AMBIVALENCE BLACK

.D.GRAY-MAN.

.18th October 2009. .Victoria Concert Hall. Singapore.

.Photography.: Ash.Garion.Rescend.Zerartul.

A very long-delayed DGM shoot, this was our third uniform installment. It’s fortunate that we decided to brave the heat in our uniforms and shoot at the concert hall, because the location was beautiful for DGM.

Kirisaki as Allen Walker

 

Thelindra as Lenalee

 

Shizuka as Kanda

 

Valda as Lavi

 

Golden Feline as Rhode

The shoot started late (as usual OTL) We met up at City Hall for lunch at Burger King. And awesomely, I realised I’d forgotten to bring the box with the team’s badges and beads in it. So home I went in a cab to pick them up and go back to BK again. OTL Stupid stupid stupid.

Anyway, we walked to Victoria Concert Hall after that, and prepped in the toilet. There were a lot of cute kids walking in and out asking why there were boys in the toilet. Boys, being us. OTL

I absolutely loved my 3rd uniform. It’s so nice and simple and comfortable and not stuffy at all. And the material was so nice. The exorcist pin and beading were done by Valda and myself. We went around Chinatown hunting for beads of the correct size and shape. Fruitless hunt, if I may say so. In the end, there weren’t any of the correct color so we bought cream colored ones and burnished them gold.

Mugen was a real pain in the ass this time. Why couldn’t Kanda have stuck with the old Mugen design which is nicer?!?! Instead they just had to have it reforged and its ugly now. Oh well. I spent some time poring over manga pages before I started construction. The more I studied the new mugen, the more sian I became. It looked to me like some generic random katana.

Oh well.

I must say I love Kanda’s new layered bangs though. Much more flattering.

 

Zomgodda what the hell happened.

I’m. Finally. Posting here again. I’ve been absent from this blog for so long, it’s terrible. Long story.

Anyway! Now that I finally have access here again, I’ll start updating. Tons of shoots and events to cover. In a nutshell -

1. Kadaj shoot

2. Allen + Kanda Episode 2 shoot

3. Code Geass cosplay @ TGCC

4. DGM team shoot + Kanda’s retirement

5. Stan’s FFVIIAC shoot

6. Lightning’s WIP

7. Sasuke’s WIP

8. Genesis’ WIP

9. Ling Tong’s WIP

10. A LOT of general whining and “I-wish”s.

11. Sheryl Nome and her 9999999 costumes.

———– ———– ———– ———– ———– ———–

I shall start clearing the backlog tomorrow! Zomgodda time for my fat fingers to get some exercise.

DGM – The Black Order

.D.GRAY-MAN.

.AllenWalker.KandaYuu.8th September 2009. .Old Supreme Court. Singapore.

.Photography.: Rescend.WINDY.

I hadn’t actually had a proper shoot for my 1st uniform, so I rang up Kirisaki and asked if she wanted to shoot her Allen Walker with me before our official team shoots.

When we got to the Old Supreme Court, we were all quite WTF. The beautiful architecture and majestic stone columns were marred by a giant multicolored Youth Games clock.

 

WTF.

 

There were also rows of hideous lights lined up along the corridors, which restricted our shooting space. Not to mention it just made the place look butt ugly. =.= Nevertheless, we started our shoot in the evening, and wrapped up after nightfall.

We decided to base the concept of the shoot roughly on the happenings in episode 2 of the anime, where Allen arrives at the Black Order Headquarters and finds himself at the mercy of Kanda’s awesome temper. The scene where Komui halt’s Kanda’s assault the split second before it reaches Allen’s face was an epic, epic, epic thing to try and portray LOL. Kiri gives the most epic D8 expression. Ever. When we were posing for that shot, my lungs nearly died from trying to keep my laughter in.

‘Nuff said. <3

 

LOST NAME

.FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN.

.Kadaj. .8th August 2009. .Rooftop. Singapore.

.Photography.: Zettai.Rescend.Kaze.Ash.

Kadaj was something I planned ages ago but never cosed till now. I guess back then I wasn’t confident enough to attempt him.

We had lunch at Esplanade’s Ichiban after Stan’s epic DMC shoot and went to Shaw Towers after that. I did my makeup and styling at Subway LOL. After that I donned the insanely stuffy costume and took the lift up to the rooftop and carpark to shoot. I must say, despite already having been to that same rooftop a few times, I just can’t seem to remember which lift to take and which floor to get off at. OTL.

It was late afternoon, there was a nice breeze blowing and wonderful shade from the building and it SHOULD have been a very comfortable time of the day to shoot.

BUT

I

DIED

IN

THAT

COSTUME.

I swear, wearing a full-length PVC costume in Singapore is suicide. I perspired from every single pore on my being, and I perspired THROUGH the costume. Yes, it was gross and uncomfortable and exhausting. I really have to thank Jorlene dear for her awesome saikanging, for without her I’d have just died. OTL.

Thankfully, we had wonderful pictures from that shoot. I was rather unused to working with so many photographers at once, but it was a rather breezy experience. Rescend and Kaze, whom I’d never worked with before prior to the shoot,  are veryvery easy to work with, and wonderful people.

photos by Zettai.

Not many notes on the costume; it was originally a friend’s, I bought it over from her and had it altered to fit me. The wig was quite disgusting. As I’d mentioned earlier, Kadaj was a very very very old plan, and the wig is equally old. LOL. That is to say, it was from an obsolete brand which used different fibres. Not as nice and soft as the newer brands. Souba was made from two katana blades. I made the guard and handle from scratch and fit it all together, putting strips of duchess satin through the hoops.

Yes, I colored my brows for this shoot. Silver eyeliner + light brown brow liquid. A very light and natural pair of fake lashes were also used. Eyeliner was kept to a very thin black line.

photo by ash

BLACK HOST

.KUROSHITSUJI.

.Sebastian Michaelis. .24th July 2009. .Studio Venue. Singapore.

.Photography.: Zettai.

Argh. Sebastian. I did a bit of running around the week before getting all the accessories for the trial shoot so I was kinda tired by Friday. Plus I was kind of stressed because a lot of people like Sebastian and my face isn’t long or sharp enough LOL. But oh well the shoot’s done!

This version is the “Black Host” illustration on the inner cover of the first volume.

Nothing much to note, really. Just that there were several kids in the makeshift studio and they kept making me am chio the whole day OTL. Trimmed the wig and used the last of my Jacqueline on it. 8( I have to buy more. Red eyes were shopped from blue encore lenses. Didn’t have red lenses on me. I chose a red satin shirt because it’s like more high class and elegant and all that shit, plus it matches the eye color.

And I want to KPKB about my ugly brows. I shall just throw accuracy out the window and not draw them so angled next time. =.=lll Also, need to get new foundation. This one not white enough.

Sorry if I f*cked any fangirls’ Sebby. OTL. Thank you for viewing!

Cosfest 09 Day 1

Day I was Kagami (AGAIN). I was puzzling over what to cos for that seemingly free day, when I figured I should redeem myself from that first failed cos of him. Yeah, the wig was screwed, the makeup was fail, and I wore the earring on the wrong ear. Major WTF there. But anyway I re-cosed him.

I met up with Kiri in the morning at Pasir Ris interchange. It was stupid because neither of us realised that our respective buses actually stop at Downtown East.  -.-lll But oh well. We ate at BK, or rather, I TRIED to eat. Halfway through my hershey’s sundae pie I saw an unsightly thing in white PVC and then I lost my appetite and decided to forgo the rest of my lunch. 8( We then met up with Para, Zettai and Stanlet and did our styling and donned our costumes.

Erh, notes on Kagami. Nothing much, really. Almost everything was from the old Kagami cos. White blazer was from my wardrobe, purple shirt was dyed purple ages ago because they didn’t sell purple shirts at that time. -.- Earring was miraculously found in my closet. Made that in 2007 for the old cos. Wig is new. I bought this for Cloud, but it works for Kagami too. Nice and thick and easy to spike and style.

Photos in this post are all from Zettai.

sewsewsewsew

I’m so tired. 8(  Not much progress today, haven’t touched WoL at all. Did manage to put together some of my things for Ling Tong, but not very much. I think I should just drop one plan. So tired.

At this point, I’m so tired that I think I’ll just semi-retire after Cosfest lol. I have other more important and awesome things to do. Like uni. And life.

WOL YOU ARE EATING UP MY LIFE.

Hurr. See ya’ll at Expo this weekend .8D

LION

.MACROSS FRONTIER.

.Sheryl Nome. .25th June 2009. .T3. .Singapore.

Photography.: Zettai.

Special Thanks.: Kirisaki.Stanley.Deypherus.

Ahbu had some free time on Thursday before her lecture, so we decided to shoot Sheryl at T3. Met up with Valda in the morning for breakfast and she helped me fix up my new earring. Thanks Valda .8D The old one was too small and couldn’t really be seen in pictures, so I spent some time a few months back hunting around for bigger gems and bigger hoops. Had lunch at Popeyes with ginnah and Felicia, whom I haven’t seen in ages lol, the siao zha bor.

I made a few very small changes to the costume since I last wore it at Kurobara in March. Reworked the skirt and added a pannier for more shape. Got new white heels. Repaired frayed trimming on the bodice. Replaced lace-ups. Also, bought blue socks because the old purple ones just looked wrong.

I’d wanted to try something new with this photoset but it was difficult and didn’t turn out very well. AHBU, WE MUST TRY THIS AGAIN.

I’m quite happy with my portrayal of Sheryl. It wasn’t very difficult to get into the character. Though I must say, I feel that my face shape doesn’t really match Sheryl’s. LOL. I guess, no matter how much makeup or what kind of makeup, I won’t be able to change the structure of my face. *shrugs*

I’ll probably still be doing other outfits though. Next should be the *coughthepurplebabydollcough* which should be quite soon once I finish the last of the accessories. Or Star Date, which I’ve finished sewing ages ago 8( and is collecting dust on my table. ORZ.

WOLS

Yeah I’m slow 8(

I worked on my WoL armor some today.

From left to right, top to bottom – Elbow guards, helmet sans horns, cape, front collar, breastplate, shield, belt and greaves.

Yes, I’m still left with a shitload of construction and detailing to do. Not to mention painting and glossing. The only bit of construction that I’m remotely satisfied with is the breastplate, which I’ve already buffed and glossed halfway. Needa paint in the ivory colors too. Everything’s still very rough and prototype-ish, which frustrates me because it’s like only 2 weeks to TGX. -.-lll

Sword is also MIA because I don’t have plastic on me at the moment ARGH. I’ll needa make a trip down to IMM Daiso soon. And I need to make the bloody handle to stick behind the shield. Maybe like a door handle or something because I’m really pressed for time and I don’t want to waste whatever precious time I have making something that I can just buy.

OMG WARRIOR OF LIGHT. I SHALL NOT LET YOU DOWN. LET’S KAGAYAKE AND SHOW THE WORLD OUR AWESOME BLING. *BLINGS*

And I haven’t even started on the crazy insane boots yet 8(

To all the rest of my Tofu Senshi, JIAYOU! We shall be awesome together. <333

More armor, more insanity

Oh gawd, what a long couple of days. It’s Tuesday today.

Yesterday, I met up with Para and Ginnah to go get more chiffon and duchess satin for our epic dress, and visit the tailor. I really need to kpkb about the uncles at the cloth place. -.-llll

When we asked to be shown to where the chiffon was, Uncle 1 told us the fabric that Para already bought was well, wow, organza! And then he proceeded to pull out another bolt of something that looked suspiciously like organza too and called it chiffon. ._. We were like uhh isn’t that the same. But he insisted even after a shitload of “那个真的是chiffon?” that it was indeed chiffon. Then Uncle 2 came along and “oh yah chiffon chiffon” so we just gave in and thought we were too noob to differenciate chiffon and organza.

Well, we brought that to the tailor who promptly told us that it was organza.

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. STUPID UNCLES. 12 YARDS OF ORGANZA. 12 FRIGGIN YARDS. MY MONEYYYYYYYYYY.

Tailor said it probably wouldn’t be nice as chiffon 8( She prepared a small prototype of our skirt portion, out of CHIFFON and it looked quite nice on a small scale. 8(

Guess she’ll just try the organza OTL and see how it goes.

Stupid uncles.

Hope the dress turns out fine. I’m quite looking forward to Cosfest now; haven’t worn anything so epic before in my entire life LAWL.

GamesExpo is another issue argh. This is so crazy. I managed to actually semi-complete a lot of armor for WoL yesterday but it’s just crazy lah. I shall now just post a picture of my wonderful wonderful Warrior of Light so that people actually know WTF I’m raving about.

Hi, Wolly.

I have so far completed the form of the breastplate, helmet without horns, elbow and wrist guards, the shield, and like 80% of the greaves. Gawd. So taxing can. I shall later be finishing the greaves and cutting the cape and skirt/train/whatever. And I need to make a trip down to Jurong’s Daiso to get PP board. Or maybe the PS outlet has it.

So much to do 8( I kept berating myself the whole day yesterday, telling myself that I should have picked an easier character, like whut Frionel or Cloud or something but NOOOOOOOOOOO, I just HAD to be stupid and pick WoL since I liked him so much.

Urgh.

But I guess cosing characters you like is kinda like the whole point of everything, so I’ll try my best not to complain anymore.

And I haven’t even started on Zhao Yun. Give up alr lah. SHIZU, NO MORE CRAZY ARMORED CHARACTERS FOR YOU ANYMORE. YOU NOT ENOUGH TIME.

*will update later with photos*