Hi Geeks and Chics!

I'm writing today to tell you about my next definite cosplay; Morrigan Aensland. As I said last time, she's a succubus from classic fighter Darkstalkers. There's a lot of reasons why I've chosen her and in this post I'll cover those, along with information on what cons I'm attending this year, why I haven't made my fan page yet and why you won't be seeing any more of my older costumes.

This cosplay is a new start for me. I'm disregarding everything else I've made and done, scraping it back, starting fresh. My new cosplay personality is LMA Cosplay; LMA being a memorable way for people to remember my actual name, Ella May, plus I like that it rhymes. It's short, simple and just means me. I'm going to keep my cosplay life separate from my normal internet presence so everyone that I have on my private Facebook page, don't worry, I won't be spamming photos 24/7. I'm uploading all of my cosplay and blog images to a Photobucket account and I'll just be sharing blog links on my Twitter and private Facebook until I make a separate public cosplay page.

I've been asked by a few people why I haven't made a Facebook page yet, and that's because as far as I'm concerned, I don't have anything to show. I know I've been cosplaying for about 5 or 6 years but I was a child then, I didn't put a lot of effort or time into my costumes and ones like my Ramona Flowers outfit and the Silent Hill Nurse costume are almost entirely shop-bought. I don't want to be judged based on my old costumes. I'm not going to show comparisons of how much I've improved because what counts is what I'm capable of right now. I find my old costumes quite embarrassing to be honest and in many photos I was very young, I don't want these images floating around the internet. Once my Morrigan cosplay is completed, or very near completion, I'll make a Facebook page called LMA Cosplay to share how I made the costume, photos of the completed cosplay and lots of information and updates for what my future cosplay and convention plans will be. Consider this my coming of age, me finally acknowledging that I'm a woman, not a child anymore, and that I need to step up my game.

I look back at my old cosplays, even my modelling photos from last year, and I've learnt so much from them because I did so much wrong. Not wearing a full face of makeup at conventions, forgetting to take off old, unrelated nail varnish, not practising my poses before the events resulting in the same, awkward position in every photo, forgetting to pay attention to what my hands and feet are doing, and even forgetting to change my facial expression. That's not even taking into consideration poorly constructed outfits, ratty wigs that weren't pinned down, fake blood that turned bright pink, forgetting to even ask people to send me the photos they took....

To everyone that put up with me spamming vote links last year for the modelling contest, I am incredibly sorry. I've learnt that the contest wasn't a chance for aspiring models to get their foot in the door like I thought, but a popularity contest for anyone with an existing fan base to bring more attention to the company. One winner was best friends with one of the company's existing models; another winner not only broke the rules regarding photo editing, but in my opinion is incredibly undeserving of the title 'model'. There was a woman a few votes above me in the alternative category and she was stunning, far more beautiful that the old eyebrowless 'model' that won the alternative category.

I don't say this out of bitterness because I didn't win; I know now that modelling isn't for me, but I say this out of disappointment that they had a woman fully deserving of the first place prize, and she lost to someone who beat her solely because of their internet following. I bring this up because unlike the wig shop, and one of its models that is using this popularity contest tactic to gain more fans (and she's even complained that she got a warning on Facebook for spamming, I wonder why...) I will NEVER enter another popularity contest or encourage vote based competitions to increase my own internet presence. I'm going to do this the right way, and getting girls to fight to the death in popularity contests isn't it.

I chose Morrigan because as I finally accept my adulthood, as I finally respect my body, what it has and what it lacks; Morrigan in my opinion is a symbol of female empowerment. She's strong, she's sexy, she's an equal to the male characters of all the fighting games she features in and she has freaking bat wings. In the past I've been scared of trying to be sexy; I've longed to be strong but feared I would loose my femininity. Morrigan is everything in a character that I want to be as a woman. Not only does she stand out as a costume, she's an iconic character in the Darkstalkers series and has been included in many other games such as Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK and Namco x Capcom. With the release soon of Darkstalkers: Resurrection; a compilation of Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge and Darkstalkers 3, there are also rumours of a new Darkstalkers title being announced soon so I figured that now was the perfect time to make myself known as a Morrigan cosplayer.



Morrigan artwork for Darkstalkers: Resurrection

This is the image I will be using as my sole reference for Morrigan. Since there are so many variations of her appearance due to appearing in so many different titles, at first I found it hard to decide on minor details and considered doing a mash up of the features I liked from different versions. Then I took a step back and decided that would be silly as it would end up being an inaccurate mess, so I decided on using the above artwork as reference. I think this image summarises her look as a whole. I know in some variations her boots are mid calf but I believe the below the knee length seen here is more flattering, and I'm very fond of the shade of her hair, which I think I've matched my wig to well, but you'll hear (and see) more about that next time.

I'm planning to make my first appearance in this costume at the London MCM Expo, or London Comic Con as some are calling it now, in May this year. Other cons I will be attending this year, though not necessarily in my Morrigan costume, are London Film and Comic Con in July, Eurogamer Expo in September and London MCM Expo again in October. If you know any other London or Essex based cons that you think I should attend, please let me know in a comment below or email me at LMACosplay@hotmail.com. I will be entering the Masquerade at LFCC but I doubt I will be entering MCM's Masquerade due to the huge level of talent there and the sheer volume of contestants. Instead, you'll likely be able to find me in the Totally Cosplay area, or just walking around the con.

Once my costume is done, assuming it's not the night before MCM, I'll be making business cards to bring with me to cons to hand out to anyone interested in my costume or to anyone that takes a photo of me. These will have a photo of my costume on one side, and a note on the other with my contact details, asking photographers to send me either photos of my costume or links to where I can view their photos of the event. Hopefully this way, I'll get plenty of photos from a variety of photographers, whom I can then contact afterwards if they email me. If I like the photos, I'll ask the photographers if I can share the images on my blog and deviantART page, and if I really like the photographer and they're local, I might arrange separate photo shoots with them afterwards.


So now you know who I'm cosplaying, why I'm cosplaying her, when I'm cosplaying as her and when the Facebook page will be made to share photos and information of my future cosplay adventures. This is the start of a new journey for me and I hope that my friends and future fans will follow me on it and enjoy my cosplay creations I'll be updating the blog every Tuesday and Friday to document the construction of this cosplay and share any random news, reviews and bits that I find worth sharing.

Thank you for reading this giant essay, if you've scrolled to the bottom of the page to try find my Morrigan Wig tutorial, check back Friday 18th to read the full wig review and styling process. See you next time!



Post taken from my blog: Ella's Blog of Stuff