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KuroBasu cosplay portraits + shoot outtakes!

Fri Nov 2, 2012, 7:37 AM

Generation of Miracles casual outfit portraits

(Added on November 7)

Not everyone's Teiko uniforms are ready just yet, but we wanted to get a feel of things for the proper shoot so we did this for practice. It gave us a chance to try out our wigs and makeup and junk to see what we need to improve on for our actual cosplays.

The following portraits are the full-sized versions of what was squeezed into the above banner thing

Aki as Tetsuya Kuroko

We're sorry Tetsu, you have no face in your portrait!
~~IT'S SYMBOLIC~~

Cassie as Ryota Kise

Bringin' out the kira-kira model-kun aura!
/slightly envious of such long limbs

Myk as ~~Tsuntaro Tsunderima~~ Shintaro Midorima

Today's lucky item is apparently a ninja's frog wallet

Aruki as Daiki Aomine

In the Zooooooone

Daigo Sen / Mark as Atsushi ~~Murasnackibara~~ Murasakibara

Everyone had basketballs, but Atsushi has a jack-o-lantern bucket full of treats

(this was still during Halloween)
~~Basketballs are too mainstream, he says~~

Jin as Seijuro Akashi

Captain Creepy is judging you

Credits:

photos by Marko

post-processed by me *behindinfinity

Outtakes below!

Halloween shoot outtakes and crack photos

During this year's Halloween, my friends and I got together to do a cosplay shoot for a series that we're really into right now — Kuroko no Basket. It's quite a popular series now, and as fans ourselves, we can see why. So we're not surprised so many others are crazy about it too.

More on this perhaps when we have proper photos to show.

Something I look forward to in the manga are the omake at the end of the chapters. So right now, I'll be sharing our outtakes from the shoot. The whole lot of us are just goofballs

Okay, a relatively decent group shot first! Showing actual height differences! (Although the people at the back are much taller than they seem here hahah)

Aki as Tetsuya Kuroko

Aruki as Daiki Aomine

Jin as Seijuro Akashi

Cassie as Ryota Kise

Myk as Shintaro Midorima

Daigo Sen / Mark as Atsushi Murasakibara

Charmie as Satsuki Momoi

photos mostly by Marko

assisted by

Dom,

Miguel, Erving and Mary

Rewind to the earlier parts of the day!

Not all of our uniforms are ready, so Aki ~Hana181 and I just got a few shots with what we had to test them out.

Here is my yearbook portrait as Akashi

(Click thumbnail to enlarge)

I actually did need to style Aki's wig, so this happened. (Thank you Cass ~cazzu-chan for taking these photos!)

Kuroko and Akashi had very similar hairstyles in middle school, right? This is my theory as to how that came to be

And then when we went to scout the basketball court area, I got this stupid idea for a comic thing inspired by a meme. I got a bad bruise from boxing training, so I figured we might as well make use of it for something funny

Inspired by this meme

[link]

It was a fun challenge trying to copy Akashi's homicidal glare

And since people often ask, my lenses (as well as all my other Generation of Miracles friends' lenses) are from Alice and Rabbit's Shop. I'm using the Red Prescription Lens (phased out) and Crystal Max Lenses in Brown (it's actually golden brown).

Here's the development of that bruise in the photos above. Bruise Lee.

This is what Dom named the bruise he (accidentally?) gave me during training, as I mentioned. We weren't even sparring or anything yet. I bruise like a fruit. Don't worry though, it looks worse than it feels!

When the rest of our friends arrived, we changed into our casual outfits and helped each other prep up. And then, on to the night shoot!

~~"TRICK OR TREAT, MOTHERF-"~~
Halloween-themed portrait that I took of Aruki ~dancingontightrope as Aomine who has mistaken a jack-o-lantern for a basketball. Hahah! The red eyes were not edited; that's reflected light from the jack-o-lantern. As for the light source for the lantern — it came from Midorima who is crouching somewhere below, pointing a flashlight at it to make it glow

A snapshot I took when Marko ~Happy-Hario was shooting. This is what happens behind the scenes when we don't bring stands and stuff, hahah! Human assistants to the rescue! The flash and diffuser had to be held up quite high, so Mark / Murasakibara (who actually does tower over all of us) handled those. Dom is sitting by the side, using a stick to help balance the basketball in Aruki's grip.

Marko's masterpiece — the most in-character portrait of Tetsuya Kuroko

The reject shots from poses which involve us throwing balls can be pretty hilarious
We took turns captioning this in between fits of laughter
Dom said, "This is the last thing you will see before an Ignite Pass hits you"
Marko said, "Kuroko wa Basket....ball"
and also, "Kuroko loves basketball so much he dressed up as one for Halloween"

The Ignite Pass and the Astonished Spectator
(also, Slenderima)

Halloween group photo! Generation of Miracles goes trick-or-treating!

(Click thumbnail to enlarge)

After we pulled off the Halloween junk, we just wanted some random snapshots for Facebook and whatever, so we huddled together for Marko. We didn't realize Tsunderima wanted to join too.

Towards the end of the night, we were ravenously hungry so we headed over to Chuck's Deli for dinner.

When I'm around my friends, they inspire me to make them cringe with corny puns. We were all just waiting for our food when I had the urge to parody some of Akashi's famous lines, which you'll see in the photo sequence below. Charmie managed to document it, hahahah.

(People who read the manga will get the reference)
HAHAHAH I do kind of want to hit myself
~~If we ever do a Seirin group, I call dibs on Izuki because he is my pun bro~~

Aki was facepalming beside me as that was happening and when I was done, shook me and went, "CAPTAINNNN WHY ARE YOU SO CORNYYYYYY"
~~MY PUNS ARE ABSOLUTE~~

Aruki snapped this photo of me and Aki
Kuroko and Akashi twin haircuts!
We were using a purikura app on Charmie's phone, working very hard on our masterpiece, which is...

TADA~
Featuring!
Hipster Kuroko!
The Emperor's new clothes!
Kawaii poop head Kise!
Mustachibara!
Momoi and Aomine both with items stolen from Barbie's wardrobe
I don't even know what we did to Midorima hahahah

And I leave you to process that image.
Until next time!

My other accounts

I update here regularly! — facebook.com/Jin.behindinfinity

Tweet me! — twitter.com/skybluedays

Random little updates — behindinfinity.tumblr.com

Art blog — jinjoson.com

My shirt designs for sale on T-shirts.com — t-shirts.com/jin-joson.html

Links

113 Comments

WHAT TIME IS IT? AAAADVENTURE TIME COSPLAY ...TIME

Mon Sep 3, 2012, 4:42 AM

Adventure Time cosplay at Fantasy Quest 2

A couple of weeks ago, we attended an event called Fantasy Quest 2. (The very first Fantasy Quest was when we cosplayed Harry Potter characters.)

It was a pretty special day for us because four years ago, we had our first shoot and bonding day with Ysabel ~SavingSunlight at the venue, Fernwood Gardens.

We've been really into Adventure Time, so many months ago we decided we'd do AT cosplay, and that Fantasy Quest would be a fun opportunity to do so.

It feels weird how we had been looking forward to this event for ages, and now it's over!

Picture credits:

some were taken by me and my friends using my camera

photographer friends on dA

others were from Facebook friends who tagged me

Erving!

Aki — Finn
Melo — Jake
Alex — Prince Gumball
Ysabel — Marceline
Jin — Marshall Lee
Dom — Hunson Abadeer (a.k.a. Marceline's Dad)
Charmie — Ice Queen
Marien — Flame Princess

Special thanks to Alice and Rabbit's Shop for supplying literally all of our cosplay contact lenses.

And also to Hatah Hatah for the Jake hat!

WE'RE SO COLORFUL!

It was great how everyone had no trouble picking characters they wanted when we first talked about this.

I chose Marshall Lee because I'm one of the many who want to see more of him after his brief appearance in the Fionna and Cake episode. I hope they fulfill their promise of another genderswap episode, and this time focusing on Marshall Lee! Marceline is my favorite in the original cast, so I'm positive I'll like Marshall too! I also like his clothes and hair. I plan to make an axe bass for next time!

Kat ~moonlightflight was supposed to cosplay Princess Bubblegum, along with Timecake who was going to be Fionna but they both got sick that weekend.

They're okay now, though!

We attended the event with our friends who were in Disney and Legend of Korra cosplay! More on that later!

Time to rewind for a bit!

A few days before the event, we got together to try out the makeup we bought for those of us who are not supposed to be, well, human-colored. After a bit of experimenting, we had some Adventure Time food!

Excuse the quality pictures from this part, these were just from my phone, hahah. Getting nearby objects to focus on a BlackBerry is balls.

Bacon pancakes, makin' bacon pancakes!

[link]

I take some bacon and I'll put it in a pancake!

GRAPE JELLY DAWGS
Cheesedog sandwiches with grape jelly
Because Resh was like, HEY I BROUGHT GRAPE JELLY FOR THOSE WHY AREN'T YOU EATING IT
So we did
(I actually enjoyed these)

Also, mustache bread

And at the Mandaloria base, we screamed while watching the braver ones play Ib. AUGH I KEPT JUMPING

Next game was Slender
It has been a while since I screamed the way I did over this game

THE STUPID BATHROOM MAZE
"GET IT GET THE DRAWING RUN RUN RUN IF HE'S HIDING IN A CORNER I'M GOING TO CRY"

And here are some shots from when I was working parts of my friends' costumes. Many thanks to

Marko and

Dom for helping me out!

Ice Queen's crown

Prince Gumball's crown
My nails were painted grey because I'd be painting my skin grey for Marshall Lee. My nails ought to match, right?

Flame things for Flame Princess' wig

And now, onward to the day of Fantasy Quest 2!

I don't know WHY but Melo !BallistaShark decided to try on Charmie's Ice Queen gown. Resh ~Reskiy delightedly documents it.

OH MY GLOB, PROMCOMING

Another round of Adventure Time-style food! We had the BEST TACO SALAD EVER for lunch and it was so good that we wanted it for dessert too. We replaced the nacho chips with Oreos. YUP STILL GOOD.

And after a long period of painting ourselves grey (Marceline, Marshall Lee, and Hunson Abadeer), pink (Prince Gumball), orange (Flame Princess), blue (Ice Queen), tan (Jack Sparrow) and white (Mulan) and everyone getting their gear on, we were off to Fantasy Quest!

WHAT TIME IS IT? AAAAADVENTURE TIME!

If all our friends are included though, we'd be:
REVOLUTIONARY LEGEND OF DISNEY TIME!

Miguel — Captain Jack Sparrow
Cassie — Mulan
Sammy — Korra
Bok — Mako
Angelo — Bolin
Alecs — Asami
Tien — Amon
Eiya — Chi Blocker
Jessica — ~~Princess Bubblegum cosplaying~~ Revolutionary Girl Utena

The venue was beautiful, so we were taking pictures everywhere while greeting friends and dancing all over the place. Lots of people took pictures of us too so here's a buttload of group pictures, hahah

IDEK what I'm doing to Jake. And Utena looks like she's wearing Prince Gumballs crown here. I KNEW THAT WAS YOU, PB.

I was wondering what Jake tastes like

Adventure Time vs. Legend of Korra
We were photobombing each other so much at times that I can't tell which group was originally being photographed

We met some sweet girls from Iloilo — Bea and Ashti. They gave us a box of sweets! Thank you!

Derping on a bench. Finn is looking kinda lost, and Ice Queen and I are checking on our non-human colored makeup. (It faded on my arms, given how rowdy the lot of us were that day.

) Flame Princess seems to be hungry and may or may not be nibbling on mini macho Finn. Marceline is practicing her spooky face while Hunson Abadeer looks for some souls to suck.

Flame Princess: EHRMEGERD I WANNA BE NEXT TO FEHNNNN

Finally a proper shot.

I brought Alex some Bubble Tape because, well, Prince Gumball. We could use it to patch his highness up if he gets hurt. Hahah! Also, it says Hubba Bubba, and Bubba is PG's first name.

And then everyone started picking on Prince Gumball.

Mmmmm candy people

I threatened to bite into it instead of rolling it out like tape, hahah

"You're eating my heart!"

In the end, Alex had some too

Bubble Tape is still the softest and yummiest gum

So much pink!

Finn wanted in on the bubblegummy goodness

Flame Princess's invisible bubblegum bubble

Daddy, you didn't hog the gum

D'awwww

Bubblegum bubble master!

ASSASSINO!
He's after the bubble!

And then we actually did find an Ezio cosplayer!

What time is it?
ASSASSINO TIME?
ADVENTURE CREED?
(CAN EVERYONE PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO LOOK AT FINN HERE. HAHAHAH)

Melo and Resh interviewed him, he was awesome

Another awesome hooded friend!

as a Ringwraith! (Gauntlets by DRIndustries)

The "Hey Kat, we miss you!" shot

Featuring

as Korra and Kevin (geekev.com) as Marty McFly.

THIS SWAN WAS MEAN. ~~We named her Bella.~~

Bad ideas: We saw a teepee and despite the heat and humidity we were like LET'S GO INSIDE! OKAY!

EVERYBODY CRAM YOURSELVES INSIDE HERE! OKAY!
....AAAAAHHHHH IT'S HOT I CAN'T BREATHE MY MAKEUP IS MELTING OFF EVERYONE GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT

My colorful friendsssss

We spotted another Marceline who was by herself so we were like, HEY MARCY COME UP HERE AND JOIN US.
In retrospect, I think our big, noisy, colorful group might have scared her.

Family photooooo

We found another resident of The Land of Ooo! 13 year-old Princess Bubblegum! We saw her and started yelling again. "PEEBEE!" "TOO YOUNG!!" "ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!!!" "UNACCEPTABLLLLLLLE!!!"

Kung Fu fighting with Chie!

At one point, someone approached us and requested for Prince Gumball x Marshall Lee, HAHAH

Alex was like, "Oh gosh I'm so sorry, Jin" and I'm like, "Nah, I'm used to it"

I have yet to see how those pictures came out, though. Hmmm.

"CONTRACT? CONTRACT?"
"NO! YOU BUTT."
JAKE PUNCH!

's Madoka cosplay is too cute

How you doin'?

Posing for Melo's Jake face

Chillin' with Flame Princess

Selca time with Finn, Marshall, and Marcy

I didn't realize what a big group we were, hahah

Flynn and Jack creepin' on some princesses
~~Ice King would have had a field day~~

Jake being Totoro

Jake = Totoro
PG = Mei
According to Melo, "BECAUSE YOU'RE SMALL"

Hahahah oh, Mulan. You bring honor to us all.

DAMMIT, KORRA

WHAT TIME IS IT???

DIIIIISNEY TIME!!!

Adventure Time group shot at the gazebo! Thank you, Ryan *jrjs!

These pictures hardly do justice to our antics and tomfoolery, but Resh got most of it ON VIDEO!

Click the above image or this link

[link] for Resh's coverage of the event!

Studio Omoshiroi also visited coming from Malaysia and compiled a video of FQ2! His version shows more of other cosplayers at the event, including special guests

Yuegene Fay,

Kaika,

Viospace,

Lavena, and more! (This video made me wish we had stuck around for the ball that evening, but my friends and I were just so tired already! Maybe next time we'll go later in the day so we last long enough for the ball

)

Almost complete group shot of us, including cameraman/evil genius Resh ~Reskiy! Thank you, ~z3LLLL!

We had an absolutely MATHEMATICAL day, full of laughter and bonding even way after we left the event.

A bit of exciting news

Remember this shirt design from way back?

It has been produced by T-shirts.com!

If you'd like to know a bit more about how this design finally found a home, check out my art blog entry about this whole thing. Lesson learned: Work hard and be kind

Actual picture of the grey variation of the shirt! Spooky! I'll post some shots of myself wearing it soon!
(Thank you for the photo, Miguel ~merkymerx!)

Store link

[link]

Also in there are:

and

I'm working on more designs! Feel free to comment if you'd like to tell me what you want to see!

Other places you can keep in touch with me

I update here semi-regularly! — facebook.com/Jin.behindinfinity

Tweet me! — twitter.com/skybluedays

Random little updates — behindinfinity.tumblr.com

Art blog — jinjoson.com

Links

170 Comments

Vocaloid JBF Flower Wreath + Ciel lenses, etc.

Thu Aug 2, 2012, 10:22 AM

Jin's Flower Wreath Process

Sometime last May, Kat ~moonlightflight and I cosplayed our favorite Vocaloid song, "Just Be Friends".

Their outfits seem simple at a glance, but that actually makes things more complicated sometimes. Hahah. Despite Luka's dress looking like something you could probably find in a mall, Charmie ~yaoiangel14 made the dress from scratch exactly as it looked in the artwork, just for Kat ~moonlightflight. Kat and I also did our best with the part of their outfits that had the most amount of detail (which also happens to be our favorite parts) — the flower wreaths.

I have some pictures of the progress of my wreath, so I thought I'd share them. This probably isn't the best method of going about this, but this is how I did mine and I found it pretty easy. (I wish I could have taken more photos or a video, but to be honest I wasn't quite sure I'd pull this off at first. Hahah!)

The first step for me was shopping for materials. I looked at the artwork closely to get an idea of what kind of flowers and leaves I should keep an eye out for. Here's a little breakdown:

1. The main pieces were the red roses. I noted that some had a magenta tinge, while others had a more orange tint. I was lucky enough to find a bundle with both, and in the right stage of blooming (open, but not fully bloomed).

2. As for the leaves, I noticed they were tear-shaped and were a mix of several green shades. Light green, forest green, and olive green mainly.

3. For some little extra touches, I noticed there were small bunches of peach-colored blossoms. I couldn't find some quite like the ones in the illustrations, but I did have these berry-like things that gave a similar visual effect from a distance.

4. Another little extra detail I mixed in were these tiny splashes of light yellow-green.

Here is half of my flower haul. They were from the home section of SM Department Store.

A better look at the flower bunch

And here are the leaves

I also used these green craft wires. They're just really thin wires with a green paper covering. I got this at the crafts section of my usual office supply store (National Bookstore).

The wires are really thin so I started out by braiding three pieces for a slightly more stable base. It didn't have to be neat, because I will be adding a lot more stuff on top of it, and it won't really show in the final wreath.

The wires weren't very long so I just kept adding to the ends by braiding and twisting more wire. Again, it didn't need to be neat. I did that until I got the estimated length I needed. I didn't close it up just yet because I wanted to fit it around my neck after putting the flowers on. (Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of this stage! I was in the zone hahaha)

I cut off the flowers from their bunches, leaving about this much allowance on the stem so I could twist it onto the wreath. I didn't have specific measurements. Whatever felt right, really.

Same with the leaves.
Aren't my scissors great? The advantage of having something SO BLOODY KAWAII YO is that nobody ever tries to steal it. It would be easy to spot and I'd be like HEY MAN, THOSE ARE MY SCISSORS, MAN.

~~I DON'T KNOW WHY PEOPLE KEEP STEALING MY SCISSORS~~

Here's how I attached the flowers and leaves to the braided base. I basically just held the stem against the base ring, and twisted more wire around them to keep them together. I made sure to push the ends in to avoid them potentially poking my neck.

To ration my main roses and make sure I had enough, I started by distributing the biggest roses around the ring.

It's starting to come together!

After I had positioned the main roses, I added in the smaller bits to fill up the gaps.

Soon, I had this.

After the flowers and leaves had been put in place, I brought out the floral tape. You can get these at office/craft/art supply stores too. It feels like thin stretchy fabric and the adhesive is very mild but adequate. You just have to keep winding it around itself tightly and pinching around it to secure the hold.

I just wrapped them around parts where the base braid was showing, and around everything else I possibly could.

This helps keep everything together and make everything look generally neater. But I wasn't quite finished at this point and it doesn't look very neat at all in the picture.

After a couple of hours of patience and some WIZARD MAGIC
Finished flower wreath! Cue fanfare!

And here's how it looks when worn:

(Click for full view)

Group photo with some of the people who made that event enjoyable <3

Kaito,

Gakupo,

SeeU,

Len,

Luka's nameless ex-boyfriend in Just Be Friends — hahahaha,

Luka,

Hagane Miku

Our flower wreaths weren't completely 100% accurate because the scale of the available flowers was bigger than it looks in the artwork, but we worked with what we had and were happy with what we made. I actually like the larger scale because it makes the wreaths stand out more. It also felt very rewarding that people came up to us to ask about how we made them or just express their appreciation.

I hope this was helpful!

Sequel to Just Be Friends

So have you guys seen the sequel song to "Just Be Friends"?

Here it is, it's called "Answer (アンサー)"

Click here to watch (includes English subtitles)

AUGH. Right in the feels. </3

Ciel Phantomhive Lenses

For those of you out there who are planning to cosplay Ciel, Alice and Rabbit's Shop is open for Custom Orders/item pre-orders right now! One of their sets that are in high demand right now are the Ciel Phantomhive lenses. Christine and Kathleen sent in their pictures wearing the Alice and Rabbit lenses.

You can also see them in higher resolution on Christine's post

[link]

Awesome!

You can get your own Ciel Lens Set at the Custom Orders (pre-order) page

[link]

Crystal Max Lenses Review (Part 2)

A while back, I posted this review of Alice and Rabbit's Shop Crystal Max Lenses:

WHAT TIME IS IT? + Crystal Max Lens reviewIt's journal time! Today I've got some random spazzing and a lens review!
Schmowzow!
Oh man so I had just come home from an extremely enjoyable but very tiring day and I was just about ready to fall into bed when I spot a parcel waiting for me.
Gasp! ADVENTURE TIME merch from Hatah Hatah!! My friends and I were stopped in our tracks by their Finn hat at the con last weekend and we ended up kind of collectively staring at their booth and puking rainbows. We were all like MOTHER OF WANT WE MUST HAVE ALL THE THINGS
So after that I ordered the Finn pocket shirt and I got them today then I saw these hats and AAAAAAA brb wearing these everywhere
Adventure Time with Jin and Jake
(With the Glasses of Nerdicon)
Hahahahaha
Everything is SLAMACOW and comfortably squishy! If you like them, you can check out Hatah Hatah at their Facebook page

Crystal Max Lenses from Alice and Rabbit's Shop
Alice

I covered the other colors (Pink, Violet, Blue) in this Tumblr post

[link]

Alice and Rabbit's Shop has excellent, brightly pigmented and reasonably-priced contact lenses which are great for cosplay. I highly recommend you check them out if you're looking for lenses to go with your costumes!

Some pretty awesome news

Remember these shirt designs/artworks?

My designs have been produced by T-shirts.com and are now available at their online store! Check them out over here

[link]

I'm one of the artists they selected for T-shirts.com's Artist Designed line for which they selected illustrators around the world to make shirts of our artworks. Very honored to be part of the roster!

I'll be creating more designs over the next several months

If you like, comment to let me know what you'd like to see!

I miss updating DA!

Yet again, sorry I seem to have disappeared from deviantART! I really like to take my time when I update this page, and lately I just haven't had much time to do that. There are so many things that need to be done, that sometimes it's almost maddening. I say almost because a lot of these things are far from unpleasant, but I so often end up wishing there were hours in a day so I could make time for everything!

Apart from the incoming updates from the things I'm currently working on (new costumes, shoots, paintings and Tuxessories!) I actually still have a backlog of updates piled up that I need to post. Despite being very late, I will exert more effort to get them out here so they don't end up forgotten. So for the nth time, I apologize that I haven't been able to reply to you guys. It's just that I feel like if I start responding to someone, I need to do it for everyone or I'll feel bad about it. But I do my best to read all your comments and stuff, and I sincerely do appreciate everything!

Other places you can keep in touch with me:

facebook.com/Jin.behindinfinity

twitter.com/skybluedays

behindinfinity.tumblr.com (random little updates)

jinjoson.com (art blog)

Links

48 Comments

On misunderstandings about cosplay

Tue Jun 5, 2012, 8:01 PM

This is a topic I've been meaning to talk about for quite a while now. I finally got the motivation to when Sarah ~sorairo-days emailed me to share my thoughts on what cosplay means to me, and what I feel it really means to be a cosplayer despite all the misconceptions about the hobby. It's for this article on Random Nerds, in which Sarah shares her side of it as well.

Over the years, I've witnessed how cosplayers are constantly looked down upon, which makes people apprehensive towards it. It's such a shame because it's a wonderful and rewarding hobby which brings people together. And in general, I am firmly against making anyone feel bad about doing something they want to do.

I am aware that the concept of cosplay might be too much for some individuals, but our intention definitely isn't to get all up in everyone's faces and say everyone should cosplay or whatever. We just want to promote a better understanding of the hobby, for anyone who is willing to keep an open mind about it.

For anyone who has ever been looked down upon for cosplaying

Have you ever been ashamed to admit that you're a cosplayer? I feel rather fortunate that the people in my life are all supportive, but I've seen it happen. I think most cosplayers would be familiar with that subtle look of criticism from some people when they reveal that they cosplay, or when they try to explain the hobby to someone who isn't into it. It tends to remind people a little too much of kids playing dress-up, which isn't an activity most will find dignified or respectable. Admittedly, there is a lot about the hobby that is easy to misinterpret. I think there are things about it that people only really understand when they actually give it a chance and try it out. (However I also acknowledge that it might not be for everyone.)

Other hobbyists that have a special enthusiasm for fictional characters would express it by drawing fan art, writing fanfiction, or collecting merchandise. You can do these things discreetly, and even anonymously. In contrast, cosplay is an activity that would put a person in a position that's very susceptible to scrutiny.

Consider that most costumes would require showing your face and parts of your body.

Add that to the fact that cosplay is something that is usually done publicly. It takes a certain level of courage to step outside and go through with it. Some people will find that commendable, but others are quick to use it as an opportunity to ridicule.

Common misconceptions are that cosplayers are misfits of society who reject reality and think of themselves as cartoon characters because they don't accept who they really are. Or that cosplayers are all just attention-seekers who are trying to win a popularity contest against each other. There might be people who exemplify these stereotypes, but we have to remember that any large group of people is bound to include a few questionable individuals. But it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone is like that.

The simple truth is, cosplay is like any other thing people do in their free time — something they do because they enjoy it. Some people watch TV, go to clubs and drink, play video games, read books, play a musical instrument, make artwork: and the list goes on. Perhaps it's not something a large percentage of the word would deem "normal", but cosplayers are just people who have a special appreciation for costumes and enjoy making and wearing them.

I've always been interested in costuming in movies, especially when the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out. I felt like the garments and accessories were so beautiful and I wanted to be able to touch them and collect them and even wear them. It was amazing to see these characters and items from the book come to life in a tangible way, rather than just seeing them in my imagination. I felt like just because a little bit of that beloved fantasy world had come to exist in reality, it made me want to believe even more in adventure, magic, love, and fellowship. I wanted, even in some small way, to be able to do something like that. One day, I stumbled upon some photos of cosplayers with beautiful photography, which got me researching what cosplay was about. It sounded like what I wanted to do, so I gave it a shot, and I haven't stopped since.

For me, cosplay is most importantly an activity I can bond with my friends over. I've even met some of my closest friends because of cosplay.

We're all into a lot of different stuff, but cosplay is one of the things that brings all of us together. Our relevant hobbies and skills fall under it (such as craft-making, sewing, painting, photography) so it even allows us to learn things and be productive while having fun. We find it an endless source of amusement to make group cosplay plans, construct pieces together, go out and be goofs while using the products of our efforts, and create beautiful images through photography.

After a grueling week working hard for our classes or jobs and being productive members of society, it's just a nice break to be able to do silly things with friends.

For some people maybe that means getting drunk and doing drugs, but my friends and I happen to prefer putting together costumes and wearing, hahah! We wear them to private photo shoots or to conventions where they are appropriate, so it's not like we even disturb other people with our fun.

I feel I'm very lucky to have a large group of friends who shares this with me. Not everyone has that advantage.

That's the reason some people attend conventions. There is a certain sense of camaraderie in cons because even though you may not personally know everyone, just by being there it means you are somehow a fan of the geeky interest the con revolves around. And some of those strangers may just become some of the best friends you've ever known.

At times, being a fan makes you feel the most ridiculous emotions in the world — and I mean that in the best way possible.

Not everyone understands that, so it's an awesome feeling to be around others who actually do.

Cosplay is a great celebration of the way we can let these fictional stories and characters grab hold of our hearts and somehow change the way we feel about ourselves. It's crazy and silly and totally beautiful.

As long as your feet are planted firmly on reality and you've got your priorities straight, being able to find that much meaning, joy, and inspiration in fiction —stories that teach us about bravery and friendship and hope and laughter— is absolutely nothing to be ashamed about.

Links

289 Comments

WHAT TIME IS IT? + Crystal Max Lens review

Wed May 30, 2012, 5:35 PM

It's journal time! Today I've got some random spazzing and a lens review!

Schmowzow!

Oh man so I had just come home from an extremely enjoyable but very tiring day and I was just about ready to fall into bed when I spot a parcel waiting for me.

Gasp! ADVENTURE TIME merch from Hatah Hatah!! My friends and I were stopped in our tracks by their Finn hat at the con last weekend and we ended up kind of collectively staring at their booth and puking rainbows. We were all like MOTHER OF WANT WE MUST HAVE ALL THE THINGS

So after that I ordered the Finn pocket shirt and I got them today then I saw these hats and AAAAAAA brb wearing these everywhere

Adventure Time with Jin and Jake
(With the Glasses of Nerdicon)

Hahahahaha

Everything is SLAMACOW and comfortably squishy! If you like them, you can check out Hatah Hatah at their Facebook page

Crystal Max Lenses from Alice and Rabbit's Shop

Alice and Rabbit's Shop has a new line called Crystal Max Lenses. I think this is my favorite, alongside the Cosplay Lens Series. I've got almost all the colors (because they are so good hahah) but for today I'll be featuring them in Brown, Green and Red.

Important thing to note for people like me: THEY'RE AVAILABLE IN PRESCRIPTION! I'm really happy these come graded, so apart from looking great they give me the gift of sight! (There are non-prescription ones as well for you lucky people with perfect vision, hahah)

I apologize for the watermarks! Some lens stores have stolen my photos in the past so I'm just trying not to let that happen so much. It's not fair for their buyers too if they're being deceived by my photos which don't show the other stores' products.

This is how the lenses look when not worn.

Crystal Max Lenses in Brown. They're really more of a golden hazel than a dark chocolate brown, and I like them this way.

They're an excellent color for characters with golden eyes like Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist), Alto Saotome (Macross Frontier), or Yoko Littner (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). My friends and I used to struggle with lens color choices for these characters because their eyes weren't just brown, but they weren't yellow either. Now we've got these!

Here's a reeeeeally close look at the lens design. It lets some of the natural eye color show through. My natural eye color is that very dark brown, practically black color that shows through at the center. The lenses are larger than the size of my normal pupil so it creates a glowing halo effect (that lighter colored crescent) at the bottom.

Makes me wonder how these lenses would look on light-colored eyes. If you have light eyes and have similar lenses, I'd love to see!

This is how they look when I stood in front of a large window. They look much brighter with more light.

And here's the overall effect on a face. Well, my face. (My hair was not behaving so I stuck on my wolf hat. It helped a little, hahah.)

Next up is Crystal Max in Green. In contrast with the Green Cosplay Lens

[link] which was a leafy emerald green, this is more of a blue-green/teal/turquose shade. It kind of makes me think of Miku Hatsune, hahah.

In terms of how vivid it is, I think they show up even brighter than the hazel lenses I showed above.

~~I will stare into your soul~~
They also make a subtle halo effect on the bottom.

And now, Crystal Max in Red. These are AMAZING. These are the most photogenic red lenses I've worn. The glowing halo effect on these is the most striking!

Extreme closeup that shows the lens pattern, and how my natural eye color peeks through.

Characters that these lenses could work for: Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji), Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Brera Sterne (Macross Frontier)

Here's how they look from a moderate distance. They're not garishly bright and fake-looking as some red lenses tend to be. You could get away with wearing these on an everyday basis, I think hahah. It's the sort of color that'll make people look twice and think you're a vampire.

Speaking of vampires…

Practicing! Ehehehehe

Summary!

wonderfully pigmented lenses with eye enlarging effect

comes graded YAAAAY

suitable for cosplay or everyday use

very comfortable

highly photogenic

very much worth the price at $29.99 (with FREE worldwide shipping) for a pair

If somehow you had missed my constant linking in this post, you can but them over here: Crystal Max Lenses at Alice and Rabbit's Shop

Alice And Rabbit's Shop Website

Alice & Rabbit's Shop Facebook Page

For more of my lens features posts, they're over HERE. I have more reviews and sample photos and stuff over there.

Thanks for reading!

Recent Gallery Uploads

Links

82 Comments

Animated GIFs + video of our Ozine Fest adventures

Thu Apr 19, 2012, 5:23 PM

Video footage from last weekend's con, filmed by our very talented friend Resh Haydee / ~Reskiy! I usually share pictures, but I think his videos make you feel all the more like you were there.

(Click here to watch on Vimeo)

To give you a little preview of just some of the things you'll see in the video:

1. I am unable to keep a serious face for too long
2. Melo !BallistaShark shopping for furry ears
3. Batman taking pictures with the Batcam, and posing with pirates
4. Domo-kun!
5. Chinese Good Luck Cat pose
6. Nothing wrong with a little bromance cuddle
7. Ysabel ~SavingSunlight as Taiga in her angel costume, and Bok ~Somemaskedude as Ryuuji from Toradora
8. Too much adorables

1. Persona 4 teammates walking
2. Youthful Dinner!
3. A good bro helps a bro fix his hair
4. Kat ~moonlightflight being... Kat
5-6. Persona 4 trainnnnnnn
7. Myk ~DorkyDea (Yosuke) and Dom ~Weakman (Kanji) show off the Kanji fanart that Dom got from Doro
8. Brojima shows us how to fight, 300 style. He's using Mel's Tomoe Gozen helmet and banana naginata with Miguel ~merkymerx's Captain America shield (the process for which you can see here

[link])

So yeah, go watch Resh's video!

He's fantastic at what he does!

And here's a photo of our Persona 4 group (minus Margaret and Tomoe Gozen because they wouldn't be at Aiya) from last Sunday:

And from my Facebook page, here's a short video clip from dinner (with several hiimdaisy comic dub references)

(Click here to watch)

We met a lot of awesome and very sweet people! Thank you guys for taking the time to come talk to us and supporting Tuxessories, the Japanese schoolbag charity and our friends at Alice and Rabbit's Shop!

Links

88 Comments

Listening to: Persona 4 OST
Watching: New Girl
Drinking: Kirin milk tea

Harry Potter cosplay tomfoolery at Fantasy Quest

Mon Apr 2, 2012, 7:42 AM

Fantasy Quest 2011

Many, many months ago last July (that's how late this entry is) a cosplay event was held in the most beautiful location that the local cosplay community has ever seen. Fernbrook Gardens — the wedding & events destination which you might recognize from our Kuroshitsuji

[link] and Harry Potter cosplay photoshoots

[link]

It was around that time that the world was getting ready for the final Harry Potter movie, so my friends and I decided that perhaps it was about time to push through with our plans to cosplay Harry Potter characters. Parts of Fernbrook Gardens also looked like Hogwarts so we figured it would be appropriate.

Photos are from my friends, some from albums I was tagged in on Facebook, and some from my own camera.

Here I am with most of my friends that I went to the event with, along with Arnel ~akagii2004 whom we met that day as he was cosplaying Professor Snape. Lucky! We greatly enjoy meeting people who happen to be cosplaying the same series we are.

He caught our eyes because he was so incredibly in character the entire time — even when he was just looking around at what was happening around the event by himself. And when he walked around, the wind made his robes gently billow. We were admiring him like creepers before we finally approached him to join us if he wanted.

So that's Arnel

as Severus Snape
Kat

as Luna Lovegood
Timecake as Cho Chang
Alex

as Hermione Granger
Jin

as Harry Potter
Miguel

as Ron Weasley
Erving as Rubeus Hagrid
Hannah

as ~~The Prisoner of Azkaban~~ Gian Carlo (from Lucky Dog, not Harry Potter

)
Sammy

as Parvati Patil
at the back are the Friendly Neighborhood Photobombers

Angelo joined us too as Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)

I don't know where the others disappeared to in this picture

Asian Harry Potter, I don't even care hahaha

Kat ~moonlightflight as Luna.

Kat showing off her wizard bling. She made all her Luna accessories — from the dirigible plum earrings, the beetle ring, the Butterbeer cork necklace, and the Spectrespecs.

And so a photo series started. My friends, let me show you them.

Miguel!

Alex!

Timecake!

Sammy!

EJ!

Dom!

Melo!

Bok!

Angelo!

Hey Cho, what do you call cheese that isn't yours?
NOT CHO CHEEEEESE

Cho is a vampiiiire
Cedric what have you doooone

~~The Prisoner of Azkaban~~

Group shot with Charmie

as Euphie <3

Yay out of character shotssss

Erving made a big entrance as Hagrid. It's difficult not to notice that pink umbrella.

Hagrid's beard: doubles as wand storage

But he won't give up his camera even when he's cosplaying! Dedication!

And here is a lady who appears to be trying to climb up Hagrid

Kei and Satsuki spotted us just as we arrived at the venue!
They gave me framed artwork and home-baked sweets ;_;

Sammy ~flamable77 took this snapshot of me with her film camera. The soft quality of the photo is pretty awesome.
~~Whoa, my eyebrows~~

I saw so many pictures of myself in variations of this pose

With Ella as Chi, whom I first met at a photoshoot in this same place.
She was dressed as Edea then, and I was Sebastian.

With Ku Ri

whom I had also formally met at a photoshoot here.
She was Ciel in some of the Kuroshitsuji photos I posted

Kat was totally enjoying how she could get away with being derpy for pictures as Luna

Sammy was fangirling over Arnel's portrayal of Professor Snape and asked for a shot with him.
Being the good friends we are, we photobomed her.

Photobombing 101: Notice how the three of us are in The Uncroppable Zone.

"Why do we have to be in a picture with Snape?"

"That's Professor Snape to you"
We also met Kevin (geekev.com) then. I was so happy to see another Harry cosplayer! It was cool to see how he had different touches on his costume, like the scarf. My Gryffindor friends were all wanting to steal it

We also met (another) Miguel then, who was with Kevin and dressed as Draco. We all laughed over his Potter Stinks! pin

I greatly enjoy seeing people add little touches like that. You can see Miguel in our big group photo:

No Slytherins and two Harrys? Unhappy Snape is unhappy.

And then we flew awayyyyyyy. Or something. I don't know what we were doing here.

Somehow this photo reminds me of the Harry Potter game on the PlayStation 1. I miss playing old games!

Melo

in his Jedi gear.

Random Jedi and Cousin Dudley photobombing me

Erving got this great photo of Kevin as Harry in the place where we took the Common Room portraits

Without his glasses and with his scar concealed, we thought Kevin would make a great grown-up (and badass) Neville too! We were thankful he obliged when we asked him to be Neville for some photos.

Our friend ships Neville and Luna, so we wanted to get some pair shots for her as part of a birthday present. I found a nice spot for them to post at and here's what happened:

Jin: Hey guys, could I get a candid shot? Pretend I'm not here.
Kevin and Kat: DURRRR

Jin: Come on guys, relax!
Kevin and Kat: HURRR

Jin: Okay, that didn't work. Pretend you're talking to each other?
Kevin and Kat: Wuuuuuut

Jin: FINE, JUST SIT AND SMILE. Close enough.

Our homemade wantds.

Mine is the second from the left, and Miguel's is the third.

Aaaaaart

GRYFFINDORS GONE WILD
(Sorry about the blur, none of us have a clear shot of this because everyone was laughing too much)

After much mucking about around the venue, the three of us had to go onstage for a while for our Q&A panel.

Everyone was very sweet!

Hahah, our height differences. Character-accurate somewhat?

Hannah changed from Lucky Dog cosplay to Ao no Exorcist. She and Dom are rook arike.

Group shots from Kinoshi

They did costume changes, whoa! Their group had some of our favorite costumes of the day!

Markee

as Giselle from Enchanted!

GISELLE, FOLLOW ME

Durrrrr

Okay, there we go

I'VE BEEN DREAMING OF A TRUE LOVE'S KISS~

Even as nighttime fell, my friends were as diligent as photobombing as ever

(Click here to watch)
And then there were fireworks! Here's a goofy video of me "casting spells".

Dom

handstanding with the doggy

ONWARD, HOGWARTS EXPRESS

We went around for a while, just taking pictures and admiring the place

Heading for the Forbidden Forest

And then I don't even know

I think we were trying to be assassins

Or maybe Death Eaters

PARTY ROCKIN'

Thriller?

PARTY HARD

And then when we were all exhausted beyond reason, we all went back to my place and ordered pizzas which took so long to arrive that we were all starving and delirious and contemplating eating the pizza delivery guy alive if he had arrived a minute later but after a false alarm he did get there it was like BEST AND FASTEST DISAPPEARING PIZZAS EVER. The end!

Fantasy Quest event coverage by Resh Haydee

Resh ~Reskiy worked his video magic during the event, and filmed this beautiful event coverage for Fantasy Quest:

(Click here to watch on Vimeo)

Some of the things you'll see in this video:

A view of the magical Fernbrook Gardens

Many beautiful costumes

The big fluffy white dog we kept looking at throughout the day and finally got to pat after the fireworks

Disney princes and princesses!

Ducks! Cute ducks swimming in the pond

Nix's gorgeous Hilde cosplay, and her mom as Marie Antoinette

Our Harry Potter group posing for photos at the main event hall

Ricah's lovely Amy Sorel cosplay

Hermione with a lightsaber

Dancing, photobombing (and later, head-bobbing hipsterrific) Jedi

Costumed trumpeters

Hagrid and his pink umbrella

Random Jedi gallops through a Harry Potter group photo (as Professor Snape cracks a smile)

And at the very end... our Wingardium Leviosa outtakes in action, hahah

Design entry in the running! Please vote if you like it

I was working on this graphic, then saw the creative invite at Talenthouse to submit designs for SIGG water bottles. I thought this might look nice for that, so I simplified the design according to their specifications.

Here's my entry, which I gave the title Moonshadow. I illustrated images recalled by the fond memory of walking along the ocean shore at night. Inspiration was taken from woodblock prints.

It would be a big help if you could go to my contest entry page and vote for my design if you liked it.

You don't need to sign up at the site. You can simply vote with your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts.

Thank you for your time!

Previous journal entry

Hope you'll also take a bit of time to check out my previous journal entry about two bags that you may find interesting!

The dA PRO Camera bag

And the Japanese schoolbag-inspired backpacks for charity

More details on my journal post:

Two bags worth checking out! (and boys in skirts)Hello! In this entry, I'll be talking about a couple of bags that might interest you guys.

One is a camera bag for you photography enthusiasts, and the other is a Japanese schoolbag-inspired backpack for charity.

I've got another long-overdue cosplay-related journal entry coming up in a bit!
dA PRO Camera Bag
This is a rather late review, but better late than never! This has been my camera bag for a while — the dA PRO Camera Bag.
I find it just the right size to carry my essentials, without being too bulky. A lot of my camera-wielding friends with too-large backpacks have repeatedly expressed their envy.

Those straps on the front are for carrying tripods. They're removable if you don't need them.
Rubber dA logo on the back.
And here's how it looks when opened. What I've got in there currently is my camera, extra lens, LED camera light panel, charger, USB cord, extra battery, extra memory ca

Links

36 Comments

Mood: Sociable
Listening to: Persona 4 OST
Watching: New Girl
Drinking: Kirin milk tea

Two bags worth checking out! (and boys in skirts)

Sun Apr 1, 2012, 11:37 PM

Hello! In this entry, I'll be talking about a couple of bags that might interest you guys.

One is a camera bag for you photography enthusiasts, and the other is a Japanese schoolbag-inspired backpack for charity.

I've got another long-overdue cosplay-related journal entry coming up in a bit!

dA PRO Camera Bag

This is a rather late review, but better late than never! This has been my camera bag for a while — the dA PRO Camera Bag.

I find it just the right size to carry my essentials, without being too bulky. A lot of my camera-wielding friends with too-large backpacks have repeatedly expressed their envy.

Those straps on the front are for carrying tripods. They're removable if you don't need them.

Rubber dA logo on the back.

And here's how it looks when opened. What I've got in there currently is my camera, extra lens, LED camera light panel, charger, USB cord, extra battery, extra memory card, and some lens filters. There are so many compartments!

On the lid is a mesh pocket where you can put light, flat objects that don't weigh much. this is where I keep the other memory card and filters.

The main body has movable compartments so you can arrange them according to what you need.

They're made with very lightweight materials and they stick together with velcro.

See, you can pull them out and organize them the way you want.

There's a sort of spot-UV effect of the dA logo on the fabric. Very subtle but interesting touch. It's a nice bright red so that it's easier to find your camera stuff in the bag rather than have your things hiding in the shadows.

Here's how it looks from the back. The strap is a good width that doesn't dig into your shoulder even if your bag has a lot of stuff. It's also padded so it's (for lack of a better term) squishy and comfortable. The back of the bag is padded as well for comfort.

I believe those things on the side are for fitting another strap if you intend to wear this as a traditional shoulder sling bag. Also, more pockets!

You could put a drink in there if you like.

On the other side is a zipped-up pocket.

Here are the compartments inside it, which are great for extra batteries and memory cards.

The top of the bag opens up for very easy camera access.

This is my trusty old Canon EOS 400D. There's lots of space for bigger cameras.

And there's a handy little pocket on the strap as well.

Great size for cellphones or music players.

Check out the dA PRO Camera Bag store page for even more specs and features!

Japanese Schoolbag-Inspired Backpacks for Charity

Get a Japanese schoolbag-inspired backpack, help a community in need.

The Tuxedo Team, in partnership with Pamana Pag-Asa of Malabon, is proud to present the latest product from the Inno-Bayong line of Pamana Pag-Asa: the Randoseru Bayong Bag.

Designed by George Carlos Pastor from the Entrepreneurs School of Asia, the product draws inspiration from a Japanese cultural icon, the randoseru, a leather backpack given to schoolchildren during the start of their elementary years. Built to last throughout their formative years, an original randoseru made from genuine leather carries a price tag that can reach up to $350.

With the efforts of Tuxedo Team, Pamana Pag-Asa and Mr. Pastor, the Randoseru is now available in limited stock of 50 bags, at a fraction of that cost for only Php 695.00.

Furthermore, for every purchase of the Randoseru Bayong Bag will help support the impoverished community of Boni, Malabon.

These two lovely young men have graciously volunteered to show these bags in action for you.

Go, girls! Don't be late for school!

Look at this beautiful kawaii womans
ROFLCOPTER

"OER MY GOERD WHAT'S THAAAT"

"AAAIIIEEEEEE IT'S A KITTY"

Here's how it looks from the back.

The flap is secured by these straps.

Straps are made of soft leatherette and the length is adjustable.

img src="[link]">
The inside is lined with fabric, and there's a little pocket on one side. Apart from storing school stuff, the bag is big enough to keep a change of clothes. My friends and I use it as a gym bag or a convention bag.

I think they'd make an excellent con bag for cosplayers

It's big enough to fit a change of clothes, with some room to spare. And if you need to set it down, dirt won't cling onto it like canvas bags. It's quite convenient.

The design would even be appropriate for school uniform-type outfits. If people ask for a photo, you won't need to take your bag off because this won't ruin the look of your costume.

The bag may look small but here's an example of what it can hold: A DSLR, a pair of jeans, and a shirt. There's still room for more stuff!

Here are my friends Kat

, Melo

and Bok with their bags at PCC 2012.

They had

try the bag out while she was cosplaying Sawako. Cute!

And here they are with Dom

with an actual randoseru just for comparison.

Here they are again, kidnapping a stuffed capybara.

Oh, and one of my favorite things about this bag — There's a portion on the side where you can hang phone charms.

I'll just leave this here.

Order Details

Order the Randoseru Bayong Bag through the following contact details:

deviantART: ~slinkydoodles

Email: tuxteam.randoseru@gmail.com

Cel #: 0927-772-6083 (George)

Delivery of products is primarily through meet-ups for people in Metro Manila, but shipping within the Philippines is available too.
Please coordinate with George.

There's been a great demand for them even overseas, and George says he's working on accommodating everyone.

LIMITED STOCK OF 50 RANDOSERU BAYONG BAGS AVAILABLE.
(Actually, less than 50 now because some have already ordered. Thank you for the support!)

You could also help just by spreading the word.

Sharing my post about this on Facebook

[link] would be a quick way to do so. Again, thank you!

For those of you who would like to do good using your extra dA points

Two thoughtful dA users are giving us the opportunity to use our dA points to help people in need. People can be hesitant to donate cash since they can't be absolutely sure where that money will go. By donating dA points, it's limited to purchasing things from dA, and that's all these two projects really need.

WARM WINTER PROJECT

=ToxicAlice92 has the Warm Winter Project. She will use the donated points to purchase deviantWEAR hoodies to donate to homeless shelters.

She wrote:

"I know there are people who say that the homeless need to just get their asses off the street and get a job. My father is one of those people, and always have been. But there are children left alone all the time; People who have been kicked out; Those who have lost their jobs and, in this economy, take q longer time to find another. It's not exactly easy to get a job if you have nowhere to live, no way to bathe, and no form of being contacted. At the very least, we can try to make it a little easier."

Read the rest of her post (which also has more details about the project) over here:

UPDATES CONT. - Warm Winter Project: 2012UPDATE 9 - As of Sunday, November 25, 2012, I WAS ABLE TO MEET AND PURCHASE MY DONATION GOAL OF 50 HOODIES thanks to deviantART's 30% off Black Friday sale as well as my 10% Premium Member Discount. Congratulations to us and thank you to everyone who helped out!
UPDATE 8 - As of Saturday, November 17, 2012, we are at 125,125 points, with only 34,875 points left to go! I was able to purchase 2,000 points a moment ago to put directly into the pool myself. My original intent was to get 8,000, but I ended up working less than I expected this week and was unable to, but as of my next paycheck (in two weeks), I will be able to purchase 8,000! That will leave us with 26,875. And after `TimberClipse's AWESOME point doubler, like the one that helped out and did so amazingly earlier in the year, that will be another 8,000, leaving us with only 18,875! And his doubler is already halfway full with much thanks to =rainylake for immediately putting 2,000 points in

To contribute, simply go to her page

and use the donation pool on the upper right side of the page.

According to dA admin $Heidi, the deviantART team is backing her up as well.

If =ToxicAlice92 reaches her goal of getting enough points to buy 50 hoodies, deviantART will give her 50 more hoodies to donate!

PROJECT PLUSHIE

`catluvr2 is heading a similar donation project — to buy 20 dA plushies (10 Fella, 10 Super Llama) to give to Toys for Tots, so that at least 20 kids can wake up on Christmas morning with a toy to cuddle.

Read his post here:

New ProjectAfter the success of

, I was inspired to do my own project along the same lines. I call it "Project Plushie". I intend to give 20 plushies to Toys for Tots this Christmas, and that would include 10 Fella plushies and 10 Super Llama plushies.
This is where you come in. I can't do it alone; I need help. I need points to buy them; specifically, 27,988 points. I recently gave my last 202 points to =ToxicAlice92 for her project. Go to my page and donate points so that 20 children won't wake up on Christmas morning without a toy to cuddle. I'll buy more if I get over my goal.
Thank you for helping me help others less fortunate.

Again, to contribute, head over to his page at

and give point through the donation pool on the upper right side of the page.

It's really inspiring seeing people stepping up like this. I hope we can all pitch in to help!

Links

66 Comments

Review: Alto Saotome uniform from MicCostumes

Wed Feb 29, 2012, 6:30 AM

Hey, guys! Sorry I still haven't been able to update about Tux Team's recent cosplay adventures! As some of you might know, I really like to take my time to write those out. February turned out to be way busier than I expected! But hey, at least my gallery is getting updated a lot more this year!

Nowadays I like to make little blog posts and share snapshots on my Tumblr

behindinfinity.tumblr.com If you like, you could follow me there too.

I've still got a lot of messages and emails to answer. _{(Especially yours, Rez!)} Sorry to keep you all waiting! I really just find it difficult to write letters when I can't give my full attention. Loooots to do nowadays. I'm very thankful, but I do wish I also had more time to write journal entries.

I've got a little something to share right now, though!

MicCostumes Review: Alto Saotome Mihoshi Academy uniform

You know, I had never before tried just buying a costume and wearing it the way it was bought. I'm rather picky with fabrics so I prefer to shop for them by myself, and I feel my body proportion is a little strange so I might not fit well into average sizes.

I was contacted by

MicCostumes.com one day and they asked if I'd like to to do a review of one of their costumes. I thought it could be an interesting experience so I agreed.

They let me pick out which costume I'd like to review, and after browsing around their site for a while, I decided on Alto Saotome's Mihoshi Academy school uniform (from Macross Frontier). I had been planning to cosplay Alto for a long time, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to finally get to do it! The design and fit of the uniform is also pretty simple, so I figured sizing wouldn't be an issue with this.

I'm very much like my Mihoshi Academy uniform.

The set consists of the shirt, necktie and pants. (Wig and other accessories not included.) I feel their color choices for the fabrics were excellent. They're very close to what I would have picked, had I decided to get this costume done from scratch.

(The colors on the above photo came out a bit more vivid than they actually are, but the following photos will show the color of the costume better.)

Mihoshi Academy patch is neat and clean.

Shoulder detail, and nice crisp collar.

Here's that little tab detail along the font of the shirt. The button is made of gold-toned metal. I like that they opted for this instead of something plastic.

The necktie. It's a little bit too long on me but that's easy to fix. At least that means that taller people won't have to worry about it being too short. I actually quite like that they used gold leatherette for the cross detailing rather than yellow cloth. I think I would have done the same.

Alto reference again

Here's how the front hem of the shirt looks. I really like how it falls just the way it's supposed to based on the way Alto is drawn. It parts a little bit at the part where the buttons end, and and the hem curves correctly (instead of the usual straight hems like this

[link]).

Another portrait.

I don't have a full-body photo yet (I want to do that at a better location) but the pants fit me very well and fall the way they look on the reference image.

Here's the image of this costume from the MicCostumes online store.
Store listing for Mihoshi Academy uniform

[link]

I think the pricing ($53.78) is pretty reasonable. I feel I might have spent about that much if I had the same costume done from scratch.

What you see on the MicCostumes website is pretty much what you get.

Well, with my costume I thought the actual product looked better than the way it did on the website. The quality of their wide range of costumes varies (hit or miss, really) but based on this experience I think that you just need a discerning eye and really really look at the fabrics used, proportions, detailing, etc., to figure out which costumes might be to your liking. I'm very happy with mine.

Of course the feeling is still more rewarding when you are more involved with the creation of your costume, and I'm not giving that up.

But having the option to buy simpler costumes like this is pretty cool too. Like for this instance — I can now do a long wished-for Macross Frontier tandem cosplay with my friend Charmie who cosplays Sheryl Nome (we don't have a Ranka so I'm all hers hahah), but I managed to save time and resources which allows me to focus better on my more complicated cosplay plans. I would also great for casual parties or Halloween. I think it'd help too if you have people bugging to borrow costumes from you. You can direct them to the website instead so they can get their own

Special thanks:

Alice & Rabbit's Shop for my contact lenses
(I used the A&R Cosplay Lenses in Golden Hazel)

Kat for taking my photos

Ian for lending me the Alto wig
You guys are so good to me!

Hoping to do a nicer Macross Frontier shoot sometime!

Thanks for reading! Here's to hoping that my next update will be in the near future!

Recent gallery updates

Links

35 Comments

Listening to: Shoji Meguro - Signs of Love
Reading: Goosebumps
Watching: Sengoku Basara
Eating: Pretzel M&M's
Drinking: delicious water

Mulan & PotC Photoshoot + Clinique Painting

Fri Jan 27, 2012, 10:14 PM

Disney Cosplay Shoot!

These pictures were from June last year I'M SORRYYYYY

First time we wore our our Disney cosplays was for Toycon 2011:

Picture-heavy Toycon Day 1 Report! Disney cosplay!Toycon 2011 (Day 1)
Here's my usual (ang getting increasingly late) report about the cons we attend!
We went as a Disney group last Toycon! And I just realized we don't have a decent complete group shot.

That's okay I guess because it's definitely not the last time we'll be wearing the costumes, and we all had things we wanted to improve. We have a habit of doing that with new cosplays — wear them to a con and observe pictures from it after to see what looked wrong or felt uncomfortable about the costumes or wigs or makeup. It's helpful! Some of our friends were also unable to join us for Toycon so we'll definitely be doing this again.

Most of the photos are from my camera but I borrowed some from friends and albums we were tagged in.
LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS-
So we saw this store, and we needed to take a photo in front of it for obvious reasons

So there's Dom :iconweakman: as Captain Li Shang, myself :iconbehindinfinity: as Ping, and Bok as Ling from

The weekend after, a few of us got together to do a studio shoot because we were just excited, and I wanted to finally try out a pseudo movie poster photo treatment for cosplay photos. It was definitely a challenge. But it made me really happy to show my friends how the final images turned out.

Test shot on Miguel ~merkymerx before he wore his Jack wig

Erving taking a REFLECTION SELF-PORTRAIT FACEBOOK DISPLAY PIC stlye photo halfway through putting on his Shan Yu costume

This is what the setup was for ~merkymerx Miguel's Captain Jack portrait. I edited the rope in. He was actually holding this stick held up by Dom ~Weakman.

I made sure his pose was right, and that all the details were arranged and lit up properly while Erving adjusted the light settings and took photos.

For comparison:

And then Miguel went all Yuna on us

And some NERF guns materialized and Bok ~Somemaskedude became Yuna too

Taking some candid shots with my digicam, with the friendly neighborhood photobombers.

OKAY I'M RELOADED
THIS IS THE TALE
OF CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW

[link]

Miguel looking like a stereotypical musician with a hairmet, facial hair and guyliner. Hahaha!

Miguel and Erving enjoying their facial hair
while Dom lurks lie a creeper at the back

Creeperving sneaking up while I try my hand at the reflection shot

"Lightsaber fight? I have an app for that"
Bok joining in the dressing down fun, and transforming into a Jedi from being Ling

I shall wrap up this shoot with our group shot:

PIRATES OF...CHINA?
~~It's like a bad movie waiting to happen~~

Illustration for Clinique

As much as I devote time to spending time with friends and having fun, I work hard too.

For an exciting bit of news, I was commissioned to do an illustration for Clinique! I was one of the four artists they approached for this project. Our works were unveiled during their big launch event last January 19. I'd like to talk more about it another time.

For now, here are some pictures from the event.

The lovely and talented Valerie Chua

. I had a fun evening hanging out with her and Miguel.

Val with her gorgeous watercolor painting. I love her flowy compositions and soft colors.

A preview of my artwork. When I've finished setting up my proper art blog, I'll post a better image, along with a bit about the process.

Other places online where you can find me

Jin (behindinfinity) on Facebook

behindinfinity on Tumblr

@skybluedays on Twitter

I use my Facebook page to announce news, post previews, and link when I update my deviantART of Tumblr. ~~And sometimes sharing stupid links.~~

Twitter is for for little life updates, mostly to help myself keep track of the days. It's also good for keeping myself entertained when I'm out. ~~And sometimes sharing stupid links.~~

Lately I've been posting on my Tumblr sort of regularly. I use it for:

miscellaneous short general updates

my snapshots which I feel aren't quite good enough to be standalone posts in my gallery

answering questions sent to my Tumblr Ask

occasional fandom posts

posts about food
~~And sometimes sharing stupid links.~~

Links

79 Comments

Listening to: Shoji Meguro - Signs of Love
Reading: Goosebumps
Watching: Sengoku Basara
Eating: Pretzel M&M's
Drinking: delicious water

A Happy Holiday Journal Entry

Sun Dec 25, 2011, 2:33 AM

Thank you

9,000,000 milestone +I mean this with all my heartSeveral years worth of cheese
Somehow, this silly page has hit 9 million views!
Just to be absolutely clear, I do not think the views make me any better than anyone else. I mean, I'm sure some of those are from people who don't even like me. But I guess my point is that it's crazy to imagine that this page has been opened up that many times, and I can't help wondering where all these hits have come from. And I just feel so grateful that a select few people in those millions have come to be irreplaceable friends to me.
It's been a wild ride with all of you guys through all this time. To me this isn't just a page where I simply showcase my artwork or the cosplay photos my friends and I come up with. This site has opened up so many opportunities for me, and has introduced me to some of the most wonderful people I've met in my life.
It's been a journey, and my interactions with the people here have taught me more than I can express.
Apart from that, one thing I absolutely did not ex
I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the responses to my previous journal entry, but I will do my best to make proper replies to some of you soon. But to everyone — Thank you all for constantly giving me reasons to be grateful.

Holiday Tomfoolery!

I've got a bit of free time today before another Christmas party so I thought I'd post a holiday journal with miscellaneous moments from the past month or so. Thank you so much to `Miss-It-Girl for extending my subscription so I can keep sharing these photos with you guys!

The holiday decor at home was a joy to look at and photograph.

I enjoyed the added details of these swirly twigs that make me think of Tim Burton landscapes.

After all these years, the sight of sparkling lights and shiny Christmas ornaments and even the smell of tinsel and synthetic trees gets me in the mood for some holiday cheer.

It's still been a busy month despite how it's supposed to be holiday season. But I've got some pretty exciting projects coming up and I'm thankful.

While doing some Christmas shopping, we noticed some pretty amusing toys at the toy store. Check out that sword on the right — it's the first time I've seen a UNICORN PEGASUS SWORD. And on the left, a "Superbow". It's so super, it looks like a sword! What will they think of next!

This is how we karaoke. Hahaha! One night, my bros and I just wanted to do something stupid so we went to a karaoke place to butcher songs in our own special way. And this time, we decided to document it on video.

Miguel and I even wore our Black Parade jackets and I shoved on a silver wig which I had not even bothered to style yet, just to make it extra silly special. (It was supposed to be a bad wig party, but the others forgot to bring their wigs. Or maybe it was all part of their plan.)

(Click here to watch the video on YouTube)
My friends and I are always happy to give you guys reasons to smile or laugh (even if it is usually at the expense of our dignity) so here is one of our karaoke videos, with us singing Helena by My Chemical Romance.

Tip: The real show is with Miguel

and Melo

at the back.

(Click here to watch the video on YouTube)
For the people who wanted to hear my voice, you'll be sorry at around 0:57. Hahaha! This is me, Miguel, Melo, Bok and Dom singing some MCR songs (Welcome to the Black Parade, I'm Not Okay, Planetary) and a SPECIAL SURPRISE ULTRA BADASS SONG at the end.

One day while hanging out, we all got a craving for pizza. Shakey's Pepperoni Crunch in particular, with those bits of crunchy shoestring potatoes. But when the delivery guy arrived, he told us that they had run out of the crunch and made a peace offering of a box of mojos. We were a little upset (in a silly @firstworldpains sort of way) that we didn't get exactly what we had ordered. Melo grudgingly threw the mojos on the pizza and we were like, CLOSE ENOUGH. We ended up splitting our sides roaring with laughter at the ridiculous sight of our failure of a potato substitute, and absurdity of the whole thing. Being around good company really helps put some light on some otherwise annoying situations.

We did some things for um, SCIENCE.

We studied osmosis and stuff.

The good gentleman in front of the roaring fireplace ~~on his computer desk~~

Yup.

We attended the UP Lantern Parade as always!

Gundam lantern float!

Manny Pacquiao float, hahah

Two of our favorite moments during our experience at the UP Lantern Parade 2011. So much pun!

The guys and I wore My Chemical Romance-inspired outfits. Me

and Miguel

from the Black Parade era, Melo

and Bok from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, and Dom

was something in between I guess. We did Danger Days last time, so now we wanted to party like it was 2004-2006! Hahaha! 

It just started with me joking that we should join the Lantern Parade as the Black Parade. We didn't all have our jackets yet so this is what we ended up with. XD  It was really cool though how so many people got us. Everywhere we went they'd be like "MCR!" or sing lines from Welcome to the Black Parade, I'm Not Okay, or Famous Last Words. Whenever we got the chance, we'd go in between the lantern floats and jokingly march behind them in the middle of the street.

People gather at Quezon Hall to watch the float presentations of the colleges.

It was wonderful to be part of this crowd.

We had such a great time! We spotted a lot of amusing costumes, saw some really cool lantern floats, watched people light floating lanterns (like the ones in Tangled, yeah) and set them free, and ate school fair food in the familiar fields of my campus under a clear night sky. Truly a night of everyday magic.

I only regret that I wasn't able to document the experience through photos as well as I could have. However! I know two people who did! My lovely and extremely talented friends, Sandra Dans and Katrina Teh.

Lantern Parade 2011 photo blog post by Sandee

2011 UP Lantern Parade blog post by Kitty

After the Lantern Parade, we headed to Melo's house to celebrate his birthday. This is, of course, not Melo's house. This is a gingerbread house that was amongst the many things we devoured in his home. Alex decorated it!

The windows have evil clown faces.

Before we ate the gingerbread house, we demolished it with the help of ponies.

The birthday boy. Okay.

We made good use of an eyeliner pen that was about to run out.

It was SO DIFFICULT for me to take pictures at this point because I was laughing uncontrollably.

Try it with your friends!

You'll all feel so beautiful.

I got a mustache!

Because of this. Some of you know the reason behind it HAHAH

HELLOOOOOO, LADIES

Bok was our next masterpiece.

IT'S WORSE WITH FLASH

Party group shot! Sadly not complete because some of the guests had already gone home and Erving was behind the camera.

I CAN STILL SEE THE EYELINER DRAWINGS
And the Freddie Mercury 'stache had me feeling pretty fabulous.

And now, here is our happy emo family Christmas photo series!

The theme for this pic is "smile like a 5-year old"

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Hope you guys get to immerse yourselves in the company of friends and family, stuff yourselves silly, and enjoy the holidays!

Other places online where you can find me

Jin (behindinfinity) on Facebook

behindinfinity on Tumblr

@skybluedays on Twitter

Links

70 Comments

Mood: Big Grin
Listening to: MCR - All I Want For Christmas Is You
Reading: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Watching: Game of Thrones
Eating: CHRISTMAS HAM

9,000,000 milestone +I mean this with all my heart

Journal Entry: Sun Dec 11, 2011, 5:53 AM

Several years worth of cheese

Somehow, this silly page has hit 9 million views!

Just to be absolutely clear, I do not think the views make me any better than anyone else. _{I mean, I'm sure some of those are from people who don't even like me.} But I guess my point is that it's crazy to imagine that this page has been opened up that many times, and I can't help wondering where all these hits have come from. And I just feel so grateful that a select few people in those millions have come to be irreplaceable friends to me.

It's been a wild ride with all of you guys through all this time. To me this isn't just a page where I simply showcase my artwork or the cosplay photos my friends and I come up with. This site has opened up so many opportunities for me, and has introduced me to some of the most wonderful people I've met in my life.

It's been a journey, and my interactions with the people here have taught me more than I can express.

Apart from that, one thing I absolutely did not expect in my wildest dreams was that this page would help save some people's lives.

How could a page that mainly revolves around cosplay with some photography and illustration do that? I myself could not imagine how at first. In all honesty, every single time I receive a note or an email from someone just thanking me for sharing bits of my life on my journal and how much it helped them, I break into tears and it takes me forever to respond because I feel like nothing I write would be enough.

I've got a lot of things running through my head, and I'm going to try to articulate them with the help of words from someone who is a hero to me, Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance. The indescribable things I feel in my heart, he just has a way of perfectly putting them into words.

_{(Source: fuckyeahgerardquotes)}

The fact that so many you saw something in my work, in my writing, in all the silly things that my friends do — It strengthens my belief that anything can be art. Anything can have meaning. Anything can be a source of inspiration. You also made us feel an additional sense of purpose and keep giving us hope that the world is a nicer place than we thought.

With illustration and photography (though I feel I need to produce more) is something that's more relatively understandable. But I'd like to talk about the aspect of cosplay — so many people will say that they don't understand what the point is, or what good it can do.

Here are some of the things it has done for me:

Wanting to create proper tributes to series that I love has motivated me to improve my skills as a photographer and visual artist, and keep learning. That driving force is just so much stronger when you're working on something you really love, with people you love.

It motivated me to do my best to create images that pull out emotions and encourage others to feel them. The series I like best (and choose to cosplay) earn their place in my heart by making me feel something deeply — happiness, sadness, determination, inspiration, and much more. Often I hope to share these feelings with my viewers, to remind them of why they share in the fandom, or to persuade them to pick up the series at hand so that it might do some good for them them too.

Writing descriptions that accompany the images I post lets me reach out to people. For example, my Le Petit Prince photos allowed me to share why that book has changed me significantly, and encouraged other people to pick up the book. Many have written back to me to thank me for introducing that story to them because it changed them forever too.

Simply sharing the silly things my friends and I do during photoshoots or conventions has made people laugh when they need it. To be able to laugh and smile is a precious thing that others take for granted sometimes, but I'm just thankful that we're able to evoke that from our readers.

I've learned that just because you're doing something for fun, doesn't mean it's automatically meaningless. I think you just really have to dig deep and figure out your reason for doing things, and it'll lead to other life lessons which piece together to make a big beautiful picture.

Through it I have met the most amazing individuals I otherwise would not have encountered. I'm thankful for them everyday.

_{(Source: fuckyeahgerardquotes)}

One of the things that gets to me the most is when people tell me that my friends and I make them believe in true friendship, reassure them that they deserve to be happy, and make them feel braver to be themselves. I hope everyone will keep those thoughts in their hearts.

Me and my friends in Tux Team, we always ALWAYS find it so unbelievable when people come up to us to say how much they admire our group. Our usual reaction is to look at each other and jokingly ask, "Why?!" We're the first to admit we are far from the best when it comes to craftsmanship. But that's not really what's important to us. If we are to be looked up to, we always hope it's for our spirit and friendship and what we stand for.

You make me feel that as long as you hold a strong belief for something, carry a lot of love in your heart, and go out and sing that to the world, people who feel the same will be drawn towards you.

For anyone who is feeling depressed or hurt or rejected

A lot of you have written to me to say that you open up my journal especially on days you need cheering up. Apart from making you laugh, I want to share something that will hopefully stay with you whenever you feel like you're at a low point of your life.

(Click here to watch: My Chemical Romance - Gerard Way's Inspirational Quotes)

I encourage everyone to watch this video of quotes from Gerard, whether you like My Chemical Romance or not. This is why they are my heroes.

It's for everyone who's ever felt depressed

or hurt

or rejected

or treated like an outsider

for being different.

Some of Gerard's words from the video:

Nothing is worth hurting yourself over. NOTHING is worth taking your life over.

The difference we wanna make is, number one, to make these kids know that they're not alone, that they're actually not that messed up and that they can do whatever they want… And really just to get people to get over their stuff so they can live.

It's more important to keep yourself alive, there's nothing worth even hurting yourself over… It's normal, it's completely normal to be depressed.

I mean, we started this band thinking the world was extremely ugly. And I think now we realize that it's more beautiful than we thought.

So if anything, you can take it from a guy and his band who used to think everything was shit. And we've found that it's not.

And from me:

You are never, ever alone. There are people out there who will understand you. You just have to reach out. Don't shut yourself out, don't take it out on other people by hurting them, and definitely never take your own life. You just have to keep living, and be kind, and be yourself — and you'll find that despite how terrible the world can be, it can be really beautiful too.

_{(Source: mcrquotes.co.uk)}

Open up your heart. You might get hurt along the way because it's a fact of life that bad people exist, but eventually you'll find at least one true friend who will make it all worth it.

As I've said before: It's okay to be you. It's okay to be weird.

Other people's opinion of you shouldn't matter. Don't miss out on opportunities to do things you love just because you don't want other people saying mean things about you.

It's your life and your time, and it's YOU who has to live with the consequences of your decisions so make them for yourself. You should always strive to make yourself happy over all others.

_{(Source: fuckyeahgerardquotes)}

The fine print on the above quote is that you should also be able to differentiate when people are just giving you shit to bring you down, or if people who actually care about you are trying to give you advice to be a better person. You don't give your friends the middle finger. You work on issues together. Sometimes it can hurt to hear what you've been doing wrong, but real friends stab each other at the front, and with the best and purest of intentions.

You will find people out there who will love you for who you are. They will accept your imperfections, your shortcomings, your mistakes.

Be yourself and be kind. Things will get better. They did for us, and they can for you.

We also owe you our thanks

Some people seem to see me and my friends as a group of happy-go-lucky miscreants without a care in the world.

But I think the reason my friends are so kind, and the reason we embrace having fun so much is that we know all too well what it's like to be hurt, and what it's like to be depressed. We've been there. Some of us are still dealing with it. Our lives are far from perfect, we're still human and make our share of mistakes, and we continue to work on ourselves one day at a time. Life doesn't have to be perfect for it to be beautiful.

The reason I share the things we do with you guys is to remind you to laugh, and to give hope to those who need it that you can make things better.

A lot of you have come to know me through this dA account, and through my journal posts particularly. One of the reasons I started blogging was just to remind myself of the things I have to be thankful for — the wonderful people in my life, and how much our silly adventures make me smile and laugh, and how they make life worth living. I needed that to look back on whenever I'd feel teetering on the edge of depression.

Something that came as an unexpected blessing was how I received letters from people saying how somehow I had saved them. That my friends and I had given them something to believe in.

To hear that is more than I could have ever hoped to get in return for blogging. On behalf of my friends, I'd also like to say THANK YOU to you guys who have stuck with us and believed in us and inspired us to be better human beings. Your faith means more to us than you know. More than I can express. From the bottom, the top, and the rest of the mushy insides of my heart — thank you ever so much.

_{(Source: fuckyeahgerardquotes)}

For what it's worth, I'm here

If you think I might be able to help you with something related to this post, send me a note, or send me a message through Tumblr Ask. (On Tumblr you can ask anonymously, or I can answer privately if you request it.) It takes me a while to reply sometimes, but I will do my best.

<3
Jin

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141 Comments

Mood: Tender
Listening to: My Chemical Romance - SING
Reading: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Watching: Game of Thrones
Eating: gummi worms

Plug: Contact Lens Promo + Donation Projects

Thu Dec 1, 2011, 8:46 PM

I've been lacking in online updates lately because I've been focusing on doing illustration and design work. Productivity is great, but sometimes I also crave for a bit of quiet time to write journal entries. At least this week I'll be starting on preparations for a new group cosplay with my friends for next month.

Another thing my friends and I are doing is helping raise funds for the benefit of the impoverished community of Boni, Malabon. Here was my post about it on Facebook: [link] Will elaborate on this in another journal post sometime this week!

Alice & Rabbit's Contact lens clearance sale

My friends at Alice and Rabbit's Shop for contact lenses are offering big discounts for some lens types which are almost sold out. I thought I'd share for the benefit of people who are shopping for lenses for their cosplays. You might find what you need at a good price.

Alice & Rabbit's Shop Clearance Sale
Prices are mostly 1 pair for $12 (or Php480), or 2 pairs for $20 (or Php600)

My friends and I get our lenses for cosplay from Alice and Rabbit's Shop, and they're always great. Here are a couple of photos of us wearing their lenses:

This is me wearing Cosplay Lenses in Pretty Pink

And here are pictures of Kat ~moonlightflight wearing the Crystal Max Lenses in Blue and Green

CUSTOM ORDERS
If what you're looking for isn't on the main Web Store, you could even place a Custom Order on this page. There are a lot of other designs, more precise increments of prescriptions, as well as graded lenses up to -10.00

Deadline for the current batch is March 16, 2012!

dA Points Donation Projects

WARM WINTER PROJECT

=ToxicAlice92 has the Warm Winter Project. She will use the donated points to purchase deviantWEAR hoodies to donate to homeless shelters.

She wrote:

"I know there are people who say that the homeless need to just get their asses off the street and get a job. My father is one of those people, and always have been. But there are children left alone all the time; People who have been kicked out; Those who have lost their jobs and, in this economy, take q longer time to find another. It's not exactly easy to get a job if you have nowhere to live, no way to bathe, and no form of being contacted. At the very least, we can try to make it a little easier."

Read the rest of her post (which also has more details about the project) over here:

and use the donation pool on the upper right side of the page.

According to dA admin $Heidi, the deviantART team is backing her up as well.

If =ToxicAlice92 reaches her goal of getting enough points to buy 50 hoodies, deviantART will give her 50 more hoodies to donate!

PROJECT PLUSHIE

New ProjectAfter the success of

Again, to contribute, head over to his page at

and give point through the donation pool on the upper right side of the page.

It's really inspiring seeing people stepping up like this. I hope we can all pitch in to help!

Graded red contact lens review

Another review for Alice and Rabbit's Shop contact lenses! This time it's for their limited red prescription lenses ($25 for one pair of lenses, including free international shipping). There are only a few pairs left, but you can check the rest of their web store for more cosplay lenses.

I'm very nearsighted and for a long time, finding graded red lenses had frustrated me. I'm glad I have options now, and I'm very happy with this one.

These are the lenses I'm wearing on my most recent devID:

There's a small portion from a video I took while wearing the lenses.

They are not as striking or artificial-looking as solid red lenses, but still very noticeable. I think I can get away with wearing this on normal days without freaking too many people out, hahah. (With my solid red lenses, I've had kids run away from me and yell at their parents to "take them away from the vampire". True story.)

In terms of cosplay, I think this would be great for characters who have "naturally" red eyes — meaning they were just born with that eye color, as opposed to their eyes glowing red because of some hidden power awakening or whatever. Some examples would be Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji) and Kaname Kuran (Vampire Knight).

Here's a much closer look so you can see what sort of pattern the lenses have. The label says it has a diameter of 14.8, which makes it a little bigger than regular lenses. So it's got a bit of enlarging effect which pulls more emphasis toward the eyes.

You'll also notice that there is a large uncolored portion in the middle. The dark brown that's visible inside the red ring is my actual eye color. The space in the middle gives the illusion of an enlarged pupil, and this effect works best on dark eyes. And on a related note — yes, this means the lenses will stand out even on very dark eyes like mine.

Here's another look at the lenses when light isn't shining directly on my face.

And here is a close-up.

All in all, these are awesome, comfortable and reasonably-priced lenses. They look great even up close, they photograph well and they give super nearsighted people like me the gift of sight.

Basic contact lens tips

People usually ask me about contact lenses, so I put together this Tumblr post that will hopefully help

[link]

I post semi-regularly on Tumblr

If you'd like to follow me there, here's my page

behindinfinity.tumblr.com

Links

12 Comments

Mood: Optimism
Reading: Goosebumps
Watching: Big Bang Theory

We present our first attempt at video!

Tue Nov 22, 2011, 6:03 AM

We're venturing (clumsily) into another medium! Video! Here it is!

Killjoys, Make Some Noise!

Click here to watch the video!

I know there's room for much improvement, but we're quite happy with it for our first piece of video work!

I actually picked up After Effects for the first time just to be able to edit this video — to fix the colors and add the text and lasers and stuff. It was fun!

Happy anniversary, Danger Days! On November 22, 2010 My Chemical Romance introduced the world of the fabulous killjoys. One year later, we're still here singing it to the world in our own way!

Some background info

For those of you who aren't familiar with this usage of the term killjoys — it's based on the My Chemical Romance album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. A description that was given on this very informative post goes like this:

"The killjoys are the survivalists, the one trying to bring the truth, no matter how bad it is, thus being a "killjoy" in the literal sense, destroying the notion that everything is perfect as BL/i portrays it to be. Their world is dirty, fast, colorful and violent – abandoned buildings, graffiti, brightly colored masks, ray guns and biker jackets. It is unknown if the killjoys are the heroes or the villains – they are just trying to survive and get the truth out there."

I believe the truth that my friends and I constantly uplift is this: It's okay to be you. It's okay to be weird. It's okay to have fun by doing silly things. Other people's opinion of you shouldn't matter, and you should always strive to make yourself happy above all others. You will find people out there who will love you for who you are. Friends never let friends do stupid things — alone. Be yourself and be kind. Things will get better. They did for us, and they can for you.

Shoot outtakes!

First of all, to introduce ourselves again, here's our cast:

Melo is Flutter Shark

Aki is Noodle Kid

Jin is Death Berry

Miguel is Kombat Kibble

We've also got this group shot at the ruins!

Erving is Dr. Kow

Dom is Count Badmullet
Bok is Wolfman

Rayson is Skeletor

Before the shoot, there was a lot we had to do! We had to put our costumes together and make props ~~and plan out a storyboard which we never did, and listed down scene ideas which we didn't use~~.

My mask and my gun, which is named BANANARCHY.

The mask is a random mask base that I cut to shape to resemble a harlequin mask, also painted with the common diamond pattern but in the bold red and blue to mirror the accent colors of my jacket. I put some red splatters too, as a vague reference to Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge.

My gun was an old Nintendo Zapper, which I customized. One day I just suddenly remembered that I used to have one of those Zappers, and when I compared photos of it to MCR's ray guns, and saw they were rather similar. I chose yellow as the base color so it'd match my shoes. And to go with the fruity theme of my name, I named it BANANARCHY. Hahaha!

(Special thanks to Zychez of My Little Prince Shop — they have excellent cosplay wigs — for helping me acquire the Zapper!)

Here's what the Zapper looked like before I customized it. Hoping to add the circular trigger guard (as seen in MCR's ray guns) in the future!

I added the patches, which I got from an old piece of clothing I got from years ago. (I knew there was a reason I didn't want to throw it out!) One is a smiley face with a bullet hole. It reminded me a lot of Watchmen, and I felt the struggles and conflict from the comic could somehow relate to the world of California 2019. Like the ambiguity of who the good and bad guys are, and the questions of whether these big corporations are making the world a better place or screwing it up. And Rorschach can be considered similar to killjoys, if you think about how he wanted to get the truth out there no matter how ugly it is.

The other patch is of a spider on a backdrop of colorful rings (that make me think of Lifesaver candies), which of course is an allusion to the iconic Danger Days American Widow. (But like, on a sugar high or something.)

I let the jacket look messy, battered and weathered because it would suit the post-apocalyptic world more than one that looked brand new.

Check out that badass strawberry print on my bandana. Aww yeah.

My shoes are the Osaka Jika Tabi from Japonista Sole. They're one of my favorite pairs of shoes, and since a lot of my friends have Japonista Sole tabi shoes too, we decided to use them for the video. It fits in with the hints of Japanese inspiration in Danger Days visuals.

There's actually a lot more to my design for my character, as well as choosing Death Berry as a name. If you'd like, you may read about that in my Tumblr post over here

behindinfinity.tumblr.com/post/13113664935/the-story-behind-death-berry There is a lot of cheese in there.

Here's a mask I found when it was around Halloween. I thought it would make a good base for a Draculoid mask.

I simply had to paint it a bit it to look more like the dracs in MCR videos.

And now for the shoot! We went to our friend's family-owned property away from the city. It was an awesome location for simulating a post-apocalyptic world. The ancestral ruins were pretty creepy and dangerous at parts, but altogether very cool.

While I shoot Miguel's solo portrait, the dracs hang out on the seesaws.

Despite all the fighting in the video, we're all friends when we're not filming.

The return of ~~Metal~~ Nurse Macho as Flutter Shark

Duuuuude look at that evil-looking abandoned pool. The water was actually that green and I'm afraid to think of what might be living in its murky depths.

Miguel and I were sweating our asses off in our leather jackets but hey, we gotta commit. I actually didn't notice all that much until we were just standing around idly while other people were being filmed. Still. Totally worth it.

Giving my jagged smile. NGREEEEE.

KITTY!
(All of us kinda react this way to cats)

Dr. Dom a,k.a. Count Badmullet demonstrating why he is named as such.

It started to rain after a while, but it didn't dampen our spirits. Hey, it made for some cool lighting in the video!

After shooting is when it hit us — all the fatigue from running around and doing fight choreography and the heat and the water deprivation and the dirt and being around ruins all day. So we set off to find refreshments and we found sanctuary in...

7-11!

I had a Mountain Dew Slurpee and oh god it was the best-tasting Slurpee of my life.
By the way have I mentioned how I love these huge display fridges, especially when the stuff inside is very colorful?
Yeah.

I love how my friends never tire of photobombing. It was just supposed to be me and Aki in this picture.
Making good use of my little point-and-shoot camera for snapshots. I still love my trusty old DSLR for shoots but this small one is great for documenting little moments. And I love how it's royal blue.

I, umm. Yeah. Man, the photo of that Jacob guy. The way it's put on the tumbler is reeeeaaalllyyyy not flattering. I don't even.

And then we went back to the house that served as our base, got out of our sweaty clothes and got ready for dinner.

Drops of balsamic vinegar on olive oil. We dipped our focaccia bread in this. Mmmm.

Rayson looking all saintly in the lighting.

ONION RING PRISM POWER, MAKE UP~!

And I wasn't to take many other photos because DINNER WAS EXCELLENT. Everything was so good. Also I was starting to pass out from being so tired from the shoot. (But I repeat — Totally worth ittttt.)

This, though, I had to have. Cherry piiiieeee! I don't think I've ever seen any place that serves sweet cherry pie here in Manila so I was like WHY DO THEY HAVE THIS IN ANGELES. ALSO THIS IS DELICIOUS.

It's not over yet! Now I present our blooper reel! Yeah, even our outtakes come in video form now! Part of the reason is that I've got my newish little point-and-shoot camera to make these documentations so convenient. The rest of the clips were shot by Erving with ~Foodtrip's 7D, and I just put everything together.

Click here to watch the video!

Hope you guys enjoyed all that! We certainly had a CRIMINAL amount of fun with all this!

Celebratory toast to MCR! Three cheers! (None for Noodle Kid for being underage)
And once again, happy anniversary to Danger Days! And our thanks to My Chemical Romance for being an incredible inspiration to us in so many ways.

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Mood: b0x0rz-less
Listening to: Planetary (GO!) by My Chemical Romance
Reading: Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
Watching: The Lord of the Rings extended trilogy

Custom Order Update + Review: A&R Cosplay Lens

Sun Nov 20, 2011, 6:51 AM

Custom Orders Open

Since there is a number of you that commented to say they liked the lenses but:
1. Need a higher prescription (-6.00 to -10.00)
2. Need lenses of mismatched prescriptions (ex. left eye -3.75 right eye -4.50)
3. Require prescriptions that are of +.25 steps. (ex. -1.25, -2.75 etc)

I thought I should let you know that you can now make custom orders for them over here

[link]

There are new lens models up for order too! And as always, if you have any questions or inquiries, don't be afraid to write to my friends at Alice and Rabbit's Shop using their contact form

[link] They're very nice and accommodating!

Non-graded Cosplay Lenses Available + Special Deal

My friends at Alice & Rabbit wanted to share the news that non-graded (as well as graded still) Cosplay Lenses are available now!

Also, they've got a special deal for this month — If you get a pair of lenses from the Cosplay Lens series ($22/pair) you can get a contacts from another series for just $10. And have I mentioned that right now they do international shipping for FREE? More details on the Special Deals page of their site!

Alice & Rabbit Cosplay Lens Series Review

I get a lot of messages from people asking where my friends and I get our contact lenses for cosplay. I used to be unable to answer properly because our supplier for lenses was on hiatus, but they're back now! Alice & Rabbit's Shop is now open on a new host site! And right now shipping is free!

Alice And Rabbit's Shop

Alice & Rabbit's Shop Facebook Page

The owner of Alice & Rabbit's Shop is a good friend of mine who started this business to provide visually striking but affordable lenses for cosplayers, since it used to always be such a struggle for her to find good quality lenses for her daughter's cosplay. Sometimes they don't look like the product photo, or don't show up well on dark eyes, stuff like that. It's nice to have a store that gives special attention to cosplayer customers, since they know just what we need.

I used to have my own frustrations — like finding bright colored contacts that come with prescription. I'm ridiculously nearsighted so I really can't wear lenses that aren't graded or else it would be like walking around nearly blind, hahah. I tried colored lenses from optical shops but they were hardly pigmented ("natural" looking supposedly) and didn't work well for cosplay.

So anyway! Thought I'd share some photos of my favorite line of lenses for cosplay. These are from Alice & Rabbit's Cosplay Lens Series ($22.00/pair) I like them so much that I got all colors and they cover most of my cosplay lens needs. XD This is also why A&R got me to model these lenses for their website, hahah!

I took photos with the lenses in soft, natural-looking lighting to give a better idea of how they look when you wear them out. I love how they're bright and vibrant, but not garish. The black ring around the colored part helps pull more emphasis to your eyes and compliments the sort of eyeliner style I do for cosplay. Please pardon these clumsy self-portraits. I wanted to show how the overall effect that the lenses give on a face.

These are the Emerald Green Cosplay Lenses. I remember finding it difficult to shop for green lenses before because they were either too natural-looking (blended into my dark brown eyes too much — my eye color is so dark it's practically black) or were mixed with too much hazel so it didn't really look green. These have the pure, lush green I was looking for. I used these for my Yusaku Kitamura and Harry Potter cosplay.

Purple lenses also used to be a frustration for me, for similar reasons as the ones I stated for green lenses — mixed with too much brown, or looked grey, or were simply too dark and didn't show up on my eyes. The Amethyst Violet Cosplay Lenses were just perfect for my Kenshin Himura cosplay.

I remember when I first started trying out colored lenses, the optometrist suggested I try grey because it looked friendly and natural. That's not quite the case with the Icy Grey Cosplay Lenses. They're very light and striking. While this might not be everyone's cup of tea for casual looks, I think it's awesome for cosplay. (Actually, I'd wear them out whether or not I'm cosplaying.)

One personal favorite of mine are these Golden Hazel Cosplay Lenses. You know how there are characters with gold or amber eyes that look almost yellow? Most hazel or light brown lenses just don't cut it, and true yellow lenses just look too harsh sometimes. These strike just the right balance of yellow/gold/hazel for me. These were absolutely awesome when Ysabel used them for Edward Elric, and I plan to use them for Alto Saotome.

The Ocean Blue Cosplay Lenses is probably my most abused pair, hahaha! I use them for Naruto, Saitou Hajime (Hakuouki version, not Rurouni Kenshin) Kimihiro Watanuki (one blue eye, one hazel eye) and countless other times. They're just a beautiful bright cerulean blue!

Now, I just have to warn you that if you're not used to wearing highly pigmented lenses then these might not be the most comfortable pair during the first time you try them on. (But you shouldn't ever wear a pair for the first time on the day of the event you plan to wear them for anyway. You should always check in advance if your eyes are okay with certain brands or lens models.)

I don't know, maybe my eyes are just a bit sensitive but for a few of these lenses, the first time I put them on there was some slight discomfort. But all I had to do was try to wear them for a few minutes, take them off again, let them soak in lens solution overnight, and the next time I tried to put them on they were fine.

For others though there was no problem at all from the start. So yeah, just don't freak out if you kinda feel them in your eyes the first time you put them on!

All in all these are awesome lenses and I hope this helped if you're on a search for contacts (especially graded ones) for your cosplay!

You can go check out their other types of lenses, too! I believe there is a sale going on!

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Mood: Content
Listening to: Rasmus Faber
Reading: Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
Watching: videos from our trip to Singapore BAWWWWW

Reviving my journal with some photo posts!

Journal Entry: Thu Nov 3, 2011, 8:51 AM

Boy, do I have a ton of events and shoots I have yet to write about! The past few months have been such a big (wonderful) whirlwind of stuff that I really haven't been able to just sit down and sort out my photos and thoughts the way I want to.

That's why I've been severely lacking in updates over here, but my Facebook page, Tumblr and Twitter have been getting a fair bit of action. I feel like on those sites I can just thought vomit and blurt things out.

This page though has significant sentimental value to me because it was the starting point for so many things. I wouldn't even know where to begin. So it's rather special to me and I feel like I should put a little more thought into my posts here. I've kind of been overdoing it though! So now I'll share some of the posts I've been making on my other sites, to get my writing rhythm back a bit.

There's a LOT that's been going on! I have yet to write about our Baguio trip, a couple of photo shoots, Cosplay Mania XI, spending time with overseas cosplayers *pinkyluxun, *yukigodbless, ~Jiakidarkness and lots of other new friends, our trip to Cebu, etc.

First night in Baguio

Our very foggy first night (or rather, early morning) in Baguio. It had been a long time since I last found myself immersed in fog, so this was a very welcome sight. I could not help sticking my head out the van window to take it all in.

The thick mist concealed the road on some parts, and it was like driving on a bed of clouds. It amplified the glow of the street lamps. This was at around 2AM so it was also unusually quiet. Well, save for the racket our lot was making. We joked that it would have felt like Silent Hill, though with us around it wouldn't be very silent at all.

Looking at this snapshot, I recall thinking about Sleepy Hollow when I took it. Had I not been with my friends, perhaps this may have seemed scary to me. But if our lot can make Helena by My Chemical Romance seem like the happiest song in the world, ~~Not So~~ Sleepy Hollow can look like a playground.

~~SO LONG AND GOODNIGHT, SO LOOOOONG AND GOODNIIIIIIIIIGHTTTT~~

There is much that needs to be said about this Baguio trip but I'll save that for later!

My Chemical Romance Karaoke

Part of my plan for celebrating with my friends was a karaoke session, so after lunch the ten of us headed over to Red Box. Apart from having a lot of our 90s guilty pleasure songs, we love it there because they have… My Chemical Romance.

Our first MCR song choice was Helena, as it is our sort of group anthem and/or running joke (as I had written about here and here).

The background video was completely lame so we took the liberty of doing the actions from the original music video. ~~We find it very difficult to pass up a chance to parody Helena. Out of love, of course.~~ Sometimes I wonder if it's a traumatizing experience to watch me and my friends do karaoke from a stranger's perspective.

(Not like you can see it here but I chose that day to wear red eye makeup Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge-style, LOL)

I Don't Love You

Melo (Maid Macho) had a stab at this song.

Teenagers. Another boring replacement video for such a fun song, boo.

Okay now this is just ridiculous. The song is of course Ghost of You and the background video to accompany those heartbreaking lines comprised of totally mundane things like this chick watching TV with such mind-blasting indifference.

Now that's just lazy! What a travesty! It was supposed to be one of my favorite music videos! Still, Welcome To The Black Parade was very fun to sing as a group. I had a ball being the second voice while Miguel ~merkymerx and Melo !BallistaShark sang the main parts. Watching the way they moved, it was pretty apparent how much time they must have spent just staring at Gerard Way throughout the years.

Not quite the Black Parade. ~~Close enough.~~

Somewhere during this session, Melo (not for the first time) screamed, "I'M GAY FOR GERARD WAY!" And there was much manly understanding in the room.

CAN YOU IMAGINE MY JOY UPON SEEING THAT ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS FROM DANGER DAYS WAS THERE? I thought that even just hoping for a song from Danger Days would already be asking for too much, but they actually had Planetary (GO!)

Melo, Erving, China, me, Miguel, Myk, EJ, and Dom's back (I think)

Not everyone in our group was familiar with this song but I asked everyone to just please please stand up and PARTY WITH ME! I'm really happy my friends are a bunch that easily obliges to such requests. Much partying was had. And all was good.

~~And now several of them can't stop listening to Planetary (GO!). Just as planned.~~

Food moments

My friends got me a series of small cakes from a Chinese bakeshop. This was the grape-flavored cake. I had never even considered the idea of a grape cake before, so it was the first one I tried.

It was a rather cute little thing, topped with grape, a slice of dragonfruit, and some fruit-flavored chocolate bits.

There was a layer of grape-flavored jelly (which was very mild and not at all overpowering) over what tasted like buttercream, and the chiffon was infused with grape flavor as well. At first I was dubious about how grape would work with cream, but it was actually very nice. ~~Watch me use the word grape in every sentence in this paragraph.~~

This cake reminded me of something stupid I did as a kid. It was the time I was introduced to milk with fruit flavors, so I knew of strawberry milk and melon milk and the like. Well, one day I thought I would be a little genius and make grape milk by mixing grape juice powder into a glass of fresh milk. It was terrible and no one should ever do that.

The tip of the iceberg about our trip to Cebu

This deserves a whole post for itself to be able to contain all the things I want to say about that trip. So many warm and fuzzy feelings! For now...

The view from one of our hotel rooms, and us derping in it.

Just chilling after our cosplay panel, with one of the most memorable people we've had the opportunity to befriend.

_{(Click to watch)}
Our resident stunt man and fight choreographer Dom as Lei Wulong (Tekken 5 P2 ver) practicing his moves and backflips to my favorite Tekken BGM!

_{(Click to watch)}
In this short clip you'll see...
● Miguel

as Captain Jack Sparrow (On Stranger Tides version)
● The tide rushing in rather fast. The ground turned from damp sand to knee-deep water in a matter of minutes.
● Dom dressed as Lei stuck on a boat in the faaar distance behind Miguel.
● Bok stuck on his own little island with an umbrella.
● Reymond trying to fix his shoes/pants on his island beside Bok's.
● Shaky cam footage of me chasing the Captain, who runs out of breath.

The whole thing was just an awesome adventure, and we're happy our costumes got a taste of actual seawater! Hahah! There were lots of creatures in that water, too. Piles of pulsating tentacles, Jesusfish that folloped on top of the water, purple crabs, yellow squid-like things...

We must again thank the iluvcebu.com team for making this shoot possible!

Other places on the internet where I post stuff

Facebook — facebook.com/Jin.behindinfinity

Twitter — twitter.com/skybluedays

Tumblr — behindinfinity.tumblr.com

I'll do my best to be more diligent about updating here too! But GAH this new journal system is going to take some getting used to! Hope everyone is doing well! A pleasant something to you all!

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Mood: Pirate
Listening to: Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)
Reading: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Harry Potter wand tutorial + costume snapshots

Journal Entry: Sun Jul 24, 2011, 2:53 AM

Harry Potter wand progress/tutorial

I'm not sure if this can really count as a tutorial because I feel I didn't take enough photos, but I thought I'd share how I made my wand for Harry Potter cosplay. It's made with things I had lying around at home.

Miguel

helped me out a lot with his suggestions!

I started with these — A paintbrush, a hot glue/gluegun stick, some tape, a brown paper bag, and some foil. Paintbrushes are very good bases for wands because of the shape and material. This once I particularly fancied because of the beautiful color and finish of the handle.

The brush was too short by itself, so I had to extend the other end somehow. Feeling very silly, I stuck the hot glue stick into the head of the brush, right in the middle of the bristles, and taped it into place. Sadly I did not get a photo of how it looked then. I tore of a bit of the brown paper bag and wrapped it around the glue stick for added stability, and taped that into place as well. (You can still see a bit of the glue stick poking out of one end.)

Next, I looked for images of Harry's actual wand and used foil to mold the basic shape as advised by Miguel ~merkymerx. I intended to put air-dry clay on top of it, but I put the foil first to conserve the clay and keep the weight a little light. It's especially appropriate for the texture of Harry's wand handle because it's supposed to look rough and organic.

This is the clay I used. It's an air-dry clay that's very easy to work with. (It's made for kids, after all.) Trouble is, it's not very sturdy when it dries. The final consistency is sort of like rubber foam, unlike the very hard finish of Sculpey. I'd have wanted to use Sculpey but I felt like I didn't have enough of it at the time.

This is how it looked when I coated the foil with Model Magic. I did my best to give it a wood-like texture.

Once the Model Magic had set and hardened, I coated it with gesso to prime it for painting, and also to add more texture. So sorry, I did not get to take pictures of the wand at this stage, but it pretty much looked like the previous photo, only the handle was white instead of blue.

I then painted over it with acrylic paints, adding more texture with it as well, and here is a close-up of the finished wand. I recommend going with acrylics if you're making props, as opposed to poster paints, and especially not watercolors. Acrylics won't run or easily rub off once they dry, so it's okay if your prop gets a little wet (or if you touch it when your hands are sweaty). They're water-based too so it's easy to clean it off skin and brushes. Don't get it on your clothes, though! It's tough to wash off of fabric.

I kept the paintbrush the way it was, because I really liked its original color and luster.

When I used this wand for an event, I had several people asking how I had made it, and they thought the handle was actually made of wood. I painted it from dark to light to emphasize the texture.

I felt quite happy to say I had made it myself, when people asked where I had gotten it. ~~I should have joked that I had taken lessons with Mr. Ollivander.~~

And there we have my Harry Potter wand, made with stuff I had lying around the house!

The day we watched The Deathly Hallows Part 2

It was a lovely day with the everyday magic of wonderful friends, happy little discoveries, and great food.

I gave my pet lovebird Mango a little pat as usual before heading out.

Cheeky little thing. ~~I wish I could have him send things to and from my friends with him like wizard's owls, hahah.~~

I then met up with Kat

and Sammy

, and we had lunch at Café Mary Grace in Serendra.

We were already partially dressed in our Hogwarts uniforms. Even though we didn't have our cardigans or robes on yet, we guessed that some people could tell we were on our way to watch Harry Potter, hahah.

The cafe had a really pretty, cozy interior

This was my lunch. Chicken Inasal Pandesal (the filling was accompanied by their own salsa and sauce) with a side of fresh potato chips and a creamy garlic dip. It was excellent!

Peach iced tea! My favorite kind. The Café Mary Grace tea really tastes like fresh peaches!
I apologize — I was looking forward to devouring my lunch so I was not able to take photos of Kat's and Sammy's food, but they each gave me a bite and everything was delicious.

We went to Cupcakes by Sonja to have some dessert. That's where we shot this.

I got a Vanilla Sunshine cupcake with chocolate frosting. I don't know what it is about this particular chocolate frosting but it's got me hooked. It tastes like there's actual molten milk chocolate in there.

Sammy got the Lemon Drop, which is also one of my favorite cupcakes.
We then went on a search for grey cardigans as part of our Hogwarts uniforms. I had been looking all around Ayala for them and came up with nothing. It didn't help that cardigans and sweaters are out of season nowadays. But that day, somehow, we got just what we needed! Happy with our fruitful search, we headed over to Greenbelt.

After slipping into our robes, we went around to pass the time since it was still early. It was funny how some people looked like they were trying very hard to pretend we weren't there. Hahaha! We were just quietly going about our business, eating gelato, looking around stores. Others called out to us, or tried to speak to me with a British accent. Others just smiled and waved, and we greeted them back. Some kids looked at us wide-eyed, and on one instance I put my finger to my lips and said "shhh" and winked at the little boy.

We went into this shop full of curious things, where I could not help snapping a photo of Sammy and Kat because it almost looks like it could be a store in Diagon Alley.

I dressed up as Harry. We were mostly going by the character descriptions in the book rather than the way they looked in the movie. (I am no Dan Radcliffe!) That is why I had these thick frames on at first, and why I chose jet black instead of Dan's dark brown hair.

Kat dressed up as Luna Lovegood since she loves Luna and has always felt she belongs to Ravenclaw. Kat had just used one of the wigs she had at home at the time, but we found one that was more appropriate about a week after, hahah.

We were wearing appropriate colored contacts but they aren't really visible here, hahah. We also need our patches and wands… There'll be a chance for that later! When we wore our robes again for a recent event, we made some upgrades. I'll post more about that soon!

Sammy was Parvati Patil, my fellow Gryffindor at heart. (Look at that fox behind Kat)

We went to the back of the store, nearly pressed our faces against the glass case of vintage spectacles, and we saw it — a pair of perfectly round frames! I hurried to a saleslady and asked her to please open the glass case so I could take a look. I picked them up carefully and admired them before putting them on. Then I turned around to show Kat and Sammy, and raised my eyebrows while I asked them how I looked. They said together, "YOU HAVE TO GET THEM"

And so I did. The size and fit felt just right on me. I just need to color the circular rims black somehow to get them to be a bit more accurate. Will do that for next time! (Also I am holding a paintbrush here because I hadn't started on my wand at the time HAHA)

We bought a pack of tissues, met up with the rest of our friends, and walked into the theater for the final movie of the series that has become such a significant part of our lives. Near the refreshment area, we saw a group of people who were partially dressed up and it seemed both our groups were kind of eyeing each other and wanting to say hi and ask for a picture, but our shyness got to all of us ahahaha.

I won't say much right now as a courtesy to those who have yet to watch it. It was just heartwarming and amazing to be in a huge room full of people who knew just how we felt. Even though we were strangers to most of the people there, we all laughed and cheered and cried and applauded together.

As the end credits rolled on we said, "Mischief managed!"

Still caught in a whirlwind of emotions, we made our way out of the theater. There was another group of people who dressed up for the occasion. We didn't miss our chance for photos this time. A lot of them turned out blurry. Perhaps Myk was still laughing at us for joining in with the sobbing during the screening.

Gotta hand it to the Quidditch guy for the dedication with the broom and all inside a mall!

After my friends and I parted ways, I got to watch again with Miguel :iconmerkymerkx: who had followed after dinnertime. The popcorn lady was very amused with me, and asked Miguel if he was Ron. Haha! My heart went on another ride and welled up with emotion all over again, but I was very thankful for it.

And here is a random webcam pic with my pet budgie, who is trying his very best to be Hedwig (although he is obviously far too small and too green, hahah)

Also, here's a photo of my Harry Potter costume with a few small upgrades.

Always

A lot of people have been saying MY CHILDHOOD IS OVER after seeing the last film. For me, it wasn't like that at all.

"Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic."

That one line made me feel that the magic was ours to keep forever, and that Hogwarts will indeed always be there to welcome us home.

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Mood: Affection
Listening to: Harry Potter audio books by Stephen Fry
Reading: work stufffffff
Playing: Terraria
Eating: steak and potato cream soup

Fairy Tail & xxxHolic cosplay + HP tomfoolery

Journal Entry: Thu Jul 7, 2011, 9:19 AM

Day 1 Post

Read about Day 1 over here!

Toycon 2011 (Day 2)

June 19, 2011
Megatrade Hall, SM Megamall

Day 2 report! It started out at our friend's place like the day before. We helped each other dress and fix up.

Over here Miguel ~merkymerx, me and Myk had teamed up to fix Karl's hair for Phoenix Wright cosplay.

This is Melo !BallistaShark as the Davey Jones to Miguel's Captain Jack.
He also answers to the name Corporate Cthulu.

IT WAS RAINING OUTSIDE AND THIS KITTEN WENT UP TO THE DOORWAY AND GAH JUST LOOK AT IT

WHAT IS THIS SORCERY, CAT
We couldn't bear to make it go out in the rain!
These are just two of the 120381029 photos we took of it. Gaaaah.

Another team-up to do Jayem's Fairy Tail emblem for his Gray Fullbuster cosplay.
It's lacking a little something, don't you think?

There we go. Lovely.
~~AAAAA DON'T KILL ME YOU GUYSSSS~~

Well. This is... interesting.

Sooomeone's [cough!BallistaSharkcough] enjoying himself far too much

Fast forward to the con! Finished tattoo, and here's Jayem as Gray with Kat

, his Juvia

_{Kat jokingly scolded him for being out of character after this photo, hahaha}

Jayem is actually based in LA and has only been to a few events here. Somehow we ended up becoming friends with him after helping him out since we observed him getting nearly harassed at an event a few months ago. He asked Kat to cosplay Juvia with him, and she said yes, and here they are!

They were pretty funny to watch during Toycon because Kat was always in character. Girls would flock to get their photo taken with Jayem and she'd glare at them from the side just like Juvia.

_{(It was upsetting though, that some girls were incredibly rude to Kat, telling her to get lost and whatnot. Tsk tsk. If only I had been there when those things happened. I hope everyone remembers to pack their manners when they go to cons!)}

I realize we don't have proper group pics in my camera, so I'll go with our photo with JM ~angrylittleboy. We're not really being in character but hey, it's the three of us in a picture not entirely trolling something. ~~Feels to me like a graduation picture, for some reason.~~

Charmie, Miguel and I were cosplaying characters from xxxHolic. I was Kimihiro Watanuki, Miguel ~merkymerx was Shizuka Doumeki, and Charmie ~yaoiangel14 was Himawari Kunogi

Our outfits were based on one of the artbook illustrations, but we changed some details to our liking.

_{We enjoyed wearing these outfits out, but boy did we run into trouble with them. We almost couldn't push through with them. The wig that Charmie is wearing isn't actually her Himawari wig which is why the curls are missing. Her wig had unfortunately gotten stuck in customs and delivery was further delayed by a storm. Thankfully, we were saved by Ms. Czarina's wig which was similar. Miguel decided to use his real hair because his usual cut is similar to Shizuka's. But as you can see, by this time his hair had gotten too long and we were all so busy with our everyday lives, as well as with preparing for Toycon that he wasn't even able to get a haircut. Apologies to our fellow xxxHolic fans! We're still working on these costumes XD For us, what really matters is that we had a blast that day. More on this below!}

_{(photo by Peppy)}

And here's a shot of our friends' Phoenix Wright group!
Ange was Miles, Karl was Phoenix, Isa was Franziska, and Kitty was Mia
A lot of people apparently wanted their signs

_{photo by Marko ~Happy-Hario}

I was cosplaying Watanuki, so I took my place as shopkeeper at the

Tuxessories table for a while.

Some people were asking about my pipe fox. I had sewn it myself; I'm not good with a needle but I did as best as I could.

Here's a better look at it - [link] He came out bigger than the proper size because of the fur thickness, but I do like him this way as he's very squishy.

Pirate lady Miss Scarlett dropped by our table. We all thought she looked really cool so I asked if I could take a photo of her. She let us have a look at her pistol and we admired her Isla de Muerta gold necklace.

Two sweet girls who dropped by the Tux table.

We had talked about sewing costumes and how parts of them can be a pain to wear sometimes. And I was like, "All I could manage to sew this time was my pipe fox...

" Hahaha!

Quick reminder! The Very Merry Unbirthday 50% Off Sale will be over soon! Avail of it at Tuxessories.net while you still can!

Kuya Joma of Wakuwaku dropped by our booth too!
He got a Super Mustachio necklace

Before the stache

After the stache

And as always, shameless plug because he is awesome — If you're looking for AUTHENTIC figures, magazines, music CDs, doujinshi, plushies, etc. from Japan, drop by his store Wakuwaku sometime! He's located at FBR Arcade (the building with Yellow Cab) along Katipunan road. His kiosk is very near Yellow Cab and easy to spot once you enter the building.

Ask him questions and inquire about special orders on Facebook

[link] (He goes to Japan every so often to get new stock for his store)

And then we found JM ~angrylittleboy in his Shinsengumi outfit! With really cool kendo armor

This is Miguel being out of character (as he was the entire day LOL) and fanboying over JM

It was so crowded in the hall, you have no idea how difficult it was to take this shot hahaha

Himawari and hover-hand molestation

Caaaat!

THEY WATCH YOU SLEEP

We saw him and all yelled ASSASINO!

Ezio was very cool. His hidden blades were rigged to snap out and retract with a flick of his hand!

For a group of people who have been invited to host a panel on characterization multiple times, we sure let ourselves go a lot.
We can't seem to take ourselves seriously most of the time!

I guess we save the acting for (a very few) pictures during photoshoots. ~~90% of our shots are outtakes ahahaha~~

_{(photo by Erving)}

Jayem as Gray and Kat

as Juvia from Fairy Tail were doing better than we were at being in character.

_{(photo by Erving)}

Here is our picture as promised!

_{(Oh, don't mind us! Her camera suddenly run out of battery that time, so I offered a shot from my cam that I could post for her)}

The Warner Bros. booth Harry Potter exhibit! Bellatrix and Harry's outfits on this side.

What appears to be a Quidditch uniform (though something about it feels off to me, hmm) and Hermione's outfit.

We were joking around that people might have been mistaking me for a bad Harry Potter cosplayer around the Warner Bros. exhibit

Never have I heard of an owl that could coil around one's arm like a snake!

So I was like, what the heck, let's troll the posters

Durrr wrong angle and stuff but nobody told me and we were all busy laughing

Trying very very hard not to crack up

And now, a group shot!
Potter fans please don't kill us! (We actually are fans of the series too) I'm still laughing at Miguel's Ron impression. Hahaha! Brilliant!

HURRRRRRRRR

DURRRRRRRRR

UGUUUUUUUUU

This doesn't even need a caption.

I don't even know
I think perhaps we are making a heart with our hands

You know what, Tumblr has flushed out Voldemort's creepy factor in the movies for me because of this image:

YEAHHHH

YEA~AHHHHHHHHHH

PARTY IN THE U.S.A

FAM!

And then it was dinnertime!

Phoenix Wright channeling Kazuya Mishima

Bok and Melo !BallistaShark and their new NERF guns!
Buddy cop poses!

Bok: DADDYYYYYY
Erving: ...WTF?

Yuna pose!

Everybody do the Yuna!

COUTUUUUUUURE

Normal folk being photobombed by cosplayers

Tux Team (well, some of us) and our friends from Baguio!

After dinner, we went back to Megatrade to pack up stuff from our booth. It was pretty late by this time and the mall was also closing. As we waited for our friends, we shot some pictures to cap off the day.

_{(photo by Erving)}

A nice portrait of Kat

as Juvia
Pretty clever how she did the makeup for her eyes to mimic how Juvia's are drawn!
Her brooch also turned out great, and I'm very happy about that because I helped cast the resin dome on the emblem. The blood the brooch drew from me was totally worth it. (I was stabbed by one of the two big pins used to secure it.)

_{(photo by Erving)}

Where is Gray?!
www.nooooooooooooooo.com
(It's a real website. Click it and look at this photo for the full experience.)

_{(photo by Erving)}

We saw the assassins again! They very kindly obliged when we asked for one last photo for the day.

They are too cool!

_{(photo by Erving)}

~~What is this crossover~~

Okay this part is going to be pretty dumb. So it was closing time and the exhibitors were putting things away. I don't know if it was the fatigue or if I had somehow had too much sugar that day but...

AAAAHAHAHAHA THIS CRACKED ME UP SO HARD

WOLVERINE WHAT ARE YOU DOING
WHY ARE YOU RIDING THAT MAN

YOU GUYSSSSS WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO SUPERMAN AND SPIDER-MAN YOU GUYSSSS
SPIDER-MAN LOOKS LIKE HE'S DESPERATELY FLAILING AND TRYING TO ESCAPE

SPIDER-MAN'S SHINY BUM
AND HE'S LIKE LET ME GOOOOOO ~~(WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO)~~
AHAHAHALSKJDFALSDK;'JSD

SUPERMAN HAS NO HEADDDD?!
(photos getting increasingly blurry because I was out of breath running after them and laughing my face off)

Ahahahaha... hahah... whew... So we were walking towards the exit where we'd be picked up.

We saw this crew cleaning up after what looks like a Justice League event. I spy a section for Green Lantern, The Flash... and wait... what is that... What's that in the distance?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
In the immortal words of Dr. Rajesh Koothrappali...
"AQUAMAN SUCKS"

Other accounts

Facebook - facebook.com/pages/Jin-behindinfinity/145988798763106

Tumblr - behindinfinity.tumblr.com

Twitter - twitter.com/skybluedays

Thanks for reading!

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166 Comments

Mood: Spidey Sense
Listening to: Harry Potter audio books by Stephen Fry
Reading: work stufffffff
Watching: still this old muesli bar on my table
Playing: Terraria

Picture-heavy Toycon Day 1 Report! Disney cosplay!

Journal Entry: Tue Jul 5, 2011, 9:33 PM

Toycon 2011 (Day 1)

Here's my usual (ang getting increasingly late) report about the cons we attend!

We went as a Disney group last Toycon! And I just realized we don't have a decent complete group shot.

That's okay I guess because it's definitely not the last time we'll be wearing the costumes, and we all had things we wanted to improve. _{We have a habit of doing that with new cosplays — wear them to a con and observe pictures from it after to see what looked wrong or felt uncomfortable about the costumes or wigs or makeup. It's helpful!} Some of our friends were also unable to join us for Toycon so we'll definitely be doing this again.

Most of the photos are from my camera but I borrowed some from friends and albums we were tagged in.

LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS-
So we saw this store, and we needed to take a photo in front of it for obvious reasons

So there's Dom

as Captain Li Shang, myself

as Ping, and Bok as Ling from Mulan. _{Three more of our friends will be joining us in the future!} It was pretty funny how some people thought we were cosplaying characters from the movie Red Cliff!

_{photo from Katkat}

This snapshot shows Karl as Flynn Rider and Katkat as Rapunzel from Tangled, Kat

as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, us Mulan people again, and about 2/3 of Captain Jack

_{photo from ~gazxiii}

A full body shot of me as Ping, and Miguel

as Captain Jack Sparrow from the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides

_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

Hanging out at the

Tuxessories booth. Belle appears to be daydreaming. Flynn Rider and Prince Naveen greet our customers. I wonder if Captain Sparrow is up to no good at the back or is just characteristically intoxicated. We did a lot of singing Disney songs while we were at our booth. It was pretty awesome because so many people were totally game to sing along!

Thanks, you guys! That was fantastic. Until next time!

_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

With pretty

Yuanie from Singapore as Kagemine Len, and Jayem from LA as Gilgamesh. It was awesome to see Jayem's costume come together. We helped him out with parts of it, including the body markings.

The night before the first day of Toycon, we all got together to help each other cram the parts of our costumes that needed work.

And since the markings Jayem needed for Gilgamesh takes a rather long while to draw out, we figured it would be best to put them on the night before since Temptu (the body inks we used) doesn't easily come of anyway. Kat ~moonlightflight sketched the pattern on with red a pen before applying the Temptu.

_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

The end result looked great! Captain Shang approves!

_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

And so does Captain Jack Sparrow!

_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

And so do the rest of us!

~~We may or may not have been miming CAAAAN YOU FEEEL THE LOOOOVE TONIIIIIGHT~~

_{photo from Ricah ~micahmidnight}

With Madoka

and Homura

Y SO CUTE U GUYS

_{photo from z3LL ~z3LLLL}

Very cute group! ~~Somehow I find myself missing Ragnarok Online AGAIN~~

_{photo from Jowie Rufino}

Belle was captured photobombing the lady who wanted a photo with Captiain Jack

_{photo from Jowie Rufino}

Miguel was very much in character

_{photo from DecDec TheRebirth}

With Markee

!

_{photo from z3LL ~z3LLLL}

Markee was cosplaying Sexy no Jutsu Naruto and using my photo as a prop

_{photo from Markee}

Pretty awesome, it was like I was in two places at once!

During the times we felt we needed a break from the crowd in the exhibit hall, we wandered out and looked around Megamall. One of our stops was Toy Kingdom.

I like how those guys tried very hard to pretend we weren't there.

What song do you reckon he's playing? Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum?

We found me a horse!
DISHONOR TO MY COW?
~~Down, Bessie!~~

Captain Shang made a man out of Superman.

A lot of people called Erving ~Huzafan Attila the Hun

We went to Starbucks for a dose of sugar for extra energy, and because it was near the event hall. The staff was delighted by Miguel's portrayal, and we were happy to see that they didn't forget the "Captain"

No rum for Jack this time!

They didn't ask me for my name, but if they did I would have said the line from that awkward scene when Shang asked Mulan for her name. "I... have a name... and it's a boy's name too!" I loved that part, hahaha!

Stay tuned for more pictures from the next day!

I was going to put them on this entry too but then there are more than 50 photos from Day 2.

A few days left to go!

In the name of the moon, we at Tuxessories invite you to be part of our Very Merry Unbirthday Party Sale!
50% off on Tux in Wonderland items, to commemorate the day we came up with Tuxessories!
Only from July 1 to July 8! Don't be late!

Other accounts

For those of you who might be interested — I thought perhaps I should mention that I update a bit more over at Facebook.

facebook.com/pages/Jin-behindinfinity/145988798763106

Just click on the "

Like" button on my page and you'll receive my updates on your Facebook feed.

If you're more of a Tumblr person, I'm over there too

behindinfinity.tumblr.com
I need to work on updating it more!

Oh, and for smaller updates still (and if you need to send me a quick message) there's Twitter

twitter.com/skybluedays

Thanks for reading!

_{dWarped Journal CSS is based on the Warped template design by Six Shooter Media. It's avaliable here at deviantArt under the Creative Commons Attribution v2.5.}

125 Comments

Mood: Cheerful
Listening to: Harry Potter audio books by Stephen Fry
Reading: work stufffffff
Watching: this old muesli bar on my table
Playing: Terraria

Tuxessories 50% Sale! + Nine West contest entries

Journal Entry: Sat Jun 25, 2011, 8:09 PM

Tuxessories Very Merry Unbirthday Sale!

From the Tuxessories Team — And now a special treat for our international friends! We look forward to serving you this coming July!

Please be guided that we will be releasing our special discount code on the first day of the sale. You will need the code to avail of our discount. We will make an announcement on the Tuxessories Facebook page so kindly stay tuned at:

www.facebook.com/Tuxessories

See you then!

Jin and Kitty's Nine West Design Contest Entries

Nine West is holding a tote bag print design competition with the theme Spring/Summer. My friend Katrina Teh (or Kitty for some of you) encouraged me to send an entry in as well. Since I had been drawing a lot of flora anyway, I decided to give it a shot. It's always such an amazing feeling to see people wearing my work, so I would love to have a chance at this opportunity

If you happen to like our designs and are willing to take a minute to vote, you may do so using your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts

All you have to do is visit the contest entry page and click the vote button on the right side of the screen.

Please click here to go to Jin's contest entry

Thinking about spring and summer brings me thoughts of beautiful days and colorful memories — cloud-watching as the sky explodes into indescribable colors at sunset, being warmed by the gentle sunshine at the beach, looking at gorgeous blooms at the flower district. Those are some of the images I kept in mind as I worked on the illustrations for this design. I was also listening to the song Seasons of Love while working on this, hence the title. One of my favorite springtime memories is attending my childhood best friend's wedding and watching her happily dance with her new husband while that song played.

Please click here to go to Kitty's contest entry

Kitty's beautiful hand-drawn inspired by belladonna lillies <3

The winners will be chosen by Rafe Totengco with special consideration to the pieces with the highest votes. Voting ends June 28. Thank you so much to everyone for the support, and for all who have already voted! We're very grateful!

Frequent small updates on Facebook

I've been severely lacking in updates over here, but for those of you who might be interested — I thought perhaps I should mention that I update a bit more over at Facebook.

facebook.com/pages/Jin-behindinfinity/145988798763106

Just click on the "

Like" button on my page and you'll receive my updates on your Facebook feed.

For now, here are a few photos from my recent Facebook posts.

from [link]
For the first day of Toycon, we did one of our dream cosplays — going as a Disney group!

from [link]
During the second day of Toycon, I did xxxHolic cosplay with Miguel and Charmie.
I was Kimihiro Watanuki (NOT Harry Potter

)

from [link]
I asked for some drawing requests a few weeks back, and here's a preview of some of my sketches. Now that Toycon is done, I'll get back to working on these during my idle times.

If you're more of a Tumblr person, I'm over there too

behindinfinity.tumblr.com

Oh, and for smaller updates still (and if you need to send me a quick message) there's Twitter

twitter.com/skybluedays

I'm not abandoning my dA page, of course! I just reserve my longer posts or more polished photos for over here. I have some new drawings, and my friends and I have some new costumes done so hopefully I will have the time to blow some dust off this page in the near future.

Thank you all for the messages and appreciation despite my absence here!

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93 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: I'll Make A Man Out Of You
Reading: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Watching: How I Met Your Mother
Eating: STEAKSTEAKSTEAK
Drinking: delicious water

Would you like to see us dance to TAAAKEEE TAAAAAKEEEE

100%

632 deviants said TAKERUUUUUUU well here it is [link]

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My avatar was a gift from

, and she also made chibi Tuxedo Team icons for !snowpeachdrop, ~merkymerx, ~ceruleanmorning and ~moonlightflight. Please don't steal them! Thank you!

Photoshoots
_{Journal entries with shoot information and thumbnails to photosets. Also, photoshoot outtakes in which you may see what happens when we're not being somewhat serious in front of cameras. Which is apparently about 95% of the time.}