I’m moving!

Starting today, I will be compiling all my various work, blog entries, and personal nonsense into one new site. Please point your bookmarks to karadennison.com to see what I’m about. There will be a lot more regular posting and a lot more variety. See you there!

Katsucon ~ The Night of the Doctors

Remember that massive Doctor Who meet-up from Katsu? Well, that wasn’t the start of it. Friday night I ran into three other Doctors, and we had a heck of a great time doing photos and things. So here’s self (8), Bryan (War), Alex (10), and Connor (11) doing the things, photos courtesy (as always) of Paul Karpey.

Probably not the one you were expecting.

With my new sonic.

I tried to do McGann’s ‘Disney prince’ pose but.

War Doctor.

Just gonna put out there that this was in fact his first costume, apparently.

Sandshoes.

With the brainy specs.

The Three Doctors.

Before 11 got in.

Assembling a cabinet.

If you squint you can see 9.

Chinny.

Moar Chinny.

Granddad and Sandshoes exterminating.

8 and 11 exterminating.

‘Everyone get in the photo booth.’ Yes sir.

The heck outta there.

So not surprisingly, we’ve all stayed in touch, and further antics may ensue locally. Be excited. Or warned. Who knows.

Who. Nose.

Katsucon Photoshoot ~ Madoka☆Magica

When I first saw Madoka Magica, it was just after my third surgery and I was on some heavy Percocet.  But even then, I could see what a fantastic show it was and I fell in love with the main character.  There was just one problem — I’m not a big fan of pink.  However, in Madoka’s case, she’s such a badass that I’m willing to make an exception.

Sadly, I couldn’t get the gloves done properly in time, so they’re missing the ‘petals,’ but I’m a bit pleased with how the rest turned out.  Again, thanks to Paul Karpey for taking the time to take some awesome photos, and for sharing them as quickly as he does.

And now …

so i pray never to forget … that being meguca was suffering

Katsucon Photoshoot ~ Ace Attorney 3

I finally had an excuse to bring out the Dahlia Hawthorne costume again — at a con, and for longer than just a few minutes onstage.  I was intending to bring it to the Ace Attorney gathering planned for Saturday afternoon, but then my friend Linh said she had something else she was bringing along … and the opportunity presented itself.

These guys!

Unfortunately, my wig was a mess because it needed rebraiding and got a little shook up on the car ride up, so you can see plenty of my lovely brown (slightly greying) hair out from under the wig.  Nonetheless, it was well fun, and Veronica did a great job of getting pics of us down by the fountain at the Gaylord.  Thus — Feenie and Dollie(??).

MarsCon 2013 ~ Bringing the Luna-C

Well, our Saturday afternoon show went great — especially great, I thought — and we had a really enthusiastic audience.  But we’ve always got a good crowd for MarsCon, and it’s fun to perform for them every year.

Back in the bow tie before the show. I love playing 11.

As before, Luna-C pics do not come from yours truly, as I’m busy onstage.  This time they are courtesy of the lovely Barb Fischer.  Thanks as always for womanning the camera.

AUSA Photoshoot: Race Queen

So years and years and years ago (okay, maybe just years and years), Yunmao dared me to design and make a race queen outfit.  I love the concept of them, and I design them myself for fun, though I rarely actually make what I draw.  This time, though, I did.

Last November, I decided it might be time to pull the costume back out, in large part because I wanted something else to wear and get photos of.  Once again, it’s Paul Karpey’s handiwork … and once again, just a pair of quick pics, but still very well done out in the cold of D.C.

 

 

And Yunmao has struck again, daring me to make yet another … someone else’s design this time.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  But I will say … it’s a tad skimpier than this one.

Oh, and if you’re here after seeing me at MarsCon … hello!  In the next few days I plan to start doing a photo-dump of all the awesome things I saw there.  In the meantime … time to start prepping at full steam for Katsucon next month!

AUSA Photoshoot: Shaz Granger

Okay, first off … wow!  Hello to all my new readers who came in via AUSA’s link on Twitter.  I hope everyone grabbed pictures of themselves if they found them — and if you see yourself and want your name and/or a link to your blog added, let me know and I’ll be glad to.

I’m headed off to MarsCon in Williamsburg this weekend, where I’ll be doing some webcomickry as well as performing with Luna-C and premiering some new costumes (depending on how these next couple days go).  I’ll also be sharing a room with Star Angel, one of the awesomest cosplayer types I know and one whom I don’t get to see much except at cons.

Back at Shore Leave, I finally premiered a costume I’d been wanting to do for a while: Shaz from Ashes to Ashes.  I’ve done two of her outfits total, but this is the one I’m most pleased with.

Shaz wears this in episode 5 of series 3, during the police charity show and for one scene after.  It’s a strange little outfit — teal brocade, some sort of sparkly-lace stockings, lace shrug, and that weird little Tim Burton-y pillbox hat.  Despite taking place in the early 1980s, the final series of the show went completely left by way of theme ad imagery … so it makes at least a bit of sense that this dress doesn’t really appear to be from any particular time period.

 

The brocade is darker than what was seen in the show, but it was all I could find — and even that was imported and a bit expensive.  It was a beast to work with, because it liked to fray all over the place.  I made the hat myself, and when it came to the red stripes … well, I painted those myself.  Thank God for a steady hand.

It was one of the toughest things I’ve ever made, but I’m so pleased with it that I take it to conventions and wait for excuses to wear it.

But what pleases me most about the costume is the fact that Matthew Graham — co-creator/writer of the Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes metaseries — saw the costume and proclaimed it perfect.  I couldn’t ask for higher praise than that.

 

This dress did fit differently at Anime USA, though — I made it pre-surgery and wore it to Shore Leave, and wore this a month and a half after the surgery (so the two wearings were five months apart).  I’d lost a significant amount of weight — so where before it fit tight here and there, I had to do a little extra by way of making sure it stayed up properly!

These photos are by the as-ever-wonderful Paul Karpey … we didn’t do a lot of poses or a long shoot, but what he did (as always) looks great.  He also did some pictures of another costume I haven’t worn in a while … but that’ll be for the next update, hopefully tomorrow.