Anima and My Creative Mind

Sorry I've been gone so long. I've been sitting on a number of post ideas but none of them were really working for me. I debated doing a post about how women are treated in comics art-wise then I realized that it is such a controversy. I'd much rather enjoy scrolling through the Escher Girls Tumblr and laugh at the atrocities against anatomy than state my own opinions. Getting into it too much takes the fun out of some of it.

I debated posting about the continuing adjustments I'm making to my Fluttershy cosplay but as we had to cancel going to JAFAX, I'm not currently working on it.

I debated things I cannot even remember.

Finally I have something. This past month, I started down a new path, that of Game Mistress of an Anima Campaign. I've been wanting to do this ever since my husband bought me the original core book a couple years ago. And now it's finally happening! Squee! I have five players who are fantastic at characterization, a very open world to play with and a brain that won't stop coming up with ideas to throw at them. My guys are also hilarious. Last session, several of them stuck their d4s to their foreheads and declared themselves to be Dice-icorns. My husband stuck two and then three to his forehead, becoming a Diceson and a Diceratops.

The part that is most fun for me is all the art this inspires me to do. I already knew going into this that this campaign is destined to be a comic but I didn't know I would be this excited about it. I have to wait a bit for the actual art part of the deal though because I don't have all the information I need about the characters from the guys as yet. I guess I'll be working on transcribing the script from the recordings. It will be a challenge because all of us have serious ADD during the sessions but it's at least something.

I feel like I'm kinda boring since that's pretty much it for that part of my life right now.

I'll leave you with my latest artwork, a full design of my character Lark Meadows. Steal her and I will throw things at you.

More Pony Fun!

I couldn't just leave it at the Courtship series.

First up is the lovely Rarity, as portrayed by my friend Eilatan.

Rarity doing a Mary Poppins impression

Doesn't she look lovely, darling?

Stay away from Tom if you value your life

Next our fabulous DJ, Vinyl Scratch as portrayed by my friend Sehtah.

Working on the mix for our next adventure

You know she's is the awesome

Yay Dark Side of the Moon!

And more Big Mac, because he's portrayed by my husband and is adorable!

He kissed my forehead a lot. I liked it!

He couldn't be happier with Smarty Pants

Caught mid- Eeyup

And finally a funny group picture!

The best part of this picture is Big Mac's face

So as you can see, despite all my costume woes, we still had a lot of fun. My husband and my friends looked fabulous. I still wish I looked as fabulous but it was still great. Later I'll post the other picture series I call " On Stage".

Bye bye all!

Cosplay: Things I've learned the Hard Way

We got back from a wonderful JAFAX weekend, exhausted and boiled like taters. As far as cosplay goes, it was the most successful one we've ever done...for everyone in my group but me. Well, it was a success in that I sewed my first costume in a week and am no longer scared nauseous by my sewing machine but otherwise, it was a trial-by-fire learning experience for me and I will be completely revamping my Fluttershy cosplay. Here's what I now know.

1) Don't wait until the last minute to buy materials. This only leads to poor choices. My poor choice was a seemingly perfect pair of quilting cottons. The yellow fabric was perfect in form, lousy in function, at least for a kimono. It was far too light to hold up my beast of an obi and the pink fabric I made that from was much heavier than it was. I spent the whole con readjusting myself because the obi would slide down, dragging the kimono backward. I would then pull up the front of the obi and it would plummet backward even more.

2) Don't buy too much wig the first time out. I had an Arda Le Tigre in Bubblegum pink and it was half my 5'6" in length. I also fought with this the whole time. Also, make sure that if someone is doing the bobby pinning for you, that they pin the wig, cap and your hair. The person pinning me in didn't get my hair. Wouldn't you know that it decided to epic fail while I was in the Crash Bang Laboratory's Cosplay Level Up panel, when they were talking about how to keep one's wig on. My wig cap slipped right out from under the wig and was sitting happily on the little pig tails I had that the base of my neck. Combine this with number 1 and I should have offered myself up as a "What no to do" for the panel.

3) If your fabric is a little on the thin side, for the love of Pete and his brother Joe, LINE IT! Don't do what I did and wear and extra layer of silky underthings to maintain your modesty, especially if it's a freakin' summer con. Plus, it was one more thing for my to yank at all day.

4) I failed at being recognized. I was walking around with my husband, who was the con's only Big Macintosh (with Smarty Pants) that we found and a dang good one to boot, the best Rarity of the con and the only Vinyl Scratch. As one of the many Fluttershys and the odd kimono-ed one, I was the weak link in our group. I don't feel I did Fluttershy justice. It seems such a crime considering I love her so much and can otherwise portray her effortlessly. I'm completely embarrassed about that. I can't say it was an epic fail, but it was bad. I put waaay too much me into my Fluttershy, and while we are very alike, that's not the point.

5) I learned to be proud of myself despite all this. I worked really hard on this and I was the only one in our group who made my costume nearly entirely as I cannot make wigs, tabi or flip flops. I put myself out there and even if it didn't turn out like I wanted, it wasn't a bad start. Next time, because I will be Fluttershy again, I will pay more attention to her, less myself and make it that much more awesome.

I'm definitely posting pictures later, including a cute series we call " The Courtship of Big Mac and Fluttershy". For now, I will leave you with this:

Whoever did this, please tell me. I love you!

So much for a posting schedule.

Well, I'm off to great start. I barely get a chance to post as it is and I miss my first chance to do this right. DERRR! As promised though, I'm going to feature some fun things and fun people I find inspiring. Today's feature is Crash Bang Laboratory. You can find the blog here: http://blog.crashbanglabs.com

While there are two people who are part of Crash Band Labs, the blog and their new and thus empty website is run by Kristie Good, aka Karmada. The blog mostly focuses on her adventures at Anime Conventions, including but not limited to her lovely cosplay costumes, selling her artwork and the many trials and tribulations of doing both. Further more, she is hilarious. I have seen her in person, first at JAFAX 2010 as emcee/judge of one of the cosplay contests, and at Shutocon where she and her partner in crime led panels on how to do cosplay the right way. They said they were there to make the mistakes so you don't have to. That is such a comfort!!!!

She also has a deviantArt account, found here: http://karmada.deviantart.com/  I hope she doesn't mind that I'm totally stalking her gallery as we speak. She has such a cute style and cooky perspective, I can't help myself.

Seriously. SO ADORABLE! Ahem...pardon my in-blog yelling. But seriously, look at the eyes on the lower panel. Thank you Karmada for being one of the greatest highlight of my Friday Interwebscapades!