Viper

Way back in March of this year, I debuted a new costume at WonderCon in Anaheim and nobody knew who I was.  That costume was Viper as she would be seen in The Wolverine.  Well now the movie's out and I am happy to report that not only am I still proud of how my costume holds up, I LOVED the character and the movie.

 

I highly recommend you go see The Wolverine and bask in it's ability to make up for the abomination that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  For those of you (like myself) who are used to Viper as Madame Hydra, it might take a second to adjust to the new character, but I have to admit, for a brand new, original character inspired by an existing one, they created a fantastic villain.  She was deliciously evil, unstoppable and absolutely fabulous.

 

Now that the film is out and the character isn't so much of a mystery anymore, I figured I'd go ahead and share some of my favorite shots of the costume from recent cons.  Photography credit goes to Jonathon Courtot and Geri Kramer.

 

The featured Wolverine is the perfectly perfect in every way Lon Brown (Lonstermash) who is hands down the best movie Wolverine cosplayer around (IMO) and should be working as Hugh Jackman's stand-in.

 

 

Print available on Etsy

Print available on Etsy

 

What did you think of The Wolverine?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments or on Facebook!

 

 

CosPlay with me

-Angi

Disney's Frozen

Every little girl grows up loving fairy tales.  For me one particular story always held a particular magic - The Snow Queen.  I can't really explain why; what that magical bond I felt with this one story stemmed from, but for one reason or another, when the old animated movie was on or my mom was reading, I was captivated.  To me, the story is about friendship and family and love.  It represents the bond of a true friend and the lengths to which one is willing to go to help someone they love.  It's a message I took to heart and maintain in every relationship I form.

 

Now, anyone who knows me is familiar with the bond I have with Disney.  To me, Disney is everything.  The inspiration I get from their films and desire to become a part of the company some day are what get me out of bed in the morning.  There is nothing like watching a Disney movie.  It makes my heart sing.

 

When I found out almost 3 years ago that Disney was going to tackle the Snow Queen, I cried.  It was the only expression I could manage.  I tried everything I could to get a job at the studio in time to be a part of it, but alas, my attempts failed.

 

As information leaked about the film, I became more excited.  Idina Menzel and Kristin Bell?  Sign me up!  And now the film focuses on the relationship of two sisters, one older who curses and exiles the younger and the younger who only wants to melt her older sister's frozen heart?  Sounds pretty similar to the story of my relationship with my own younger sister (that's right, I was the one who pushed her away).  Then they released the teaser posters.  While the Snow Queen didn't look the way I'd invisioned her, my jaw dropped.  She was so stunningly beautiful and captured that piercing, elegance of winter.  I started preparing the costume that day. 

 

 

 

Over time, I found more images leak from all over the world and was finally able to debut my costume at San Diego Comic Con this past weekend where I met up with my very good friend Eurobeat Kasumi who took these incredible shots of the costume.  I couldn't be happier with how this costume came out and I cannot wait to wear it again to D23 August 9-11 and to the film in November.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy these shots as much as I do and please go support Eurobeat Kasumi and the company that inspired it all: Walt Disney Studios.

 

 

 

Are you excited for Frozen?  It comes out November 27!

 

 

 

 

CosPlay with me

-Angi

Black Widow in: High Hit

When I started cosplaying again a few years ago, I had a dream to work with my filmmaker friends to make short films that represented characters I love the way I've always wanted to see them.  With my Black Widow costume falling apart, I knew it had to be first.  I went to my friend Jon with an idea: what if we made a James Bond film starring Natasha instead of Bond?  Black Widow is a super-spy.  She is the female, comic book equivalent of James Bond and no other representation felt like it would do her the justice she deserves.

 

The short takes place during the period of her career when Natasha is making a name for herself as a solo super-hero (and keeps bumping into Daredevil).  Since she regularly went up against The Hand during that time, we came up with an idea to bring in the feel of the classic Bond films where James goes up against a seemingly big-time villain with some faceless organization backing him.  We looked up leaders of The Hand from over the years and landed on 2 options: Jon as Kingpin or Shawn as The Mandarin.  We weren't completely convinced Shawn could pull off the look of The Mandarin, but our urge to include him lead us to the phone conversation featured in the short and the idea that Kingpin has other leaders looking over his shoulder.

 

We filmed this short over 1 weekend and the entire process took approximately 3 months from original concept to final product.  We brought in a fantastic team of friends from college - Alex for cinematography and color, Jon for editting, Scott for props, Matt for an original score, Peter and AJ of Random Encounters for a Bond song for the credits - and I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to work with such incredible people.

 

Please enjoy Black Widow in: High Hit -

 

 

 

My goal was always do do a video for every cosplay I complete, but production time and schedules make that hard, so for now, enjoy High Hit and look forward to the fact that more will come.  Hopefully sooner rather than later. ;)

 

 

 

CosPlay with me...

-Angi

Hail Hydra

Ladies and gentlemen, I have some exciting news for you. Viper is going to be in The Wolverine due out this summer. What's that? You knew that already? Well did you also know that her costume is stunning and I went through the painstaking process of figuring out what it looked like and putting it all together? No? WELL I DID AND IT'S AMAZING!!!!!!!

I love Viper. She's awesome. And I'm insanely excited for the new Wolverine movie, so as soon as images started leaking, I began collecting materials and I am happy to say it all finally paid off. The night the trailer was released, I started construction. Two days later, I debuted this bad boy at WonderCon with my good friend Lon Brown (who is literally the greatest movie Wolverine cosplayer ever) and you all get to reap the benefits! So, without further ado, I give to you the first ever cosplay of Viper from The Wolverine.

HAIL HYDRA!

There's lots more where that came from, everybody!  Feel free to spread this image around and get the hype going for The Wolverine!!!!



CosPlay with me...
-Angi

Gotham City Sirens

This past weekend was PMX (Pacific Media Expo) in Los Angeles and Saturday, Constantine, Steffy, Lon, myself and a few photographers headed to the Old Zoo in Griffith Park for a photo shoot.  This is what happened next:

Enjoy!



CosPlay with me
-Angi

The most amazing picture of Merida you will ever see

Hello darlings,

So I did a photoshoot in the woods recently with the amazing Jonathon D. Courtot so I could get some quality shots of my Merida cosplay to share with you guys.  There are some AMAZING shots coming, but I have one here that deserves special mention.

Our location featured a small waterfall (a rare find in Los Angeles) and for our last shot of the day, we waded into the lake to stand below it and Jon, genius that he is, framed it to include the top of the waterfall, thinking we could do something interesting with it later.  And so, I picked out my favorites and sent them to the ever-remarkable Alex Rothauser for retouching and he came back with this:

Alex added the bear and will-o-the-wisps in addition to color correcting the whole thing to make it beautiful and as close to the movie as possible.  Alex and Jon are amazing and I cannot thank them enough for making this happen.

Stay tuned for more recent photoshoots and check out my YouTube channel for new videos.



CosPlay with me
-Angi

Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats HOOO!!!!!

I'll be honest, I never really watched Thundercats til I was older.  There was too much guy happening on it for little me to stay interested.  But when my friend Constantine approached me with a request to cosplay Thundercats together, there was only one answer: OH MY GOD YES!!!!!!

A few weeks later, we found out about PowerCon/ThunderCon in Torrance, CA and the plan began to form.  Constantine had always wanted to cosplay Cheetara and I fell madly in love with Pumyra:

Since a lot of people aren't super familiar with Pumyra, I'll do a "Who Is" post in the near future, but for now, you just need to know she's awesome and her design is fabulous and I love her.

That being said, enjoy the following AMAZING photoshoot from our trip to ThunderCon last weekend.  (more to come soon)

Photography: Jonathon D. Courtot (fountains and field)
                      Shawn Bean (field)
Retouching:   Eric Swartz
                      Marcello
                      myself

To see more of Constantine's Cheetara costume, visit her blog at ConstantineInTokyo.com




CosPlay with me
-Angi

The Deal with Donations

So now that I've run one fundraiser, I figured I'd shoot off a post about donations.

The button you see to your right is always there and I accept donations at any time, though I will post fundraisers for specific cosplays as well.

I want to make this worth your while besides just getting to see a new cosplay, so I've created donation rewards:

Donate ANYTHING and you will get a download of the full size, high quality wallpaper "Shades of Angi" showcasing my many sides:

Eventually I'll have multiple wallpapers so you're not receiving the same thing over and over again

Donate $5 or more and you'll get a random 4x6 from one of the photosets that make up the wallpaper (The Diva, The Punk, The Nerd) - specify address when you send donation

Donate $10 or more and you'll get an 8x10 of the finished costume (or costume of your choice) OR an 8x10 from one of the "Shades of Angi" photosets - specify address AND photo preference


Thank you everyone for your support.  You make all the stress and madness worthwhile.

XOXO




CosPlay with me
-Angi