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He’s amazing to have around helping out, especially for cosplay. Todd is also super creative since he’s a cosplayer too (that’s how we met!), and we share a lot of the same interests. How does having a partner-in-crime who has the same interests help you both in your professional career as well as your personal life? The block button comes in handy! It’s wonderful to see how supportive your husband Todd is about your endeavors. You just have to learn how to handle these types of situations, unfortunately. Of course, having a large following does inevitably mean encountering a few bad apples, and I’ve had a number of people become a bit stalker-ish or cross the line. I don’t have an issue with people telling me I should or should not be doing or creating whatever arbitrary thing they want, and overall they are just supportive of whatever I’m doing at the time. Overall, my fans and followers for both my art and cosplay are pretty great. What’s it like being in the spotlight? Do you feel like there’s pressure from your fans and followers? Photo by Big White Bazooka With massive success comes massive judgment.
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I haven’t been able to take more than one or two classes at a time since I started working professionally, but I’m hoping to take some time off and really dive into oil painting at some point.Ĭrystal Graziano as Mourningstar and Lee Reherman as Typhon of Firefall. It was way more affordable than going to a university, and the education I got enabled me to start landing jobs after only a year. Honestly, it’s been amazing! I started at Watts Atelier in 2014, and it changed my life. It was really a dream opportunity.Īside from your cosplay, I know you’ve been going to school to study art, which I think is a really brave and incredible thing to do. We had some amazing interactions with fans, and the costumes were made by Steve Wang, the same guy responsible for the Predator suit, Hellboy costumes, and more. After a few emails and an interview, I got the gig! That whole year was amazing I went to four shows in the US and one in Germany with the team, which included the late Lee Reherman as my cosplay partner for Typhon.
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I had a great experience with Firefall! They were looking for a cosplayer to be their character Mourningstar at shows, and one of my awesome cosplay fans suggested me to the company. Lovecrow & Nightshade by Crystal Graziano I remember a few years back you got a really amazing gig with the video game company Firefall. Rather than getting a more conventional side job, I found more ways to monetize my art via Patreon and my own prints sales. I was fortunate in that I had started to get freelance work offers around that time, but the income for freelance when you’re starting out isn’t great, especially when you’re the only one supporting two people in Southern California. My husband was laid off about a year after I started my art classes, so I very suddenly had to start making money to support us both. Did you encounter any obstacles or troublesome times when you were starting out? It was more a leap of desperation that wound up making me a living. I knew that most jobs besides art would bore me out of my mind, so I left the university to go study art at a private atelier and hoped for the best. I’d been drawing for a few months in my spare time while going to college with zero interest in my major. Copyright© Mini STUDIO Publishing Group.Stevonnie & Lion by Crystal Graziano What first got you interested in art and cosplay?įor art, I mainly wanted to draw fan art of my favorite games and shows, and for cosplay I wanted to make costumes for those same things! I’ve developed more interest in painting original works, but I still really love doing fan tributes both in art and cosplay. In its group, the company Mini STUDIO Publishing Group d.o.o has successfully expanded its portfolio to the Luxury, Lifestyle and Living segments, where it has maintained its leading position for more than a decade: Mini STUDIO Publishing Group d.o.o is a digital company, which in 2009 positioned itself as a leader in the field of luxury in Serbia and the region, focusing its development on the global market as well.
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