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You might be thinking, “But kuri most people say nice stuff about you”, “the community is nicer to girls” and so on… While some of it is true, and that I am blessed with good friends and a good community that supports me. If you follow my adventures, am pretty sure you saw some frowns or scowls along my way, or people who just didn't like how I roll. VIVA LA HAPPY: First have a video of my favorite Vocaloid singing one of my favorite pick me up songs by Mitchie M. TOP 3 Stuff I do to stay POSITIVE
 01 Remember to MAX out your stats Plainly put, there’s always something better to spend your time with. Spend the night speaking about dreams and cosplans with friends or studying for that exam. Or learning a new language! Replay that game, have a good dinner, watch a movie, update your blog, write a story... There's SO MANY THINGS YOU CAN DO that's infinitely better than arguing endlessly online. The worst critic I’ve received…is actually from myself. So I don’t get hurt that easily. I would also rather not see links, comments, and websites rating my work and judging me like I’ve entered some sort of competition. It’s best to stay away from these things completely! IGNORANCE IS BLISS.  Notes: Appreciate comments that aim to improve your work, like wig styling tips, makeup tips, costume and crafting tips! In fact, the only reason I’ve improved is because of these! Tips are different from just plainly telling you that you suck, or you're ugly.
Like I always say, in a perfect world we'd all be flawless beautiful beings. Nobody ever chooses to have that huge pimple on their face. NOBODY
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If I had a current "best" it would be my Mordred Cosplay hands-down. It was one of two costumes I made for one shoot once again. (Both casual and Phase 4 Mordred) but the shots and my poses turned out rather well and fitting for the character!
Phase 04 Mordred took around 2 days to create patterns for, and then finally sew and adjust. I had huge issues with that hip "skirt" that floated quite a bit. There's also the beautiful gold accents that I was anal about. (Had to scrounge around for the right shade)
Casual Mordred took a day and coincided with my Tatsumaki costume and shoot as well, as I seem to have gotten the habit of doing more than one costume at a time. So..Moral of the story? There are visual improvements, even if you feel like you've hit a dead end. I personally thought, that Fremy was the best I could do, EVER. So here's to proving ourselves wrong in the best possible way! Cheers! Give or take 10 years into this hobby, and my mom still frowns at my costume projects. While my dad still calls it a “phase” that I would or should be getting out of. If you have:
If you need strength, let me tell you:
 One Final Advice:
Having people who support you as you go along is a good thing. I had an aunt who would give me makeup and boots that helped a ton in cosplay! She also told me that I was pretty good at makeup! I do hope that helps! Cheers~  Progress Shots of Mordred and Emilia Mordred from Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/Grand Order is probably my second favorite Saber class servant from Saber Alter. First impressions of the costume was that generally it was going to be easy and fast to make. Two Costumes Per Shoot Recently, I usually make two costumes for one venue or shoot. It feels like a waste of time and resources for me to have just one character in a 5-8 hour long shoot. Economically, it saves me a ton but also strains my budget a bit since I have to have the wig, contact lenses and materials for two characters. So Kuri, where do you begin?
But where's the underboob?
As much as I would die for accuracy's sake, the photoshoot venue was really "stretching" it with me and my hardly covered self. So I didn't want to scare them with under boob exposure. So unfortunately for this bit, I had to look at "least" decent. Unlike with Fremmy where I was in a convention and scantily clad women were abundant. Cosplay recently goes hand in hand with good photography. Good photography in conventions isn’t too easy. Some people, including myself, plan out shoots either by small groups or in huge numbers. We have a handful of places to choose from locally, and most of us aren't blessed with personal jet planes and flight tickets to wherever we want. 5 Things We SHOULD be doing to keep venues and organizers from hating all of us:  01 Break too may rules: The whip will tighten The Tagaytay Castle wasn’t as strict as it was now. A few years back, we shot there and we were even allowed an extra hour because we arrived late. ALL the rooms were open to us, and we were simply let in and left to our own. Recently, the caretaker will stick to your allotted time, late or early. And only one main room is allowed for dressing up and keeping everyone’s stuff in. Look at how malls treat cosplayers nowadays, they hate us, which goes into the 2nd tip: 02 Bad rep or a bad impression ruins us all I haven’t had this issue with venues, but I steer clear of people who lack commitment. There are also places who generally think cosplayers are bad news. Supposedly, they litter, they’re loud and they don’t know how to respect public areas (like restrooms). Again, whenever you’re in costume you REPRESENT EACH OF US. We will be judged according to what is visible to others. There’s a line to “being yourself” in public places, because you aren’t the center of the universe unfortunately.  03 Be SINCERE and POLITE (AKA a “gentleman” or a “lady”) this, is probably a good secret to getting me to like you. If you’re polite, and you mean what you say (YES. EVERY WORD) then we can be really grand friends. But if you’re the type to suddenly back out without thinking of a way to really be responsible for your actions— then I’m probably going to forget you existed. Think a little, cosplayers and photographers alike— we spend time and money that could be spent elsewhere. (Food, games, travel, and our anime goods) Don’t delude yourself and just BE REAL! Consider yours and everyone else’s situation before committing.  There we're just 2 pairs of us in this shoot. (Photographer x Cosplayer pairs) 04 Crowd Control
Random heads, arms and other body parts are not welcome in a cosplay photo unless…it’s intended. Be sure you’re inviting a proper amount of people without overcrowding the venue. Too many people can also destroy the venue, aside the fact that people might need to rotate with the usage thus wasting a bit of the time. (Which is normal for some since that's used for rest) 05 Do not litter I shouldn't be explaining this, but basically throw your trash in garbage bins or ask the caretaker about it. DO NOT JUST LEAVE CRAP LYING ABOUT! That's just disgusting! Costumes are sometimes only as good as the shots photographers take. You can’t really immortalize the costume itself, but you can immortalize that awesome moment you were wearing it. Aside the whole chemistry between the cosplayer and photographer, there's also having a background to compliment you and your awesome costume! :) So let's all take care of these places! Cheers - kuricurry  Right now, only 3 things are keeping me from completely giving up on this hobby since I’ve lost my drive last year (2015). Something in me is gone, apparently, there was this burning passion some time ago that I always felt. It was a very 'physical' drive of sorts that I seriously feel lacking now. Am guessing and hoping that you, dear reader are probably familiar with that red hot flame of inspiration. Nothing quite sparks the “I NEED TO DO THIS CHARACTER!!” drive in me these past few months. All I’ve been doing is completing my old list, But I’m rambling, basically if you’ve ever hit a wall like this or fell flat on that stone cold realization of “what the hell am I doing with my money?” then consider these 3 things:
 What do you feel about stopping This is something you need to be honest about. Do not over complicate it. Use one word adjectives to describe the feeling, personally I wrote down, “depressed”, “unhappy”, “financially stable” the last bit being the responsible side of me but 2 out of 3 things are negative so obviously I had my answer. I have not mastered it – not that a mastery of cosplay is even possible, but if you’re a bit like me you’d like to have learned skill-sets that are applicable to life in general. Although cosplay has sharpened my ability to multi-task and think fast on my feet, I can’t say I’ve mastered painting, crafting or even sewing. There are so much facets of this hobby I have only but started on. Makeup, wig styling, and leather works are 3 of them… for the most part sewing was something I’ve been doing for a while together with posing and processing. No other hobby combines all the things I enjoy doing and more. We’re all probably the sort who likes to learn a lot of new things, plan and organize stuff, paint, draw, process photos, sew, learn about makeup, wig styling, and basically to build something entirely from scratch.  Priorities
If like me, you have several hobbies that you take seriously (Gaming, Reading, Writing, Drawing, Food Blogging, Figure Collecting are some of mine) one less hobby might be helpful for you. BUT if you can easily give up the rest of your hobbies for cosplay… then we know the answer. Your priority is cosplay among all of your hobbies. REMEMBER! There’s REAL LIFE priorities as well, which take first spot no matter what. Like school, work and social relationships So even though the fire is barely burning? It doesn’t mean it’s gone and that you’ve hit a road block. You either just need a break or to continue until you find the next character to conquer your heart once more. Cheers! :) These are certain mistakes I committed and changed through learning the hard way, sharing them in hopes this list would help you in your cosplay adventures:  Kagamine Len and Rin in Eager Love Revenge 01. Cut and style thy wig My Len Kagamine cosplay gradually improved but again, a little too late. One of my happiest and best shoots was with a huge group I was luckily invited to. Eager Love Revenge Len, my version was bad because of the wig. SO MANY REGRETS! The shoot venue has been torn down, and some of the people from the shoot have left the country. I die a little whenever I have to trim so much of a wig for the sake of accuracy. But you’ve to do what you’ve to do!! Toughen up, and trim that wig!  Extra Cloth saves the day! 02. Buy Spare Cloth (When you can) My Asuna Yuuki cosplay, me being the first or more or less one of the first people to cosplay her, I had no real clue how to do her weird skirt. I made a mistake with a cut for the top, and had to fix it via strips of cloth I found, thankfully I’m a skinny kid and it was enough cloth. Maybe this only applies for the harder to make costumes, or those that you’re venturing to make first of the world— there’s also accidentally burning the seams when you iron them… it happens. 03. BUT do not Buy other Materials in Haste Sometimes, I have urges specially when there’s a cloth sale that I know I won’t return to. I got really pretty purple and pinkish fabric that went for around 4 dollars a yard. That’s pretty expensive and I got it for around a dollar per yard. But… it’s still sitting in my closet, wrinkled and sad.  04. One shoot, one to two characters Bell, Aiz and Fremmy all for 7 hours in a shoot, with a grand total making time of around 2 weeks. Aiz took most of the time together with Bell’s armor and clothes. Fremmy took around 8 hours to make (Which was honestly fun to do!) Then came the shoot, I had to change makeup, contact lenses for around 30 minutes to an hour. That’s taking off the costume, cleaning the makeup, then wearing another set of costume, fixing the wig then re-applying makeup and contact lenses. It probably drained me of any joy I found in cosplay. (And thus the dryness I feel towards cosplay at the moment…) 05. Character reference/Costume reference: ALWAYS PRO TIP: ALWAYS have a print, a copy in your phone or sketch of the bangs of the character and place it in your wig bag. And if it’s a complex set of armor, have a costume reference for which part going wherever. It helps from the grief of, “I placed that armor backwards can you photoshop it…?” and so on and so forth.  That’s all for now! If you find these tips handy or have something to add to the list, feel free to comment down. My blog seems to be dead in regards to community feedback. But then I see unique views rather high which I find heartwarming and weird at the same time.
Have a random photo of me shipping things. Cheers! ~Kuri Cosplay is a short form of "Costume play" and it deals with dressing up as a fictional character mostly but not limited to Japanese games, anime and manga. Cosplayer /Layer are terms for people who do cosplay Cosplay Conventions are gatherings for competitions, stores and booths that have goods and products related to but not limited to Japanese games, anime and manga. Top 3 Misconceptions:
Attractiveness is required and chosen
While we do have an administering body for conventions and such, no one has a say who has a right to cosplay (Except your parents... Learn to listen to them!!). Again, similar to drawing, gaming and reading books, if you can afford it or have a way to access materials needed for it (renting a costume, buying it or making it) and YOU want to do it. head on to your nearest convention or photoshoot with friends and JUST DO IT! : ) So, a miracle happened as I'm part of the top 5 finalists. CCY adhered to their own rules with the risk of making people angry. (The whole mindset that it's the likes that they count) I can understand both parties well, but hey let me be selfish and celebrate.
Celebrating Small Victories It's a step, am a pretty simple person. If there's anything to be happy about I celebrate it. Just a cold cup of nice iced tea can make me happy for the rest of the day. A really good book can make me happy for the rest of my year, and so on! I celebrate stuff really long
Thank you friends for your support!! I will do better and work harder!
For a couple of years, I was usually cosplaying younger boys such as Ciel Phantomhive. And he was the character that I met a seriously well-known and respected cosplayer Jin Joson.  Giving up (PLEASE DON'T)
If I were to give you any sort of advice, it would be to not be a stupid timid idiot like myself. I can't really re-program myself to keep fighting specially if the battle is a battle for likes. It stresses me out. Even asking "Could you please..like this?"... I'm no good at contests, more so those that I have no real chance of winning. Which is really saddening. But hey, I'm not quitting my hobby. I'm just quitting liking contests. Cheers! Kuri curry |
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