Back from the dead to bring you some new cosplay!

How is everyone? I apologize for being quiet on the blogging front, as lately my Facebook page has been my main focus.

I just completed another cosplay, however! Lisa Lisa from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part II Battle Tendency. I love the outcome, it's comfy and can't wait to debut her at Anime Expo later this summer!

❤ Ely

Project Castlevania SOTN: More photos!

Not much going on that is new in the life department. Been productive at work, but less so with my craft. In between figuring out my next large-scale project, I've been touching up photos from the SOTN July shoot. So here are a few more! If you enjoy what you see, please show your support by giving my facebook page a like. Thank you~  (‘∀’●)♡

Elysium Sans Cosplay (Facebook)

Elysium Sans (Deviant Art) 

I really appreciate anyone who gives me encouragement in this hobby. It means a lot to me. ❤ Ely

Project Castlevania SOTN: (Our photoshoot)

Hey everyone! Things have been fairly relaxed since my last post. Post Anime Expo, we're back to our regular lives. Well, mostly!

I really wanted to share some images from our Castlevania: Symphony of the Night shoot from early on in July. We're half considering another shoot (because there were plenty of shots that we didn't get, and we wished we had!) but it'll likely be later this year, once the Los Angeles weather is cooler.

If you like what you see, please check out my dA and my Facebook page below~

Elysium Sans Cosplay (Facebook)

Elysium Sans (Deviant Art)

 

My best to all of you, and stay tuned for our next major project! (I update more often on my Facebook fan page, so do follow me there if you feel so inclined!)

Feeling pretty amazing after another successful Anime Expo! Haven't seen a whole lot of pictures of us circulating, but, we had an intense two-hour photoshoot with a photographer that I hired for the event. From what I saw of the photos, they were amazing! We'll be unveiling those a little later in the week once we receive them.

In the meantime, please enjoy this lovely shot taken by David Ngo (http://www.dtjaaaam.com/), and also an amazing solo shot of Alucard taken by Somatic-Studios!  https://www.facebook.com/somaticstudios

Cheers and will be back with more photos of Maria & Alucard! 

❤ Ely

Anime Expo 2012 --

"I am the morning sun coming to vanquish this horrible night!"

"Hoist the sails, Britain!"

Hello everyone!

Just a really quick update here.  AX 2012 has come and gone, my best friend flew out of LA yesterday, and I am in a good place right now.   Talk about an amazing couple of weeks!

We had an absolute blast in our costumes, received an astounding amount of photographs from other people, and chatted with some pretty amazing folks.  I can't tell you how much joy I received to see my best friend in her Pirate!England cosplay.  She poses like a professional, and was basically dripping confidence the entire weekend.  It is a unique experience to attend such a large convention, and not feel incredibly overwhelmed by it... because for how crowded it was, we were pretty at ease.  (The people make it a comfortable place!) It is by far the most costume-heavy convention I have been to, and also the attendees are genuinely awesome and super friendly.  I prefer AX to Comic Con, now.

As for an actual convention report, I may get to that at a later time.  Just too much of a blur right now to recall everything.  Since my best friend was in town since the 22nd, a lot of my days were focused on spending quality time with her, and not just on the anime convention itself.

As for my costume, it's 100% complete.  Didn't really run into problems or real discomfort wearing it at all -- and better yet, it didn't bust or flinch at all!  So glad that I took the time to craft it so sturdy.  The contacts were insanely perfect, and I'm pretty sure I freaked a few people out a couple of times  So much love to my caring husband, who stayed up late and did the henna on my back for this cosplay.  I'm still planning on doing a paid shoot with a professional photographer in the near future, because while I love the photos I have currently -- I really need high quality ones for my portfolio.  Still trying to figure out who to contact for such a thing.

All the best for now, and will update more comprehensively soon!

♥ Ely

Graduation, AX 2012 & Shanoa Tassets (W.I.P)

SCHOOL IS OUT!  I have a grad dinner tomorrow, receive my certificate, and that's it. Still waiting to hear about possible plans for higher education, but until then, I'm just going to relax and lay out like a blob like I deserve.  Kinda happy and sad that my time @ the LACC Theatre Academy has come to a close.  Couldn't last forever though.  I'll have a better idea of what to do by the first week of July, but it'll either be more school, or going to work.

With 27 days or so until AX 2012, and just under 3 weeks until my best friend comes from B.C to visit... I am so beyond excited! It's been about a year since I've seen her, and it's honestly been the only thing I've really been looking forward to since the beginning of my school year.  L.A. is a huge place, and what we didn't do/see last time, we'll surely try to squeeze in.  It'll be nice to kick back and enjoy our time together!  I just hope the weather won't turn unbearably hot while she's here, but if all else fails, we'll run the A/C and eat popsicles in front of it. xD;

I'm around 60% with my Shanoa cosplay, with the major parts just being the dress left to sew, and drafting my greaves and cuisses. (The upper leg armor)  The hip armor (Stylized tassets) is complete and are awaiting to be put together and riveted to the breastplate.  I've got a few things coming in the mail before I can proceed with the rivets, though.  I ended up ordering a PVC display mannequin (30") leg to do my lower greaves, because I don't like the idea of free-forming Wonderflex to my leg (Over a boot).  It felt like the right thing to do, to get two perfectly identical greaves.  :3 Also for $20, it's not a big deal and I'm sure I'll get plenty of use out of it.

Still much to do, but I have loads of time being out of school for the summer~

I have a few progress pictures and pre-drafts of my hip armor, but it doesn't all make sense until you see the final product.  I used the same method as the breast plate by using Wonderflex as an inner support, felted both sides, and covered the outer with matching brown leather.  The dotted line on the pattern is for the shorter sections of the armor.  I didn't want to cut 6 full patterns, as the upper two are overlapped and only the bottom is full-sized.  It sits nicer on my thighs this way too, with less bulk.

The rolled sheet metal was used to give me a nice curve to the armor pieces.  It's funny what you can do with stuff you have lying about your house!  Since these pictures, I have them covered in leather and ready to attach.  I will update that in a day or two once I receive the supplies I need.

Update: I'm adding a couple of the 'mostly finished' tassets! (At bottom) They came out pretty great -- all I have to do is fasten them together, and create the strap to connect to the breastplate. Woo!

Shanoa To-Do:   

1.  Draft lower greaves, and cuisses -- attach with brass split-pins. (0%)
2. Attach hip armor (stylized tassets) to finished breastplate. (95%)
3.  Draft, sew dress together & lining -- add controlled fray to bottom hem. (60%)
4. Gloves -- add feathers (Detachable) and elastic cross-gartering. (95%)
5. Collar -- baste pinned areas & attach hook and eyes. (100%)
6. Make below knee to upper thigh brown legging w/zippers. (100%)
7. Shape & texturize 40" black wig. (0%)

That's all for now, lovelies! Hope all in anticipation of the convention season are making good progress on costumes as well.  Keep it up. :3 Cheers!

♥ Ely

Anime Expo 2011 --

It's been a long, long time since I've attended an anime convention.  In fact, the last one must have been back in 2003 or 2004.  (This would be back when I was dating my now husband!) So wow, it's been a long time.  Sure, I have attended Comic Con a few times more recently, but not for the same reasons.  For AX we attended Friday, Saturday, and a little tiny bit on Sunday.  Overall, we actually had a lot of fun.  Strange to actually admit that, as we're definitely not as tangled in Japanese sub-culture as we used to be.  Granted, we still indulge whenever we can just because we're nerdy like that, yo.

At any rate, the Los Angeles Convention Center that houses Anime Expo is huge!  We traipsed around for hours and hours, and still didn't manage to see the whole thing!  Upon pulling up to the convention parking area we observed an astonishing amount of people dressed in costumes as well.  Cosplay at this convention must have been at least 50-60% of the attendees, really.  My inner-costuming-nerd-heart must have skipped dozens of beats throughout the weekend.  The range of skill in the costumes were all over the place, some were decent, others were finished strangely -- but others, my goodness.  It's hard to think that these people are not professional!  Some of the costumes must have taken months to put together -- and you could really tell how proud they were of their work.

It should be mentioned that the age range that attended this convention were from very young to over 60.

Of course, we busted out some "cosplay" of our own for one day, just to see how many people would:

a) Recognize the characters.
b) Take pictures?
c) Freak out and yell "Objection!" at us!

So we donned Gyakuten Saiban costumes (Or Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) for Saturday.  Myself as the busty defense attorney Mia Fey, and my husband as the enigmatic coffee-addicted prosecutor Godot.  Here are some of the better shots we had taken.

(I may do a construction notes of sorts for both costumes, just to take it to another level of nerd!)

To answer the above a, b & c -- YES.  Ton's of pictures were taken, lots of "OBJECTION!" had, and for the most part, people knew who we were.  Though, Godot was mistaken as "Anime Cyclops" a few odd times, much to our amusement.

Overall, we didn't do a whole lot during the actual convention -- we mostly just walked around, took pictures of other cosplayers, bought nerd stuff (Yay for Katamari Damacy and Apeture Science t-shirts, hentai books and art prints!) and talked to random people.  If we decide to go next year, we'll prepare to do a bit better in terms of actually going to panels if we're interested in the subject matter.  It would have been nice to attend a concert as well (Both the Hatsune Miku concert and Kalafina were sold out) or actually come with enough $$ to pick up more merchandise.  I regret not checking out the massive Copic booths and picking up a couple of new markers, though.

Though, the highlight of Anime Expo for myself was easily meeting Peter S. Beagle.  (For those who are unfamiliar with him, he's the author of, "The Last Unicorn")  My wonderful husband bought me the hard-backed graphic novel, and I had it signed by Peter!  It was wonderful to meet the creator of such a beloved story.  I was ecstatic to chat with him and convey how important his works were in the shaping of my early childhood.  It completely satisfied my inner child.

I hope to make it to AX 2012 next year -- new costumes in tow, and commission business cards in hand!

-- Elysium