LANtasy 2016 interviews: Part Two
As I said in my last post, LANtasy 2016 was a huge success. Selling out before it even opened it doors is a huge accomplishment for any event or convention in its first year. There is such a demand for gaming in the Victoria and Vancouver region. Events like this attract all sorts of people including: MMO players, table top, gaming cosplayers, etc. I hit up as many people as I could find for interviews while there. I sure felt busy walking around in circles with my assistant trying to catch everyone in cosplay!
Maybe you know some of these cosplayers: Dreamkitty Cosplay, CrossBones Cosplay, Purple Rogue Cosplay, and more!
League of Legends: Danielle as Ziggs, Maddy as Kindred
Danielle was stunning in her tight black jumpsuit, with red armour, bomb backpack, and throwing bombs. She sure blew me away with her skill…haha…get it…Yah…She also brought her friend Maddy with her. As League of Legend cosplay goes, they were incredible! This was Maddy’s first year in cosplay and her Kindred was better than half my cosplays! Danielle would have helped her greatly in her crafting choices as she’s been in the game for a couple years now. Starting the Cosplay game full throttle, Danielle had the great joy of working with colour contacts her first cosplay. She said they took SIX people to finally get them into her eyes. I wear glasses, so I appreciate the effort it takes to put in normal contact lenses, but coloured ones…those are a harder plastic. That must of hurt with removing them over and over again. In the future, she wants to learn how to paint armour and skin better with their respect paints so you’re not just globing it on to be one flat colour with no shading…oh wait no, that’s what I do in my craft challenged adventures. Danielle hopes one day to become a cosplayer like Jessica Nigiri. She would love to promote games and other media for profit since cosplaying has been a big part in her life since she was little.
Maddy is so excited that both her and Danielle’s boyfriends were at the convention gaming, and that she and her friend were able to cosplay together for the event. Bet your boys are happy! She is so excited for her cosplay future. With the skill she showed in her bow and hoofs I’m looking forward to what she puts out next. She made her hoofs out of high heels with the heel broken off. Gluing them to her hoofs she made separately, this allowed her to walk on her toes to have the hoof angle, but also to be able to walk flatfooted when her feet started to hurt. She sells auto insurance, so affording to start really getting into crafting is something she thinks is possible. She’s currently going to school to be an Environmental Geographer, wanting to work in ocean sustainability. Also loving to write, one day she hopes to write a book and be published, but it’s on her wish list of life goals right now. Maddy’s favourite material that she used to create her Kindred bow was a foot pedi-sander! She used it as a more comfortable sandpaper to file down the edges of the foam she hated working with. She says she will never use that foam again, and wants to use worbla more for her future cosplays.
Zola as Xena Warrior Princess
Zola was the cutest 10 year old in her Xena cosplay. She made it with her mother and while shy at first, was excited to tell me all about it once she became more comfortable. While at the convention, she was selling bottle cap fandom necklaces she handmade, and I might add, my assistant and I bought a couple. They were pretty wicked. Outside of school, she also is part of Heroes Inc. and has been participating in that for a couple months now. With her current Xena cosplay, she loved painting her costume, but really didn’t like getting the paint all over her hands. Any costume that’s an elf is next on her list, as she really wants to wear the pointed ears. Being able to dress up for the convention excited her, but she found it a bit chilly with the warrior type skirt, and changed out of her cosplay before the end of the day. She really was so adorable. Parenting done right: way to go mom!
Street Fighter: Dreamkitty Cosplay as Chun-Li
Angel has been in the cosplaying minefield since 2011. She has played with a lot of materials in her time since she’s been at it since high school, where her first cosplay was a character from Final Fantasy 8. Buying a grandma’s blue frock from Value Village, and made her wings using blue-lined school writing paper. Yes, you read right; lined school paper wings. First cosplay skills everyone. Don’t we just love remembering our skills of old, or lack there off. Hey we tried! We put in effort! In the future when she enhances her skills more, she wants to create a Valkyrie cosplay with armour and giant wings. Her showpiece cosplay is Princess Garnet from Final Fantasy 9. She loves it completely, but the corset was too big, so thinking it didn’t matter, removed a panel in the back…don’t do that. Also, because she used plastic boning it puckers a bit. Redoing the corset in on her list of improvements for the future. She is in University, and works as an event and party planner. Her future goals are to work as an event coordinator for Blizzard gaming and entertainment and manage and create Blizz-Con. Angel loves sewing, but she hates organza: it must die! The versatile hot-glue gun is mandatory for any cosplayer, but her love affair with the product trumps all other materials in her closet… art room…dungeon perhaps.
Bio Shock: CrossBones Cosplay as Little Sister
Lillian’s first cosplay was Jinx from League of Legends. She didn’t originally start out to be a cosplayer; she just wanted to have this costume. She laughs that she hot-glued things that shouldn’t have been hot-glued, and held it together with duct-tape, and continues to laugh at the horrible nightmare that was her introduction. She despises working with spray paints, complaining about their chemicals and how they just ruin everything including what you’re working on. Loving to work with her glue gun, it sometimes has a bad habit of burning her. As a student she finds it hard to find time to create too complicated of cosplays now, but she did love making her Arcade Misfortune cosplay. Unfortunately, she ordered her wig off of EBay and it never arrived. She made due by dyeing a wig, but would love to try that cosplay out again. Her parents are fond of her cosplaying endeavors and pay for most of it currently, as they say it keeps her from hiding up in her bedroom playing video games all day when she’s not in high school or doing her homework. But that’s ok; you always have Netflix while designing and crafting. In the future she wants to go into Environmental Studies and be a Conservation Officer. Loving reptiles, her favourite are snakes. I don’t like snakes…and yet I’m a Slytherin. No Lillian keep your snakes to yourself! They are not cute!
Magic: the Gathering: PurpleRogue Cosplay as Serra Avenger
Starting cosplay photography with her husband about four years ago, Courtney’s first conventions were Tsukino-Con and Gotta-Con (RIP). She started cosplaying about two and a half years ago. She has always been involved in costuming, but really didn’t start cosplaying until then. Her first cosplay was with North Pacific Cosplay where she used three types of materials and couldn’t get the zipper to work. Finally, managing to fix it, the zipper eventually fell off and she ended up having to be pinned into her costume. Future cosplay endeavors would include glowing lights and halo type armour. Working with worbla for her always seems like a great idea loving the hype, and she admits she’s not practiced with it, but generally hates it later on. Her cosplay budget comes from bottle recycling. Isn’t that cool? Cosplaying for the planet. Working with her husband in photography, Courtney finds that her husband’s skill in lighting outweigh hers, while she finds herself to be better at posing and glamour. She also does most of the business management, while he does the marketing and advertising. We spoke briefly about watermarking photos and posting on Social Media, and her major statement was not only crediting yourself, but also crediting the models, and commissioners for models that commissioned their work. Tagging everyone you can is important; so all credit is given where it is due. Facebook was their largest social media hub for a long time, however as a business they are trying to move more towards the use of Instagram because parameters for sharing information has changed on Facebook. As a photographer, Courtney knows cosplay is about movement, and prefers shooting outdoors, however they do have an indoor studio in their home.
Thanks for reading up on these great people. Follow them on their Facebook pages and respective Social Media Hubs! They are great people!
This is part two of a three part series. The third and final installment will be posted next week. Look for it soon!
With love,
Sammi ~ Infinite Colour Photos
