WHO DA MAN?!?

It's that time again, and this time I'd like to introduce all of you to my favorite... ok one of my favorite Magician Arcana goofballs. That's right, it's time for Jinpei Iori!

Junpei was actually my second Persona 3 cosplay, but my first one was incredibly difficult to wear and therefore not worth keeping around, even though it was pretty cool. I am, of course, referring to Thanatos, which I wore a total of once: Ohayocon 20..somethng

What's most frustrating is that I totally forgot to bring his gloves and his sword, so the only time he has and will ever be worn he wasn't even complete *FAIL*

But this did prompt me to do a new Persona 3 cosplay and I knew it would have to be one of the humans because the personas are just too freaking ostentatious to make for easy cosplay and I knew I'd want to wear it more than just once as I'm totally in love with this game.

It came down two three characters: Akihiko, Junpei, and Jin. Jin was a little too obscure, and while I generally enjoyed his character I wasn't overly fond of him. Akihiko is awesome, and I may end up cosplaying him in the future, but Junpei was one of my favorite characters and he's a total goon so naturally I went with him.

The costume itself was relatively easy to put together, he wears a regular button-down shirt, dress pants, and black shoes. The only thing I really had to construct was the school uniform jacket, which I patterned off a jacket I got at the thrift store (thrift stores are wonderful, beautiful places). There was the hat too, but I just had to make the little insignia and attach it to a plain hat, which wasn't all that exciting or strenuous.

Then came my favorite part, of course, the props! The evoker was fun to make, though it was still quite early in my career making props so it took a long time and a lot of trial-and-error. Nevertheless I think it came out quite well.

I also decided I wanted to make a little Hermes to carry around with me cause I really like Hermes's design. Unfortunately it didn't translate all that well into pictures but he is pretty cute.

I debuted Junpei at Colossalcon 2003 and the Dark Hour photoshoot was one of the most ridiculous and fantastic photoshoots I've done. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that the Persona fandom would be so ridiculous but it was definitely an experience to remember. There was another Junpei cosplayer there that fit his personality perfectly and actually helped me out quite a bit when I cosplay him just to remind me to loosen up and be a goofball cause I tend to be a bit too serious when I'm Junpei. Not really sure why. I've definitely gotten that out of my system though :-)

And all of the Dark Hour shoots I've been to since have just gotten more and more ridiculous. I suppose it helps that pretty much everyone comes hammered nowadays, which definitely makes for a hilarious shoot.

One of the coolest things was actually getting some recognition by a group of P3 cosplayers as one of the better Junpeis around . I was invited to do a full Persona 3 group at Youmacon last year and it was awesome. We definitely got more recognition and photos taken because we had a full group. It made me wish I had more opportunity to do big group cosplays like that and just wander around the con getting photos taken. Everyone in the group had spot-on cosplays too so it turned out really well.

Needless to say, I have a lot of fun cosplaying Junpei and I've been really fortunate to have found such awesome cosplayers to chill with. Junpei is definitely staying in an active spot on my cosplay roster for a while yet so you can expect to see more of him to come!

Thanks for checking back folks, and don't forget to send me some questions for my post next week! Later gaters!

Two Week Prop Challenge: Part 2

The much anticipated conclusion is finally here, now that Tekko has come & gone and the magnanimous sharkzooka has been successfully finished and given to a good home.

When last we saw our dear Fishbones, the construction had been completed, but the whole thing was black and therefore not terribly interesting.

So in the past I've tended to paint a lot of my props pretty flat, which does sometimes work out alright, but I decided it was time to introduce some more dynamic painting to my props!
It all relies on the idea of using gradients to accentuate the shapes. You can find plenty of tutorials on pinterest and other places. I used the prop and armor painting tutorial on Kamui Cosplay. As you may remember from my wings post a couple of weeks ago, I used her cosplay lighting book to great success (I also used this new-found knowledge on this particular prop as you'll see later. She has a number of other tutorial books so I got her painting one and I'm very happy with what I learned.
It all starts with a dark base ans layering in the lighter color a little bit at a time so you get a smooth gradient. You can see it here with both the red in the eyes and the blue of the head.

As you can see from the picture above, it really makes the shapes and layers stand out.
Once the painting was done, the last few details had to be added: the leather strap around the middle, the eyes, and the lighting. Now the lighting was a bit tricky to figure out the best method. The red inside the barrel was simple, but the eyes looked weird with just the lights behind the translucent plastic. So what I did was put the lights to the front of the eyes pointing back to the tapered end, put a layer of aluminum foil behind it to reflect the light forward and out of the eyes. The last step was covering the whole top of the mouth with a piece of black foam to protect the lighting elements and make it so you can't see all the random pieces inside the mouth. Sorry about my total failure at taking any useful photos of the last few steps... I was moving as fast as possible to get this done in time for the convention!

It's coming to get youuuuuu!

Now that the beast was done, the best part was yet to come!

Tekko was a blast on its own, but delivering this baby was definitely a highlight. As soon as she saw it, Jinx flipped out! I always enjoy hearing back from people I've made stuff for, whether it's cosplay pieces, life counters, ties, or any of the other random stuff I make. It's really the excitement of the people I' making things for that gives me the most joy when it comes to crafting for folks, and the response I got to Fishbones was fantastic. I think this photo I took of Jinx and her new rocket launcher pretty much sums up the emotions that were going on at the time.

I'm pretty sure I was making the same face from the other side of the camera.

In true Jinx fashion, she started having hilarious conversations with Fshbones.

While I was a bit sad to see it go, the ecstatic reaction I got was definitely worth the parting sorrow. There's no real contest, this is definitely the coolest thing I've constructed to date! But hey, that just means there will be more fun challenges in my future!

I'll be posting the post-Tekko review in a day or two once I've sorted through my photos, and hopefully get some pictures from my dear friend with whom I spent the weekend as he's got most of the new photos of us on his camera.

Until next time, lovelies!

MDC: Origins

My apologies, dear friends, for only having one post this week. I've been working tirelessly on that bazooka I introduced you all to in my last post. It is, in fact, finished however I wanted to wait until after the weekend to post Part 2 of the story so I can get some photos of my client with her rocket launcher. So fret no, you'll be seeing the culmination of these past two weeks of work soon.

But now I thought I'd do a special throwback, seeing as it is in fact my birthday, to the birth of my costumery. I'm very fortunate, too, because my mother recently gave me my baby book, without which I'd have no source material to share with all of you. So thanks, ma, for gifting me with the book at such an auspicious time. Thanks also, to both of my parents for creating me, otherwise I wouldn't be here talking to all of you.

So today we're going to take a look at how this adorable kid...

...became the cosplayer he is today.

I often credit the beginning of my cosplay career as the summer of 2007 when I had a wonderful PotC party and for some insane reason decided to turn myself into Davy Jones.

Once again, I must thank my wonderful mother! She's Tia Dalma here and isn't she lovely!

Now yes, this is one of the first times I put the work into making my costume myself (with lost of help from mom reading the pattern and putting it together properly), but if we want to see the true beginnings of my costuming life, we have to go back a good deal further.

It all started one evening on October 31st. Now, while my actual first Halloween wasn't terribly exciting (I was less than a year old so it's not like I was terribly aware of what was happening), my first participatory Halloween was in 1988, where I experienced my first transformation into a whimsical beast...

Ok, so giraffes aren't that whimsical, but I was only a year and a half old at this point. Also, the 'recycled' part refers to the fact that I am the fourth kid in my family to have worn this, and it has continued to be passed down through my nieces and nephews too, talk about a long-standing family tradition!

Jump ahead a couple of years and we can see the personality starting to develop as I become the bumblebee and begin learning how to pose.

Look at all the sass in that stance. Kariya would be proud.

It wasn't long before I started expanding my repertoire with face paint and wigs, and the steady motion toward serious costumery that continued to develop year after year.

My skills with taming wigs have not improved much since then...

And then one day it happened, I discovered dinosaurs! My life was forever changed, and I became the cutest stegosaurus you've ever seen.

And you'll recognize that same head, in differeent colors on the dragon I became a few years later, and one of my first forays into costuming outside of just Halloween! If I had developed my skills in doing this sort of thing I may have gotten into fur suits and had a much more impressive Red XIII than the gijinka form I went with...

Over the next several years my skills would grow. I got better at face paint, and I tried my hand at making props for the first time!

Ok, so my prop was a broom handle with a cardboard scythe blade wrapped in duct tape, but hey we all had to start somewhere!

The next step in my journey was a very important one. This is the first time my costumes began fitting into what we conventionally think of as 'cosplay' today. Wickett, the only named Ewok, became a big stepping stone in my costumed journey through life.

Star Wars was the first fandom I became involved with (ok, besides the dinosaur fandom, that was technically first) and it paid off! In 1999, Sprint was doing a Star Wars promotion to celebrate the release of Episode I, and I, in good nerddom fashion, came dressed in my ewok costume. Not only was I pretty much the only kid there, but I was definitely the only one in costume. The people at the store were so excited I got my pick of the door prizes (which is how I got my first VHS copies of the original trilogy), I also got two tickets to the midnight premier of Episode I. Boy, was I in heaven!

It wouldn't be long before I got into the video game scene and started making my own costumes, though there was a good bit of high school (and therefore lack of time to do much of anything) in between, but when I was a few years into college I hit the ground running! It was Davy Jones straight into Sothe & Tibarn from Fire Emblem, and beyond. The rest, as they say, is history; and I hope you all liked hearing about my history!
Later, darlings!