Toronto Comic Con Recap

This past weekend was Toronto Comic Con at the  Metro Toronto Convention Center!

Its run by the same people who host FanExpo Canada every summer. Usually there is an anime convention around this time of year (Toronto Anime Con, also known as MTAC), but this year it seems they combined the comic con and the anime con. I had been to MTAC in previous years and it was usually pretty small.. this year, it was huge and i totally wasn't expecting the size!!

I was preparing until pretty late the night before. My friend Celena slept over and helped out too, counting my inventory, gluing stuff, cutting things etc. It sped up things quite considerably and im very grateful!

We woke up at 6am, did some last minute crafting, got dressed and then we got picked up by two of the SP crew, MaddSketch and Vince Sunico! They helped me load all of the table stuff into their car which was a huge help.

I had a table this year with the help of Spent Pencils, an art group im a part of.
Here are some pics of what my booth looked like! I'm the one in the Hime getup, and Celena is in the purple/pink wig.

Celena took way better detail shots than me lol

I had a bunch of alpacas, but they all sold out within the first day!! My table was located pretty far in the back so I needed to figure out a way to attract people. I bought helium balloons that we tied to the alpacas and i also bought a huge bottle of bubble solution that i used during down periods!

We had a little sheep called Freddy who guarded are wares with his fluff.

 ...But then he got impaled by a borg...

 R.I.P. Freddy the 16th. He will be missed.

On Saturday i really wanted a chance to wear this Anna house OP that I had bought a while ago.

 So I decided to pair it with hime style hair.

From Celena's instagram!

Blingified lol

The only downside was the sleeves were pretty long on my dress and whenever I wanted to point out stuff to customers on the table i knocked stuff over all the time..

I actually got interviewed by someone for George Strombolopolous which was cool at first, but then he asked me kinda annoying/awkward things.

Interviewer: How old are you?
Me: *laughs* Forever 17!
Interviewer: So i guess this means what we're doing is illegal
Me: that depends, are you going to do something inappropriate???
Interviewer: Maybe.. Dundundunnn
Interviewer: *whispers* we're not going to air that part *laughs*
Me: (thinks to myself)...So that people wont know how creepy you actually are, right?.. =_=

.....uhh weird

By Sunday I was really tired from the first day and you could tell cuz in some of the photos i just looked like i was wincing in pain instead of smiling haha so sorry to all the people who got pictures of me on that day fffff

My plain makeup on Sunday. Excuse the winter jacket it was bloody cold.

I dont really have a lot of pictures of myself on Sunday, cuz i was pretty busy and forgot. It wasnt anything special anyways haha. I wore Angelic Pretty's Sugary Carnival in lavender that I hadnt got a chance to wear yet either. It's one of my dream prints that i recently got my hands on in a trade!

We got interviewed by a show called 'Talk Nerdy to Me'. The host was a lot nicer and chill and he wore one of my wigs while they filmed which was pretty funny cuz he had a goatee too xD i think its supposed to air online, but i havent checked yet.

herpderp

And to finish this post, have some pics of the cosplayers who posed for us!

Jack Frost!!! She bought some adult blue contacts from me and came back wearing them!! It looked so amazing <3

Crazy amazing armour

Zombie Victoria's Secret Angel!

SO CUTE 

 (*ﾉ´□`)ﾉ 

K-on alice in wonderland theme? Cute!!

Impromptu Home Photoshoot

My reading week is ending today so I have to go back to school tomorrow sniff sniff

I decided since I havent dressed up in a while to have some fun with makeup and clothes etc etc. 

To boot, I wanted some new pictures for the cover of my fanpage cuz all of the pictures havent been updated for a year or more. It was a LOT of fun herpderping and I got some nifty pictures out of it too~!

I was going to do a makeup tutorial but i didnt do anything special this time so nevermind :/ Anyway here's a picture of me in my pyjamas pre-eyelashes.

Hat: Mbok

Jacket: Urban Planet

Top: Parasuco

(No j-brands for this, too lazy lol)

Makeup: Im actually wearing two pairs of falsies on top of each other haha, Spring Heart and Daisou lashes!! ( I have the fancy brands etc but why bother when you can get the same look with cheaper ones :P)

Lenses: EOS GBK-2 - These are so big and black sometimes i pretend im one of the demons from Supernatural (´▽｀)ノ♪  lol you would too okay

Then I tried Hime-Gyaru again:

This is my fave^ I like how the lighting turned out.

Top: Yumetenbou/DreamV

Hair: Prisila full wig and two volume half-wigs in TMGX (it was a lot of hair!!)

Necklace: Alice Dear (I made it c:)

Herp derp

aww yiss

I did all this in a couple of hours with just my Canon Rebel T3i, my tripod, an external flash, and a remote shutter release thingie (and of course photoshop after lol).

I sometimes feel like I do these shoots to justify all the time I waste looking at makeup tutorials and buying fancy clothing that I never wear  ～(￣▽￣～) !!

Angelic Pretty's Dream Fantasy in Sax Review

I know I havent updated in a while, but I've been working very hard on my animation portfolio which i just submitted yesterday!! I feel very relieved that its over, I just hope I can hear back soon about my results!

Until then, I'd like to do a review of the Dream Fantasy  that I just picked up from the post office.
I bought it secondhand, but its never been worn! However, it's not the full lucky pack.. the blouse is missing but its okay I bought it off Cadney for a really good price <3

On to the review~

Just look at that gorgeous blue!!

Back view. Lace up back~

Print closeup!

Teddy bear lace! Its holding balloons that read 'A' and 'P'.

The big is on the small side, but i dont mind. I never really count on lolita bags to be very practical lol. The strap is not removable but it is adjustable and has a cute heart buckle. Its also a nice soft pleather-y material!

Inside view! There are two little pockets inside for a cellphone or other small things which i think is handy.

The headbow is pretty standard.

OTK Socks. I think the blue could've been lighter as i find it a bit muted compared to the vibrant blues of the dress but i'm being picky :P

Overall im quite happy with this dress, I think it gives a really nice soft, gradient like feel with the light and dark blues. I cant wait to wear it out! I have plans to twin with Cadney since she has it in pink! Ive never twinned with her before so im excited <3

I hope my review helped a little! Thanks for reading~

Anime North 2012 schedule!

Anime North 2012 is only a couple of weeks aways!!
I am both anxious and excited!!

I still have a lot of things to do, but im confident that if I organize my time correctly, things will work out.

Where can you find me?
If you want to come see me I will mainly be at my table in Crafter's Corner selling my accessories alongside Aya of Dolly Pink.

On Friday, I will be selling my used J-Rock goods and anime stuff in Nominoichi!! Its from 7:00pm to 10:30pm.
I have a lot of goodies to sell.
Aside from the usual manga and dvds etc, I have J-rock magazines like SHOXX, Arena37c, GAB, jrock flyers, Miyavi fanclub stuff, and LOTS OF POSTERS!!! haha~
i also have some rare Japanese anime figurines too :3 but you'll have to come see me to find out what they are ;D muhahaha..
Saturday, I will stay at my CC table, but im hoping to have someone sell some of my j-fashion clothing
Sunday, I will be in the fashion show! Not as a model this time, but as the leader for the Visual Kei/Jrock section! I'm kinda nervous but excited. I have a pretty epic outfit planned, inspired by Sisen's outfit in his Seileen project that he did with Selia ^^ (Try saying that ten times fast)

If you're unfamiliar with the look, this is what i mean (Sisen is the one in purple) :

I've been kindof obsessing over this concept of horns and matted hair and decadent clothing for a looooong time now and what better chance to pull together an outfit like this than for a japanese fashion show!

Admittedly, I really wanted to participate in the Gyaru show, but I think just one category will be a lot to handle on its own.. (also i think im too chubs to wear skimpy clothing on a runway at the moment ^^;)


Speaking of outfits, this is my plan so far:

• Friday: Himegyaru! - I have this beautiful pink JSK from Angelic Pretty called 'Pure angel frill' and I bought some priscilla wig pieces. (Update: they arrived in time!)
• Saturday: Lolita - Coord with Aya! We're supposed to be somewhat matching, but I'm still not even sure how it's gonna go down cuz i keep changing my mind =_=;
• Sunday: Gothic - The Sisen inspired outfit i mentioned ^^

I got my Priscilla wig piece from my mbok order and styled it with another wig. I'm still experimenting though, because its difficult to make the colors match. This will be for my Hime outfit.

My friend thinks it doesnt suit me, but i dont care I want to have fabulous hair *___*

So, what's in the works for Alice, Dear?

Right now I'm working on the display design! I know its a little late heh, but from doing it last year, I feel that I can pull it together in time :) Last year I cut it really close, and ended up finishing it by myself at the last minute, which was not ideal but i learned my lesson :P

My final sketch from last year's design.

This year, I get more of my style  in the design, since last year I wasnt really an official artist and was only sharing partly with Pinku Project and Dolly Pink. But since this year half the table is officially mine, I get half the say in the display!

Aya and I had talked about the concept quite early on in the year, and originally we'd thought to do a bear & bunny theme.

But we both agreed that the sides were too bulky and might cross into another artist's space so we changed the design to a castle.

I refined the idea further, and at last we've come up with our final design-

I'm going to try and finish it before Monday if I can.. even though I have two night shifts in a row =_=


But aside from the display, my crafting is coming along slowly. I dont have nearly as much stuff as I had wanted done by now.. I still have to make some lucky packs, signs for prices, and take inventory. I'm quite stressed about it, mainly because my work is giving me more shifts this week than they have ALL SUMMER and its pissed me off to no end why they waited until the WEEK BEFORE Anime North to give me hours. It's ridiculous. I had to give away my thursday shift because it was a closing shift the night before Friday of AN... like wtf.

/rant

I probably won't update until after AN, but who knows. My Etsy store also won't be shipping items until after the convention to minimize my stress LOL

If you're going to the convention, please come say hello!! ^^
I'll also be at Fanexpo, but just as a cosplayer since tables are very expensive there ;w; More info on that later ^^

Miyavi Cosplay Tips!

MIYAVI COSPLAY: Tips and Tricks from Gen

So you wanna cosplay the meevster, huh? Well, maybe I can help by sharing my experience cosplaying the world famous NEO SAMURAI Japanese guitarist.

'Who the f*** are you?'
I'm Gen. Hi. Due to a few years of excessive fangirlism, i managed to pull together a few Miyavi cosplays and created a successful fanpage because of them. I've been featured in music Japan plus, Five For magazine, and am generally well known for my unabashed camwhoring, cosplays etc. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with the response i've gotten!!

I won't be able to cover ~EVERYTHING~ but I might do a second post if there is a demand.
I kept this stuff to myself for a long time, mostly because I was lazy and also because I was afraid people would judge me when they saw how obsessive and meticulous I was @_@

I should also mention that I don't cosplay Miyavi anymore, so if you want to know about future myv cosplays i'm planning dont get your hopes up kay? ><''

Lastly, this is by no means the only way of cosplaying. I encourage experimentation! I didn't like the tutorials I found online so I built most of my cosplay through trial and error.

aaaanyways tl;dr

#1 THE LIP PIERCING

It took me three different attempts to find the right spiral lip piercing. I'm not kidding.. it was really difficult lol. The reason is, most of the twisters always spiral the wrong way!!! Make sure you pay close attention before you buy, because most of the time they aren't cheap and you wouldn't want to waste money.

CORRECT

INCORRECT

I bought all my piercings from Body Jewellery Shop, which i highly recommend for their affordable prices and fast delivery :) (and no, they didn't pay me to say that)

My lip piercing is gauge 14, black titanium. I am unsure of the internal diameter, so I wont write something that could potentially be wrong :P

MYTH: I once read somewhere that Miyavi has a vertical labret piercing. Meaning, not like a normal lip piercing but a little closer to the surface. I don't believe this to be true ><. It may look this way in some pictures, but really... its more likely just a regular lip piercing that migrated a little over time. Piercings due that on occasion, so I dont believe whoever pierced him originally made a mistake etc. etc.

#2 HAIR

Okay okay, so Miyavi has had every fucking hairstyle under the sun -- and then some. So I'm just going to focus on his moehawk for now ^^;

Honestly, having my moehawk was the best :D Since my hair was quite long, I could hide my shaved sides whenever i needed to be proper, and then put it up in a ponytail to spice things up. It was such a versatile and unique haircut, I loved it very much :']

When i got the first side done, the shaved section stopped above my ear. I later noticed that Myv's moehawk goes past the ear and behind so I corrected mine to be more accurate lol. Just a tiny detail incase you care that  much :P

When I put my hair in a ponytail I used clip in human hair extensions to give it more volume since my hair wasnt that long. I positioned the clips directly under where the ponytail would be so as not to show.

I also could reuse the clip in hair extensions (including the hand dyed ones) to make Miyavi's loose hairstyle (when he was on tour and travelling etc.)

Temporary color hair spray can also be used since his hair had silver-ish accents. I sprayed some lightly on my ponytail and then separated chunks to make it look more like highlights instead of one big spot of silver :P 

Pink and blue spray can also be used since he has those colors as well. However, I hand dyed some blonde human hair extensions and used those instead (its less messy and faster in the long run)

I eventually accumulated a whole collection of temporary hair color sprays, since I also used them for my Freedom Fighter Cosplay.

Be warned: This stuff is MESSY! and it smells nasty too. It's best to do it outdoors. 

#3 CONTACT LENS

I spent a long time trying to find the right style.

My first and favorite lens was Neo Vision's 'Sunflower' series in grey. Boy did they ever sparkle!! I had been looking for something with a thin black limbal ring and that didnt enlarge. i also wanted a design that showed the flecks and lines running through the eye as opposed to flat opaque color. 

 (Once again, I was major perfectionist when i first started cosplaying xDD)

In later cosplay, I opted to use EOS's 'Adult' series in Grey. It also has an almost unnoticeable enlarging effect and give the eye that 'sparkle' look because of it's shimmery design.

I hope that helped a little!! Feel free to ask me questions~

I may or may not make another post. I still have a lot of tips to share regarding;

• Tattoos
• Other piercings
• Clothing
• Makeup
• Possibly other things lol

Happy cosplaying~!

-Gen Ishihara

Must.. post.. more..

I keep seeing all these awesome blogs and thinking 'Man, I should really write something too...' and then I never do. I never even posted about my Anime North experience >_<

Here are some pics of my side of the Crafter's Corner table, courtesy of Katrina Duda :)

 That's me up there wearing Jewelry Jelly in sax ^

 Ice cream scoop rings! I sold almost all of them >_<

Some of my gothic stuff. Those necklaces you see all sold out!! They were very popular and I should've made more D:

Milky hear rings, Simple heart satin ribbon chokers, Creamy Jelly Jar necklaces (I only have the blue one left!), Oh and some macaron rings!

To keep it brief, it was a really great learning experience. I made a thousand dollars that weekend, off my crafts, my Nominoichi sales (Flea market, used anime stuff) and last minute sales for fellow cosplayers in need of emergency wigs! I had a really great time selling with my good lolita buddy, Aya. If you stopped by our table, she was the one with medium length blonde hair and pigtails (her natural hair, not a wig!) Her brand is called Dolly Pink! (click on the link to go to her blogger).

This is Aya! Isn't she cute?

She sold my stuff for me for a few days since I wasn't able to stay at the table for the whole weekend. She was an AMAZING 'saleslolita' (lol). I always under price my crafts and she bumped up my prices for me and got them to sell! I'm so grateful for that T_T

Did you know,  my parents and family all call me 'The Doll'? It's kind of a personal secret lol and I used to be embarrassed by it when I was punk etc.. but now that I'm into lolita I don't mind it xD
Apparently they first started calling me Doll before I even had the name Gen, because they hadn't decided what to call me yet.....

Small business rant:

I've recently had to raise my prices since shipping costs have gotten higher and if I kept them at the old prices I would lose money, as I'm making only a tiny profit from each wig.. People don't really know and it makes me flustered when they complain about prices >_< I just can't compete with e-bay pricing because they are usually the factories themselves selling, and they deal with large quantities which means lower wholesale prices... while I deal with small quantities and that means higher wholesale prices T_T

 /rant

Anyways... That aside, I wanna show everyone my new necklace design! 

Demon Star Necklace! Available in custom colors!

I had quite a few people tell me that there wasn't enough original gothic jewelry out there for lolitas, which I also found to be true. I guess this is the reason why all my gothic stuff sold out at AN xD It seems to be more popular than sweet styles! I'm usually thinking up sweet designs, but now I'm doing my best to develop some more 'dark' themed pieces.

The truth is, I find gothic to be difficult to design with because when it comes to symbols, I think it's more limited than sweet style. 

For example, 

Sweet Lolita has all kinds of cute symbols: Candy, cute animals, hearts, stars, lacey things, cakes, pastries, ANYTHING that tastes sweet.

Gothic has: Bats, roses, crosses, ravens, coffins, cats.... chandeliers/cages?? Its limited...

Regardless.. I'll do my best to come up with some cool designs. Just promise me you'll buy em!! haha jkjk

Next post, I'll be giving some Miyavi cosplay tips!! Look forward to that haha~
 

I call it my 'Miyavi angle' LOL

Keep rockin~!
-Gen

oops!

Hahahahahahahaha

It's been two months since my last post xD

I've had so many blog ideas and I didnt post ONE THING.

But, I did make a header image~
what do you think~?

Anime North is coming up!
come and see me if you're going!

Cosplay schedule

Thursday

Casual Toshiya outfit for slumber party

Friday

Miyavi casual (for Nominoichi! Come buy my j-rock stufff)

Saturday

Mikuo (visual kei vers.) group cosplay

Sunday

Toshiya (obscure PV) group cosplay