Día de los Muertos, try saying that really fast without knowing a single word of Spanish! At least that’s my excuse in case my pronunciation sounded way off

This chapter is an old one I did some time last year, heavily influenced by the beautiful sugar skull paintings by Sylvia Ji.

I’m making an effort to go back and re-create some of my older Book of Fable chapters, and with Halloween just around the corner this seemed perfect Apologises for the late upload, I tend to always upload my videos on Thursday night and blog post goes out on Fridays. Work and general life are making sticking to a schedule a little more challenging, but I’m determined to get there eventually! Thank you so much for your patience.

You’ll notice the look has changed a little since my last post on it, I think that’s pretty inevitable as your skills improve (hopefully!). Hope you enjoy the look

Special thanks to Neil Creek for taking some amazing photos of this look Please check out Neil Creek’s Photo Albums on Facebook or Smugmug.

Revlon ColorStay Eyeliner – Black
Stila Smudge Pot – Black
MAC Powerpoint Eye Pencil – Engraved
NYX Single Eyeshadow – Black
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil – Rocky Mountain Green
BH Cosmetics 120 Colors Palette Eyeshadow – 02
NYX Round Lipstick – Snow White
Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer – Beige
MAC Mineralise Skinfinish Natural – Light

Remember the latest Book of Fables? Entitled Swamp Creature? Well, after I shot that video I did a very mini photoshoot with Neil Creek

The vision for the shoot was completely his own, I merely played model and did as I was told. Neil brought out two flashes on either side of me to create even more contrast which gave me a very enraged look! And I love it The transformation is so dramatic <3 It makes me want to do even more dramatic transformation for future chapters I'd love to transform into something / someone completely unrecognisable!

Special thanks to Nomi for editting the first photo (and always providing great creative direction!), if you like you can check out the rest of the photos at Neil’s site. Hope you enjoy the photos and so looking forward to more shoots with Neil

I can attest to the fact that the few seconds or minutes it takes to watch a video or look at photos is just a glimpse into the level of work and preparation it takes behind the scenes. I thought it might be fun to take you guys on a journey on how I conduct my photo and video shoots for both a Book of Fables chapter and general photo shoots. 2012 is a year for big plans and I’m hoping to really get my creative juices flowing so that I can start seriously collaborating with some of my friends.

As you can see above, I do my best to list out all the dates I need to hit for my chapters, and list out the idea of the chapter at least 2-3 months in advance. That gives me enough time to make sure I have the correct costume / prop, and if not, enough time to make / buy it. Hmmm… “Sweet Rainbow” is coming up this Friday, I wonder what that is ^_~

Every single Book of Fables chapter is always first sketched out in my sketch book. You might be able to see some familiar chapters above I have two sketch books already filled with makeup looks, but many of my sketches never materialise, so many chapters are rejected (in fact there are a number chapters that are actually filmed, and never make it online as I don’t deem the quality high enough)

I am by no means a master planner, in fact I know many of my close friends will agree that I don’t actually plan enough (one of my resolutions for 2012), but planning is really and truly so essential for a strong execution of any concept and creative project.

This is especially true for videos, I have already started storyboarding a ton of videos I hope to film this year, but as all the ideas are still new and haven’t been filmed yet, I will show you those storyboards on the next post for this series

Costumes are exactly the same, but worse. It’s one thing to draw a costume out in it’s entirety, but you then need to sketch out each individual piece of the costume, whether that be shoes, pants, top, accessories etc. And worse still, it’s important to sketch out how the pieces will be made and fit together. You probably can’t tell, but I have tons of tiny little notes scribbled next to each piece of the outfit to tell me how long I think it will take to make, what sort of colour it should, what sort of fabric I need, how much of it etc.

The next process is sticking little post it notes all over the costumes. If you think I have a lot of makeup, you should see my fabric collection! Unfortunately no matter what costume I am making, I never have every piece I need already in my collection, and so the post it notes tell me what materials I need to buy to complete the costume, how much of it and where I can buy it.

I know this all seems terribly organised for some, but trust me, I could do a lot better. And the reason I wasn’t able to produce any new proper costumes last year was thanks to my lack of planning.

The next post I hope to do on this topic will be around storyboarding for my videos I’m not sure whether I covered everything you guys wanted to know in this post, or whether you would prefer it in video format? But let me know, I’m only happy to accommodate, I want to give you guys a real feel for the work that goes into every video / photo

Many moons ago, back when I shot the “Glow” Book of Fables chapter, my dearest friend Sefie was at the same shoot, prepping herself for what would turn out to be a truly epic photo shoot.

Both Sefie and I are active gamers and Starcraft 2 is one of the many games we’ve spent faar too much time playing. Sefie decided to cosplay Kerrigan, Queen of Blades and the Zerg.

The thing about Sefie is that she is actually a “cookie” blogger, but her cosplay and makeup abilities supersede even some professionals in the industry She’s truly a multi-talented individual!

I had originally planned to make this is makeup tutorial, but discovered I didn’t have enough footage for that, so instead I will present with you videos and photos shot by the talented Neil Creek

All makeup, wig and styling done by Sefie, she can cook, she can sew and she does makeup! All the photos and video (except for the credits video which was shot by SurfacedStudio) was shot by Neil Creek.

Both Sefie and Neil make a dynamite team and I think the photos and videos clearly show this. I know we are all looking forward to doing future shoots together (just a matter of finding time )

A couple of weekends ago Sam asked if I could play the role of makeup artist for a Korean Pop shoot she had in mind. So glad I had Annie there to help me because prior to that day I had no idea what Korean pop was (though I imagined it would have been kinda similar to Japanese Pop)

I did the make up for both Hitomi and Magdalen, these two girls are naturally gorgeous, so easy models to work on Hitomi provided me with some photos of Korean Pop Stars to work out

Annie is responsible for Mitch’s gorgeous makeup, any guy who tells me “men can’t wear makeup” needs a smack across the head, men look just as good in makeup as women do~ Makeup is for everyone, not a particular gender

Photos above are by Elias Lopez, whom you all know is one of my favourite photographers You can see more from the shoot here.

Another entry to MUG‘s bi-monthly competition, this time we have an Arabian look, though I reckon I came out looking a bit more Indian than Arabian

Special thanks goes out to Elias and Annie, Elias is responsible for taking these amazing photos! If you haven’t seen his work yet, you must check it out~! And Annie for being my stylist and makeup advisor~! This girl seriously needs to be at every single shoot I ever attend, she is the best stylist, makeup artist, fashion designer and photographer assistant all in one! I love these guys <3

Also shout out goes to the talented Sam <3 Who organised an amazing shoot that day which I attended to play makeup artist and graciously allowed me to borrow some space for this shoot I will post about the shoot very soon~

All my jewellery was on sale at Diva and have been altered by myself. The scarf is one of my beautiful Louis Vuitton scarves, I absolutely love it (though haven’t worn it out yet) it has a map of the entire world on it~ I confess, I’m a huge LV addict though I do my best to hide my addiction from most people

MAC Prep + Prime – Base Face Visage
Maybelline Super Stay Makeup 24hr – Nude *
Bobbi Brown Bronzing Powder – Light
NARS Powder Blush – Orgasm
NYX Mosaic Powder – Highlighter
Coastal Scents – 78 Eye Shadow and Blush Combo Palette
MAC Fluidline – Blacktrack
Maybelline Falsies – Very Black
Maybelline Clear Brow Gel
False Lashes
DUO Eyelash Glue – Dark Tone
Savvy by DB Lipliner – Cosmos
Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick – Yummy Plummy

_{Item marked with * has been sent for consideration}

Face
After primer and foundation, take a bronzing powder and contour the face to sharpen all your features. Use a matte highlighter to highlight the high points to assist with this, and finish off with a pink blush to the cheeks. This process will probably the take the longest, but do take your time because if done well it will stand out!

Eyes
Prime your lids, then dust a white eye shadow all over the brow bone, inner corner of your eyes and lower lash line. Take a gold eye shadow and apply with your finger directly on the lid. Next take a maroon shadow and apply directly into the crease, blending upwards. Don’t blend into the eye lid, we want a distinct cut look.

Next take a black gel liner and line your upper lash line, winging it out. I would next time consider either drawing a thicker liner or smudging it out a bit, I don’t think I used enough liner for my look. Draw a line just below your lower lash line, traditionally Arabian women line their water line, but for a bit of a different twist to the look I decided on this instead

Curl your lashes, apply a coat of mascara and then apply your false lashes.

Define and extend your brows with a dark brown eye shadow and set with a clear gel.

Lips
Line and fill in your lips with a dark red lip liner, then cover up with a plummy lipstick.

2011 has been a surprisingly amazing year for me in terms of print media, and to be honest, ask me this a year ago and I would have never ever dreamed that anyone would ever want me to appear in any print media. I’m nobody! The experience has really been a dream come true, and with all the recently media publications, I couldn’t feel more blessed and honoured.

After my appearance in The Age, I was contacted by RMIT to do some promotional shots for their Japanese Exhibition to appear on their website and on Melbourne Metro’s MX newspaper (which finishes up on the 17th of March, entry is free so be sure to check it out if you have the time!!).

Check out the title placement, my friends had a good laugh over that!

They specifically requested for my Hikaru costume, and of course I couldn’t say no! It makes me insanely happy to know that the hours of intense labour and pain that went into creating my Hikaru costume is in a way really paying off! (Even though just the creation of the costume and shooting with my friends alone is payment enough and always has been~ This extra stuff is just cake.)

The MX newspaper is distributed within the Melbourne CBD only, which is where my day job (for the most part) is, and whilst I’ve never sought for approval from my co-workers, it was amazing to learn that the great majority of them are so supportive of my crazy costuming life~ (there are always bad eggs in every basket). I feel so blessed for the incredibly opportunities I’ve been given, I am truly a very lucky person <3 Thank you so much to RMIT and MX for the opportunity!

Last week I posted about being featured in The Summer Age where I did my best to represent the hobby of cosplay I had been asked earlier to come in for a quick photo shoot!

Thankfully work kindly gave me the morning off and Surfaced was lovely to come and support me and take a bunch of behind the scene photos~ Apologises for the poor quality, we were using my old crappy but highly portable point and shoot

You can see how dark and tight the studio was this time! Which shows you that just cause a photo looks glamourous and amazing, doesn’t mean that’s what it really looks like “behind the scenes” And omg, I know I look like a midget in these photos! I swear I’m not~ I know like…. 3 other people who are shorter than me, seriously!

_{I saw these guys outside bathing / playing…. if you know me, you know I love to watch birds}

Couple of weekends ago a group of my friends and I set out to do the shoot I had dreamed of doing for many years now, Magic Knight Rayearth manga version! Growing up on anime, Rayearth was one of the first series I become addicted to and I’ve always loved Shidou Hikaru the most (check out the shrine I made for her 11 years ago, and check out my web / graphics skills way back in 2000)

Our photographer was the ever talented Neil Creek, with help from his equally talented wife Naomi Creek and Surfaced I cosplay Hikaru (red), Sefie was Fuu (green) and Annie was Umi (blue).

Here are some of my favourite photos from the shoot.

I am putting together a video montage / documentary of the behind the scenes shoot and hope to upload it for all of you very soon I had the most amazing time on this shoot, it was filled with laughs and bugs, and the company was second to none

Thank you to everyone who was involved, you really came through for me and made me incredibly happy, thank you so much <3

_{I’m totally printing this photo in memory of my gorgeous friends and I doing what we love best}

It happened again and I couldn’t believe how lucky and fortunate I was! This time I felt so much more prepared as I had a costume I truly felt proud of to show off (I was Xiao Qiao from Dynasty Warriors 6) I was recently interviewed and did a photo shoot for a small article on cosplay for The Summer Age (a Melbourne newspaper). After the interview I did for The Age last time, I didn’t think an opportunity like this would come around again so I was absolutely thrilled when it did.

My article was finally published last Saturday and I wanted to share some scans with my readers, especially those who don’t live in Melbourne and were keen to read the article. Be warned, they misspelt my name Which seems to happen a lot! Always Celine, not Celina~

Click the image above for a much larger version that should be readable

I even got them to mention Fables in the article Which I’m extremely happy about since I’ve found it is pretty hard to get any sort of blog publicity in print (even if it’s only a tiny mention hehe). I will be posting about the behind the scenes shoot for this article next week