Featured Artists * Kiriban List & Info
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July Featured Artist:

I have been watching this artist for an amazingly long time! Konoe is one of the artists I am most looking forward to seeing at AX this year (hopefully to buy her artbook!). If you enjoy RO artwork and cute, colorful art in general, please browse her gallery!!



~*~

Anime Expo 2008 Report


First off, I would like to apologize to and for not meeting them at AX. My reasons for this are ones that I cannot fully express other than to say that things came up, and it was utterly impossible for me to search for both of you while I was at the convention. HONTOU NI GOMEN NASAI.

To start, once more, it was as though I went through the convention area in a constant Cold Bolt/Root status while wearing my Malefic Raiment costume. Whether I was with a group or solo, I could hardly move or would be stopped entirely due to the INSANE amount of picture requests I had. It took us about two hours to walk from the doors of the convention center up to the escalator area, and when we DID finally get there, we'd be hungry and would start to leave for food. That's how things went for each day I was in costume. I won't even begin to comment on the chaos that ensued when we chose to enter the exhibit hall. Even solo, it took me 15 minutes to walk from the banner for aisle 900 to the banner for aisle 800. I couldn't even tour Artist Alley, aside from the far right row ONLY.

It's not as though we didn't appreciate the pictures. If we didn't enjoy posing for everyone, we wouldn't have kept stopping We also wouldn't have put forward the effort to set up posed shots for you to give you the best photo possible! It was just EXTREMELY difficult to accomplish anything in costume, and even trying to meet each other in the convention hall proved to be an epic journey for each party.

I want to go ahead and post clearly for everyone to see when they locate this blog through search engines and the like: I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL COSPLAYER. I am NOT employed by any company to appear in costume, and I am NOT compensated for the time and effort I put into my costumes and attendance. I was asked who I worked for by several people, so I felt it was best to set the record straight in this manner. I make the costumes I wear out of love and admiration for the original design and it's source (i.e. I love the game/movie/anime/person the costume is originally from). I have NO affiliation with Blizzard Entertainment, Gravity Interactive, Konami, White Wolf, or any other company that creates the characters I choose to cosplay.

This was definitely a record year for pictures by leaps and bounds, even over last year. I look forward to sharing some pictures with you very soon. In the mean time, if you saw me at AX, please send me your pictures! I would love to see the moments you have captured, whether they are serious or just plain silly!

YES, there are TONS of pictures of me out there with two friends of mine who, to my knowledge, do not have dA accounts. I'm speaking of the rogue in Bloodfang armor, and the rogue in a fanart armor set (red breastplate, red cloak, purple skirt--what the Blood Elf models at last year's BlizzCon were wearing). We're truely close friends, and had fun putting on a show for everyone I'm not sure who had more fun with it: Us being silly, or the people frantically taking pictures while shouting "OMG!!!! OMG!!!!" Fanservice, ftw! Holly was awesome to spend more time with (we previously only spoke at BlizzCon), and we had a super fun time taking pictures together xD Sorry, but we're only "contract lesbians," as I coined it (we are both very much straight). She's dating Seijin That Seijin is one lucky rogue ;D

As he asked aloud: "What does a rogue do when out of town on an AV weekend?"

Holly: "Two chicks at the same time."

/highfive

We had a load of fun taking pictures with everyone as well. Holly and I would grab people and fanservice it up. If Seijin was in the shot, he'd grab the person and attempt to shank them in the neck. Fun stuff, and everyone got a kick out of it xD We had a record number of people asking to take pictures with us instead of us alone, probably because we loved to interact with fans of World of Warcraft.

AGAIN! This is something we did on our own. We don't represent or work for Blizzard, so please don't ask them why their employees acted like they were trying to kill or make out with anyone that wanted a picture with them. It was all in good fun, and every victim (LAWL) was very happy to be a part of it I guess people enjoy being abused by hot cosplayers with sharp objects?

I'm going to take a second and apologize for all the times we blocked traffic and probably annoyed staffers by stopping traffic in the exhibit hall lines. It was entirely unintentional, and we did what we could to move people away from the entryways and busy areas. I did what I could to stand against a crowd of people huddled around booths so that people could still walk behind the photographers, but there was only so much that we cosplayers could do. It seemed that as soon as a path was cleared for a picture, several more people would see us and surround us for pictures as well. I'm sorry! It's insanity that we're almost defenseless against at every con!

On an equally important note, I chewed out my friend, Shannon, by telling her that she needs to put pictures up on dA instead of MySpace She cosplayed with me in EGL and Cyber Rave attire on Friday and Saturday, and we had an awesome time. YES, she even dressed me up in her belly dancer costume for Ren Faire on Friday I hope she keeps up her love for fashion, and keeps coming up with more awesome outfits to show at conventions

As for artwork, I was able to pick up a few more Copic colors at the con. I think $4.50 was a bit steep for Copic Sketch markers, especially since they weren't offering a discount for large purchases, but I bought what I needed to get by. I'll just have to complete my pallette at a future con

Yesss, so I now have proper lighting effect colors (soft and muted cool colors!), and a few common colors that I've run out of. I can start working on artwork again. I know it's crazy, but it's true!!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some destressing to do!

~*Ayabi

kakumei * acparadise * wow armory: sakurazuka - aludiana

PLEASE note that aside from this deviantART profile, my ONLY form of contact is the email address AYABI@KAKUMEI.ORG!! Any other email address is NOT sanctioned by me, my FRIENDS on my behalf, or by anyone I know! I will NEVER have a friend or associate act on my behalf through an email. The Kakumei.org address is both my personal AND business address, and I would NEVER under ANY conditions communicate with anyone through another email address, messaging service, or website!