A Wandering Mind

Okay, so I honestly have been doing a little bit of work.
I've been studiously reading up on how to do my wings...
Reliably researching horns and animatronics...
Stubbornly playing with models and tests to understand the mechanics of such animatronics...
I've been good.

But for every time I am good, I have to be bad...so aside from the cosplay work I've been doing, the house work that I've been doing, and the general shirking of work that I've been doing, I've also been letting my mind wander...and its been wandering through X-Men!

For a while now I've wanted to do a cosplay from X-Men.
I've loved the series since I was a kid, and used to love the 90's cartoon more than anything in the world. As I grew older, that love stayed with me through X-men Evolution and the X-men movies, and more lately, Wolverine and the X-men. Only recently, however, did i start to read the comics. Its kinda a huge deal when you think about it; the cartoons can be hard enough to understand, especially when you try and fit their mutilated timeline together, but the comics are a thousand times worse. Not only is there no steady time-line, there's a billion different artists(which for a manga fan is a little confusing) and almost that many different versions. There's alternate universes...what-if scenarios, age-changes, time-line gnawing...there's even a story called X-men Babies.
It was confusing.
Nevertheless, I'm sticking with it and enjoying it more than ever. Of course, this new obsession with the series and shows causes some old wants to resurface.

When I was a kid, my favorite character was Gambit. I effin' loved that crazy cajun.
When Evolution was on TV for the first time, Avalanche was my favorite. That changed when I grew a little older, and became infatuated with the character Quicksilver.

Not infatuated like, make-out with the tv sort of infatuated, but an absolute adoration for his mannerisms and completely annoying nature. I've been wanting to make a cosplay for him since...a long time. xD He's just such a snarky little twit-head!! I love it! xD

One of my best friends--while not as obsessed as me--also wants to cosplay X-men...so that's when we began to really look into this. One of her favorite outfits is worn by Jubilee, so we began to search for one of the series that had Jubilee in it, but also allowed me to wear a costume I enjoyed.

 Jubilee was one of the main characters in the original X-men animated series. Because of the time period though, half of the X-men look fabulous, and the other half make me cringe a little. I'm not a huge fan of most of the female's outfits, and all the guys are so buff-tastic that I couldn't pull them off with a muscle suit. One of the ones that I could pull off, however, and actually like, is Rogue.

Rogue's got a good outfit, a fun attitude, and accent pretty close to my own. xD Her hair is a bit intimidating, but otherwise its a pretty good choice for me. However, Kaasan and I weren't willing to leave it there. As much as I like Rogue--and love Rogue x Gambit, and therefore like Rogue even more because of Gambit--her costume has been pulled off so  well by some amazing people, and its seriously intimidating. xD; It doesn't help that, of all the girls, Rogue's not my top pick...and her 90's animation-outfit is even further from my top choice.
So the hunt continued.

Eventually, and almost entirely by lucky-chance, we stumbled upon this image:

It was kinda a match made in heaven.
Not only is it Jubilee--who is my Kaasan's costume choice--its a vampire Jubilee wearing slimming black and that fabulous yellow coat we all know and love. I started reading the new X-men series immediately. And what do I see on one of the first pages?

Pixie! Her character design is one of my absolute favorites, and while I actually dislike the color pink, I am ecstatic to find that her and Jubilee have such great designs right off the bat of this series. I'm super excited about potentially making this costume and wandering around with Kaasan in it. I'm already trying to recruit others into this, and with some mega luck, might be able to have this as early as A-kon 2012!

Okay...so it isn't what I should be working on...but  can you blame me? Its effin' X-men, yo.

Jackalope over and OUT!

Current Projects!

I'll be moving to Missouri in just a few weeks now. I've got an entire semester of make-up and costuming between me and the next con, and yet...its the convention I've got my mind most acutely locked on. Sure, I've got a nine hour drive, delicate packing, school work I have to concentrate on and at least one theatre production to do before it...but somehow...I can't help but scheme and plan that con before I even begin to think about homework.

Perhaps that's a good thing though...settling things now means I can steadily work away until the convention...with lots of time to actually do my schoolwork. xD;;;

So for the convention we've got a few planned groups...and few maybe groups.

One for sure is My Little Pony:  Friendship is Magic. Yes, I know at first glance taht's...odd. But its a hilarious show and I'm effin' excited, yo! xD

I'll be bringing a humanized version of Scootaloo, and I'll be joined by my best friend Kaasan as Sweetie Belle, and our adorable Grell as Applebloom. Together, we will be the CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS.

Our plan is for all ponies to have latex ears matching the color of the ponies' hides and tails made out of wig hair to match the wigs on our heads. :D Sweetie Belle will also have a horn, and I will have a set of orange wings. Our outfits will vary...we haven't fully decided who'll get what.

We'll also be joined by Dr. Whooves. 

Shortstuff will be taking part as our good Dr., as he apparently already looks like David Tennant. xD; I personally wouldn't know, unfortunately, as I've never seen any Dr. Who episodes with him in it! Thanks to this though, I'll probably have to get into it. ;] The plan for Dr. Whooves is to mimic Dr. Who's basic, normal outfit...but not replicate it. We'll have Dr. Whooves's cutie mark on his pants as well as on his overcoat. Its gonna be pretty flippin' epic. Just sayin.

Aside from MLP:  FIM, our little gang has decided to do a different version of Black Butler. We plan on doing a "cute" version, as though Elizabeth had gotten her fingers on everything again. xD Included in this group will be a Lizzified Ciel, Lizzified Grell, Lizzified Madam Red, Lizzified Undertaker, and possibly a few others. We're still not sure entirely of who all will be joining in.

I'll also be working on a Soul Evans from Soul Eater, if only to escort and help Kaasan wander around as Excalibur. There is talk of an Alice in Wonderland group, in which I'd be the Jabberwock, but that's very much in the air right now. I'm not really sure who is doing what, or when, or whether or not its even for this con. oxo;

What I'm probably most excited about, however, isn't actually a group cosplay. I plan on making Rin Okumura from Blue Exorcist.

I'm not entirely sure which version of him I'll be doing...but I'm hoping to be able to make the full, released version. Unfortunately I'd need a lot of help for that one, so its still very much up in the air. If I do the full version I will definitely use a lot of LEDs. I'm determined to make one that actually glows. No matter which I choose, however, there will definitely be a tail. I'm already working out the mechanics for one that'll hopefully move a bit!

Whether it will be a "OMG WHOA" movement or "ha dats kewl" movement..I'm not sure. either way I'll be pleased though! Rin's one of my favorites of all time, so its exciting. ;D

Anyways...stick around and watch me wriggle my way through my first animatronic tail, yo! xD

Jack over and out~

Post-Con Runthrough

So A-kon 22 is in my rearview mirror!
It was a great con though, full of great people and great memories and less-than-great costume fiascoes that were till better to have than to not have. Despite my hard work, my Undertaker costume was yet again unable to be really premiered. I once again ran out of time, taking on too much too late in the game to manage the one thing I've been planning since the beginning. Sounds like me, huh? Ah well! Can't dwell on things like that, now can we?

Pepe de Pedro was meant to be a prop...
..but he ended up being more of a partner...
..and a Med-nin toy.

Hikaru was, thankfully, a success! Our beach Ouran gang went over well despite how little time we actually had to spend in costume. The photoshoot came and went in the blink of an eye, and everyone was out of costume almost as quickly as they got in! But we are all eagerly waiting for the result of our hard work, as our photographer should be getting back to us with our pictures in the next few months.
I'll, of course, put up a gallery when they arrive!

In the meantime, how about a run-down of our trip to Galveston, Texas a few weeks prior?
Yeah?
Fabulous!

Well, to begin with...a trip to the beach is pretty self-explanatory. Myself, Kaaan, and Hidan-kun all packed up our pretty little bums and hi-tailed it down to Galveston Island in south Texas for a weekend of beach merriment. Yep. Just like it sounds like! While we were there to waste time and enjoy the weather mostly, we also took some time to explore and took some fabulous cosplay related photographs!

Myself and Hidan-kun actually spent an entire day in partial cosplay--myself in an unbound, glasses wearing Hikaru, and Hidan as...Hidan--and that was the day we spent the most time in public. We went to a place called Moody Gardens, which are these three glass pyramids with miniature worlds inside! We went to two of the three, the Jungle Pyramid and the Aquarium Pyramid!

We actually had a couple pictures taken of us as we cheerfully traipsed about, making happy spectacles of ourselves as we just acted to our nature. Of course, with a 6'7" companion with slicked back hair and an Akatsuki cloak walking around with a 5'6" orange-headed bubble mouth and a good-part-of-Texas Kaasan...its hard not to be noticed.






While in the Aquarium Pyramid we discovered this awesome shark cage in the middle of the room that was set up for taking pictures! It was kinda amazing, and we took quite a few pictures of us goofing around in it. But aside form cool-ass shark cages, there were multitudes of incredibly well done tanks and beautiful fish.
...I'm not gonna lie. Aquariums are my favorite things of all times!

Aside from awesome fish and beautiful jungle settings, we were also lucky as all hell to get a great view from our hotel balcony. My mom really blew us away with our great room, and considering it was my first true vacation from family, it went incredibly well. My friends proved to be incredibly good friends during a mental meltdown the night before we went home, and I came back to my southern neighborhood feeling relieved...almost like the ocean air had eased all of my worries.

A shout out to my duo.
I won't forget what y'all have done for me, guys.

When we got back from our trip, and I went home, I took a long breath...and didn't work. I don't regret that action, however, as taking a step back and just...relaxing really soothed my nerves. True, Undertaker wasn't finished. True, Hikaru was literally finished the night  before the convention. True, I was making costumes while at the con, and spent more time working on things and changing then I did much else. But it wasn't a stressful thing, like it could have been. It was fun!

So to all of you guys who do what I do--take bites off of the world too big for your own mouth and struggle to swallow more than your stomach can hold--remember that its all for fun. That its okay to step away and not have everything done. Against all odds, you can have as much fun with the imperfections of the world as you can the perfection! If not more, for that matter.

As is custom in my favorite world of all time, "Breathe Deep; Seek Peace." ...then go enjoy the hell out've life, yo!