Wednesday WIP - May II

Wow, this past week has been pretty crazy. I finished a few things (not so much of this), and I've got a lot more going on, especially in the cosplay world. We're preparing for Animazement (AZ), which means our house is turning upside down. The next couple of weeks will be the real test to see if I can keep this blog up, since May is usually one of those months where I disappear completely from the internet in the mad rush to get everything ready for AZ. So far however, I'm optimistic. I have 2 costumes nearly finished, and 2 out of the remaining 3 are started. Normally this is what the week of the convention looks like. XD Typically, I'm a horrible procrastinator to begin with and since I started doing Artist Alley tables, that just exponentially increased the preparation workload for the convention. So, on to the works in progress:

Blanket: Haha... nothing done here this week. *fail* I suppose it's acceptable considering the convention coming up and other such things, but it'd be nice to have gotten at least one little hexagon finished.

Cosplay: This is definitely the bulk of what I've been working on. Mai: I got her wig in the mail, but I haven't styled it yet, so there's no real change here. Zuko: Finished, except for his boots and figuring out how to do his scarring--I've found some tutorials and I've got some ideas, but I haven't gotten materials or tested anything yet. Jet: His pants are almost finished, and I have most of the fabric cut out. Momo: I collected the materials and organized them into a box--does that count as progress? XD Azula: This one is for a good friend of mine. This is the awesome friend who has gone with me to most of the conventions I have art tables at; she helps me at my table, keeps me company, and is a great source of encouragement. On top of that since my cousin is going as Ty Lee and I'm going as Mai, it was too good a chance to turn down when she offered to go as Azula if someone would help her put together the costume. Last weekend we went fabric shopping. We got started on her costume, and she'll be coming up the next 2 weekends before the convention so we can work on it. =) Right now though it's just a pile of fabric (just like Jet and Momo). XD (In the 2nd picture, Jet and Momo fabric piles are in the top box; Azula is in the box underneath that.)

Cosplay Props: The swords and knives have been cut out. =D Shaun is working on sanding them down now. We'll be putting a layer of paint down soon.

Moogle: I know it's been a long while since this one's popped up here; there have been a lot of distractions since this one was started. XD I think the last WIP picture was back in March. Anyways, over the last week, I've started work on this guy again. I've finished his wings, after only 3 failed attempts at coming up with something I liked. His legs, arms, and ears are completely attached, and I have hope that I will get the rest of the pieces sewn on today.

Wednesday WIP - May I

I've been wondering over the last couple of weeks if I really wanted to keep posting WIP updates every week. I'm not sure whether people read them or are really interested in what I post on them, but I have decided to keep posting them. It turns out, these posts have been very good for me, especially with longer running projects where sometimes it's hard to see that I really am making progress on things and it's really easy to get bogged down in everything. So, on to this week's update:

Beholder: This one is finished. I barely got it done in time for the Mom's Basement contest deadline. It won the contest! =D I'm very excited about that. The finished beholder can be viewed on DeviantArt.

Anime Art Girl: This one is also finished. You can see it here.

Blanket: I'm up to 12 green hexagons finished--only 2 since last week. This project is going to move pretty slow probably because most of this month is going to be spent on art and costumes in preparation for Animazement.


Mai and Zuko: Mai is now mostly finished. I still need to do something for her shoes. I ordered a wig, which will hopefully be here soon. My husband will be cosplaying Zuko. As can be seen in the photo, I've started his costume. The red undershirt is finished. His pants are mostly finished, but they're a real pain to get on his dress form. The tunic honestly looks better than in the picture. It's only knee length, even if it looks longer in the picture--we have trouble with his dress form staying at the appropriate height; it keeps wanting to slide down. I also still need to sew the sides up and add the gold decoration on the front. It'll look a lot better when that part is done; right now, it kind of looks like a brown blob. XD

Props: This is going to get a different spot for right now, since this is more my husband's project at the moment. He is making the butterfly swords that Zuko uses in the 3rd season, plus he's going to make a couple of Mai's throwing knives for me. =D I put the patterns down for the picture because it's a little hard to see the pencil markings on the wood.

Wednesday WIP - Edition 3

For all my whining about motivation on Twitter, it's actually been a fairly productive week. I'm going to start with updates on last week's projects, then move on to newer projects.

Eight of Wands: Howl is finished! View him in all his glory on DeviantArt. I will eventually post him on Etsy, but I've been waiting till I get a little closer to finishing the whole tarot set before starting to post them there--6 cards left, so I'll probably start posting the Tarot cards as soon as I finish with the "What Would ___ Do?" set.

Beholder: Still not finished with this one. It has 2 eyestalks now though. =D I really like how it's coming out so far. I'm going to aim for 6 eyestalks for now and see how that looks and add more if I need to; looking at it, I'm thinking 10 eyestalks would be too much. The eyestalks should also be somewhat poseable.


Blanket: Yes another one, and this one isn't exactly a new project. I was too lazy to get pictures last week, and it's been on hold for a while anyways. Technically I started this blanket last July. Pictured are samples of some of the hexagon pieces for this blanket. The sketch diagram thing should give an idea of what it will look like when it's finished. I'm working on the green hexagons right now; the yellow, orange, pink and purple ones are all finished. Future WIP updates, I'll probably only note the # of hexagons left since photographing the whole thing is a bit unwieldy to spread out to show progress--the completed blanket will be approximately 4.5 feet across. Right now for the green, I have 10 out of 36 hexes finished. After that, I have 30 blue and 43 white hexes.

Mai: This year at Animazement, my cosplay group is going as Avatar: The Last Airbender characters. I'm going as Mai, and my husband is going as Zuko. I think that couple is so adorable. =D I started this costume a couple of weeks ago, but this is the first week that I've had something to photograph aside from a pile of fabric. The pants are finished and her overcoat thing is almost finished--I just need to sew the gold buttons on the front and back. I also have the red shirt that will go under the overcoat mostly finished. It needs a zipper in the back (which is why it's not on the dress form--I got the back basted together, but had the wrong zipper. I have a new zipper now, but I haven't gotten it put on yet, and I didn't want to undo the basting just to take a picture for this blog post), lining added to the sleeves and the bottom edge hemmed. All in all, there's not much left. I still need to figure out how I'm going to do her shoes. I also really want to get a wig for her hair, but I may have to deal with my own hair--awkward since I don't have bangs. I am lacking time and, I'm really not all that good at dealing with wigs anyways.

Anime Artist Girl: This is a rough sketch of my design for the logo contest held by the Anime Artisan's team on Etsy. The contest is for members to design a boy and girl character to be the team logo. Once entries are in, members will vote on what they like best. I won't go into the number of versions I've trashed working on the boy design. XD