Hanging with the 501st...Kinda & the Wampa's Debut

Today was the day the Wampa was unleashed to the masses. His first troop and I got to see it, along with his oldest son and his brother. This was at the final Tampa Bay Storm's game of the season, held against the Orlando Predators.

As he was sent off with the troops to get ready I chatted up with a few of the guys. They were excited about having a Wampa among their ranks. I gave one of the guys a few tips on how to get him into that thing and it turns out he studied the video that was posted on youtube, to make sure he knew how to help him get in there. So I took a moment and told him I plan to apply to the 501st next year. He asked who I planned on becoming (I had told him about my other costume and mentioned I made two lightsabers myself). I took a breathe and told him my first will be Juno Eclipse. And then I told him the crazy plan of making a Starkiller costumes. I was waiting for a you're crazy or something else. But I got enthusiasm. And he told me of other Starkillers and asked me which one I plan on making and I told him the red and black concept. He seemed impressed I would try this. I took that as encouragement because I wasn't sure what they would think of this. Off the troops went to get ready.

We had people asking what we brought in and got stopped trying to take the costume in a couple of times going "is that the wampa?" They didn't know what they were in for. We hung out side in the plaza and a Stormtrooper came out to see the crowd. Then he was joined by a few other troopers which I had Gavin pose for some pics with them. Then came out Vader, Leia, Han Solo and Anakin too. We of course took some pics with them too. They moved closer to the door and then the Wampa comes out along with a Chewbecca. I had to push my way through the crowd to get to see them. Sadly no pic. I chatted up with a few of the other troopers and we talked about CV and my applying next year to the 501st.

Then we got to go into the game. We grabbed seats on the 3rd level wondering where they were going to be. Next thing you know we see the Wampa on the big screen. And right across from us, 1 level down there is the troops. I know they were there with a school group to do like a meet and greet with the kids. At one point I swear I saw a kid hanging off the Wampa's arm and was told later that kids were jumping at the opportunity for pic and hug with the Wampa. All and all a successful debut test run for the Wampa.

My Next 2 Costumes

These are the next 2 costumes I'm going to make and use to apply to the 501st. My plan is to start a month after CV. I need a slight break from working on costumes and a month break is nothing compared to the several months I'll have to make theses.

The first one I'll make is Juno Eclipse. She was first seen

in the video game Force Unleashed. She is Starkiller's pilot

and becomes more by the end of the game and judging by

the next game. She is an Imperial Officer.

The second costume is Starkiller, Galen Marek, himself. Also from Force Unleashed. Vader's secret apprentice. Yes I know that this is a guy but I want to make this costume especially since I saw that this particular one is accepted by the 501st. It's a long shot but I will try. And I gotta build twin lightsabers for this one. There are only a few of these in the 501st and I haven't seen this particular version.

A Work In Progress

These 3, well it's actually 2 when they are all said and done are my version of parts taken from the Naruto manga. I started working on them along time ago (in a galaxy far far away, sorry couldn't resist) and I never really finished them. Every now and then I work on them for maybe 30 minutes. One day I'll finish them. All of these were done in Photoshop.

This is Sakura from Naruto. It's taken from the issue where she is fighting Sasori a puppet master. She in fact is being controlled by the puppet master's grandmother by attached chakra strings. It's almost done. I'm just really missing her face.

These 2 actually are part of the same piece that is made up of 3 seperate pieces. This is also taken from the Naruto manga as well. The one on the right being Naruto and the one on the left is Gaara. This is right during an emotional scene when Gaara is dead and they are working on bringing him back. This is literally right when he comes back to life. I've got alot more work to do to these. The middle one will be a mix of the two. The first is them as kids and the second is the scene where Gaara comes back to life.

Random Tattoo Designs

These are a bunch of tattoo designs I made awhile back including one I now have on my left arm.

SWCV Schedule

It's official. The full schedule is out for the convention. With only a few TBA spots left.

http://www.starwarscelebration.com/en/Events/Schedule/

My wish to go see list is:
- Force of the Fetts with Jeremy Bulloch & Daniel Logan
- Hang at the Ice Bar
- Meet the 501st Legion
- The Clone Wars Evolution, The Dark Side Clous All, The Art Of Story Telling: all with Dave Filoni
- Force Unleashed 2 Demo
- Fan Mixer
- SW Prop Construction
- Costuming with Troopers
- The Reveal Of Season 3 of Clone Wars
- Get a Tattoo At The SW Tattoo Pavillion

Of course this doesn't include all the walking around and checking out sets, Druid builders, the TK auction, checking out the art gallery and of course meeting some of the actors and actresses.

Costume Process To Become Barriss Offee

After picking my character, Barriss Offee, then it came time to find clothes, She is one of the few that wears a crush velvet cloak which thanks to RenFest I happen to have one. As for the rest, off to the lcoal thrift store. Which on the first trip I scored the skirt. Brand new skirt including it's tags for $1.75. Next trip out I find the first shirt for $2.50. Next I needed boots. I always wanted Doc Martens so I splurged and bought $125 knee high, zip up black boots (in hind sight I should have bought German Jackboots since I'll be needing them for my Juno and Starkiller costume)

Somehwere and somehow I decided to not go with a screen accurate version but instead the story board verion of her death. Well but she's a force healer so I'm assuming she survived. So time to destroy everything, except the boots.

With a day off from work and a rolling cutter in hand I set to work. I started on the ankle length skirt and cutting it from right thigh to left ankle. I cut that side up and laced it corset style. I sewed in a button to keep it secure just incase the lacing fails.

Next I attacked the shirt. It was a long sleeve shirt. I went cut happy with it. By the time I was done, there were no sleeves and a ton of slash marks opening up the shirt. OOPS. I ended up cutting the back out and lacing it up corset style. Then it was pointed out it looked too RenFest. TRASHED!

A couple months later a trip to another thrift store was in store. I found black turtleneck for $5.00, which was what I really needed to be more along with the shirt she wears. And yes a turtleneck in Florida is not really brillant but I need it for a costume. I hand over the shirt to Jeremy and he sets to work. I found a material to match the ribbed pattern on the front of her shirt. We now added in blast holes to match the ones in cloak and added holes to the front of the shirt.

Back to the cloak. I had fear of what we were about to do. I was originally going to make a second cloak and destroy that one but I'm not that sew savvy yet and since I never wear this other one I've had for 8 years I thought why not. The cloak was too long even in heels which I wasn't going to wear so I trimmed off the bottom 6 inches or so to use as a test piece. This was the fun part, we discovered that alchol in a spray bottle and a light makes a nice burn pattern. Considered that a successful test we plan to burn the entire cloak. We roughed up the bottom then after I asked Jeremy's wife if they have home owners insurance I commenced with the burning. There was one bad one where I sprayed a tad too much alcohol and it went up quick but we were able to keep the burning under control. Next it was to mark up the back, cut it and then burn the edges. I freaked at this because it was a one time shot. We jumped in and in no time all was well and it looked like it had been shot in the back.

Only thing left to do is finish the belt.

My Back Tattoo...

...well maybe in a few more years. This is a design based off 3 tattoos I already had on my back. 1 has been added since. By doing that after 5 years I finally finished my wings. Which are a pair of tribal phoenix. Part of the bottom tattoo was my very first tattoo. As you can see more has been added to it for what my idea is to tattoo my whole back. The top at the neck is my astrological sign.

This one below is marked to show which ones are done and which ones aren’t.

First Attempt At Making SW Designs

I had started getting crazy ideas to do designs based on a few SW symbols. These were my original attempts.

First Time Trying Out Stilts

Let me point out. Someone with vertigo and stilts do not mix well. But I did finally get in them. As you can see I held on to that wall like my life depended on it. Before that it was the ceiling. I was to chicken to try walking. Maybe next time I'll move a foot or two. hahaha

Doing My Makeup Test Runs For CV

The character I'm becoming for Celebration, Barriss Offee, has a unique diamond pattern tattoo on her face. Well she is also olive skin but I'm passing on painting my body green for 4 days straight. She also has blue eyes. Notice, I don't have blue eyes or tattoos on my face.

I tried several different techniques. The first pic is from my first attempt using regular eyeliner. And also regular contacts. Had to try it on with the cloak. This cloak I bought at RenFest about 8 years ago. It finally has come in handy.

Not quite right but a good start. The next one is using water proof eyeliner. Since I'll be in a crowd when in costume and in the Florida heat, I don't want it sweating off. It took me about 20 minutes to draw all the diamonds and this is closer to how they are suppose to look. Also since

it was waterproof eyeliner it took almost an hour to wash it off my face. I have special contacts in. Black with red rims. Anime eyes is what they are called.

This was the third attempt with red contacts. Since I can't see because neither the red or black ones are scripted I decided since I already have blu scripted contacts I'll wear those. But had to try sith eyes out anyways.

So I started looking into other things as to how to do this tattoo. She also has diamonds on her hands. Those will just be done with a Sharpie. We found out what they used on Ray Park (a.k.a. Darth Maul Episode 1 Phantom Menace). They used an alcohol based makeup that won't come off with anything except alcohol. Upon looking into it, turns out it costs alot of money. We took a trip to the local costuming shop, House of Make Believe in Clearwater to find something to use. Also I was getting tired of hand drawing these things. Below is a pic of the stamp template in a diamond shape along with barrier spray to hold the make up in place and also special fx black make up. It takes me 5 minutes now to put the make up on. New pics to come with how it looks this way.

Here is the site for the contacts. They are in England. They have awesome stuff and great prices.

http://www.youknowit.com/

Want 2 See A Wampa Costume?

The view below is my friend Jeremy, see his site at http://mywampa.blogspot.com/ . When he found out about SWCV and he decided to build a Wampa. Just in case people don't know, the Wampa is the snow beast in the beginning of Episode 5 Empire Strikes Back that attackes Luke on the ice planet Hoth.

Check this video out on Becoming The Wampa. That is me, the official Wampa Handler, helping out. We will be at CV.

Check Out My Order 66 Conspiracy Theory

I go in depth in a theory I've come to believe about Order 66 thanks to watching The Clone Wars.

Check it out on my other site http://inkstressreviews.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-order-66-conspiracy-theory.html

The Lightsaber I Built...

I wanted to make my own lightsaber instead of using one of the kid's lightsabers or spend $350 for Battle-Ready Force FX Lightsaber. So I went about looking for how to build one.



My first attempt was to make one of PVC. I'm a graphic artist. I deal with all my artwork on Photoshop and Illustrator not "real life" stuff. So this was a new stretch for me. I made a Photoshop version of what I was attempting. That was so much easier then the first one. I won't bore you with the details of how bad the PVC one turned out. Half way through it I realized that I wasn't happy with it so I called it my first attempt.



I ended up buying one of the kid's one. Darth Vader of course. It's lights up and has sound. I also bought a resign lightsaber hilt from MegaCon which is still sitting on my shelf untouched. I'm not to savvy of a painter either. Further down the line I bought they cheap twin ones that light up. They remember of glow stick wars when I act light I know how to sword fight.

Once again, thanks to Jeremy, he sent me some links to a how to site along with a video on how to build a light saber.

http://bigyellowbox.tripod.com/
http://www.indymogul.com/backyardfx/episode/BFX_20080811

After yelling for 30 minutes because he knew I'd try to make this and then making sure he had all the tools I set about making a shopping list. Off to Lowes the next day. After spending $45, I was set and ready to make my own lightsaber out of chrome extension pipes. I borrowed a pipe cutter from Jeremy and a drimmel. That weekend I took the pieces to my dad's to cut out the handle grips and the emitter tubing. By the nights end I had everything glued together. I had done what every Jedi has done. Made my own lightsaber, with the exception of no blade, nor lights, or sound. But I have the hilt. I didn't know I could make something like this. I will have this as part of my costume for SWCV.

Check Out My Death Troopers Review

I just did my first review on the Star Wars book, Death Troopers.

Visit my other site http://inkstressreviews.blogspot.com/2010/07/death-troopers-review.html

New tattoo design

This is a tattoo I designed the other night. It is Aurebesh which is the Star Wars Basic language. When I found out that there will be a tattoo pavilion at SWCV I wanted to make my own tattoo to be done. My thoughts are to put this above my current right wrist tattoo.

The Character I Picked To Become...

...with the help of Jeremy searching on Wookieepedia.

I had a difficult time picking a Star Wars character to become for CV. After much research, we found Barriss Offee.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Barris_Offee

Most women choose Princess Leia, Padme, Mara Jade, and so on of the known females of SW. Not to mention all of these and most are really skinny. And that's not me. So I choose one that I would be comfortable being.

She is in Attack of the Clones in 2 scenes for like 45 seconds. (No I didn't time it but it's close to that) And now she is becoming a major player in Clone Wars.

It has been said that if it doesn't happen in the movies, it's not cannon. However, on that link above, there is a storyboard of her death on Felucia. She is shot in the back by an AT-TE by Bly after Order 66 went into affect.

I choose something different to do. I choose to make a version of her after her "death." She is a force healer and I'm going on the assumption that she would have healed herself. Not a Jedi, nor a Sith, what I've created with help is an in-between version. A pissed off version but not pushed to have become a Dark Jedi either. I've never seen something like this. I've seen people make costumes of her but not like this. And this is who I will be at SWCV.

Bucket List

Everyone has a bucket list. A list of all the things we want to do before we die. Some make this early in life, others make it late in life. I choose to make my list before I turn 30 in January 2011.


I've done alot of my life. Crazy things, insane things, fun things, things that mean something to me.
- I've ridden in a racecar around Daytona Speedway and Disney Speedway
- I became a SCUBA diver, now a nitrox diver
- Bought a Wrangler
- Played in the snow
- Dived while sharks were around
- Meet one of my favorite bands, Papa Roach
- Got to go stand on stage while Three Days Grace was playing on stage
- Have many signed things from my favorite band, musical, author and movie
- Been to Dale Earnhardt Inc.
- Danced in the same hotel that was were Dirty Dancing was filmed, vacationed there many times
- Dived during a tropical storm
- Been tattooed
- Been piereced
- Gone to Megacon
- Seen the Bucs win a Super Bowl

Those are the things I've done, now these are the things that I want to do:
- Go to Star Wars Celebration (just under 4 weeks I'll get my wish)
- Go to San Diego Comicon
- Join the 501st with making a Starkiller/Galen Marek costume and Juno Eclipse costume
- Meet Dale Earnhardt Jr
- Meet Carrie Fisher
- Meet Ray Park
- Meet Mark Hamil
- See George Lucas in person
- Write and publish a book (4 in the works)
- Dive the Great Barrier Reef
- Dive in Hawaii
- Take an Alaskan cruise
- Go to Glastonbury, England the supposed site of Avalon
- See a musical on Broadway
- Move out of Florida
- Go to Dragoncon
- Go to C2E2
- Go to E3
- Start a podcast with my friends
- Finish my full back tattoo
- Swim with dolphins
- Explore the Aztec and Mayan temples
- Travel Europe
- Go to Japan
- Learn to tattoo

This list can and will change at any time. :)

SWCV

So back in Nov/Dec last year it was announced that not only Star Wars Celebration 5 would be held in the US it's being held in hour away from here in Orlando. My friend Jeremy told me about it and we decided to go. I mean seriously it's Star Wars. This is the convention to rival Comicon and it's all Star Wars.

Most of us (I say most because I do know people that have never seen SW) grew up on this. The year I graduated from high school was the year Episode 1 The Phantom Menace came out. Hell the end of the speech given by the student body president was "May the force be with you." I can't remember anything else about that speech but this. We waited then for Attack of the Clones and then again Revenge of the Sith. Now we have Clone Wars and are awaiting Galactic Heroes and the live action show. We watch movies that have people in it from SW. Everytime the movies are on we sit and watch them. We read the books (which I know own about half the collection), we played the video games. And now I get to experience a convention with thousands of SW fans from all over the world. We join together to pay homage to the man, George Lucas. We show off the costumes we made. We go to buy things there that you can't find in stores. We go to watch all the movies and the animated series with our fellow fans. We go to meet our heroes from our childhoods. We go to have a good time.

My 30th birthday isn't til January but this is my present to myself. Even though it's 5 months early. Looks like I get a SW party after all. :)

http://www.starwarscelebration.com/

Intro

Hi all, my name is Genna. I'm a graphic artist. I love art and tattoos. I've recently started getting into costuming thanks to Star Wars Celebration 5 and my friend Jeremy http://mywampa.blogspot.com/ I helped him build a Wampa. I made a Jedi costume including made my own lightsaber hilt. I plan to make more costumes and eventually apply to get into the 501st.

I also have 15 tattoos and designed one of them that I currently have on my arm. I've also designed a few for friends including a dreamcatcher for my friend Joey. I have a design ready to go for my back and several other designs.

I read alot, collect alot of different things and I game as well. Inkstress is my gamer tag on the Playstation Network. I'm also on Facebook and Twitter. Twitter name is thewampahandler.

I shall post more including my art, my tats, and my costumes.