This is Halloween, Everybody Make a Scene!

First off, Happy Halloween Everyone! I hope this day has brought you much fear and happiness!

To really understand me, you have to know I love Halloween; this has always been true. As a child, I did the whole Trick or Treat thing. We also spent each Halloween at my Nana's house, because it was her birthday. This is our first year without her, and it is very different. Although we didn't do anything last year at her home, we still saw her. I miss her, but I know she would want me to live today to the fullest and not be sad on her behalf; she would have wanted me to have fun. So, that is just what I did. 

Ever since around November 1st of last year, I've been planning for Halloween. I wanted this year to be so much fun, and it was, to some extent. At much consideration, I decided I was going to dress up as Stitch, from the hit Disney movie, Lilo and Stitch. This year, I went to the hockey game at school dressed up (Friday). I had so much fun. After, I roamed around our dorm(s) and met people dressed up. On Saturday, I was planning on hitting a party of some kind, but it was cancelled do to the fact we had a mini-blizzard. Most of the state was effected badly and we are still without power in many spots. So, while getting ready, we lost power and I was forced to stay in. However, it was exciting seeing everyone and again, walking around. Plus, I love snow more than anything!

Halloween weekend concluded tonight. Because of the storm, we lost school today, which meant a free day to study and catch up. Tonight, our dining hall was running a costume contest and I entered; I'm hoping to hear tomorrow if I won a prize or not. In addition, I spent most of tonight in costume, even when studying and hanging out. To me, Halloween will always be a chance for me to cosplay. 

So, as I mentioned, I cosplayed/dressed up as Stitch for Halloween. This decision came after I saw a costume someone made online. It looked incredible and I loved the artistic approaches she used. So, I decided (many months ago) I wanted to cosplay Stitch at a convention. Well, as it turned out, people suggested I do him for Halloween and I'm so glad people did. It was awesome cosplaying in October (as I was missing it) and it gave me a lot of practice. I plan on cosplaying it for at least part of a day at Anime Boston 2011. I'm hoping to hit at least 3 more cons next year because I am running out of time to do these things. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off. 

So, onto the costume. Below I'm posting a rough tutorial for how to do it and pictures of me dressed up. I'll try to be a clear as possible. Please comment if you have questions or have something to say...

Materials

• Blue Hooded Sweatshirt
• Blue Jeans/Pants
• Foam Paper (Craft Paper)
• Scissors
• Chalk (White)
• Needle/Thread
• Fabric Glue (Optional)
• Blue Light-weight Gloves
• Acrylic Paint (Dark Blue, Red, White, Blue, Light Blue)
• Fabric Paint (1 darker and 1 lighter than the sweatshirt)
• Patterns for Stitch's Ears (I'll provide these)
• Sharpie
• Compass (Optional) 
• Fabric Strip (Preferred Red)
• Face Paint (Blue and Black)
• Hair Color (Blue)

1. To start, gather all materials. The first step is to prep the sweatshirt. Find an image of stitch that shows the pattern on the front and back. Take the white chalk and outline the pattern on the hooded-sweatshirt. 
2. Once satisfied, begin painting. Use the lighter blue fabric paint on the front. Note that it shouldn't be too much light, only visibly. 
3. Once that is painted, allow about 2 hours to dry and add a second coat or touch it up.
4. When dry, create the back pattern and paint with darker paint. Repeat the previous step.
5. While the sweatshirt is drying, you will make the ears. Taking the pattern I have, create Stitch's ears. For more info on this, visit Stitch's Ears Tutorial on this blog. After they are completed, paint them with the appropriate colors. I mixed Cobalt and a darker blue to get the base and used Scarlet mixed with White to get the pink fleshy part. When they are done, use the needle and thread to stitch them into the hood of the sweatshirt. It is best to lay them out to make sure they are even. Also, make sure they are stitched in well.
6. After the ears are done, it's time to make his name tag. Cut out a circle from the foam paper (I used a compass). Paint the circle red and allow to dry. When dry, write "Stitch". Cut a whole above the words and add the fabric; there should be enough to tie around your neck loosely.
7. The next step is to create the gloves. To do this, take your foam paper (I used blue) and make nails. To do this, I just played around until I go the right size and shape. Once you get your size, cut out enough so there are ten. Now it's time to stitch them into the gloves; to do this, put the nail onto the material and slide the fabric up slightly; the nail base should be covered slightly. Finally, use the needle and thread to stitch them in. I recommend re-stitching and cutting out extras as they will eventually fall out.
8. The last step is to apply the face and hair makeup. The goal is to color your eyelids and around the eye (slightly) black. Then, add the blue around the black. The blue should cover your eyebrows and extend over your nose. Also, add black to your nose top for a nose. For your hair, have a friend spray the blue into your hair in quick, light layers. Practice the makeup to get it right and make sure to only apply it after the sweatshirt is on.

In addition, a few tips I have:

• Always allow 20 minutes for makeup. 
• Check ears and nails before use.
• Fabric glue might be as good a sewing.
• Make sure everything fits first.
• Take precautions while painting.
• Open windows when painting. 
• With the hair, protect your clothing and face.
• Only spray your hair in AREAS WITH VENTILATION.
• Take plenty of pictures!

 So that's my Halloween spiel.  I hope everyone had a superb day and is looking forward to next year! I can't wait to cosplay this again soon (157 Days)!

Webcam Shot of Final Product. This picture has emphasis on the makeup.

Stitch Costume!

Stitch's Claws... up close.

Again, make-up close-up.

The finished product as seen at the Hockey Game. This is generally what it should look like.

~Other pictures of mixed cosplay...

Surprised Sora with Stitch Makeup. A interesting Halloween Town variant...?

 

Keyblade master

My absolute favorite picture of myself! I love the happy look on my face!

Hey there!

 

My Life, In a Nutshell

Hello everyone who actually reads my blog.

So ya, it's been a very long time since I've updated this. I haven't exactly gotten used to this who blogging thing just yet, but I'm trying. I feel as though no one I know will be/is interested in what I'm doing here, but whatever; my goal is to spread my creativity and tell my story.

So, as I mentioned, I've been away for a while. School has picked up and I've been busy with a lot of stuff. It seems like everyday I get tied down working on something One day I'm reading and watching about a New Guinean culture, the next I'm converting DNA to RNA and creating protein chains; my academic life is "interesting" to say the least.

Since returning to Umass, most of my time has been devoted to studying and working hard. I've got a heavy course-load, so life gets pretty complicated. However, I did get to have a few fun times. For instance, my friend Paige came to visit for a weekend, and it was amazing. I miss her so much when I'm here and it was nice to see her. In addition, I've caught up with some really great friends, learned that I love How I Met Your Mother, etc.

In addition to the fun stuff, I've also moved forward academically. I finally managed to get my classes down about two days before the end of add/drop. I'm happy with what I've got, although some days the work is daunting. I have to say, my Genetics class has made a complete 180. At first, I was intimidated by the age and knowledge differences, but now I'm doing the work with a group and understanding so well that people ask me for explanations. It's a great feeling.

As far as myself overall, I'm doing well. I've managed to beat the sickness that is going around... I just hope I can keep it up. Unfortunately, I had an accident last Wednesday on my scooter. I was in the street and I hit some trash that wasn't supposed to be there. Needless to say, I flipped over the handle-bars and slid on the asphalt for about two feet. I'm alright, nothing broken. However, I've got some bad road-rash and scrapes on my left and right knees. In addition, I peeled off about four layers of skin on my left hand; good times. I'm, at least, not discouraged; I plan riding again next week when I'm more healed.

With my art, things haven't been going so great. I did about twenty sketches this summer, based on manga I was reading, and they all came out pretty decent; I actually will upload them sometime in the near future. Since then, I haven't worked on much. I managed to move forward on my Wayfinder, but it didn't come out as good as my Stitch one. I also have been working on my new Keyblade, which looks decent. Other than a little bit of work here and there, I haven't gotten much done. My goal is to bring some art stuff home this weekend to work on; I really enjoyed being creative this summer and I really want to get back into it. In addition to the Wayfinder and Keyblade, I'm working on my Stitch and Riku cosplays; I've got the latter one about half way done, I just need to get a white vest, a black zip-up sleeveless shirt, and a pair of jeans. After that, it's just the wig and keyblade. As for Stitch, I have all the ideas, I just need to make it snowball.

On the subject of cosplay, it seems like the convention season is dying down. I was desperately hoping to go to Another Anime Convention in New Hampshire next weekend, but the plans didn't work out. After that, there are no more plans until Anime Boston. I'm getting kind of excited for it, although I do wish I could get to more than one each year. I've wanted to hit a few more over the season, but it just doesn't seem to work out. I'm hoping 2012 brings a big year for travel.

So that's my life, in a nutshell. I am working hard academically, desperately wish I could get some more time for crafts, and wish I could cosplay more. Being as it's getting to be early in the morning, I'm going to wrap this up. From my warm and cozy bed I can see a sheet of paper and a pencil... I kind of feel the need right now to sketch for a little while, help me spark my creativity again.

Wayfinder Project

So, as many of you know, I am very crafty. I may not be great at my arts and crafts, but I do enjoy doing them. Recently, I've been moving more toward working on my cosplay stuff. I recently finished my Stitch ears (see below post) and decided to move on from there.



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Long Explanation of Story 
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In the future I plan on cosplaying many different characters, so I decided to start making props I wanted/will need. Two new props came to mind. They are called Wayfinders. For those of you (pretty much everyone reading this) who don't know, a wayfinder "is a star-shaped lucky charm that is used to provide luck to travelers." They have many different appearances throughout the story of the game. The ones I decided to replicate come from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. In the game, three wayfinders were made for three friends (Terra, Aqua, and Ven), in order to keep them connected as they went on their voyages. In addition to that one, I am replicating one made by Stitch in the game. During the game, he runs into Terra, Aqua, and Ven. After learning what friendship really meant, he makes a wayfinder as to be connected to his friends. However, he is forced to use the materials on hand and thus, it makes it from scraps. Because I am planning on cosplaying Stitch soon, I figured it wouldn't hurt to start there.

So, without further adu, here is what I did:

To start, I took an image of the chosen Wayfinder from the internet and printed it out. I used this image. After printing it out, I used my "carbon copy" tracing method. I first attempted to copy it directly onto the foam paper, but it didn't work well (due to the difference in texture). So, I copied it to regular white paper and then cut it out. After the copy is cut out, I taped it to the foam and cut out the copy. From there, I had to add the inner details, which took sometime. Finally, I took the foam cut out and painted it. This proved difficult because the colors didn't match. I had to mix a lot of the colors I had to get the shading right. Below, I will post pictures of the work.  

Foam Cut Out before Paint

My Online Image and my Carbon Copy (Left, Right respectively)

Final Product

Verdict: I love how pretty it came out. The details and shape came out next to perfect. The size is also perfect, as it will fit perfectly in my hand. The downside to this is the colors don't match what they are supposed to; for example, the purple is not as light as it is supposed to be. It will need to be repainted with some different shades.

Stitch Ears and Cosplay

So, as some of you know, I am a cosplayer. For those who don't know, cosplay "short for 'costume-play', is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea." Basically, people dress up to look like and act like characters they like or feel a connection with. I have been a cosplayer since 2010. I first got the idea when looking around online in February 2009. I was on vacation and was reading about conventions, cosplay, etc. Before I knew it, I was hooked; I wanted to do this. Well, one thing led to another and I began my obsession. So, this brings me to my most recent art undertaking. In the two years I've done this, I've cosplayed the same character. So I decided on doing at least one new one for 2011/2012. I am currently working on my Riku (from Kingdom Hearts) cosplay from the second game and my Stitch cosplay from Lilo and Stitch.

Last Wednesday (7/27), I began working on his ears. I am making a alternate version by using clothing instead of a suit. Basically, I'm hoping for it to look like this some day. So, I began working on the ears. I originally began by trying to draw out on my foam paper (bought at Joanne's Fabrics for $ .39), but it takes me a while to get free-hand work right. So, I reverted to an old style. I used my knowledge of MS Paint and cut everything away from this picture, except the ears. Then, I re-sized the ears and printed them. Coloring the back of the ears with black crayon, I traced the image to a second piece of paper. I then photocopied carbon copy and cut them to size leaving me with paper prototypes.

The process was not done. I took the prototypes and put them on the foam paper. I traced over them and then fixed all my lines up neatly. The ears on the foam paper were then cut out and painted. I used acrylic paint to do this. I used Titanium White and Scarlet (mixed) to get the pink and I used Cobalt Blue with Blue (don't remember the name) to get the blue.

Below I put pictures of prototypes and the finished product. I also put the set by step detailed instructions so anyone wishing to make them (or another type of ears) can follow my method.

Stitch Ear Instructions
1) On your computer, find your copy of the ears. For this project, I used this picture.
2) Using a program (I used MS Paint), take out everything except the ears. Save it.
3) Using a program like Ifran View, resize the picture to (approximately) 8700 X 5600 pixels.
4) Print out the image.
5) Using the crayon, color in where the picture is on the back side. Then, turn the paper so you can see the ink and staple/tape it to a second piece of paper.
6) Trace the image out using the pencil. Make sure to apply pressure. When done, remove the page and you should see a carbon copy of the picture.
7) Cut out the carbon copy of the ears. Optional: To save time if you mess up, photocopy the "carbon"
8) Take the carbon copy and tape it to the foam paper. 
9) Cut out a copy on the foam paper. Your choice: Either trace around the carbon or simply cut around it. I traced first to make sure I got all the lines in.
10) Make sure to cut straight and clean up any lines/edges.
11) Paint the ears. Make sure to keep the image in front of you so you can see what goes where. At this point, to get closer colors, you may need to mix paint. Be generous and make a surplus: it makes it harder if you mix small amounts because, if the color isn't a match the second time around, you have to repaint. You also want to paint the back using the same shade of blue as used on the front. In addition, to make them even more detailed, added blue paint around the edges.
12) Allow the ears to dry and attach to a headband using glue (Preferred: Hot Glue)

The ears I used after I edited the picture in MS Paint. Basically, I erased Stitch.

The prototype version attached to a headband. This shows how they would/could be worn.

The prototype version attached to a headband.

Finished Product

Finished Product

Once again, finished product

About my Blog

Welcome to Enchanted Dominion! I have decided to dip my feet into the wonderful world of blogging. After some time of not liking the whole blog idea, the worm has turned. I did some thinking and decided I wanted to start a blog where I could, well blog.

I like to think of myself as many different things: a scientist, an artist, a writer, a dreamer, etc. All of these things come together to make me who I am. As such, they have come together to create this blog. Through this blog, I hope to show my art, my being, my personality. I want to use this place to express my thoughts, actions, and feelings. This is my place, and all are welcome.

Now that I've finished talking in circles, I'd like to just mentioned a little about this blog. The name comes from the hit video-game franchise, Kingdom Hearts. The game has a very special place in my heart, and many of my posts will have something to do with it I'm sure; for that I am sorry. Anyway, in the game the protagonist(s) travel to different worlds, many of them Disney-related. One particular world is known as The Enchanted Dominion. The world is, like many others, Disney themed; it follows the story of Sleeping Beauty. The reason I chose it is because I think the name is clever; I like that it is almost an oxymoron. I spent a few days trying to figure out what to call this place, and many of the names were either taken or I didn't like. My top contender was Where Dreams Have No End, but the name was gone.


As far as what my blog will discuss, all I can say is it will be just like me: random. I plan on using this places to express myself. Whether I am ranting about something, trying to sell you something, or showing you my art, I will try to keep it colorful. This place might be a dominion, but it is enchanted...