LAPIS IDOCRASE: I'm making the thing
If I don't post, it's because I'm at my busiest.
It's true.
At least, I hope so.
I've actually been quite active with cosplaying and more skits over the past year! Honestly, I try to post often, but I'm terrible at it, so I'm going to go ahead and admit that now with the hopes that I'll actually improve on it for the rest of the year. Maybe that should be my next New Year's Resolution.
I'm going to get ahead on it though by finally attempting to use this blog once more to chronicle my upcoming progress on several new cosplays, along with one special one that I've been itching to finally make.
In a lot of ways, I've done more than I've had with cosplay throughout this year, although it's also been a bit of a time-out in some ways. I've competed less for numerous reasons, but it's mostly been because I'm working on some more intricate skits for the next year. We also unfortunately had to drop out from one last minute since the convention was having some organization problems, and on our end, we also were a bit shaken by our inability to think of a proper failsafe in time for one aspect of our skit. That being said, we're planning on properly performing this skit, along with many others in the upcoming year. This has been an excellent checkpoint for all of my work and effort, even if I'm super bad at chronicling anything.
So this post will start with a slight catch-up about my con season, which maybe might get its own other post, but more importantly, it will also contain the announcement and part one of my newest project for Anime California! I posted back in September 2016 about first competing at AC with my friend Lyric, and we won Best in Show! So here we are again, but this time we're hoping to push the envelope a little more and get creative, get messy, make mistakes, and have lots of fun.
I want to start off by saying that I'm one of those people who get mighty nitpicky with myself and claim that I haven't done anything until some months later when I go to review what I've done, I'm baffled by the fact that I actually made more than I thought. My inner critic is pretty gnarly, but we're growing to understand each other.
So for starters, this past year has been about growth and really coming into focus about why cosplay is important to me. I can't even remember if I wrote here about our attempt at WCS, and we recently learned that we placed Runner-Up for the USA 2017 finals. It was surreal, yet at the same time we left the whole experience satisfied that we'd survived that cosplay boot camp and we told a story that we enjoyed sharing.
Going off from there, I started school again a few months later, which I've been working pretty hard at, but once again, I get critical with myself if I'm unable to multitask. I spent most of 2017 claiming that I wasn't productive at all because I had little cosplays to show for it versus 2016, but in reality, it was also because I was doing relevant game work in my field and portfolio projects, so I am still doing art. I just need time to remember that.
I can't honestly remember where I left off, but I'm pretty sure my last post was about my revamped Usagi cosplay, which follows the theme of growth and retrying. Pretty much after that, I started school, and things really kicked off around winter when I worked on our Final Fantasy XV skit, Somnus XV, for Anime LA. It was an ambitious project that honestly left me exhausted for the more recent months, but I've started picking up again.
Then I FINALLY went to SakuraCon for the first time! This whole experience warrants its own post, but all that I can say is that it was magical and I really want to go again. I also used that time to just enjoy the cosplays I'd made already.
Then Fanime came, and that was unfortunately the convention where we had to drop out. The upside to this experience is that as always, it was a great trip with my friends, and then secondly, I pushed myself to make something that I would be so happy to wear and share. I think collectively, we all felt the same way and it's part of the reason why we decided to postpone it. We absolutely love our audio and our skit's concept, but a blunder on our end about a set piece was likely going to make this skit lack half of the things that we had intended.
We were slated to perform Somnus XV at Anime Expo again, but following Fanime, we made the group decision to take a short breather, and honestly, there's no regrets since I had the chance to be a part of the World Cosplay Summit Retrospective in support of WCS USA. Yet another amazing experience that warrants its own post.
All in all, I've made the following items throughout this time:
For Myself:
- Noctis Lucis Caelum - Kingly Raiment Version 2.0 - Final Fantasy XV
- Yukimura Chizuru - Hakuoki
- Cardia Beckford - Holiday Version - Code: Realize - Kiseki no Shirogane
- Cardia Beckford - Code: Realize
- Alice Liddell - Alice in the Country of Hearts
For Others:
- Ardyn Izunia - Final Fantasy XV
- (Derp) Lunafreya Nox. Fleuret - Final Fantasy XV
- Arsene Lupin (Jacket) - Code: Realize
Other Cosplays Worn/Bought:
- Hino Kahoko - La Corda D'Oro
- Aigasaki Kohana - Magic Kyun Renaissance
- Zero Two - Darling in the FranXX
Revamped:
- Kinomoto Sakura - Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow
I totally didn't realize until now that this year, 've made three otome game protagonists (and counting), and bought two other cosplays for two other otome MCs. I've clearly found my calling.
So that transitions into the next part of my updates!
Since I'm striving to be productive and really showcase that more, I'm going to attempt to journal all of my progress for some of my next upcoming cosplays. I hope that I can share more pictures and notes about my ongoing work not only for myself, but to help keep the creative flow and inspiration going for everyone. I'll try to chronicle between either a day or a few days' worth of work at a time, and any substantial progress.
Here are a few non-competition pieces that I'll be working on:
Matou Sakura - Fate/Stay Night
Projected Date: August 2018 || Anime California 2018
Takanashi Tsumugi - Idolish7
Projected Date: January 2019 || Anime Los Angeles 2019
Kamui Shiro - X/1999
Projected Date: Spring 2019 || SakuraCon or Fanime 2019
+ 1 Revamp of a previous cosplay I've done a Pants Your Goonies skit with for another fun project!
Because the other few projects will be busier, I'm hoping to keep smaller projects to a minimum for the meantime, but you know me. I want to squeeze Lacus Clyne in there somewhere.
There are two major projects I will be working on for this upcoming rest of the year and the next:
Code Name: Flower Mecha Princess
Projected Date: January 2019 || Anime Los Angeles 2019
Code Name: Golden Pickle Alchemy
Projected Date: Summer 2019 || TBA
+1 Revamp of Cardia Beckford for Fanime 2019
And last but not least, my next competition piece!
I am so happy that Lyric and I will be competing at Anime California to present our skit from the series, Majestic Majolical!
I got into this game right after its release, and I immediately loved the art style, the character designs, the characters themselves, and oddly enough, the quickplay of it. The routes aren't too long, and while I wish Mitsuki's route was longer, the story made its point. I'm hoping to play Volume 2 and 3 next, but not probably until after I finish sewing. I love Lapis as an MC and originally I conceived this skit as a solo entry after my plan to make Rose Witch for this con changed.
I'm so humbled that Lyric will be joining as Hauyne Idocrase, who is Lapis's older brother. We're currently working on edits to the original skit's story to add even more dynamics between them now that it will be a full duo skit.
Since this costume has a lot of fun details, I hope to chronicle and share a little more about my construction process, as well as some of the extra tidbits, research, and concept design for our skits.
So I'm hoping to now be more active and to really get as organized as possible so that I can work really hard on these cosplays and really enjoy the process.
Next part should hopefully be actual sewing progress! I used today to organize patterns and get my game plan going.
So now without further ado, NEXT PROJECT START!
It's true.
At least, I hope so.
I've actually been quite active with cosplaying and more skits over the past year! Honestly, I try to post often, but I'm terrible at it, so I'm going to go ahead and admit that now with the hopes that I'll actually improve on it for the rest of the year. Maybe that should be my next New Year's Resolution.
I'm going to get ahead on it though by finally attempting to use this blog once more to chronicle my upcoming progress on several new cosplays, along with one special one that I've been itching to finally make.
In a lot of ways, I've done more than I've had with cosplay throughout this year, although it's also been a bit of a time-out in some ways. I've competed less for numerous reasons, but it's mostly been because I'm working on some more intricate skits for the next year. We also unfortunately had to drop out from one last minute since the convention was having some organization problems, and on our end, we also were a bit shaken by our inability to think of a proper failsafe in time for one aspect of our skit. That being said, we're planning on properly performing this skit, along with many others in the upcoming year. This has been an excellent checkpoint for all of my work and effort, even if I'm super bad at chronicling anything.
So this post will start with a slight catch-up about my con season, which maybe might get its own other post, but more importantly, it will also contain the announcement and part one of my newest project for Anime California! I posted back in September 2016 about first competing at AC with my friend Lyric, and we won Best in Show! So here we are again, but this time we're hoping to push the envelope a little more and get creative, get messy, make mistakes, and have lots of fun.
I want to start off by saying that I'm one of those people who get mighty nitpicky with myself and claim that I haven't done anything until some months later when I go to review what I've done, I'm baffled by the fact that I actually made more than I thought. My inner critic is pretty gnarly, but we're growing to understand each other.
So for starters, this past year has been about growth and really coming into focus about why cosplay is important to me. I can't even remember if I wrote here about our attempt at WCS, and we recently learned that we placed Runner-Up for the USA 2017 finals. It was surreal, yet at the same time we left the whole experience satisfied that we'd survived that cosplay boot camp and we told a story that we enjoyed sharing.
Going off from there, I started school again a few months later, which I've been working pretty hard at, but once again, I get critical with myself if I'm unable to multitask. I spent most of 2017 claiming that I wasn't productive at all because I had little cosplays to show for it versus 2016, but in reality, it was also because I was doing relevant game work in my field and portfolio projects, so I am still doing art. I just need time to remember that.
I can't honestly remember where I left off, but I'm pretty sure my last post was about my revamped Usagi cosplay, which follows the theme of growth and retrying. Pretty much after that, I started school, and things really kicked off around winter when I worked on our Final Fantasy XV skit, Somnus XV, for Anime LA. It was an ambitious project that honestly left me exhausted for the more recent months, but I've started picking up again.
Then I FINALLY went to SakuraCon for the first time! This whole experience warrants its own post, but all that I can say is that it was magical and I really want to go again. I also used that time to just enjoy the cosplays I'd made already.
Then Fanime came, and that was unfortunately the convention where we had to drop out. The upside to this experience is that as always, it was a great trip with my friends, and then secondly, I pushed myself to make something that I would be so happy to wear and share. I think collectively, we all felt the same way and it's part of the reason why we decided to postpone it. We absolutely love our audio and our skit's concept, but a blunder on our end about a set piece was likely going to make this skit lack half of the things that we had intended.
We were slated to perform Somnus XV at Anime Expo again, but following Fanime, we made the group decision to take a short breather, and honestly, there's no regrets since I had the chance to be a part of the World Cosplay Summit Retrospective in support of WCS USA. Yet another amazing experience that warrants its own post.
All in all, I've made the following items throughout this time:
For Myself:
- Noctis Lucis Caelum - Kingly Raiment Version 2.0 - Final Fantasy XV
- Yukimura Chizuru - Hakuoki
- Cardia Beckford - Holiday Version - Code: Realize - Kiseki no Shirogane
- Cardia Beckford - Code: Realize
- Alice Liddell - Alice in the Country of Hearts
For Others:
- Ardyn Izunia - Final Fantasy XV
- (Derp) Lunafreya Nox. Fleuret - Final Fantasy XV
- Arsene Lupin (Jacket) - Code: Realize
Other Cosplays Worn/Bought:
- Hino Kahoko - La Corda D'Oro
- Aigasaki Kohana - Magic Kyun Renaissance
- Zero Two - Darling in the FranXX
Revamped:
- Kinomoto Sakura - Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow
I totally didn't realize until now that this year, 've made three otome game protagonists (and counting), and bought two other cosplays for two other otome MCs. I've clearly found my calling.
So that transitions into the next part of my updates!
Since I'm striving to be productive and really showcase that more, I'm going to attempt to journal all of my progress for some of my next upcoming cosplays. I hope that I can share more pictures and notes about my ongoing work not only for myself, but to help keep the creative flow and inspiration going for everyone. I'll try to chronicle between either a day or a few days' worth of work at a time, and any substantial progress.
Here are a few non-competition pieces that I'll be working on:
Matou Sakura - Fate/Stay Night
Projected Date: August 2018 || Anime California 2018
Takanashi Tsumugi - Idolish7
Projected Date: January 2019 || Anime Los Angeles 2019
Kamui Shiro - X/1999
Projected Date: Spring 2019 || SakuraCon or Fanime 2019
+ 1 Revamp of a previous cosplay I've done a Pants Your Goonies skit with for another fun project!
Because the other few projects will be busier, I'm hoping to keep smaller projects to a minimum for the meantime, but you know me. I want to squeeze Lacus Clyne in there somewhere.
There are two major projects I will be working on for this upcoming rest of the year and the next:
Code Name: Flower Mecha Princess
Projected Date: January 2019 || Anime Los Angeles 2019
Code Name: Golden Pickle Alchemy
Projected Date: Summer 2019 || TBA
+1 Revamp of Cardia Beckford for Fanime 2019
And last but not least, my next competition piece!
I am so happy that Lyric and I will be competing at Anime California to present our skit from the series, Majestic Majolical!
I got into this game right after its release, and I immediately loved the art style, the character designs, the characters themselves, and oddly enough, the quickplay of it. The routes aren't too long, and while I wish Mitsuki's route was longer, the story made its point. I'm hoping to play Volume 2 and 3 next, but not probably until after I finish sewing. I love Lapis as an MC and originally I conceived this skit as a solo entry after my plan to make Rose Witch for this con changed.
I'm so humbled that Lyric will be joining as Hauyne Idocrase, who is Lapis's older brother. We're currently working on edits to the original skit's story to add even more dynamics between them now that it will be a full duo skit.
Since this costume has a lot of fun details, I hope to chronicle and share a little more about my construction process, as well as some of the extra tidbits, research, and concept design for our skits.
So I'm hoping to now be more active and to really get as organized as possible so that I can work really hard on these cosplays and really enjoy the process.
Next part should hopefully be actual sewing progress! I used today to organize patterns and get my game plan going.
So now without further ado, NEXT PROJECT START!
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