Next con – Chibicon á la Oulu

 Hi guys!

Yeah, the next con I'm planning to attend is Chibicon. It's held at Oulu 7th April.
Good for me Oulu is not far away from my hometown (100 km maybe?) so it won't take a day to get there and cost my ass to travel. According to what I checked up the train tickets from Kemi would only cost me about 8 € one way and the same amount back again. OMG CHEAP. Well, compared to the 140+ € my train tickets to Lahti and back went on... Oh, and one of my mom's sisters lives there so maybe I could sleep over at her place. Hopefully. I don't know if the con has an entrance fee.. I guess it will...

I'm thinking about bringing my first (or second, depending on what you count, Ichigo was the first I started making but second I debuted) cosplay back to life after... err, a 2 years pause? I think my Ichigo Kurosaki cosplay last time saw daylight in December 2010. Oh booya that's some time ago man!
You know, getting that 150 centimeters huge butcher knife from place A to place B isn't the most easy and convenient thing to do, especially not when the destination is at the other end of the country. -.-" That's why Ichigo has been forever alone in my closet, waiting for his time to shine, his huge-ass sword severely limits what cons I can take him to...
But yeah, now when Oulu for the first time gets a con –although temporarily, I guess, because Chibicon seems to move from town to town now– I think I can bring him out. It will be interesting to travel with that sword though; I think I'll put it in my kendo sword carrying bag while at the train but it's a bit too short for it so the handle will stick out though, but as long as it doesn't look overly suspicious I think it'll do. I can't carry that thing open in public without getting stares you know, need to hide it. xD Oh, and Jäärä will hopefully accompany me as Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach.

Nothing else to say, final cosplay plans coming soon. See ya!

New anime obsession...

Ahaha, gosh... so today I started watching the Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan anime... and I'm hooked! I've been watching episode 1 to 9 pretty much without pauses and AHRGSHHAGDJADGS must cosplay Souji Okita! He is just too awesome! Ugh I feel bad for him, I have a feeling he'll die of his illness... Hajime Saitou I will probably also cosplay, he is cool... oh boy, my cosplay list sure keeps on growing man...

But yeah, truth be told I've known and been interested in Hakuōki for a while already, but it was only until some few days ago when I got really really interested. See, I happened to hear that the game had been released in America for PSP recently and so of course I had to order it when it now was available outside Japan and I can understand the plot. lol (I've been planning to get it anyway)
Then I watched the anime because I was so curious and it seemed pretty... and now I'm sfihufgufihuihuuh I love animes like this! It's awesome it is based on historical persons, shinsengumi etc. I like that kind of stuff.

Now I need to decide who to cosplay first, Okita or Saitou? I guess it'll be Saitou because he is easier but I love Okita more... oh well, I get more time to do Okita just right, and besides I'll think I'll go with the more complicated game version of him because he has that beautiful golden ring patterning on his kimono's left side in the game, it's absent in the anime.

UOOORGH, I already find myself looking for wigs for Saitou and references and whatnot... lol the life of a cosplayer, my wallet probably hates me. XD

Kitacon 4 summary

 Sup!

Ah, Kitacon in Kemi is now over. It's the world's most northern con (what I've heard) and only maybe a 25 km drive from my home.. heh, the only con in Finland that can be considered close to me. Normally I have to travel to the other end of the country for cons...

Oh well, my friend Jäärä visited me during the weekend so we could go to the con together. She cosplayed Retsu Unohana in her Turn Back the Pendulum version to match my Jushiro Ukitake cosplay, both characters from Bleach. We both had shikai versions too, meaning I had my twin swords and Unohana had her Minazuki plush... it had a zipper in the mouth so we could carry our money and camera and stuff in it. Very handy. But Minazuki's face kept derping. xD
The con was small-ish but comfy and the atmosphere was right. We just walked around the con and had fun and all that jazz. At one time one of the cosplay competition judges saw us and went "Hey guys, you two should seriously consider entering the cosplay competition!" (or something like that) and first we were unsure but then we signed up anyway. They had actually just closed the registration but they made an exception for us. We competed as a duo by the way, if it was not clear. I was so nervous and me and Unohana were the last ones (number 22) to go up to scene. I'm not really the one to stand on a scene normally and I was so nervous back-stage even though I've competed at two small events before too but I somehow relaxed as soon as we entered the stage together and the audience cheered loudly. We actually got 2nd place together, it felt awesome. Yay we got cosplay medals~

I won't tell so much more about the con but if anyone is interested to read more about the weekend there's some more information in my journal at deviantArt. Now I'm waiting for the studio photos taken of us. I hope I'm not doing stupid faces...

Oh, and we got into the Pohjolan Sanomat newspaper... so there's a big photo of us two in costume. Oh gawd. x)

That's it. See ya!

Kitacon drawing closer

Yay free day from school today, and mom worked until very late and stepdad had evening shift... house for myself most of the day... and that can only mean one thing.. cosplaaaaay~
Heck, I needed to test ponytail!Ukitake (aka Turn Back the Pendulum version) again because that's my Kitacon cosplay and err, maybe it's just me but I find I look totally durp with hair tied back. Oh well, I've considered cosplaying all canon variations of Ukitake so yeah, should do that version at least once too, no matter how silly I look... or not. People say it looks alright though so maybe I'm just being a self-critic again... *shrugs*

Preview photo!

See ya at the con!

Weekend's cosplay photos

Hiya!

During last weekend I tried to ease my depression by taking some cosplay photos... it actually works; I won't be telling any details about said depression but yeah, I think I got some pretty okay photos of my Jushiro Ukitake and Soujun Kuchiki costumes... both from the series Bleach. I will post a few photos here for now.

Jushiro Ukitake

Weird angles wuhuuu! No but really, normally my face ends up looking ridiculous in more extreme angles but this one was kinda cool. Besides it shows off my tsukamaki (read: handle wrapping) really well. I should have taken more outside photos but the sun set so fast it became too dark... *shrugs*

 

Jushiro Ukitake, Captain of the 13th Division... aka Captain Tuberculosis by fans of the series/him. OTL Yeah, he occasionally coughs up blood... end of story. ;_; Love him anyway, he is so gentle and the kindest captain of them all.

Soujun Kuchiki

Soujun Kuchiki, late Lieutenant of Division 6.

The Kuchikis are one of the four great noble families in Soul Society and even though he smiled more than his son Byakuya Kuchiki, at least according to that only official reference (yes, he is so obscure I wonder if I'm the first person outside Japan to cosplay him...) picture there is of him: ref.

Oh well, about this photo, he is a Kuchiki after all... and we all know that a Kuchiki needs to do the I'm-better-than-you face at least once.. hey, they are nobles after all! xD

That's it for now. Bye.

Kenseikan

Yeah, said to myself I would finish them before this weekend earlier and today I got the thumb out from my ass and made them. It didn't take so long actually and was pretty easy to make. Here's some in progress photos (excuse me for bad lighting..) and short descriptions.

 

First I just took these hard paper (poster board?) whatever and cut out pieces that seemed an okay size. I cut out two similar so I could layer them over one another for strenght. I also marked the middle...

Then I just bent the middle to get that V-shape. After that I glued them on top of each other and proceeded to repeat the steps and make one kenseikan more...

When I had both kenseikan pieces cut out and glued together I just used duct tape in the inside to get the two separate pieces to be one whole...

Then I glued some scrap pieces to the ends to create some dimension.
And when I was done I went and took some WIP photos of one of my coming cosplays because now it's done. Yes, done. The kenseikan was pretty much the only thing I needed for it. XD Mhmm lazy budget cosplaying, I had everything else already.

derp

I'm herpderpin' around. lol I need white pins to hold kenseikan in place, black ones are too visible I think... and no, IT'S NOT BYAKUYA. It's Byakuya's dad, Soujun. Aww yeah, obscure character from a popular show. <3 There's only like... one official artwork of him and it's only showing his face from the front, heheh the rest is up to my imagination, woo. I will debut this cosplay during the summer first so yeah, I finished early. Although I need to test character make-up...

Bye bye!

Next con I'm planning to go to...

... is Kitacon 4 in Kemi, 11th February 2012. Finland, duh.

...

Oh, and hi! xD

But seriously, why wouldn't I attend Kitacon when it's close to me? Omg, close, read that? It's almost I can't believe it. Close. I live like... maybe 25 km away from it and well, it's the world's most northern con so EFF YEAH FINALLY SOMETHING CLOSE TO ME. :'DD Wuhuu! Okey, it kinda sucks to live in the north sometimes, ahaha.. I have to travel to the other end of Finland to attend cons and some people believe we don't have internet access here and ride reindeers to school... waitwhat?

Cosplay plans you ask? Well, if my friend Jäärä manages to get up here it will be so much AWESOME, so much awesome I can't sit still just thinking about it. I'm planning to not be a durp this time and actually do Turn Back the Pendulum Jushiro Ukitake from Bleach, aka ponytail!Ukitake... and I will bring my shikai... because I can, no problems transporting them this time. Car rides yesssss! Oops, I'm too hyper I see.. and well, Jäärä would be my Turn Back the Pendulum Unohana feat. Minazuki! And yes, TBtP versions to match, no time-fucks. :)

See ya!