aimeekitty | Gallifrey One 2009 prelim report

I've been nominated for "favorite artist" in the Children of Time Awards, please vote for me? I'm under the "art" section. Note: you can vote for all sections, or just the one you're familiar with if you like.

Gallifrey One 2009. This was my first Doctor Who con! I was very honored to be asked as a guest.
I had a really great time and I'm definitely going back next year unless someone locks me in a closet or something.

:::::::::::::: ARTWORK :::::::::::::::::

I really wanted to do some new artwork for Gallifrey One and for my new sketchbook! So now since the con is over, I can show you some of it!
These three below and more new artwork are in my Doctor Who sketchbook. (email me if you want one! aimeeATaimeemajor.com replace AT with @.... I only have a limited amount left. SPECS: The book is roughly 8 by 5 inches and is 64 pages, staple-bound. Color cover, BW interior.

~ fave on DA

~ fave on DA

:::::::::SATURDAY:::::::::
Wendy Pini and I at the Go!Comi booth. (I'm in my Impossible Planet Rose outfit)

Also enjoyed listening to the Writing for Doctor Who panel and Phil Collinson's panel. The writers were adorable and funny. It was so cute to hear about how they felt each time they had to start writing the Doctor's dialogue, that they were worried it wouldn't be right, that it'd be crap. "But the Doctor is REAL on TV and this is just something I'm writing!" I feel like that each time I'm given a script and have to start storyboarding or animating from it. Guess it's the same for everyone, huh?
As to Phil Collinson's panel, it was very mellow. It was just like Phil was sitting on a couch in your living room and having a quiet conversation with you. How charming! One highlight for me was someone asking about their choice to have romance in the new show. Phil's response was basically that they really wanted the audience to feel that between the Doctor and his companion, that they just really LOVED traveling together, that they adored each other, but most of all a feeling of "joie de vivre". Oh, Phil, that's why I love Doctor Who,... the joie de vivre!

Had several costuming panels! Those were fun! It was so nice meeting more Who costumers!

Inbetween panels I got to talk with some of the writers in the green room. It was really nice to talk to Paul Cornell about his Human Nature/ Family of Blood episodes. And we also talked about why we Americans say ROBIN Hood and not Robin HOOD, or not Robin of Locksley or whatever. (But Human Nature/Family of Blood... they really are two of my favorite episodes. Mitch and I had just recently rewatched them. I always cry!)

Also David Howe and Sam Stone were super nice. Poor things had to keep guessing who I was every time I changed wigs though. :) Also learned that apparently British folks do not have NERF guns! (is this really true?) Sam was rocking gorgeous corsets all weekend! While Tony Lee rocked his stripey vests, which fit in quite well with the multitude of stripey cosplayers at this con. (Judy and I joked that it was the pinstripe con + Captain Jack.)

I got a lot of positive feedback on Japan Ai and my Doctor Who sketchbook from the other guests and congoers too, which of course makes me all warm and fuzzy. <3

----- OUR MASQUERADE------

so... I love Doctor Who. I also love sequins and musicals.

I told my HCC girlfriends about this idea last year and they gave me the "you're crazy, Aimee" look. Ha ha... I put it off as ridiculous until Gallifrey invited me as a guest and then suddenly it seemed like it simply MUST BE DONE. By this point I had converted my coworkers Crisso and Derek into Doctor Who fans. I already had a basic idea for the skit... then Crisso said... "how about a DANCING TARDIS". At this point, we drew a gimpy TARDIS with arms coming out on a postit and went squeeing over to Derek's cube and leaned over his cube wall and went "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE". Eventually Derek gave in. Then convinced Miriam and Judy to join the insanity as The Master and Donna.

I put Crisso in my Idiot's Lantern Rose Tyler dress (now with accurate jacket), I bought a suit and covered it in sequins for myself (and made a tie and bought sequin converses.), got full confetti-dot shirt and glitter suspenders for Mitch's Capn Jack, Miriam found an insane black sparkly jacket, Judy made a Donna with 2,000 sequins, and Derek and Crisso together made the DANCING TARDIS... including Michael Jackson gloves and sequined converses.

video of Doctor Whosical - Much thanks to bluejeans07 for taking video for us! :)
(sorry you can't see the TARDIS' sparkly sneakers! But he is moonwalking!)

Some stills:
Stalling for the music to start XD

AWWW! XD

Jack makes his move. XD
I love how the Master is laughing in the corner.

OH MY GOD, DONNA!

OH MY GOD, TARDIS!

Also, there were some really great costumes in the masq! My favorite were the Vashta Nerada spacesuits from Forest of the Dead/ Silence in the Library. OH MAN. SO AWESOME. They even had a drop-down skull in their helmet! (it dropped down over their face!)

Afterwards we shuffled (in costume) to the room with the TARDIS! Derek (in his DANCING TARDIS outfit) started dancing and spinning around much to the delight of pretty much everyone and their brother! I could not stop laughing. (video to come)

:::::::::SUNDAY:::::::::
Doing an art demo at the booth (I drew the Tenth Doctor, starting with a sketch and then moving to full color.) Then we did Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who got to keep the original. Afterwards I did an autograph session. Thanks to everyone who bought my books and artwork this weekend! It encourages me to do more!

Also Judy and I did another costuming panel and chatted with more folks.

Me with the Fourth Doctor (from)
(this, btw, was the first debut of my actual hair that weekend. lol)

Go!Comi took some video of my Steampunk costume and TARDIS remote lighting up!

Highlight for me of the day was the Journey's End live commentary and pretty much EVERYONE in the audience crying like babies for the bit with Donna. WE LOVE YOU, DONNA.

The folks running the green room and just the con staff in general were really really nice. I've been to a lot of cons, and I really liked the atmosphere of this one. Thanks for a great con, Shaun and all your staff!