Convention:
I have chosen to attend ACen2k4 with a small group of friends as sort of our "last hurrah", since one of them leaves for the Navy in the fall. Just for the heck of it, we're all undertaking rather elaborate cosplay projects just for the heck of it...I have chosen Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha and Chrno from Chrno Crusade to comprise my first two cosplay projects. I've already got both of them at least 30 percent done, and there are still 3 months to go, so they should be done in time. If you see me at ACen, let me know you've seen my website, and I'll give you something cool. (here's how you'll know me...just ask every Sesshoumaru and every Chrno if he goes by "pianoanime" and I'll tell you if it's me. I'll also be running one of the anime screening rooms, so if you see a Sesshoumaru or Chrno checking badges at the door to a screening room, yell "HEY Josh!!!" and I'll know you've seen the site.
Anyway, I'm not going to take the time to explain much about my projects, since I'm not done with either of them at this time, but I will tell you that both of them are gonna be awesome when I'm done...
The reason I chose these characters is not just because they're both awesome...there's a good reason...it's my theory of Cosplay, which follows thus..."65-75% of anime characters are lithe, athletic, and good-looking, whereas 65-75% of fans dedicated enough to do accurate or even reasonably accurate cosplay...well...aren't." I'm one of them. I'm broad-shouldered, not very tall, and not so slim that I can fit through the opening in the average office trashcan. I chose these characters because Sesshoumaru's costume is sufficiently elaborate that it will conceal my size, and Chrno's clothing and trenchcoat will help to slim me a little as well, especially with the way I'm tailoring it all. Unfortunately, there aren't too many more characters I can do without looking like a moron...if I do too many more projects, I'll begin to do ones that my body size/shape won't permit me to do properly, and I refuse to do a costume that I won't look good in... (i.e. I've seen photos of people who weighed a good 150 pounds too much for the characters they did, and I'd like to avoid that...no offense to anyone who DID do that, but I just want to make sure that I fit the character before I put tons of effort into something like that...I'm insecure enough about my physical appearance, I don't want to give the whole world a chance to laugh at my expense)
This one is kinda on hold right now, since my computer isn't very fast, and I need it for school crap sometimes, but I've started making AMV's in my spare time. They are too big to be practical until I find good compression software, though, and I've kept the length down to a few minutes so it'll still fit on a CD...lol.
Posters/fanart projects
Well, I promised I'd put up more stuff, and here it is!
Images 1&2: Vehicle Sunshade Project: Inuyasha / Sesshoumaru
Image Three: Alucard from Hellsing
Image Four: Gundam (not a sketch, but it shows my sense of humor rather well I think)
Image Five: Variation of "anime-me". An example of how hanging out with female otaku can contaminate your artwork...although this isn't my typical style, everyone I've shown it to has loved it, and they say it fits my personality perfectly, so I might as well post it...
Image Six: Chrno from Chrno Crusade. Here's a sketch I did in my Religion 100 class...kinda rough, but not bad by any means...just wish I did it on nicer paper.
I will continue to upload, eventually replacing the ones there now, so come back every once in a while to see if I've done anything new.