Hello,

For people who want to start cosplaying, but don't know where to begin!

Step One - Deciding who to cosplay
I know it sounds simple, but I see a lot of people in the cosplay forums over at the AMC asking for suggestions on which character they should cosplay. Now you may think that picking who to cosplay should depend who you look like, but I think this is completely wrong. The most important factor in deciding who to cosplay is whether you want to cosplay this character. You should pick a character that you like! Anyone you thought was cool or funny could be a candidate. Of course, for beginners, it would be advised to pick someone who wears simple clothing and no armor.

Step Two - Reference Pictures
Get LOTS of reference pictures from every angle you can find. It's good to get full-bodied pictures so that you know how your character generally looks like. Also find some more detailed and zoomed-in pictures for the details that you can't see on the full-bodied version. If you can't find any on google images, try screenshotting scenes from the anime. Try to aim for official pictures if possible. Fanart may have changes to the original that you may not notice.

Print out a colour version of a full-bodied picture or put it on your ipod or something. Bring this with you when you go to shop for fabrics or items for your cosplay. The reason for this is so that you can compare the picture to the colour of the fabric. You may think you know the colour in your head, but I find that it is very hard to recall the exact shade from memory.

Step Three
Now, before you actually go out to buy stuff, you need to think about exactly how it is you are going to make the cosplay and then determine the materials you need for it. Please refer to the correct subforum on how to make the item you need.

That's basically it for the beginning! Although it sounds easy, please be sure to do the research properly before you begin anything. It's not a nice feeling when you work hard on something only to find that the details are slightly off. >.<;