Here's A Drawing of My Precious Reika-sama 😍💕

Reika Arikawa is a cosplayer from Osaka, Japan. She is very well-known in the world of cosplay. Although she's a woman, she loves cosplaying male characters and she's really great at it.

Around 2013, I got the chance to see her in person during one of the biggest cosplay conventions here in my place. I worked the night shift those days, so my job starts from 10pm until 7am. The convention was on a Saturday and the venue was quite far from my house, more than 2 hours away.
What I and my bestie did was work that Friday night and go directly to the convention the next day. Yes... zom!ie mode, but we didn't care for the love of Reika-sama. We got home almost midnight the next night, so we were both awake for more than 24 hours straight. It was worth it, though. We saw Reika-sama in the flesh.

She is very cute and has such a beautiful skin. She has been my ultimate girl crush since then. :) It was one of the cosplay conventions that I'll never forget!

So much for reminiscing, here's my drawing of Reika-sama!

Just disregard my face. I just included a selfie as proof. :) Anyway, I madevit using colored pencils on my sketchpad, so let me share the steps.

Let's start with the pencil sketch, beginning with the facial features. :)

Sketching done! So, let's start with my favorite part... coloring! :)

Facial features done, so let's continue with the skin and then move on to her hair. :)

This is her usual look with contact lens and makeup when she's not cosplaying. She maintained having short hair so she need not have a hard time when putting on her wig whenever she cosplays. She looks good with whatever hairstyle, though. :)

Let's continue coloring the rest of the fanart.

And we're done. Let me just write my username and signature then color the background. :)

Enjoy more angles of the completed artwork.

It's been a long time since I went to a cosplay convention. I haven't been to one since 2017 or maybe early 2018, I think? The last time I went, I was with a Japanese friend and some blogger friends from HIVE. :)

I miss my cosplayer and otaku friends. It would be awesome to go to conventions again. Despite being an introvert, going to cosplay conventions has been an exception for me. Well, I usually use up all my energy afterwards, so I have to stay away from people for weeks after that. hahaha

Anyway, it's my first time drawing Reika-sama. I'd love to draw her... maybe in cosplay next time. I'll do my best!

I'll end this post here for now. Thanks a lot and see you next time!