San Jose, California's FanimeCon, a convention celebrating anime, manga, asian film, music and more, is celebrating their 15th year by releasing a collection of artwork created for the convention over the last several years. In the spirit of their motto, "By Fans, For Fans," they want Fanime fans to submit fan artwork to be included in a special section of the doujinshi-style artbook.

However, it will be slightly unconventional. There will not be a traditional ranking of 1st, 2nd, 3rd. There will be three winners in the following categories: Artist Pool Favorite, Staff Favorite and Fan Favorite! Each of the three winning pieces will be printed on a full page and the artist will receive one free copy of the artbook, signed by the artist staff (and maybe even sketched in, if you ask nicely!). There will also be a gallery of runners up that will be printed in the book in much smaller spaces, similar to fanart sections of magazines. Unfortunately, the runners up will not be elligible to receive free copies of the book, but will be able to be recognized for their hardwork by being printed and seen by hundreds of fans!

Fans will have until Friday, April 3rd, 2009 to submit their pieces! That's just under one month, folks. It may seem soon, but we need to get the selection process underway so we can get the book to print in April.

Rules/Details
1) Deadline: 11:59PM, Pacific Time, April 3rd, 2009. NO ENTRIES SUBMITTED AFTER THIS DATE WILL BE ACCEPTED.

2) Content: Your fanart must be an illustration or drawing featuring at least one of Fanime's five mascots: Amber, Becky, Candy, Damien and/or Elliot. References can be found here: [link] and here [link] Sorry, no photography or writing allowed; this is strictly an illustration-based project.

3)The characters can be featured in any theme from the last five years (Urban/College Students, Cyberpunk Gothic & Lolita, Space Odyssey, Feudal Japan or Music/J-rock) OR you may come up with any situation or theme of your choice, within good reason of course.

4)Absolutely NO hentai, yaoi or yuri! Anything of an exaggerated sexual nature will be declined. We have a wide range of attendee ages in our audience of which we have to be considerate. Romantic situations are welcome, of any gender pairing, but please keep it PG. (For the record, Amber/Damien and Candy/Elliot are considered "canon" in the Fanime universe.. aka the artist pool's brains, LOL.)

5) Media: Any media, traditional or digital, color or black and white, is accepted, so long as the file you submit meets our requirements.

6) File Submission:
- You MUST submit a CMYK digital file or scan of 300 dpi or higher
- File size should be 8.514in x 11.944in. This is bigger than the book size to allow for trimming during the printing process.
- Vertical orientation preferred but not required. If you have a neat idea for a landscape, square or oval design, go for it, but make sure your piece is at least 8.514in wide.
- All art should be sent to art@fanime.com. Please avoid sending attachments larger than 5MB! We may not receive them! Use a free file hosting service such as YouSendIt.com or MegaUpload, and send us a link.

7) Info to be published with your artwork if it wins:
Title of the Piece: (Optional)
Name you would like published: (Required!)
Age: (Optional)
Location: (Optional)
Website or DeviantArt URL: (Optional)

8) Info we need for legal and logistical purposes (will NOT be shared with anyone!)
Your Legal Name:
Your Age:
Your Address:
Your Contact Number:
Your Contact E-mail:

9) Agreement: By submitting your work you certify the following:
- Fanime has permission to reprint your work as part of the "Fanime 15th Anniversary Artbook" without compensation other than outlined in the prizes section.
- Artwork becomes property of FanimeCon, as all characters are copyright FanimeCon, however FanimeCon will NOT use your artwork in any profitable projects outside this artbook. As artists ourselves, we respect artists rights.
- You are over the age of 18 OR you have received parental permission to participate.
- The artwork is 100% your creation! Copying or tracing is prohibited. All members of the artist team are active on DeviantArt. We all love anime genre's across the gamut. Don't think we won't know.
- You are not and never have been part of the FanimeCon artist staff.

10) Winners for each category will be chosen by vote. Artist Pool will vote on their favorite, Staff Pick votes will be held at a staff meeting. Depending on the number of entries, the Fan Favorite category will be isolated into 10-20 finalists on which fans can vote. Final voting will be held via poll on the official Fanime forum.

Please visit our DA page for more information and questions about the contest. Good luck!