Spotlight: Alexia Jean Grey (Pt. 2)

I've been pretty lazy since the Annapolis Comic-Con's Halloween coolness came and went.  I met a lot of friendly and badass artists and there were a ton of costumes for such a small venue.  But between that and us moving into a new place, I've been rubbish with the updates.  But no more. 
Alexia Jean Grey, our spotlight cosplayer this month launched her website Halloween night:
alexiajeangrey.com

Superhero Photography by Adam Jay

In honor of that, here's part two of her interview.  And some more photos.  For some reason those seem to be popular too...

Delicious!

So, I know you make your own costumes.  How long do the costumes you make take, on average?  What are obstacles and difficulties with some outfits?

- Every costume has its bounds and leaps. Honestly the hard part is how to make things practical and wearable (or how to simply how to take it off to use the bathroom in it - that is actually a challenge in a lot of my costumes, ha!)
The easiest thing to do for people starting out is to find your strengths, for some it's sewing, for others it's sculpting. If you're creative and passionate, the rest just comes with practice. I do make and modify a lot of my costumes but I also love collaborating and wearing other people's art. There are some people who think you need to make everything or a majority of it to be considered good at costuming/cosplaying, but honestly I am honored that other artists believe I am great model to wear there creations. Jester FX was the main man behind my Batgirl costume, his sculpting skills are incredible and was blessed to be a part of his work. I also collaborated with Carlos Blanchard from Rage Custom Creations on my Ivy costume.

Socially awkward. 
photosNXS

It seems like you have to have a healthy dose of self confidence to wear some of the costumes.  were you shy at first?  and now?

- Oh I have always been extremely shy and always considered myself one of those "socially awkward penguins". But costuming broke me out of my shell. The first couple times I went to conventions I wouldn't really talk to anyone, but costuming helped me boost my confidence. And even though sometimes I am not the most talkative person when I get in front of a camera I focus my energy on the character I am portraying and model the best I can. I look at how I want the image to look in the end and use that as my guide instead of pressuring myself when the photographer is there. It's all practice and learning. Modeling is a lot of trial and error you just need to get that one shot, sometimes it may take seven hours to do it but it's all worth it in the end.

Are there misconceptions people have about what you do?  For example when I followed links to your Facebook, I saw that you were a full time costumer and my first thought was that maybe you model in costume, but weren't really into the geek/comic culture.  Reading your posts, it's clear you that isn't the case.  You know your stuff.

Minus Kneesocks!

- Oh the joys of purism between hardcore geeks and (not so much) models. There are probably misconceptions about me, but once you find out about me I really am just a geeky weirdo in a costume. Do I know every single fight scene in every single comic book? No.  Frankly I just don't have the time or money to collect everything. I do play games, read comics, and watch anime, and I pick characters based on their personality/powers. I have noticed a lot lately that there are so many articles about "fake geeks" or "women are just looking for attention since it's a male fan-based industry."  I find it very silly; to be completely honest if a girl (or guy) just wants to dress up and have fun, just let them. They're not coming over to your house and ripping up your MTG cards and cutting Xbox cords. Since when do people need to be quizzed on there knowledge of a subject matter to have fun with what they're doing? It's like people liking bands, they don't need to know everything about the artist; they could just simply like the sound of the music. 

Wait, is this in continuity?
J Holmes Photography

-What's the next costume?  How do you come up with ideas or decide what's next?
I have been working on a few costumes, Right now I am planning on what will be shown for next year since most of the major conventions are over with. I have a new costume for NYCC which you can see on my Facebook page. I don't want to give too much away but I will say my next for sure costumes are.. one has blue skin, one is a fierce warrior, one is a street fighter, and another is an artist's original design on two different characters.

How long will you continue to do it?

- Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Honestly I never want to stop, I always want to challenge myself and make each costume and photoshoot better than the last. Basically until they run out of comic book characters!

Michael Iacca

Spotlight: Alexia Jean Grey (Pt. 1)

Are all the coolest comic women redheads?
Scroll down for your answer.

I saw Alexia Jean Grey at the costume contest, waiting with everyone else to go in.  Tip: this is a great time to catch/shoot all the costumes you hadn't seen before.
She was one of several Black Widows at the convention, and, as i came to find out, a fan favorite.  I noticed that when I went ahead and took a lap around the internet checking out photos and blogs from the Baltimore Comic-Con.  And I saw that everyone had a photo of her.  Everyone.  Ever.  Blogs, flickr galleries and websites like Women of Comicbook Cosplay - she's everywhere. This led me to ask, "So, wait.  Her job is to go from convention to convention and be basically a full-time costumer?"  In short, pretty much.  But what Alexia does would be more accurately called a labor of love, putting together and perfecting new looks and costumes with every convention.  She just finished a trip to New York Comic-Con (where she unveiled a female Dexter costume.  From Dexter's Lab!  Love it!)  But before that trip, I was able to borrow some of her time and ask a few questions.


I see that you have been traveling a lot the past few months.  Is this more or less the life for you, going from con to con?  

It has become that way certainty. This is the first year I started traveling the country to conventions. I was always a little worried before going to places before and my fear of planes but decided it would be best for me to travel to more shows. In previous years I would hit maybe between 4-7 shows a year this year I believe I will be hitting 15 shows by Dec. It has been awesome and really great to see how different the conventions are from coast to coast and getting to meet so many talented artists and fellow costumers. Next year I plan on hitting the west and the midwest more, I will be going to a couple in my area though I will be a guest at Megacon 2013 as well as Supercon 2013. There are still so many shows though I hope I can go to in the near future!

I think a lot of people have no idea that there are models who travel and do multiple conventions and appearances per year.  Did you start off local and decide it would be fun to try doing it more often; or was it something else that got you into being full time?

Michael Iacca

I think there are many costumers who would love to fly around to shows. I always wanted to, but a bit of fear of being alone in a strange place was holding me back. I did start off local.  I would pretty much go anywhere within driving distance and if the money was there. My first fly-away to convention was Philly this year and after that show I was determined to take on as many guest spots as I was offered and shows I was able to go to. There are so many great photographers across the states I would like to meet and work with so I needed to take the plunge and just go for it.

I know people can be a little critiquey, especially online and especially about costume accuracy.  But are the people/experiences you have generally positive?  What about in person with other cosplayers, etc. 

- I have been lucky to get a lot of postive feedback about my costumes. Everyone has different opinions on what makes a good costume or not, in fact there are some people who flat out hate costumers in general. That all comes with the territory and just takes a lot strength not to fight about it with the person. There's a difference between critiques and trolls. Take criticism but just ignore the trolls. It's all internet courage and they would never say it to your face in person so never take the internet seriously. I always try to make friends with fellow costumers, were all in the same boat and I understand that sometimes you just run out of time or money to make your costume "perfect". We all sit there and stress out about how it looks, and complain about how sweaty we are and how bad our feet hurt. You will probably run into people who you may not like or may not like you (and sometimes for no reason). Even when they talk about you negatively just don't bother with it, there are to many people out there to get wrapped up about one person just simply ignore it.

Superhero Photography by Adam Jay

http://alexia-jean-grey.deviantart.com/

What has been your favorite costume so far?   I see for almost every new place you go there's a new look.  How many do you do/how often do you do new ones?

- I think overall my favorite costume/fans favorite costume is my Black Widow. Even though she is a simpler costume I put my own twist on her and try really hard to capture the essence of the character in pictures. I have probably two pages full of costumes I would love to do. It all depends on the money and the time between shows if I can do them. I always try to have a new costume for the major conventions (i.e. I will have a new one for NYCC). I just like surprising people with what I will come up with next, I try to make every charcter unique to me and how I would realistically see them. There are some costumes I would love to recreate perfectly but most I try to do something that has not been seen before.

Brian Humprhey Photography

*We'll post part two of the interview soon, but in the meantime, Check out her Facebook fan page.
As for me, I think I have found a new goal.  To lose 40 several pounds and grow some sweet mutton chops and be a full time Wolverine costumer!