or too lumpy.  I eventually got fed up and grabbed an old amazon box, some duct tape, gesso, paint and went at it.  This is the result.  The shape is off slightly, but I don't mind too much. :P

 I hate making gloves!  Usually they end up too tight around the fingers and too long at the ends, with lots of weird bunches around the middle.  Thankfully this fabric is elastic, and allows for stretch, and I cut the fingers off so I didn't have to worry about the ends.  I still ended up royally screwing up one glove and having to start over.  Because of the nature of the fabric it's impossible to rip out seams.  My favourite part as always was the detailing.  Hand painted the konoha symbol and added some knuts for good measure :)

 

 And here's a sneak peak at my vest so far.  Not much to look at I know!  This has been a pain and a half as well...I'm half using a tutorial, so I've gone and stuffed it with batting, but the batting is a pain, and the fabric is a pain, so together, it's a big pain.  hopefully worth the suffering in the end.  Plus the poofyness sorta hides my chest.  A little bit.  Binding has been unsuccessful, I've only managed to decrease by one cup size.  Hopefully no one thinks I'm supposed to be a female Naruto :S. 

11 days and counting!

Under two weeks left now and still a fair amount to do on my costume.  However I finished the scarf today quite quickly except for my struggle with the ends.  Here it is modeled by Theodore.

I also finally finished the sixth scroll last night.  The small ones are made from toilet paper rolls, and the big on a paper towel roll.  Other materials include scrunched up newsprint, packing tape, bottle caps, clothes pins, fabric, ribbon, acrylic, and gesso.  All in all they were inexpensive to make, and are very light.  I plan on hanging the small ones from my pant legs, and the large one across my back.  I also hand painted in the kanji on all of them...the represent the elements featured in naruto.

I made a trip to Value Village yesterday as well and picked up a turtle neck, which I ripped the sleeves off of and hemmed to make the basic anbu undershirt, as well as black long shorts, and this chain belt (2 bucks!):

The vest is a work in progress still, but the fabric and batting is cut and I plan on sewing it together tonight.  Other things left to make include: lower leg wraps, one upper thigh wrap, the sword (needs a paint job), a sword holster, kunai holsters/leg pouch, and ties for my mask.  This is definitely the most prop heavy costume I've ever made.