august-fehrmont

Had a birthday and my bones didn't suddenly explode into dust, so I think I'm doing pretty well!

Been having a shitty winter, so I'm making an effort to exercise more (read: more than 0 minutes a day), eat better (read: actually ingest food), and generally up my mood to stay motivated. We'll see how that goes.

Also, Katsucon was a good damn time! I'm sad for the folks who didn't make it, but kind of relieved that the snowstorm was a snowstorm in the lower-US sense and not the Buffalonian sense (in other words, we could handle driving in it). 

Hopefully pics soon!

Anyway, as I work on my first journal-quality research paper, I also continue to work new/partially begun costumes for Fanime. It's still early enough that I can be optimistic... hahah...

Levi (this art) (Shingeki no Kyojin)
Wizard (Dragon's Crown)
Akito (Nadesico)
Gaius (Fire Emblem: Awakening)

...and probably rewearing some other crap, maybe adding more crap, who knows! 'Til next time, sexyfaces.

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE HAD A NICE HOLIDAY TIME
Journal reply to the asks and the features!
Thanks for the responses on this. I think I may have to do it again sometime.
The deviations I'll feature for each person are works that stood out to me.

   

asks:
What is currently your favorite cosplay to wear, and why?

That's a tough one... since I have some complex costumes that are difficult to wear, I like them better when they are OFF. >D Comfort is key for me I guess. The shingeki uniforms are actually really fun to wear and comfortable, made me feel way more athletic than I actually am... probably something about the belts making you very aware of your muscles cooperating. I also really liked wearing Samurai Deeper Kyo around because it's just a long yukata and you get a nice leg breeze in the summer. >D Also, Pit! Because it was also super comfortable and I felt like an agile child with wings wearing it.




asks:
Is there a certain piece of a costume that you spent a lot of time/ care on that you are especially proud of? If so, what is it?

Yes! A few come to mind... a lot of the time I feel like I rush things, so when I actually don't I get pretty impressed with myself, lmao. I spent a lot of time doing the stupid gold details on Pit, the shoulders on Ryuuhou, the arrows and sword for Ashitaka, the pattern for my Shingeki no Kyojin jacket, and the sword for Van Fanel! So, I was pretty happy with those.




asks:
Do you have an absolute favorite costume that you've made thus far and why?

Also a tough one! I'm really happy with how my Scryed (Ryuuhou) cosplay turned out recently because that's actually the third time I remade the costume. Definitely want to wear that one more... also, Pit, because I started making it like 5 years ago and finally busted it back out and finished it. And Eliwood, because I feel good about the details on it and it mostly just makes me want to do a million more Fire Emblem costumes.



asks:
Favorite historical war?

But there's so many to choose from. >D Sekigahara would definitely be one, one of those culminations of crazy warlords that was so inevitable it's baffling it didn't happen sooner... so chalk full of notable figures they're practically celebrities in popular fiction now. Also some of my favorite daimyo were there.
Also Actium, because Octavius got Mark Antony-ed and still won. Which reminds me of Pyrrhus and Asculum because... that's just classic "well I won but this sucks." Also William Wallace.



asks:
Is there any particular costume that you would like to remake now that you're older and feel like your skills have improved?

That's the magic question. Some of my first cosplays were characters I just thought were awesome and I still think are awesome so every now and then I think, "yeah, I should remake that... I could pull that off way better now. My badassery has only increased."
 Ky Kiske from Guilty Gear, Joachim Armster from Castlevania, Link (any Link), Lezard from VP, uhh.... Fenris from Dragon Age, Adol from Ys.



asks:
How do you choose which costumes you want to do?  Also, any tips for organizing successful group cosplays?  You've done more than a few really amazing groups!

Thanks! Usually the main thing is, it has to be a series that I think, "THIS IS AWESOME" about, or there has to be a character that I think, "Welp that guy is awesome" about. I've been pretty lucky to have friends who share similar taste in anime which really facilitates group-having... we're pretty gung-ho about older anime, so a lot of our past and upcoming plans have been of the old school variety. It's also good to have a pretty flexible group, since sometimes we do costumes from one person's favorite anime or game, and then another time costumes from the next person's favorite... always leaving room for people do to their own solo projects, too. I think it all evens out pretty well.




asks:
What is your favorite genre of manga?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I tend towards shonen or adventure manga for the most part. I really liked Bastard!! and Bleach (for a while)... really like Attack on Titan now and Samurai Deeper Kyo now has to be one of my favorites. That and... I really like Iketeru Futari. Which is not really shonen so much as ecchi, I guess. It's too ridiculous and I love Akira. I was lucky enough to find a whole bunch of it in used book stores in Japan so now I own that craziness... and the shopkeeper was probably like "why are you buying this you crazy American it's from like 1990 they have pagers in this story for Chrissake."

 HI NEW WATCHERS!
I am excited to say that because I never really got new watchers. Once in a blue moon. So hi!
Also I discovered the "add media" button so I'm now one step closer to being up on what the younguns are doing on DA these days (until recently I was still using and which I learned about like 8 years ago...)
Yup.

I finished my last major project (read: long ass paper) for the fall semester so I've now moved onto the post-semester-vacation stage of not knowing what the fuck to do even though I had all this crap in mind that I wanted to do when the semester was over. Probably like... getting Christmas presents for people. That's probably priority. >D

Anyhow, in the past I've seen people doing the "ask a question, get a feature" thing and I honestly kinda avoided the ones that said "you have to repost this in your journal if you do it!" because I only had like 5 people watching me and it really did not seem like anything special to feature people on my journals which nobody reads. >D D'oh. I'm a bit more active here these days so I think features will now actually be fun and answering questions will be too because I'm enigmatic as fuck even to myself, how can I expect anyone else to know anything about me?

So, ask whatever! Can be about cosplay, history, school, life, etc. Nothing too inappropriate... although I might answer with something equally inappropriate if I come up with a good comeback? >D
I'll answer them in my next journal and feature a few of your works that most appeal to my interests.

Whatever. Time to start Chrom armor.
Also I like Titans if you didn't know. I also like ridiculous emoticons.
          

Sup folks! Aug here, being semi-active... not a whole lot going on since summer ended (well, I guess that's a lie since I went to a con in September and a con in November and my ass is tired!) Been dragging my lazy self on through school and work times.

Anime Weekend Atlanta: First time there, went with PaXingCai and MissCarlette and we did Fire Emblem and then also more Fire Emblem and hangings out were done with EnvelCosplay. The weather was nice and so was the aquarium!


Youmacon: Drove up in a wacky rainstorm with MissCarlette and PaXingCai and roomed with AWESOME PEOPLE who do not all have DA accounts. >D We mostly just FOUGHT TITANS and PaXingCai took some shots below. Then Tokidoki did cosplay judging and I was the doorman. Anyhow, it was a good con to see friends old and new and to just derp around. And PaXingCai finally convinced me to actually make a Touhou costume so I guess that will happen sooner or later. >D>D>D


Up next: school being almost over! I'll be wrapping up two final projects by mid-December and then will have my ass in gear to work on Katsucon things, which will tentatively be:

Tenchi (Tenchi Muyo!)
Chrom (Fire Emblem Awakening, Great Lord version)
Eren Jaeger (Shingeki no Kyojin, making GEAR!)
Oswald (Odin Sphere - just the "injured" version since that armor is hard to transport)
Eliwood (Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken - already made)
Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin, suit version to go with gf's Lolita Petra)
Ephraim (Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones - maaaybe if I have time)

Also MissCarlette and I plan on doing ridiculous ATTACK ON TITAN themed Christmas cards so if you would like to receive one, send me a message!

So that's all for now... hope all you US people had a nice Thanksgiving and everyone has a nice holiday/X-mas-y season.

Fack! It's already fraucking August!

Finishing up crap for Otakuthon and then GOING to Otakuthon this week! These cool peeps will be my traveling companions:


 I've found a much better place as far as pacing myself in order to actually have nice cosplays finished for a con this summer... it just involves starting it like three months ahead of time in order to do it with work eating most of my life. ._. Motivation has a lot to do with why I often don't finish things (I feel like they will look like crap and don't want to finish them >D) but as my ability to avoid "crap" improves, so too does my motivation.

However, in better news, I'll finally be free of the two-years-of-mandatory-overtime-every-week thing this September, which means I will get a two day weekend NOT JUST FOR CONS, BUT ALWAYS!!!! It's not like I didn't realize it before, but after two years of doing a pretty time-demanding job, I know that I am a person who values time over money. >D As long as I can afford to eat, I'd rather spend more time being relaxed than being high-strung and overly-busy. I get tired real fast. Maybe I need to start scheduling naps... not that I'll have time for them once school starts up... BUT AT LEAST I'LL HAVE TIME FOR SCHOOL!
Also Car and I will be moving, which will be a nice space upgrade from apartment that really makes it difficult to spread out and work on things and not go insane. Also no more terrible neighbors who are allowed to blast obscenely loud music in the early hours of the morning (8 am) and let their children cry for hours at a time but get angry if I spend 13 seconds hammering a single nail into the wall (during the day).

So this fall is another semester of required-core classes that won't smack me as hard as last spring did, so I hope to continue working on cosplays and crap during the fall. Will finally be able to get to Titans cosplay (Eren Jaeger), more Fire Emblem (Ephraim and Great Lord Chrom), hopefully Mass Effect (Shepard) and probably Sengoku Basara (Date Masamune).

Anyway, for Otakuthon I've got Oswald and Eliwood almost finished and will be bringing Van and Kyo (Samurai Deeper Kyo) along.

If you are one of the 2 people who read my journals, please feel free to check out mine and Car's facebook for deets on that progress: www.facebook.com/Raptors.in.Rh…

Hope you Otakon-going peeps had a nice time!