Bristol Comic Expo 2013.

On Saturday 11^th May my Father and I went to the Bristol comic convention. I really did enjoy it. Here's what happened:

I woke up at around half past six and got dressed into my batgirl costume before doing my make up so I looked like this.

We then left the house at around half seven. We then drove down the motorway to arrive at the hall at around nine thirty. We then queued for half an hour until it opened at ten.

When we arrived in the hall we started to walk around looking at the tables set up and occasionally stopping to talk to people that my Dad knew. We were making slow progress around the room when we bumped into my Dads friends. We were introduced as I had not met them before and they volunteered to go around the hall with us. We walked around and I brought a keyring as my dad brought some comics. Then we went across to the hotel to have a look at the stalls they had there. Then my Dad and I stopped to have lunch.

After lunch we met back up with the pair of them for half an hour they had to go to a signing. My Dad and I made our way back to the main hall and looked around again as we found an area that we had not been to yet. I then saw two Harley Quinn and Batman cosplayers and we got a photo together.

I then went over to one of the stalls and brought something that I had seen earlier before going to my Dads other friends table. Me and one of them then had a lengthy chat about X-men and such things.

We then decided to head over to the hotel as my Dad did not want to miss this talk about his favorite comic. When we got there however we discovered that it was running half an hour later then people had originally thought. So we sat down with some of my Dads friends whom I had met throughout the day and chatted until it was time for the talk,

We sat down at the talk where they basically just discussed their favourite things about the comic. Before we said goodbye and went to car and started to head home. They did have other talks but none of them featured costumes.

During the convention we saw quite a few different costumes including characters like: Zattana, Spiderman and Wonderwoman. Some cosplays were defiantly better than others though there were plenty of good tries. Where my own cosplay is concerned I am very happy with the reaction that it received. Quite a few people told me how much they liked my costume and one person even asked for a photo.

As an overall event I am quite impressed with the way it was run apart from a few minor problems. For instance I as a wheelchair user found the hall to be quite crowded which could be quite stressful. Another problem that I had was the fact that the lift was not working in the hotel this however was not the organizers fault as it was just a technical fault. My only other problem that I had personally is that their was a lot of foul language and I know that they could not have stopped people using said words in the daily conversation but they could have at least asked people to have more appropriate stall names, which is not good as there were younger children around. My favorite stall had to be the geeky vintage stall as I loved the dresses that they had made, not to mention the bags and pillows. I do not have a least favorite stall simply because of the diversity between them. My Dad usually goes to this particular comic convention and he told me that it was actually pretty quiet which just shows how poplar conventions are even though they are not very well known throughout the general public. I liked the general layout of the convention as the stalls gave you plenty of room to walk around, plus as they weren't just set in rows it meant that you could just walk freely around the hall at a steady pace without having to rush to much.

I met many people whilst at the convention some of whom were freelance artists. Their names were Owen Watts and his girlfriend Jazz, Conor boyle and Kev Crossley. Owen and Jazz draw and run a comic called the psychedelic journal of time travel. Conor has recently published his own book called Pirates of the lost world, whist Kev draws for 2000AD.We also met Mike Carrol author of the quantum prophecy. Talking to these people was both interesting and informative, I learnt some useful tips about comics and writing,

I would like to think I will be attending more comic conventions, and I certainly would jump at any further opportunities to go again. I have enjoyed visiting conventions more as I have matured, an example of this is how I now love comics, enjoy drawing and writing.

If I do go to another contention I would certainly like to cosplay again. As to who it would be, it would most likely be another comic character perhaps someone from marvel like a member of the X-Men. My abilities will only be enhanced by my gold award as I will be learning more about machine sewing. I defiantly look forward to cosplaying again.

I really enjoyed cosplaying at the convention, we saw some great costumes. It was a really fun day to just be nerdy with some nice people. I had a great time and I cant wait to go again.

Book tour

Eoin Colfer WARP Book tour.

A few weeks ago my Father and I went to see a show about the author Eoin Colfer's new book called W.A.R.P: The Reluctant Assassin. I very much enjoyed it. The show was held at the Birmingham conservatoire theatre as part of his tour around the UK.

When we arrived at the theatre (armed with some sweets) our tickets were checked and we bought our copy of W.A.R.P. before heading inside. Once we were inside and had found our seats, we sat down and looked around. In the rows around us there were many people either finding their seats and sitting down or already beginning to read their copy of the book. You were able to tell that people were excited to see/meet Eoin Colfer as the air was full of chatter not to mention turning pages. You could see people beginning to set up the stage in preparation for the actors performance.

After about a ten minute wait Eoin came out a told some funny stories to break the ice for both his sake and ours. He seemed a little nervous at first. He must have been a little bit because he was stood there about to introduce his new book to a group of readers who had enjoyed reading his older books and he had no idea whether they were going to like his new one. After about a fifteen minute chat, he sat down on his comfy looking chair and began to read. That was when the show started.

The first character we were introduced to was Chevie Savano, the F.B.I.'s youngest member. Eoin read a small passage from his book about Chevie then the actress playing her made a rather impressive entrance. The actors performed a scene from the book that explained more about her we then 'travelled' back in time to the Victorian era where we then met Riley,the main hero of the story and Albert Garrick, the assassin for hire that is trying to kill Riley. Both of the actors did a great job. Once we had met all of the characters that we needed to for the show, they then proceeded to act out a chapter of the book but with a few changes for instance they included the audience in some of their magic tricks.

Then when they had finished the actors went backstage and the audience had a question and answer session with Eoin Colfer about his books and characters. We then thanked him for coming before he started to sign books. Once he had signed our books we headed home.

Looking at the costumes and props that were rather impressive and yet still simplistic I have to say the team did a very good job. The costumes themselves were very simple consisting mainly of a t-shirt for Chevie that had the words F.B.I with jeans, as well as Rily who wore a plain white top with trousers, a waist coat and a hat. Where as Albert had a basic suit. The props them selves were even better using very realistic items to bring the show to life. They used items like a face gun and blunt knifes to help them with the magic part of the show.

The actors themselves did a really good job with the characters, they really brought the characters to life. They even did things like change there accent depending on the character because most of them played more than one character during the show.

The best part of the show for me was the gun shot at the end as I found it really unexpected and realistic. If I had the option I would defiantly go to see this performance again.

buy the book here from Amazon: Amazon book link

Arts Award Bronze-

Costume design process.

1. The first thing I did was chose a character I was going to cosplay as. The character I chose was Batgirl as I feel that we look quite similar and we have a similar personality.
   
   
2. Then I decided how I was going to make my costume.
   
   
3. Next I drew up designs of of how my costume should look and made mood boards about the character.
   
   
4. The next step was to go shopping:
   
   

5. Then I made a template of the bat symbol
   
   
   
   
   

6. I then drew around the template onto some felt and cut it out.

7. I then pinned it into place
   
   
   
   
   

8. I then sewed it into place
   
   
   
     
   
   
9. The next step was to start the cape. The first thing I did was cut a neck hole.
   
   
   

10. Then I hemmed the seam I had created.
    
    
11. The cape itself was too long so our next step was to cut it shorter.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

12. Then I hemmed the rest of the cape

13. I then made the batarangs by cutting them out of cardboard and spray painting them black.
    
    
    
    
    

14. We then went and brought my utility belt.

15. I then stripped it of all tags and zip covers to enhance the look of the belt.
    
    
16. I then made my mask. First I drew it out onto the felt before we cut it out and attached two pieces of elastic.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

17. Then I made the headband. I cut out four felt triangles of equal length and two pieces of wire. I then sewed two triangles with the wire trapped between them that were then attached it to the headband.

18. 
    Next I made the gauntlets using the same principle as the headband except we sewed them into the gloves.
    
    
19. The actual costume was now made the next step was make up
    
    
20. I used black I shadow and pink lipstick

18. Here is the finished costume:

Looking at how I made my costume retrospectively one thing that I would change is how I sewed the wire in my headband as it was still visible. If I was to do my costume again I would take more care sewing the bat symbol to my t-shirt as I feel I could have done better. 

One thing I did not like was the cape needed a lot of caution as it could get trapped quite easily in the wheels of my wheelchair which became a hindrance when moving around.

The positive attributes of my costume were that it was all made from quite comfortable material which was easy to move around in. This is a good thing because uncomfortable material would have been difficult during the long day that we had.

The negative attributes of my costume were that I got quite cold as the materials used are quite thin and I could not have used a coat to warm up as it would have ruined the look of my costume. Another precaution that I had was using wire to hold my gauntlets in place as occasionally it would come through my gloves and scratch my skin.

The most enjoyable thing about making my costume was watching it all come together as I made it and then when people appreciated all the time and effort that I had put into my costume I found it very rewarding.

The thing I did not enjoy when making the costume is the worry that you would not finish on time that accompanied it. I tackled this problem by making a time table with all the things I had to do inside it. The worry itself can be very disheartening but the feeling of satisfaction is defiantly worth it.

As I have all ready said several times I found this to be a really enjoyable experience and I can not wait to cosplay again.

Introduction

Hi! I'm Hawthorn Crimson, I am a very geeky teenage girl from England meaning I love Doctor Who, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, the entirety of the Marvel and D.C universe and many other fandoms. My main passions are reading, writing and arts and crafts, which then brings me to the reason for this blog: because I am home schooled I am now completing a program called Arts Award. This program allows people to have qualifications with in the genre of art, and this blog is to help me along the way. I am currently completing my bronze Arts Award about and entitled  Costume And Cosplay I will be posting weekly (hopefully) about what I get up to.