I really hope everyone enjoyed an amazing December month and had a great Christmas with loved ones. I have been relaxing in the mountains for a few days with family but also managed to stay busy with finishing my Ikkicon costume. I'll be arriving in Austin on Thursday evening and doing programming for the con all weekend. I will also have a merchandise table again, right outside the vendor hall.

Looking ahead, I have at least three cons lined up in January, all of which will be Guest appearances. I am most excited about BoomCon in Costa Rica on the weekend of the 21th of January. It's always nice to visit a new place and I look forward to meeting cosplayers from that region.

I updated the costume gallery with Rarity - My Little Pony. Lots of cute photos of my friends and I dressed as the characters from Hasboro's hit tv show MLP!

 Here is also a new Christmas themed image of my Urd costume, shot by BZG Studios!

 

First of all, I updated my costume galleries with new Wonder Woman and Retro Space Girl image, shot by Benny Lee. 

I also had the chance to do a photoshoot collaboration with LA Photographer Aileen Luib, who took me to a garden in downtown LA and shot my original Peacock costume, Empyrean Eyes. Aileen has a unique eye for beauty and whimsy and I appreciated being able to work with a female photographer of her caliber.

Here is a teaser shot from our collaboration: 

I had the incredible privilege to be invited to collaborate on three cosplay photoshoots with renowned visionary photographer Jay Tablante this year.

This is the result of the first shoot! Amber from Sucker Punch!

Amber Collab with Jay Tablante by *yayacosplay on deviantART

We started planning in the spring of 2011 and finally in October, days before NYCC, we shot together in 2stopsbrighter Studios, New York City.
Jay and his team, who flew in from Manila, were ultra professional to work with and my job was mainly focused on making the costume to my highest standards, and looking the part of Amber the day of.
Ara, an amazing makeup artist and hair stylist, helped me get the Amber hair just right.
Raffy is a great poser and art director and between him and Jay, they really made me push the poses. I was originally sitting on a stool and had to kick up my legs and hold the pose for as long as possible. Quite a work out for your stomach muscles lol.
While my work as the model was done after less than an hour for this cosplay shoot, the team worked hard on creating this incredible final image. Jay even went out to the Chino Airport in California to shoot the image of the airplane! I honestly don't know how they are able to turn a photo of me on a stool against a white background into this gorgeous retro war propaganda poster!
I couldn't be happier with Jay and his team's amazing work! Stay tuned for more faboo cosplay images from these guys!

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I have some NYCCcosplay interviews to share! The first is "Cosplay Tips" for the Howcast.com tea, who came by my booth and asked me great questions about cosplay, what I do in this community, and what tips I have for cosplayers starting out and wanting to compete! Thank you guys for being so interested in cosplay! (I weep a little at how short look in this video, since Ben was so tall and I am vertically challenged!)

Marvel Live also interviewed me alongside Marie-Claude and Riddle, while we all were wearing Marvel costumes. This is a first look at my Domino costume from X-Force, which I crafted in time for NYCC. MC was dressed as Ms. Marvel which she made entirely out of latex (!) and Riddle was wearing a fan-favorite cosplay of hers, Wasp. We were interviewed by talented photographer and Marvel web designer Judy Stephens, who also runs the cosplay blog on Marvel.com! You get to watch me trying real hard not to swear on camera, what with the Marvel youth audience and all. But while dressed as a battle-seasoned mercenary (carrying that arsenal of weapons and sporting black lipstick/eye tattoo), it was hard to give up the tough girl attitude lol.

 

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In other news, I am starring in a Resident Evil fanfilm called "Ada Rising". It is a shortfilm written and produced by PlanetZero and Anime Matsuri. I was very happy when they asked me to step into the role of Ada Wong, one of my favorite video game characters!

The filming took place in Houston over 2 weekend and we wrapped last night! Thank you again to John, Deneice and Alin for letting me be a part of this project, I am just as excited about the film release in December 2011 as everyone else.

GeorgeM Cosplay Photography grabbed a few shots of me during the last night of filming. Thanks so much!

The film will be released on www.AnimeMatsuri.com in December 2011 so check back! 

Thank you to Sean Hand, Con-chair of Eirtakon, for contacting me and issuing an apology for how matters worked out. This gesture is very gracious and professional, and I appreciate it very much. I am so sad that I could not be at this edition of Eirtakon in Dublin and thank him again for the kind invitation. Hopefully I will have the chance to experience cosplay and cons in Ireland in the future. Thank you again, Sean.

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So now I have time to blog about Comikaze Expo, a first year convention in Los Angeles that took place this weekend. 

I was added as a last minute Guest so I didn't have any panels scheduled, which was a pity. However, I devoted multiple hours on Sunday to judging the costume contest and since this was a 2-day event, I was grateful for the free-time I had to cosplay with my friends!

Since I have been majorly supplying My Little Pony cosplayers all over the world this year with accessories to complete their costumes, it was a no-brainer to cosplay Rarity at some point myself. She is literally me in the pony-verse lol. I was very happy to have adorbs cosplayers Scruffy Rebel, Monika Lee, Aktrez, Jessica Nigiri and Riddle join me as the rest of the main cast! Everyone put together their costumes and I made the appropriate pony accessories for all of us.
(photo credit is title of each jpg image)

 
My Rarity dress was designed by me - inspired by the character and the show of course! I always thought of Rarity as the fashionista of the group, elegant with a sweet flair. I made a fully lined and boned halter dress and used a purple stretch velvet to make the trim and inserts. I handmade 3 tiers of ruffles from a sparkle organza by serging strips together, then hand pleating the ribbons into ruffles. My cutie mark (3 diamond shapes) were rhinestone plate earrings taken apart and attached to the front of the dress. Rarity would definitely approve of blinged out diamond shapes :). I found a sheer French silk with a diamond pattern on it (Hello, cutie mark shape!) and made a pattern for a bolero, then sewed it together as a little cover over the dress. My wig was a great shade but I wish I had had the time to properly style it. It's a bit flat for my taste. Overall it was so much fun to dress up in a fun little costume with friends. LA Weekly came by and grabbed a pic of the ponies that were gathered at my booth at the time, and Riddle and I signed Cosplay For A Cause calendars at my table as well! We walked around for a while and took photos with various photographers.

   

On Sunday I had the responsibility of judging the costume contest - it was an interesting experience due to the fact that Comikaze is a first year event and the contest didn't have classes such as Novice, Journeyman and Master, nor a rigid judging guideline, nor a variety of awards. There were 3 award choices - 3rd, 2nd and 1st place. Usually at costume contests that I have judged there are award titles such as "Best Craftsmanship", "Best Performance", "Best Character Likeness", "Judge's Award" etc. in addition to Best awards for each class. Because Comikaze did not give us judges such choices, picking the deserving winners was a difficult task, made only harder by so many many amazing costumers entering. There was also no stage and no way for the contestants to submit music or perform a skit. The contest was in the walk-on format and while a few people did mini-skits, or elaborate walk-ons, the main judging criterias were craftsmanship based. I wanted to give a shout-out to all the great entries at Comikaze and use my blog to voice my personal frustration in not being able to award more of you. We really did want to give out more awards, and I offered up 4 Honorable Mention prizes from my booth so that we could acknowledge a few more cosplayers in this contest. If there had been a "Best Performance" award, surely the Jurassic Park duo would have received it ^_^. Same goes for a few other entries that should have been recognized for their work. But a judge's job is not to run a contest, but to decide objectively and fairly the deserving winners within the parameters given in the contest rules.

So with that in mind and only 3rd, 2nd and 1st place given as the judging parameter, I looked for quality hand made costumes, a variety of techniques used, the level of difficulty in the techniques used, clean construction and finished edges, good use of materials, character likeness and good transition from art to costume, innovation and performance. These are the foundation of a good costume and universally recognized in a proper costume contest judging. I can't speak for my fellow judges, but I do believe they were also looking for similar things and it was nice to judge with the three ladies. We did a pre-judging during the line-up and talked to each contestant as well as looked at their costumes up close. Then during the contest we observed from a table how they moved in their costumes and what their performances were.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to all the cosplayers and costumers for your hard work! 

     
 

11/03/11: New photos of Felicia are added to the costume gallery! I did a photoshoot with Benny Lee of Emanon Design a little while ago and here are my favorite shots!

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 So New York Comic Con happened, and exceeded all of my expectations! As an exhibitor, NYCC is a hard show to set up at because of the Javits Center's location and inaccessibility to a lot of things, but I got to load in on Tuesday before a lot of other vendors arrived, which helped a lot. On Wednesday I could relax and do a photoshoot with Filipino Photographer Jay Tablante. We did three costume looks and I can't wait to see the photos! Thank you, Jay, for the opportunity to shoot together. Here are a couple of phone pic snapshots of some of the costumes we shot - Amber and Catwoman!

On Thursday I finished setting up and the hall opened for 3 hours in the afternoon. I changed into Amber just in time for the first Cosplay For a Cause calendar signing at my booth, with Riddle and Marie-Claude. I was pulled aside for an interview and photos with the New York Post for an article they published in the Sunday paper, which turned out to be rather disappointing and misleading. It was nice to meet some Sucker Punch fans though and do some more shots in Amber. I was salute-happy that day :)

Friday was Girls with Guns day for me lol - I got into Baroness from G.I. Joe early in the day and did a photoshoot as well as videoshoot. I also took advantage of the Hasboro booth's G.J. Joe background stand haha. Later that afternoon I donned my newest costume, made for NYCC and the Jay Tablante shoot - Domino ala X-Force of the Marvel Universe. I made the bodysuit out of a rubber coated spandex and gunmetal grey knit, in a custom pattern designed by me. The eye tattoo is a silicone patch, so I wouldn't have to paint it on every time. Gathering the arsenal was the most fun part of the costume I think. I have 2 hand guns, a P-90, 2 sets of throwing knives and a big knife strapped to my arm lol. Felt particularly badass as Domino.
Seth Green came by my booth so I had to ask him for a photo! Also got to pose on the Marvel Avengers stage for a bit and do a live stream interview in the Marvel Skybox Studio, yay!

Saturday started off with Catwoman (hung out with the Christian Bale Batman suit at Legendary Pictures booth for a while), and another successful Cosplay For a Cause signing. I want to thank Meagan-Marie, Riddle and Marie-Claude for taking time out of their busy schedule to walk over to my booth each morning to do the signing with me. I think the fans really appreciated seeing us together and the calendar sold well with our combined presence. It was really awesome of them to each do a brand new photoshoot for the calendar, but to make the effort to partake in at-con signings really shows how much they care about the cause and the charity effort. At the end of the year we are announcing on the website how much money will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross, and these ladies really went the extra mile to help push for those numbers. One of the guys who bought a calendar, Joseph, have us a nice print of the 4 of us! I also got to do a video interview with Nerd Caliber where I talk about the calendar.

Later that day I changed into my USO Girl outfit and went to the Marvel stage, in hopes of meeting the Avengers cast. A huge Thank You to Judy and Mike for allowing us the opportunity to get posters signed and photos taken with Chris Evans and Tom Hiddleston! The shot with Chris even ended up on Entertainment Weekly's article about new Avengers footage being released at NYCC. I was happy to get my helmet signed by Chris and Tom as well <3

On Sunday I wore my Steampunk Madam costume and did an off-site photoshoot with Anna Fisher, who rented out the Juliet Supper Club for a few hours. I am a great admirer of Anna's photos and it is always a pleasure to shoot with her. These images of the Steampunk outfit are some of my very favorites. The fabulous hat is a loaner from The Blond Swan, who have asked me for a while to model for them. This was a great opportunity to grab some commercial shots for them as well.

All together it was an amazing weekend - I met so many great people and got to see my friends a lot as well. What more can a girl ask for? Definitely posting more photos soon, and I'll also try to do con reports more often. It's all a matter of time lol.
(Contributing photos by Brian Boling, Joseph Lin, Anna Fisher, Judy Stephens, Jay Tablante Team, Mike Rogers, Ron Gejon, Nancy Rivera, Northcountry Boy and unknown)