Sakuyamon Summer 2013 - cosplay photography post -

     This is so long overdue. I took these shots around the same time as the Seth Knightlord photos and had them edited for the longest time - I just never got around to completing watermarking/signing so to speak. Some were finished at different times than others hence the signature change. "Jack Hallow" is a new pen name of mine and I was testing it out on one of the photos. I'm uncertain of the feel of it yet.

character: Sakuyamon
              Digimon Tamers
cosplayer: Taka Kagaku

 

      To be truly honest with all of you, I don't feel the best about these photos. I feel like the quality could be better and I have much to improve on. If I thought they were completely terrible, I'd never post them and just apologize to the model. A few months of letting them sit has definitely made me uneasy about them though. Here's to future improvement at least!

These were shots I played around with in attempts to add the spirits Sakuyamon has in the series -  I don't care for them in the slightest, but it's what the cosplayer wanted me to do with these particular poses. 

    Here, a detail shot of the gloves and what I suppose you could consider leg warmers. The yin yang symbols are painted though embroidery was considered at one point in the construction process. The shoes and trim were also painted to better match the armour.

Typical Hotel Shot the Morning of the Masquerade

This costume was debuted at Ikasucon 2013 with my Beelzemon costume. Overall, I feel alright with these photos and I believe the cosplayer is pleased with the costume.















     There aren't many shots of my Beelzemon cosplay, I don't think there are any of just myself so there won't be a post just for him - maybe a combined post with that and another costume of mine - but I hope to revamp him and get many photos so I can have a cosplay appreciation post for my own work haha

Thanks Space Cowboys,

Hachi

Ikasucon 2013

            Ikasucon 2013 has passed and I've been able to showcase my Beelzemon cosplay, winning a judge's award at the Ikasucon Masquerade. There were quite a few mishaps at Ikasucon right before the pre-judging that caused me to break into tears. Two of the fingertips to the gauntlets popped off then a shoulder piece came off as well – on top of that I was sweating to beat hell from having to book it down there from our hotel room only to find the judging was running a little behind. MY SWEAT WAS IN VAIN! Some very kind cosplayers let Taka and me go ahead of them so I could get out of my costume more quickly, but when we got in there I began to cry even harder and told the judges about how poopy I felt about everything. They were so nice and let me leave to get a new judging time and come back later when everything was put back together and I was calm. After about an hour of cooling off and fixing myself and my costume up, we scurried back and I felt extremely better about it all – it felt even better to have won something in the end through all my frustrations and tears! 

                 

 the beginnings of the helmet - looks like a basket lol

 just derping around with the tape while working on the helmet UoU

            

          

The Friday and Sunday of Ikasucon, I was Ion Fortuna from Trinity Blood – the Iblis Desert outfit. I didn't use a wig, though I will if I ever reprise it. I was originally not going to make Ion's outfit at all until I found out there was a Seth Knightlord cosplayer going who was told that I would be Ion. I didn't want to disappoint her and I'm so thankful I didn't because she looked beautiful and we are now friends because of it.

I'm extremely proud of this costume as it's my first Trinity Blood costume – I've been wanting to create different outfits from this series for a long time and, despite wanting to tweak this outfit and add/fix some small details, I can say I'm thoroughly pleased with myself! I've received wonderful compliments as well which just inspires me to continue to work harder and learn even more.

    

    

Cosplayer Nation was there and my friends and I were stopped by them for photos a few times and Emily, my friend cosplaying Seth, was even featured in a video! I happened to be there by chance when she was and had some video time with her haha. Taka and I went to one of the Cosplayer Nation panels right before the masquerade – we had wanted to give an interview since it had been offered to the panel goers, but we ran out of time (~UoU)~

On the subject of panels, Taka and I hosted a jrock panel the Friday night with what I feel was great success! A bit of mayhem happened – the presentation malfunctioned a bit, her laptop died and we forgot her charger (a friend ran up to the room to retrieve it), and we were set right next to a karaoke panel where they were, for lack of anything nice to say, loud. Through all this, the panel goers stayed with us, seemed to have fun and a few even befriended us! We learned that we should definitely have an 18+ panel simply because language is a hard thing to control – most people who go to a convention, no matter how young, use “bad words” but it's still something you have to watch when you're at a panel that isn't 18 and over. All in all, the panel inspired me to come up with more ideas for different panels and that's something I'm surprising myself with as it's not something I ever saw myself getting into.

There's so much more that went on, so many people that I've met and had a great time with. I'm more than excited for next year's Ikasucon even though it's so far away! At least there are upcoming events to keep my preoccupied lol

See Ya Later Space Cowboy
Hachi

More Absences But Work Has Been Done!

     I've gotten much done in the ways of cosplay - good thing too considering Ikasucon 2013 is next weekend! I ended up sticking with a last minute decision to do Ion Fortuna's "Iblis Desert" outfit along with working on my two commissioned costumes and Beelzemon for the masquerade.
     Beelzemon's helmet is finished, as is the jumpsuit; I have the jacket, gloves and tail to do (and the "steel toe" covers of his boots ;A; how do!?!?!) I hope to get a lot of pictures taken of all the work I've put into everything this time around!!!

Today, Taka and I are working on her jrock panel for which I'm a co-panelist. I wish I would have thought to print business cards earlier in the game, but maybe next time (and maybe next year I'll host my own panel and/or have an artist table? We'll see lol)

As of now, I have no photos, just listing things out for myself and giving a heads up as to why it's been so quiet!

Thanks for reading,
Hachi

Murphy's Law Sort of Day

                                                                 (image (c) me)
     My mom dropped her tablet today and shattered the screen and my sister's radio and mp3 player took a pewp. The tablet still works (and I believe we can just get the screen replaced but I'm not sure where we could go in all honesty. We bought it from Verizon but don't use them as our phone service anymore due astronomical costs for very little service where we actually live), but my sister's main sources of music are gone so I am on a quest for a new radio/boombox/stereo whatever you may call it lol I think our best bet is going in store because I'm having a pain in the butt time looking online - oh dial up, you're so cute *glares*.


      In other news, in a previous post I mentioned being Wizardmon for Ikasucon 2013. This was before I really did any pricing and pushed back some confidence issues lol Beelzemon was the original plan but self esteem issues made me veer from him for a while until the urge to make the outfit came back to me. Before I truly decided, I went through the process of comparing material costs and somehow Beelzemon won in the end (even if I were to splurge $70-$80 on a pair of boots, the materials for Bee would still be less than Wizardmon. Strange isn't it?).
     I'm actually quite excited and have even begun doing his helmet prototypes in card stock - though any helpful tips on how to be successful in my endeavor would be glorious! Currently my hair is a decent color for Beelzemon, but I think I'll end up buying a wig once the convention date is closer since I have plans to change my hair as we speak. Nothing harsh and drastic so I COULD change back to the yellow tones if I wanted                      (image (c) Santiatier on deviantart)
but still something different than Bee's hair lol

   I'm excited for this as it's the first time I've tried anything with armour bits and even a helmet/mask piece (or even fur and leather for that matter lol) so I wish myself luck on this and hope I can show you guys something nice lol

Thanks for reading,
Hachi

Videos, Tutorials and Cosplay

     Yeah about those videos.... :/

     I have videos recorded regarding FOAF's upcoming plans and a tutorial/watch me do this makeup video for my own personal YouTube. I would have them posted already, but my phone, being the only source of high speed internet, says the files are too big and cannot be posted without wifi. I don't have wifi...thus my dilemma.
     For this blog, I'll probably do step by step in photos with pictures of my products which honestly will probably work out better for those interested than the video of me doing it. It took me about 6 and a half minutes and there wasn't much in the way of actually tutoring any of you. I sped it up to about 3 and a half minutes, gave it a little music track - I was pretty proud of it lol
   Anywayyyy ~ for the step by step photos, I'll be sure to take my time. I couldn't tell you why I rushed through it - I can speed it up so the video is shorter etc etc; I suppose it's just my own habit as I'm usually speeding to get ready as to not keep anyone waiting. The video I recorded may still be posted on my personal YouTube, but a nicer, more "professional"(lolwut) video will probably be done at a later date as well as more of my tutorial ideas being posted here photo by photo.

     As for FOAF (Freaks Of A Feather), as much as we want people to help make it a bigger group, it really has been just me and Taka (I guess that works out for Trinity Moon Commissions - our little duo work set up). We have had a decent amount of friends becoming interested in commissioning us and joining in on current and future plans which is great! Now if only they would give us a definite yes or no so we don't get too excited and too ahead of ourselves!
     Ohayocon 2013 is closing in and within the coming weeks, I will be purchasing fabric to begin work on Patchouli Knowledge from Touhou (along with Taka's fabric as she's a bit short right now; she'll be paying me back later). One of our friends has commissioned Remilia Scarlet and Taka will be taking that up while I talk to one of her co-eds about a Jet Black (Cowboy Bebop) cosplay for Whittcon in March. QUITE A WAYS I KNOW! But best to plan much too soon than much too late, right?

     After Touhou - Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil, we want to work on costumes FOR Whittcon - Taka's probably going to do a Sailor Gijinka group with the "Remilia" as Sailor Zapdos (I believe?) and another friend as Sailor Moltres while she's Articuno. I wasn't quite sure I could swing that many costumes in a year as we hope to attend Colossalcon for the first time and are definitely attending Ikasucon 2013, I decided that I would work on the costumes we intended to wear for Colossalcon from the series:

     (~*^*)~ digimon!! As of late, Taka has been extremely excited to begin work on Sakuyamon from the Digimon Series. I was stumped for a while before deciding on Wizardmon (just this past weekend actually). The character has been portrayed with varying shades of hair colour so I was thinking of purchasing a burnt orange wig to be later used for Fujimoto from Ponyo. If I work on Wizardmon for March AND June, I'll be saving myself personal work AND money as I'll be eliminating one costume - an idea that has been increasingly appealing to Taka aside from the fact she's unsure she'll have the money to work on Sakuyamon around Whittcon time.

 

      I think the most difficult part for Wizardmon will be getting the small details like that of the inside of the coat and the zippers etc etc along with getting the hat to stand just so and have the cape cover my face in a certain way. I'm most worried about the designs on the lining, but that's to be thought upon on a later date ~
     I hope to be better with progress photos and fabric shots with Patchouli and maybe even Jet since I'm excited to work on him and will be asking around for help with the boots and arm, but until I get the fabric, I won't really be sure! Until then, I'll just keep telling myself to photograph progress so I can continue writing and hopefully review some wigs, fabric and maybe even contacts soon *^*