Thursday, April 14, 2016

Cosplay in 20 Days Or Less! Day 3

                         Cosplay in 20 Days Or Less! Day 3

Today I finalized the play-doh mold. The process I took to accomplish this was long and tedious. First I experimented to get the right shape in the play-doh, then I would fill it with hot glue, cool it, clean it, trim it, sand it and tweak it a little bit at a time until I got the desired result. If it were up to me and I didn't have a deadline, I would give it a few more days and buy proper crafting tools so that I could create a perfect (and symmetrical) pendant.
Sorry, I couldn't resist. It was actually the debute of this blog the introduced me to Soul Eater. This pic has a ton of pixels so it looks so tiny on here xd
Anyways, onto the crafting process!



As you can see below, I have a flat headed metal tool (This was $1 at rite-aid and has a huge head)

After you put the hot glue into your playdoh mold, you place this (or a similar) metal tool behind it to hold it in place. It also helps to give whatever you're casting a flat back. A lot of the tutorials I read said that you pry the
 Play-Doh off of the metal tool but I always took the metal off first.
To the left you can see a slightly blurry picture of me casting. I had just finished the hot glue and took the picture as fast as I could. Now, if I had done this part correctly the metal pieces (The crown and the spear, which is actually to halves I glued into a whole) would stay in the hot glue and have a strong bond.
Except I am a grade A screw-up. I had to use the tip of my hot glue gun to re-melt the hot glue and adjust the pieces into it. Which as you can see was a little bit of a pain the *Cough* neck.

The spear was obviously a little bottom heavy so I ended up giving it a little skirt of glue to keep it steady. It wasn't necessary but just a precaution. The crown was much easier to reposition. I gave it a bit extra glue as well.



The metal pieces obviously got really hot one I was messing with them and the glue so don't ever try this with bare fingers. I didn't burn myself but I am half made of hot glue already sooo.........



Alright, the next step for me is to clean it, tape over the metal parts, cover it in Gesso, sand it, paint it, cry because I did something wrong and start over again! I don't know if I will have a progress report for tomorrow because I have prom tomorrow evening and the prep for that is gonna be an all day affair. Gotta go get flowers and all the crap... -_-

Thanks for reading! Hope to see you guys again soon ;)

~Aki Ame Okami









Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Cosplay in 20 Days Or Less: Day 2

The date is the 13th and I still don't have all my needed supplies.
I have enough to go ahead and get started though! Keep in mind I am a total noob when it comes to cosplay and props (Well, I actually have 4 years in theatre, special effects makeup, props, construction and costume experience) so I am sure a ton of this is going to be done wrong.
Today I am using playdoh to make molds for my Blue Exorcist pendants. You know,  the weird cross thing that they all have?

I am making it out of hot glue and then going to paint it with puffy paint. So far its going alright... I am close to having my final mold done and getting ready to cast it! Hopefully I don't screw this up.
Wish me luck, for tomorrow I finalize this prop!

~Aki Ame Okami

Monday, April 11, 2016

Cosplay in 20 Days or Less! Day 1

         Welcome to Cosplay in 20 Days or Less!
                                      Day 1


The date is April 12th, 2016. I have a con on the 30th. I have yet to make my costume.

  *Entire cosplay community laughs/mourns because of this*

Calm down, it will be okay! I did this on purpose! Yes, I am crazy.

I am going to document me assembling the costumes I am working on. That's right, Costumes. Plural.

Heiwa and I will be cosplaying...........


Rin and Yukio Okumura!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Blue Exorcist)

For those of you who don't know, these are the twin sons of satan.
Heiwa is going to be Yukio and I am going to be Rin. For now, these are genderbends. I do plan to properly cosplay them in their original forms one day but the 30th won't be that day.

Alright onto the cosplay process. The first thing you should do when making a cosplay is research! However, I cheated. I already did all of my research and made my "to do" list's. So instead you guys get to watch the fun moments of shopping for the materials.


Later though XD I have to edit the video.

That is all for today, I will show you the first steps of making Kurikara, Rin's sword, next time. (like tomorrow)



~Aki Ame Okami








Thursday, April 7, 2016

Recent Edits! ~Aki

Hey guys! So Heiwa likes it when I periodically upload some of my artwork. So here are some of my recent favorites and a few that haven't been released yet! Enjoy! 
 
 
Lyrics: Start Somewhere - Toby Mac

 
This is something I say frequently though I am sure many other people have said it as well.



Song: Hold My Hand

A promise is a promise... But I make no promises about what will happen if you end up in the dark with me ;)

One of these days might be soon xd

House of Heroes: Lose Control

Something I have to tell myself.

That's probably the worst thing you could do to me.
That's all for now, hope you enjoyed at least one of these pictures :)

~Aki Ame Okami

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Guys!!!! 300 likes!

My personal admin page hit 300 likes! I am so happy right now! All of the fans rock :) Hopefully I can get Ani-Maze-Me up there in likes as well! Time to hit the S4S's XD

~Aki Ame Okami

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Wait A Second.... A Japanese Live Drama Review(?)

Where to start.....
It was 2 A.M on a dark and stormy night(actually it was dark and fairly decent weather) and somehow I ended up reading an "Otaku Bucket List". One of the things on that list was to "Watch at least one Japanese live action drama.".
I thought, well I have to be up at 6 so what the heck. I will watch it before the photo shoot. What happened next was.... Traumatizing.

What did I end up watching? I ending up watching
"Kindan No Koi" Here is a short description that I found AFTER I watched it.
"Just returning from study abroad, fashion designer Ritsu takes up a job at LOVE&HATE and ends up sharing an apartment with Sho, the son of his boss. Sho has lately developed the worrying habit of holing himself at home and not interacting with anyone, and Ritsu’s boss wants him to keep an eye on Sho. Unknown to everyone, however, is the fact that Sho and Ritsu used to be lovers before Ritsu went to New York..." 

Okay... It ended up being a really awkward love square between 4 guys. Four guys. One more time in slow motion Fo-ur Gu-ys.
Now when I am sleep deprived I am a little slow to pick up on things. So for the first 40 minutes this was a totally normal cliché movie about lovers splitting up cause of school. Until....
**************SPOILER****************

Code names for the people.
Brother 1: Ryu
Brother 2: Sho
Main Character: Ritsu
Evil manager: Baka

Ryu and Baka split up Ritsu and Sho so that Ritsu will be forced out of the company which makes Baka happy. Baka then backs out of the story.
Ryu confesses his love for Sho whom heavily rejects him. Sho tries to run away to be with Ritsu.
Looks like smooth sailing and a happy ending with Sho and Ritsu reuniting. Until,

suspense....................................

Sho is literally running out the door super happy, turns around to close the door and Ryu smashes Sho's face in with a brick killing him. Then he makes a creepy shrine out of his body and surrounds him with flowers and the movie ends with Ryu curling up to Sho's dead body.

What the heck?..... I literally went to Heiwa's place and woke her up so that we could try and process this. What the flipping heck?....
My entire response to this movie is a series of
"Wait a second..."
"Wait a second!!!!"
"WAIT JUST ONE FLIPPING SECOND!!!!!!!!!!"
In the end we decided that I obviously had to shower Heiwa in flowers everyday because that's what people do... Then they smash your face in with a brick and make a shrine out of you.

Things I learned from this experience:
  1. Stop googling things when I am tired.
  2. ALWAYS find multiple reviews of whatever I am interested in.
  3. Japan is weird and I love it.
  4. I might be weirder than Japan.                                            
  5. I think I broke my brain.
  6. Most importantly, NEVER turn around to close the door.

Thank you for enjoying my traumatic experience :)


~Aki Ame Okami

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Marion-Con 2016: Debute!

Hello again! Heiwa and I were at it again as we hit the con front bright and early this morning! Today a neighboring town debuted their first comic-con. To be honest the last small town con I went to (Morganton-Con) had a weird industrial feel to it. What does that mean you ask? Well I felt like if you weren't in line to buy something then they didn't really want you there. I also noticed that some vendors I had previously admired had considerably raised their prices for some unknown reason...
I was a little nervous as we started the hour long drive (one way) to Marion.
What if I had lost my passion for conventions? Surely that wasn't possible after just one bad experience..... Right?
That's what I was thinking on the way over.

Marion-Con instantly revived my passion. 



We weren't even out of the car and could tell that we weren't going to get a swag bag. ( Marion-Con gave out EPIC swag bags to the first 100 people in the door, we got there before the con even got started and we still missed them.)


 
The line was actually really fun. I know that sounds weird. Seriously though, every one was laid back and just having a nice chat. At one point the ROTC class ran by and someone shouted "There goes the G. I. Joe cosplayers!" It was great. The only that would have made it better is if there was music to rock out to while waiting in line.
 I took this picture while Heiwa was paying for us to get in. The first room was packed in pretty tight. (Did I mention Marion-Con rented BOTH floors?!)


 
...............Over priced plushies that can steal your heart because they are adorable or...

Sorry that its blurry, I actually stepped on some ones foot while trying to take this picture. Sorry random person!
Over priced plushies that can steal your soul :p
 
Now keep in mind that when I say "over priced" its not actually an unfair price. Anime/manga merchandise is hard to come by in person (not online) so its actually a decent price. Anime/Manga is just an expensive addiction hobby :)


 
Not just one DeadPool but two. Think about this. TWO DEADPOOL! They didn't ask us to conga-line but they did direct us to an Itachi Uchiha. That makes them saints. Who doesn't need more Itachi in their life? Well, I mean Sasukes parents probably...
 
 
The second room (actually kinda a separate building) seemed a lot bigger than the first but now that I think about it, it probably wasn't that much bigger.

                                   It was still super packed.

On to the Artists!

**Ok, first off I would like to say that there is a reason why I took photos with a visible glare, multiple pictures in the shot or slightly blurry. Artists protection! This way no one feels the need to download the image and sell it as their own creation. The only people with rights to these pictures are the creators. I got permission to take the pictures and write about them. If any vendors are displeased with the pictures or article written about them they can/will be removed at their request.**


First up is,
                                   Dungeon Wears

I don't have any pictures of their booth because the man in charge of it really knew how to work a crowd. There was constantly patrons at the booth. Trust me, check them out ;)
The quote on the back of their card is:

        "Fine Wearable Art For The Average Adventurer"


........................................................
 Wow, Fantastic Baby.
          I was referencing the song: Fantastic Baby
Can we all take a moment to appreciate how gorgeous this is? 
This was done by The Painting Mama's 

They had some pretty fantastic art. It came in a wide variety of sizes and they had something for every fandom.
Heiwa actually had to talk me out of buying a copy of the beautiful beast that is Ghost Rider. I had to save money to take my parents to dinner for their anniversary. They are worth it :)
 
 
This booth was pretty cool. The artist actually made a painting while he was at the con so that was really fun to watch.
We didn't get to watch him finish it though....
Their business cards actually have some really awesome pictures on the back. Being an editor I really admire their business card layout.
 
                                                        
                The Walking Dead fandom has the right  to fangirl.


               They had everything from TWD to Star Wars.
                           Zombies and Jedi's am I right?

 
 
"Why do you look like someone died?"
"Wait."
~The Addams Family
Correct me if I'm wrong but is that a set of grumpy CareBears?
Would that make them Don't-CareBears?
 
 
Next we have something that I have been fangirling about for a while. (Not in a creepy way)
 
 
The first time I saw them I guessed at what the are style was called.
Splatter Art is what I guessed. He is actually "The original Splatter Grunge Artist" so I was pretty close :P
They have incredibly fair prices when it comes to the posters.
This was another booth that I had to be talked out of purchasing something at....
 
 
This is the blurry photo I mentioned earlier. These characters are incredibly popular and I didn't want to risk someone trying to steal the art. That Sebastian X Ciel picture would make the shippers swoon. 
 

 
 
This is one of the best Link pictures that I have ever seen and I have seen A LOT of Link pictures......
 
 
I will add the glamour shots of Heiwa and I later.
Marion-Con was a blast and their debute was fantastic. I certainly hope that they continue to grow and maybe add an event like maybe a gaming contest or cosplay chess or something semi-social.
Thanks for the read! Sorry that this post was so long.
 
 
~Aki Ame Okami