Animazement Art

This post is going to be my last post about Animazement this year. I promise.

This post is dedicated to the awesome art I picked up in Animazement's Artist Alley this year.

The first artist: I don't have a name for her. She had no cards. She said she didn't have a website. I got the impression she was a first time artist. If anyone knows anything about her, let me know so I can link proper credit. Anyways, the first print is of Saber Lily from one of the Fate games. No idea which one. I'd never seen any of the series or played any of the games when I saw the print. I loved the character design though. It's the kind of thing I'd love to cosplay. Anyways. Second print is from Sword Art Online. I loved the last story arc for the 2nd season, and I love that I found art that did not over-sexualize Asuna. I love the series, but have been less than happy with most of the fanart I see for it in the AA. I'm sure the sexy Asuna probably sells better, but it's not my cup of tea. I thought this picture was super cute. Moving on. Third print I got from this artist was from Love Live. I watched Love Live during a really depressing period I was going through last fall, and I fell in love with the series. I loved all the different costume designs, and I would love to cosplay from this series one day. It's the kind of thing though where I don't want to do it by myself--it'd be so much more fun to cosplay with a group.

The second artist: ShavoStars. I loved this artist's Last Unicorn art. I got her unicorn version for a friend for his birthday, and got the Amalthia version for myself. Love it. So much nostalgia. Last Unicorn is one of my favorite childhood things. Right next to Labyrinth and Princess Bride. Would also love to cosplay Amalthia.

The third artist I got things from was NoFlutter. I've always loved her stuff. So, I know I complained about sexy art above, but this is a kind of stylistic sexy that I really like. I've been a fan of NoFlutter's art for a while, and I was super pleased to see her at Animazement. Anyways, I picked up a group pic of the Inner Senshi in Amazon-style Warrior designs, I'm assuming inspired by Wonder Woman. The other print I got from her was a steampunk style Wonder Woman. Both of these designs were amazing, in my opinion. I would love to cosplay them. (Do we see a theme here).

Now I just need to get these lovelies hung up in my craft room. =D

Animazement 2013

I spent Memorial Day weekend at Animazement in Raleigh, NC. This is my home convention, so to speak. I've been attending it every year since 2000, with the exception of last year, but that was Sophie's fault. Over all, I had a good time. I won't say it was my best Animazement, but it was far from the worst (that'd be the villains cafe year). I'd have to say the Slayers year and the FMA year (I identify years by cosplays worn because I can't remember the actual dates) tie for best. Anyways. I spent the entire convention at my table in Artist Alley. I stayed pretty busy--not necessarily a bad thing. =P

Friday was packed with people from the moment we got there at about 9 a.m.. This surprised me. I did not expect things to be that crowded that early on Friday--also not necessarily a bad thing. It did make things a bit chaotic when it came to setting up my table, but I had some awesome friends who helped me pull everything together. I spent Friday evening and pretty much all day Saturday drawing commissions, which was fun. I was probably better prepared for this convention than I ever have in the past. I actually had a flip book with commission information, samples, and pricing--credit for putting this together goes to my husband. This kind of thing was a first for me--not commissions, but having the information readily available for anyone who might have been interested. Anyways, that pretty much sums up my convention in a nutshell.

The downside of being so busy for most of the convention was not so many pictures. I saw some really fun cosplays, although unfortunately, no pictures. =( My favorite cosplay that I saw all weekend was a guy cosplaying Zoicite from the live action Sailor Moon. =D That was amazing. It was followed closely by a group of dwarves (Thorin, Fili, and Kili). I'm really motivated to try and put together some more cosplays right now. Curse you, cosplay! Why do you have to be such an expensive and time-consuming hobby? D= I have lots of great ideas but not enough time to make most of them happen (not to mention funds). You never know, though. Stay tuned. Something might happen this summer. =P

Otakon 2011

Otakon is over. It was an interesting experience, and yes, feel free to interpret "interesting" any way you like. So, here's what my weekend was like:

Thursday: We left the in-laws' house first thing in the morning--Logan spent the weekend with them. We stopped at the Misenheimer house, finished packing up and cleaning up what little was left--mostly stuff for Otakon. We loaded up both our little cars with the last couple of boxes and the four cats and turned over the keys. Good bye house in Misenheimer. From there we went to the Garner house where we unloaded stuff and the 3 older cats. We dropped Kisa off at my aunt's house since she's still a little young to be left for a weekend. With all of that settled, we finally got on the road to head up north. We spent the night with another aunt and uncle who live in northern VA just an hour or so outside of Baltimore.

Friday: Onward to Baltimore. We didn't get too lost finding our hotel, and I only had to circle the block once to catch the entrance to the overpriced parking deck. We checked in, and then left to haul the table stuff to the convention center. If we do this again, we will hike to the convention center, get our badges, then come back and haul the table stuff. XD It was really hot, and the walk to the convention center was miserable with the heavy bags. They had a pre-registration lane just for Artist Alley and Panelist people, so we didn't have to wait too long to get in. Check in at the AA went smoothly as well. The worst part was actually finding the right pre-reg line and then getting to AA. The Baltimore Convention Center was huge and I had to stop and ask directions about a dozen times. I got everything mostly set up just in time for AA to open. I wasn't 100% happy with Friday's display. It was a little rushed and I didn't get everything out. After AA opened the day pretty much flew by. I got some great pictures, but my phone's internet was really spotty down in AA so I didn't get many pics uploaded to Tumblr--I'll be uploading them over the next couple of days.

Saturday: On Saturday, I kind of wanted to go to the Lisa Ortiz autograph session, but I hadn't remembered to bring anything for her to sign, and I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed by the number of people at Otakon. I was generally content to sit and hide in my little spot in AA. Saturday was especially crazy. Usually when I'm in AA, people come in clumps, but there are lulls between them where I can sit back and relax and watch people and check out the nifty costumes and such. Not so this time--not that I'm complaining; I got to talk to some great people. I loved watching people read the text on the "What Would ___ Do?" set and on the backs of the badges. Whether they bought something or not, I really like seeing people enjoy something I made. That is the main reason I do the whole Artist Alley thing. Saturday was long and exhausting, but it was fun. I finished 2 new mini-plushies, and I got some really fun commissions that I'll be finishing this week. I'm very excited about those.

Sunday: AA was supposed to only be open for about 3 hours on Sunday, but it ended up staying open for an extra 2-3 hours. I finished a 3rd new mini-plushie for the weekend--I was being extra productive. =D My husband and I came up with some fun ideas for a new set of stuff to draw while sitting at the table--it had me in stitches, so even though I don't really need anything else on my list of stuff to do... I think there will be another massive set added (massive as in it just might dwarf the Anime Tarot set) to my list. I'm hoping to have part of it finished by AWA. The drive home that afternoon/evening was long and tedious--traffic was horrible almost all the way to the NC border, so what was supposed to be a 4.5 hour drive ended up being almost 8 hours. @_@

Will we be going back to Otakon? Maybe. I think I'll probably just leave it up to chance--I'll send in an AA application next year, and if I make the lottery and get a table then I'll go.

What's In a Name?

This post is a little late partly because of an unexpected trip to Charlotte yesterday afternoon. We didn't get home till late, and I pretty much crashed as soon as we got in. The rest of the reason is that I procrastinated on writing it until mid-afternoon and by then we were on our way to Charlotte. Yep, I had several chances to write yesterday morning, but didn't--I am a horrible procrastinator, and although I usually can still get things done on time, this time, it didn't work out so well. I keep thinking one of these days I'll learn and quit with the procrastination thing. Anyways... my bad procrastination habit is not going to be the subject of this blog post. =)

Yesterday morning I discovered a new blog--not just new to me, but fairly new to the internet as well. The blog is written by House of Decadent Delusion. Her most recent post was a very eloquent piece on where she got the name of her shop. It then occurred to me that I haven't written a post on where I got the name for my studio yet, and I've been looking for a post topic that had nothing to do with moving. As a discussion of my studio name had nothing to do with moving and was a subject that should probably have been addressed sooner in this blog, there was much rejoicing.

So, where did I get the name Gothic Panda? Well, once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away, I was an mmorpg addict. Specifically, I played Ragnarok Online, and I was well pleased with this game. My first character was KasumiAngel--which at the time was my screen name for everything. You can still see remnants from this period of my life in my DeviantArt account: http://kasumiangel.deviantart.com/. I periodically consider moving to a new DA account that matches my studio name, but I don't think it's really worth the time and effort that moving accounts would take when I could be doing much better things with my time--like drawing more, crocheting more, sculpting more, sewing more, or maybe even cleaning my house. Back on topic. KasumiAngel was a lovely priestess, and she and her wizard husband went on many many adventures together. They reached the highest level, transcended and became high priestess and high wizard together. Their story is a long and involved one and should be saved for another blog post.

Now, you may wonder how I got Gothic Panda from KasumiAngel. Well, after KasumiAngel, I made a long string of alt characters: the dancer Buttercup (yes this is from the Princess Bride, and my husband made a bard named Wesley), the assassin Analthia (b/c Amalthia from The Last Unicorn was taken), the alchemist Rayne, the sage Indian Muffin Princess and finally the crusader Gothic Panda. There were others, many others, because I became an altoholic. Since KasumiAngel's sweet wizard was no longer playing as much, she spent more time on her alter-egos. Over time Gothic Panda became her favored personality. As Gothic Panda, she joined the guild Valiance of Figaro (Final Fantasy VI ftw). She went on many fun adventures with VoF. Eventually VoF disbanded, and she spent many lonely afternoons sitting in front of the Clock Tower in Alde Baran. She was befriended by a nice gentleman who led the guild Dreams. She joined--it didn't take much to convince her; the guild emblem was an adorable little panda. She enjoyed many more months of fun and camaraderie with her new friends in Dreams. This is the abridged version of the story of Gothic Panda.

Ragnarok Online was the first place I used the name Gothic Panda. I came up with the name because I wanted something with the word Panda in it. After several hours of brainstorming I settled on Gothic to go with Panda. I love pandas. I also like gothic things--it's my favorite architectural period in European history, plus I love the more contemporary gothic clothing style; I'm also a big fan of gothic lolita. During the time when I was playing Gothic Panda with Valiance of Figaro, I applied for an artist alley table at Anime USA (2008) on a whim. The application required a studio name, and I chose Gothic Panda because that was the center of my internet identity at the time. If I had done this 2-3 years earlier, I would have probably chosen a name like KasumiAngel's Art because that was my identity then. For many years, I was called Kas, Kasumi, or Kasy. I never gave out my real name online, and most people assumed my name really was Kasumi. That part stuck even after I assumed the Gothic Panda name, although after that Gothic, Panda, and GP were added to the list of names I responded to. Although I no longer play Ragnarok Online, the Gothic Panda name has stuck. Well, I got into Anime USA's artist alley. A moderate amount of panic followed that because I hadn't seriously thought about what I'd do if I actually got the table; at that time, I had nothing. The result was I ran my first AA art table with pretty much only the Major Arcana from the Anime Tarot set and a few pieces of jewelry my husband had made. Since then, I have had 12 AA tables across 4 different conventions. Obviously the content of my table has grown in that time. Naming the studio Gothic Panda started as a whim, but it's come to define my identity beyond the internet, and I really think it fits. For Animazement 2010 I designed a gothic-lolita styled cosplay to wear at my art table. In late 2010, I started posting some of my table inventory on Etsy, and encouraged by my fellow Etsians, in early 2011, I completed the art based on the Gothic Panda cosplay that I now use as my avatar most everywhere--the final result is nothing like the crusader that once represented the name. So, that's the history of my studio name.

Animazement Artist Alley Loot

Today's blog is to show off all the awesome art I got from Animazement's Artist Alley. =)

I'm going to start with the buttons. My good friend, Melissa, bought the top two for me. The first one is China from Hetalia--he's a guy with long hair and a panda, what's not to love? The second is Mai from Avatar: the Last Airbender--she got the trio of bad girls, Azula for herself, since she was supposed to have been cosplaying Azula, Ty Lee for my cousin, who was cosplaying Ty Lee, and Mai for me since I was cosplaying Mai. Sunday I went back and got the bottom two buttons + an Aang. I gave the Aang to my other cousin who was at AZ and cosplaying Aang. The Zuko is for my husband, and the Iroh is for our friend who was cosplaying Iroh, but he left the convention before I could get the button to him. So, it'll just hang out on the yarn braid here (made for me by Ty) until our next D&D game.

Next up is this amazing print of Terra from Final Fantasy VI. I loved the coloring especially, but the whole print is just plain awesome. I had to take it home with me. XD I'm thinking the artist was just trying to get rid of these prints since she was selling them for only $1. Honestly it's worth a lot more in my opinion. I also bought a key chain from her table. It had Lina on one side and Gourry on the other. <3 Slayers!!! There aren't any pictures of the key chain because it's attached to the car keys which are in my husband's pocket. XD I really liked this artist; she had tons of non-mainstream stuff.

Dumb flash on the camera wouldn't function properly this morning... During our wanderings of artist alley, Ty made sure we found every artist selling Pokemon stuff. This one had a set of bookmarks to go with the various Eevee evolutions. She was out of my favorites, but Ty liked the water one, and the fire one is one of my runner up favorites, so I picked out the set of 3. The water one will go to Ty, the electric to my mom, and I'll either keep the fire one or give it to Luke. I want to laminate these so they're usable without risking tearing them up--this is why I laminate all of my bookmarks in really thick plastic.

This artist had a lot of cool Sailor Moon stuff, and it was tough to narrow down which prints I wanted to buy. With the chibi Sailor Moon set, I got all of the inner scouts, so I didn't have to pick which one I liked the most. =D I got the Ouran Host Club print because 1) they were on special if you got 2, and 2) I've been more than a little obsessed with Ouran High School Host Club lately. XD I really liked these chibis though; they pretty much nailed the cast and their personalities.

Finally, I got 2 badges and 2 magnets from Mystcloud (the one artist I actually have a gallery address for). I got the Sailor Venus because she's one of my favorites--love the color orange (purple's my second favorite color, but it's on my sites because purple goes better with a Gothic Panda than orange). The Nekozawa badge and Kyoya magnet go with my Ouran High School Host Club obsession. Kyoya's my favorite host, and Nekozawa is just plain awesome. The James magnet was for my kids to go on our fridge--they're all obsessed with Pokemon. The camera would not cooperate with getting pictures of these. Flash on: there's a glare. *fail* Flash off: the camera won't focus. I'm posting 3 picutres, 1 with flash, 1 without flash that's almost not half bad, and 1 without flash that reflects what pictures taken indoors without a flash usually look like. XD

Flash: Horrible glare on Nekozawa.

Almost not bad; Sailor Venus and James are ok at least.

This is what my camera normally does w/ no flash.