Well...

I WAS going to put to up a nice little tutorial blog today, but since photoshop doesn't want to work for me, it looks like I won't be able to do that. So, after doing a bit of thinking, I figured I'd do a little cosplay feature of some great cosplays I've seen. And with Halloween just around the corner, I figured I'd do some creepy horror-themed cosplays from some of my favourite scary games and animes.



Haunting Ground by ~Colicade on deviantART


The first one up is from Haunting Ground. Oh man, did this game scare the living crap out me. It was pretty much my initiation into the survival horror genre, and man did it get me in. Granted, as with most games, I watched it instead of playing it, and I must say that the person who made the walkthrough was a BOSS, because I would've totally gotten caught by Debilitas and died within the first 10 minutes of the game. xD These two lovely ladies are cosplaying as Fiona, the games main character, and Daniella, the tragic villain. They did a beautiful job on these and I implore you all to go check out the rest of their galleries.



Tempt me, Temptation by ~TheWorldAblaze on deviantART

Okay, so it's time to be biased. This is my friend Bells and she is the CUTEST Blair I have ever seen. I love Blaire's character in Soul Eater, she's so ditzy and bubbly, but can be quite the temptress and Bells captures her brilliantly. Also ,I'm the proud photographer of some of the pictures in her gallery so everyone should go pay her a visit. We plan to get more shoots done in the future, so just enjoy what we have up there for now, haha.



Alfred Ashford by *DugFinn on deviantART

Well, you guys probably would've guessed by now that this list wouldn't really be complete without some Resident Evil.Cause if you couldn't tell(looks at layout), I'm kind of in love with those games. And this is kind of a double nerdiness, cause I'm a total fangirl of the amazing DugFinn, who's cosplaying as the crazy, yet ever so loveable Alfred Ashford here. She's by far one of best I've seen of this underdone character, and everyone should go check her other awesome cosplays as well as her awesome photography. Seriously guys, she's like amazeballs with everything she does, go to her gallery.


And that's all I have for now, or at least all I can fit for now (my journal would go on forever if I put everyone that I love!). With some other updates, I'm going to Oni-con, as Claire, of course. I'll only be there on Saturday, and my friend, who's gonna be my Steve, (OMGIMGONNAHAVEASTEEEVEE!!!) and I are gonna be entering the cosplay contest, which I'm super nervous about because I've never entered an on-stage contest before. So, if anyone's going, please come to the contest to support us(or at least me, haha).

Until next time,
Much love,
Sana

Planning is Essential

Hello all once more!

Yes, I have returned at last and with a few tips. And a new layout!  Whilst I was working on a commission for my good friend, I started thinking about my normal habits when sewing and how I have a way of taking extra-double-super-special-chocolate-covered caution when working on projects. Especially when they’re not for me. So I figured I’d give some tips about taking said precautions that will help your projects look so much nicer.

• Pins are you best friends. Use a lot of them.

Being a personal fan of the dressmaker pin, I find these babies quite handy. I use them even when putting together the smallest things. I think that no matter how skilled you get, pins will always come in handy. Sure they seem to take ages to put in, but the result it well worth it. Also make sure to put them perpendicular of the seam, it’ll make the sewing process much quicker. And the best thing about your pins is that, no matter how bad you treat them, they’ll always love you.

• Zigzag stitch along the edges help prevent fraying.

It’s true! And this is especially a good idea when your fabric frays like crazy.  Like the fabric for my friend’s jacket, it’s really great fabric, but if I pull one thread the wrong way, well, yeah. This wasn’t necessary on the edges where I used biased tape, but all of the inside seams I edged with this stitch and it looks substantially cleaner and nicer.

• When planning to paint a design. Draw first!

I don’t care how much of an expert you are, we all make mistakes at one point or another, and you don’t want that point to be when you’re working on a cosplay, commission or otherwise. Drawing it out on paper beforehand helps you figure out size and spacing. It’s also a good idea to put note on the paper as to how you’re going to paint your design, which direction, etc. Drawing out the design on your piece with tailors chalk or a marking pen is also a good idea as it helps you plot your design before finalizing it. I’ve personally made enough mistakes to know for a fact that all of this planning is essential if you want your design to turn out good.  A decent example is my Claire vest, and I’m not gonna lie, I’m crazy in love with how it turned out.

• UNF, dat biased tape!

Yeah, I’m kind of in love with this stuff now. I personally think it makes hemming a much simpler task. Not mention it’s perfect for projects like the Steve Burnside’s jacket that involve different colored edges. Augh, just, yes. This stuff! It really really made the hemming process easier, so much so that when I got to do a real hem I fussed about until I got myself down to doing it. This last tip seems more like a review than a tip, not to mention it’s a bit repetitive, but I can assure you that, especially when projects have different colored hems, this stuff comes in handy.

Welp, those are the main biggies that I’ve got for now. They’ve certainly helped me a ton, and not only during this project at hand. I certainly hope that they help everyone else!

Until next time!
Love,
Sana

Finding the Balance of Things

My first time submitting using the new blogger layout. Everything was new and nothing made sense?
It's all good though. Anyways, I just came back from a brief internet hiatus. And prior to that, I hadn't really been able to conjure anything to blog about anyways. Being a senior in High School and real life drama has kept me plenty busy. I'm also just thinking of just not getting online during the week anyways, I depend on the internet waaaaaay too much.
Either way, just thought I'd give you guys a quick life update, school started back in September. Like I mentioned, I've been getting over some real life drama, that I'm recovering from quite well, eventhoughittookliketwomonthstogettomycurrentstatebutwhateverheartbreaksucksandIcouldbeworse.
On the convention side, Oni-con is a possible maybe right now. Depending on how things unfold. I'm hoping to go, but I won't be too incredibly sad if I don't. Even though I want to go to the zombie apocalypse shoot really bad.
Anime Matsuri I'm of course excited for. We got a table again, so yay! Make sure to stop by if you're going. For my cosplay plans for the weekend nothing is certain, I'm going to try really hard to get Rikku finished in time, assuming I can get a job. So lets all hope I can manage to do that. If I can, I'll hopefully be able to also put either Nia or Fluttershy on my list for that weekend. But we'll see.

Anyway, fun lesson with Sana time. This past week of internet fasting, I came to the realization of how much quicker I get things done when my computer isn't on. I originally took the break to get away from some people that I needed to, and had intended to stay away a lot longer than I ended up being able to. But when I came back, I was a greeted with well over 1,300 messages on deviantART. A brilliant idea this was eh? But in a sense the break did me good as last night I came to some realizations that have helped me as a person. One, when things don't turn out quite the way you've hoped, you've gotta remember that that's just a small part of your story, and you've got something great waiting for you later. And two, I have got to learn how to balance things better, meaning limiting my internet time. I spend way to much time dilly-dallying about the internet. I really need to start focusing on the important things, meaning school, friends, family, and eventually work. Things not so important include anime, video games, and blogging. [wenoticehowIdontmentioncosplaywut?] Anyways, this probably mean that my blog updates are gonna be even more seldom. I'll keep trying to put together some tutorials or something to put up occasionally. I'm pretty bad at keeping up with, well, anything really. But I'm going to try fixing that. I think there was gonna be a moral to this paragraph, but I don't know anymore.

But yeah! I'm really hoping I can get some new pictures for a new layout, cause the current pictures are from the beginning of the summer, when I weighed an extra 30 pounds. So yeah, I'll try to put that on the agenda as well.

Til next time!
Love,
Sana