I have a shitload of cosplay plans - and these gijinkas are a part of them. I've begun to order stuff for some of these already but I sincerely have no idea when I will debut these. Hopefully in the near future, even though Sannan-san and Yang Jinghua are my priorities right now.
But let's see what this list contains~!
Darkrai from Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai
Yes, I've been planning to re-make this one ever since I made my first gijinka of this character. I was never pleased with it; I made it under a huge stress and, unfortunately, one can clearly see that I wasn't doing my best.
And back then I wasn't even sure what kind of a gijinka I actually wanted to make...
But yes, this is 100 % sure to happen in the future. I've loved Darkrai as a character ever since I saw the movie and I really want to cosplay this character again.
Yveltal from Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction
I watched this Pokémon movie not so long ago and when I saw Yveltal I got the "I must make a gijinka of this Pokémon!!" feeling - and yes, this will definitely happen! It might not be my priority number one but still.
I haven't planned the whole costume just yet but I think that I pretty much know what kind of a gijinka I want to make. Black and red Pokémons ftw.
Qurupeco from Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
NOOT NOOT MOTHERFUCKERS.
I pretty much lost my mind when I tried to hunt this one - really, it's not even that hard yet I still managed to spend way too many hours on trying to kill Qurupeco. Such hunter skills, much wow. :I
But yeah, when I got over my hate towards this monster I actually took a closer look at it - and realized that I liked its colors a lot. I've always loved and respected the element called fire too and after a few discussions with my hunter friends I decided to make a Qurupeco gijinka. I've already ordered stuff for this one.
Waiting for those feathers to arrive. :DD
This one will be one of my most expensive costumes by far, I know it already... Bye money, didn't need you anyway.
Kyuubi from Naruto
Because why not?
Naruto was one of the first series I got into when I stepped into the cosplay community. This demon fox has had a special place in my heart ever since. I mean, who wouldn't love an intelligent devil in disguise?
Kyuubi is extremely intelligent and independent character... And quite destructive, too. For some reason these kind of characters attract my attention quite easily.
I've already ordered some fabric for this one too and I've begun to think about the ways to make the tails. I have no idea when I will debut this one though but I hope that I'll manage to do it during 2018 - I have a feeling that making this during this year is highly impossible.
Alduin from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
"Zu'u Alduin, the first born of Akatosh!"
This villain dragon is pure gold. Even though he isn't that much of a challenge to kill (if you time the kill right) and he is one of the stereotype villains, there's still something special about him... And not just the fact that he's a massive dragon.
I'm still going to make Cicero someday but right now I have a feeling that I'll probably make Alduin first.
And hey, look at that design - it's going to offer me so much new challenges! <3
(By the way, I still can't get over the fact that Alduin's dragon brother Paarthurnax and Super Mario have the same voice actor...)
There they are, some gijinka plans! :)
I really don't know when I will debut these ones but let's just say that I don't have that many plans for 2018 yet (except for re-making Ayame and making Ritsu but yeah)... x)
In English the title means "I hate this motherfucking hangover" because that's exactly how I've been feeling for a few days now. Ugh.
As you can see I decided to write only in English. At first I'd like to apologize for every spelling mistake and grammar error; I write and speak Finnish better than English and sometimes it's pretty difficult to translate things from one language to another.
But let's begin with this post which will be all about Yukicon 3.0!
I left Harjavalta (well, I don't actually live there but that's where I had to go if I wanted to travel with Onnibus) to Espoo on Friday. In the morning I had been quite stressed and almost forgot some parts of my costumes and other important stuff at home... Well done, Firith, well done.
It took two and a half hours to get into Espoo where my friend Annika was waiting for me (actually she was a bit late because the public transport in Espoo sucks). At first we visited IKEA quickly - not to buy any furniture but to eat something, except that the kitchen closed just when we got there so it was one of those "no can do" situations. Then we just decided to travel to her apartment and do something nice; we drank way too much tea and had fun. At some point I decided to try and get some sleep because on Saturday I had a Starshine Legacy lecture to host and I didn't want to sleep in front of the audience.
Saturday
On Saturday I dressed up as Josh from Starshine Legacy. He doesn't have that big of a role in the games but I'm still very fond of that character. I didn't post almost anything about him earlier because I just bought the clothing for that costume so there really wasn't anything to tell about.
The selfie I took at Annika's place before I left to the con.
At first we had to take a bus to Leppävaara and from there we took the train to Pasila. Annika didn't actually attend the con but because I suck at using the public transport she showed me the route to the con place.
The first sight I was met with was a quite long queue; people were waiting for the paper tickets to be transferred to the wristbands. I went to stand in the queue too because I had to get the wristbands to Shameless and Henzz who hadn't arrived yet.
Then I went to get my badge... And apparently I'm not the only person who hears things sometimes in a wrong way because at first they thought that my first name was my last name and... Well, stuff like that. I don't blame them, I don't always speak very clearly so that was probably my own fault.
Since I didn't know where everybody was and Shameless told me that they wouldn't be at the con place very soon I decided to take a look around the Dealer's Hall - and there I ran (almost literally) into Hant and Hanny. I think that none of us was that familiar with the convention place since it had changed from last year so pretty soon we decided to have a look around.
Then we found the rest of Hant and Hanny's 'convention gang' and I felt a bit outsider for a while since I didn't know any of them - actually I think that I hadn't talked even to Hanny before so Hant was really the only one I knew so... Yeah. But well, I actually had to check my phone every now and then so I would get some information from Shameless in time. I had told them to wait outside; it wouldn't take me that long to get out of the building but at that time they were in a subway so it would take them some time to get to Pasila,..
Pretty soon Miru (who was also one of the people I didn't know before Yukicon's Saturday) appeared from somewhere. At that moment I understood one thing...
I had no idea where the room called 'Peach' was.
And the said room was the one that had been booked for me to have my lecture...
I quickly explained my problem while I tried to look for the location of that room on Yukicon's web site. Unfortunately I didn't find information there - at least not that quickly - but then Miru happened to have the program and we were able to locate the room in theory. After a while of room hunting we finally found it and then the realization struck me; I would really have that lecture in the afternoon. I was beginning to feel a bit nervous but that feeling went away when we just derped around for a while.
Then I got the message from Shameless that he was waiting outside with Elizzy, Henzz and Sirkku so I quickly excused myself and started to fight search my way out of the building. And there they were - I was so happy to see them again! ;__;
For a while we just spent time together (except Henzz who disappeared to look for Jutta) and then we went back upstairs only to find me previous company there. :'D So we just... Sat/lied down/in whatever position we were we hung out. And I got the most beautiful drawing from Shameless - seriously, I almost cried when I got this.
Just... Seriously. Look at it ;__; Not many people get the real meaning of this drawing but to me this is one of the most important things I own right now. And yes, I stole the picture from Shameless' art album, whoopsie.
Soon I spotted megurinemagnet and managed to get a photoshoot time from her. I've worked with her before (she took the pictures of my Miku Hatsune cosplay) and I wanted her to take the pictures of Josh too. She was a bit busy but quite soon she appeared again and we went to take some pictures. Here they are!
(And yes, before anyone asks, I smoke out of habit. Do I consider it clever? No. Am I dumb when I continue doing it? Yes. Am I clever when I consider quitting it? Yes, thought so.)
The young rebel.
"I wonder when I'll get away from here..."
" -chuckle- ...well, I might have to wait for that."
"Not interested to take part to the class, bitches."
"Fuck it all."
When the photoshoot was reaching its end we ran into Trixena and I ended up chatting with her for a while. She also promised me that she would come and see my Starshine Legacy lecture and we talked about the games for a while. When some of her other friends appeared I excused myself and looked for my previous company.
The derp level of Saturday was this:
"I yawned so hard that my eyes fell off!" - Elizzy 2k16. I have no idea what she was actually trying to say but I laughed at that way too much. :'D We were all more or less tired but I was getting more and more nervous about my lecture - and then I understood that I had left my medicine at Annika's place. Not many people know about it but I got medicine for my anxiety disorder a while ago and now when I would have needed them... I didn't have them.
Luckily Shameless managed to make me relax a bit.
But my feelings before the lecture.
"I'm a bit nervous" would have been the understatement of this and the previous year.
I was fucking afraid to go there. I just wanted to run away. I wanted to shout and cry but I knew that I had to keep myself composed, at least on some level. I counted minutes when I could go to 'Peach' and get everything ready.
Outside the room I ran into Merezone who had helped me with my lecture a bit and I'm still very thankful to her that she really had time to do that. We chatted for a while and then... I went to face my destiny.
The staff was kind and they did their best to make me relax. However, if anybody has ever seen me getting a panic attack... It wasn't that far away. At least I knew that there would be some people to attend the lecture.
And when they opened the door...
A FEW DOZENS OF PEOPLE WALKED IN.
I'm not sure if I looked like this but this actually describes my feelings at that moment way too well.
I still had to wait a few more minutes since they had opened the door ten minutes early so... I just had to wait and sweat.
Merezone had asked me before if she could take my lecture on the video and I said yes. In the video we speak Finnish since there's no way I would host lectures in English just yet. Anyway, I talked (and discussed with the audience) about the psychological point of view of the game series called Starshine Legacy. The game series was published in 2005 by Stabenfeldt and very many people played them at least back then.
After the lecture people told me that the lecture was interesting and funny. Seriously, thank you guys, you were the best audience I could have wished for! ;__; And thank you for answering my questions also; I know that I should warn people next time that I will ask some questions but... Yeah.
After the lecture I hung out with Trixena and we discussed about the games - and concluded that Garnok was actually almost perfect copy of Kraken. The discussion escalated just a bit and we laughed our asses off while thinking about Kraken attacking Jorvik and Alex dressing up as Captain Jack Sparrow and shouting "Don't worry guys, I've got this!"... :"D
I don't even remember what I did after that... Well, I guess that I just casually hung out with my friends (perhaps Hant, Miru, Hanny and some other people whom I didn't know). Then I left the convention place to go back to Annika and during the evening we also went to visit Markus who is also one of my dearest friends. (And we got lost - we were supposed to walk along the road but we chose the wrong direction, whoops).
When we were finally back to Annika's place we decided to watch a movie. I hadn't seen Edward Scissorhands ever so we decided to watch it - and I just fell in love with Edward's character. Not to mention I love Johnny Depp's talent as an actor... ;__;
Sunday
You know those days when you just don't want to get up from the bed and put a cosplay on? Sunday of Yukicon was exactly like that. I woke up but I didn't feel the tiniest urge to get up. I was so tired that I don't even find the words to describe it. On top of that I didn't feel that well in general but that feeling wasn't too unbearable and I decided to dress up as Darkrai - even though I knew that I was likely to take the costume off at some point.
And of course, before I left to Leppävaara-Pasila-route, I took a selfie.
I hate wearing that costume so much - and it's mainly because of the wig that is just one big son of a bitch. Next time I will use Ayame's wig for this costume and sell this fucker away. Or cut it a lot shorter...
Anyway, I went to Leppävaara by bus and then to Pasila by train. In the entrance hall I ran into Merezone and we took a selfie. Memories! <3
Friends! <3
In the entrance hall I also ran into Lawi who was there chatting with his friends (or her friends; (s)he doesn't care which one I call him but anyway). We just started to walk around the place chatting and laughing at our stupid jokes. Pretty soon I found Shameless and all of a sudden Sirkku, Elizzy and others appeared.
I definitely didn't feel that well in my costume and for half an hour or so I just sat there and leaned against Shameless until I finally decided to go and look for a friend who had a camera. Shameless accompanied me in the hunt. I was lucky; soon enough we met Hant and Miru at the artists' alley and they promised to take a few pictures of me.
I can clearly see in the pics how uncomfortable I was in that costume. I'm very critical when it comes to my facial expression when I try to be serious... And most of the pics didn't turn out as well as I would have wanted to. I'm not blaming Hant; seriously, he's a wonderful photographer, but it seems like I quite much ruined the pictures myself.
At least I learnt a bit how to use Photoshop and made the pics look pretty much darker. I'm not a master-level Photoshop user, but I will learn. I might publish more pictures of Darkrai at some point but now these three will do for a while. Thank you Hant for being patient with me and taking these pictures! ^__^
Well, I didn't photoshop this one that much. Apparently I need to learn more how to manipulate pics, since... Aaaagh. And I need to learn a better make-up technique for Darkrai...
Perhaps my favorite by far.
The contrast in this one is damn strong but it actually has a meaning; I turn my face away from the light which tries to reach me, just like Darkrai would have done.
After the photoshoot I decided to take off my costume since the wig annoyed me to Hell and back and the whole costume felt awful to wear. Luckily my normal clothes were part of the costume so I didn't need to bring other clothes with me, yay!
There isn't much to tell about Sunday though; mostly I just hung out with my friends. When Trixena and I were at Subway just minding our own business some random guy appeared and asked Trixena to kiss him. o__O Of course she said no but the guy was... Well, he didn't give up that easily and was annoying as hell. His presence really wasn't needed.
Found this on Pinterest a while ago and I thought about this picture immediately when the guy started to invade our personal space. Note; Krav Maga isn't about violence. If the guy had tried something more I would have used some of the techniques I know but violence doesn't solve anything. If you know Maga techniques you need to use them in a rational way.
At the end of the day I left my stuff with Shameless, Elizzy, Henzz and the others and hung out with Hant and Miru for a while - and then they begun to close some areas at the convention place! I had no idea where Shameless and the others were but luckily I ran into Jutta who was looking for Henzz (and Trixena told me that the group had gone to a certain direction so I knew where to begin to look for them).
And, luckily, we found them in a few minutes. I almost had a panic attack to be honest but luckily I didn't; if I get one of those any rational thinking is just erased away.
Then we left to the train station with Shameless and Sirkku and said goodbye to each other. I was almost crying at that point since it's always awful to say goodbye - even though it's just for a while. Hey that rhymes. :D
The rest of the day I spent with Annika and Liisi. We watched videos on YouTube, did the dishes and just randomly derped.
On Monday I was supposed to leave Espoo to Hinnerjoki.
And I did.
But the day was everything than successful.
I have been having these weird symptoms for a while (I think that it's mostly because of the huge amount of stress I've been having for a while) and they started again in the Monday morning. Eating was impossible task to do since I felt like vomiting it all out. We went to IKEA to get some food but I was only able to drink some water and even after that it felt like my intestines were drowned in acid or something.
And I had to travel home.
Two and a half fucking hours.
By bus.
Luckily I felt a bit better when I hopped on a bus and the traveling wasn't that bad in the end but being at work has felt like the worst decision ever, for real. I'm so thankful that I didn't get those nauseating feelings during the convention since that would have ruined the whole con on my part...
The next con I will attend is Tampere Kuplii and this time I will compete with Chikane. I'm not quite sure if I'll cosplay anybody on Sunday of Kuplii but if I do... Well, I still don't know who I'll cosplay then. Probably Josh since I love that costume.
I will also attend Cosvision in April and I already have plans for it! On Saturday I will cosplay France from Hetalia (not sure about the version just yet but I'll try to make his usual outfit) and on Sunday I will cosplay Miku Hatsune (Rotten Girl, Grotesque Romance). This year I'm not going to attend Animecon since I have greater plans for July; Black Sabbath is coming to Finland and since that's my favorite band I bought the ticket already. ;;___;; So, after Cosvision the next convention I'll attend is likely to be Tracon in September.
And I'm not sure if I'll do some photoshoots with Shameless before that; our Sylvar & Butterfly costumes have progressed a bit but there's still a lot to make. But! There will be some WIP posts, I can promise you that! (;
Koska en ole tullut hommanneeksi Sylvariin lisää kangasta vielä toistaiseksi, aloin miettiä projektia, johon saisin sisällytettyä ainakin sen suhteellisen suuren määrän mustaa jämäkangasta ja mielellään pitkän, hopeisen peruukkini, jonka ostin Icy-cossiani varten.
Idea Darkraihin lähti siitä, kun keskustelin erään henkilön kanssa Pokémoneista ylipäänsä sekä eritoten juuri elokuvista. Darkrai on ollut aiemminkin mietinnässä, mutta olen työntänyt sen mielessäni taka-alalle. Tämänhetkinen projekti saattaa tarkoittaa joitakin pieniä muutoksia cosplay-suunnitelmissani, mutta no, saanpahan tuon kankaan pois tuosta pyörimästä.
Suunnitelmana oli tehdä asuun tuo takin ja liivin yhdistelmä, hihakkeet sekä säärystimet. Loput osat kehittäisin jostakin. Hahmo on lisäksi Bulbapedian mukaan sukupuoleton, joten päätin tehdä miespuolisen version.
I haven't had the time or money to buy more fabric for my Sylvar costume so a few days ago I started to think about a new project. There were a couple of criteria: I should be able to use a great amount of black fabric which has been in the corner of my room for ages and I should also be able to use the silver-colored wig I bought for my Icy cosplay. Why Darkrai? Well, I was talking about Pokémon and the movies with one person and that conversation started this project. I've thought about cosplaying Darkrai earlier but for some reason I have never done it before. This project may also mean that some of my cosplay plans for next year may be cancelled but at least I don't have to stare at that black fabric pile in the corner of my room anymore. My plan: I would make the combination of a cloak and a vest, the arm things (I still don't know the right translation) and the gaiters. The other parts of the costume should be found from my clothing closet. According to Bulbapedia Darkrai doesn't have a clear gender so I decided to make a male Darkrai.
Peruukki/The wig
Peruukilla on pituutta noin metri, ja Darkraihin se sopii sävynsä puolesta täydellisesti. Darkrain tukkalaite olisi semihaastava väkerrettävä, joten mitä oletettavimmin pidän peruukin ihan vain tuollaisena. Mokoma on lisäksi niin ohut, että pitäisi lisäkuituja jostakin vääntää, mutta menkööt noin.
Jonkin käsittelyn tämä yksilö tosin vaatii ennen varsinaisesti päivänvaloon tuomista, tuo on varsinainen takkupesäke ja äärimmäisen ärsyttävä huoltaa.
The wig is about 100 centimeters long and the shade of silver is perfect for Darkrai. It would be pretty challenging to make a wig Darkrai actually requires so I guess that I'll just roll with this wig. There aren't a lot of fibers either and at the moment I'm too lazy to order another wig for extra fibers so I think that that wig is good enough.
But at least it needs a proper brushing...
Takki/The coat
Takin mallia mietin pitkään. Oli selvää, että halusin helmasta rikkonaisen ja kauluksen pitäisi olla punainen, mutta kaikki muu olikin sitten vähän auki. Kaksi pääasiallista kysymystäni olivat takin pituus ja se, tekisinkö siihen hihat.
Lopulta päätin, että takki olisi edestä lyhyempi kuin takaa, enkä tekisi siihen hihoja. Sen sijaan päädyin hiha-asioissa vähän toisenlaiseen ratkaisuun, kuten myöhemmin näette. Kaulus on perus pystykaulus.
Takki on vuorittamaton, ja tarkoituksella myös hieman epäsiistin näköinen syystä että Darkrai = painajainen. Painajaiset eivät ole kauniita. Siispä myöskään versioni Darkraista ei tavallaan ole kovinkaan siisti. Perus langanpätkät sun muut tietenkin siistin pois, mutta se idea, mikä ei Conchitan asun yläosassa toiminut, toimii Darkrain takissa.
Takki on myös edestä avonainen.
It took me a long while to decide what kind of a coat I wanted to make for Darkrai. It was obvious that I wanted to make the hem look 'broken' and the collar should be red, otherwise I had no idea what kind of a coat I should make. The two main issues were the length of the coat and the question "To make or not to make the sleeves?" In the end I decided that the coat should be shorter at the front side and longer at the back side. I also decided not to make the sleeves. The collar is quite simple - I can't actually explain that in English but you'll see the photoshoot pics soon! The coat has no lining and it doesn't look that neat because Darkrai = a nightmare. Nightmares aren't neat or beautiful. That's why the jacket is like it is. Of course there won't be any extra threads or anything like that showing, that's a thing I can promise. One can't close the jacket at all; I decided to make things easier for me this time.
Didididididididi Batmaaaaan! ...yeah, this just reminds me about a bat.
Ratkaisu hihaongelmaan/The solution for the sleeve problem
Niin, en tosiaan lähtenyt hihoja väkertämään. Sen sijaan päädyin hihakkeisiin, jota peittävät käteni likipitäen täysin. Osa olkavarresta olisi periaatteessa näkyvissä, mutta paita peittää senkin pienen osan.
Olen suhteellisen tyytyväinen näihin yksilöihin. Ei muuta sanottavaa näistä, olivat helppo projekti tehtäväksi. Ainoana ongelmana tässä ehkä oli tuon kankaan liukas pinta, mutta ainakin nämä pysyvät suhteellisen hyvin paikallaan.
Yup, I decided not to make the sleeves. Instead of them I decided to make those... Things that are almost sleeves but don't actually attach with the shirt/dress/coat - there is no word for them in English. Those things cover up my arms almost completely. A part of my arm could be seen in theory but the shirt will cover that little part too. I'm pretty pleased with these things. I have nothing else to say about these since they were pretty easy to make. The only problem might have been the slippery fabric but these don't slide down my arm so... Yeah.
Semmotteet!
Meikki/The make-up
Toisin kuin referenssikuvassa sanotaan, päätin olla maskeeraamatta kasvojani tummiksi. Tämä ei johdu siitä, että näkisin sen rasistisena tai muutakaan vastaavaa, suurimpana ongelmana on vain rahanpuute - minulla ei tosiaan ole tällä hetkellä varaa käyttää rahojani kasvomaaleihin, pohjustusaineisiin sun muihin vastaaviin.
Sen sijaan päädyin vähän samaan ratkaisuun kuin Halloween-meikissäni; hahmoon sopien loin hieman painajaismaista tunnelmaa kasvoilleni. En siitä sitten tiedä, miten hyvin onnistuin (taidan näyttää lähinnä turpiini saaneelta), mutta myöhemmin ehtii sentään parannella.
Even though Darkrai has a dark face in the reference pic I decided not to paint my face black. No, it's not about the ethnic reasons or anything, I just don't have the money to buy the equipment needed for painting my whole face. I decided to do Darkrai's make-up like I did my Halloween make-up; I tried to make myself look like a nightmare. I didn't succeed that well (I guess that I look like someone beat me up) but I have always time for improvising.
Peruukkiakin tässä leikelty jo, vaan ei aseteltu. Ja jostain syystä alan uskoa, että perusilmeeni on aika äärimmäisen vihainen, nimimerkki 'tällä tavalla katson ihmisiä muutenkin'.
Yukiconissa nähdään! Darkrain säärystimiä en vielä tehnyt ajan loppuessa kesken, mutta teen ne myöhemmin tänä vuonna.
(Btw, I have considered beginning to write these blog posts only in English. I know that I don't write it that fluently, but I know that there are some people abroad who also read my blog and translating things from one language to another can be tiring. As you can see I got a bit lazy translating the sentences under the pictures - well, I didn't translate them at all... But yes, I might just start to write these completely in English.)
