We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anthony Farese. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anthony below.

Anthony, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on is my Captain Rex clone armor. It’s no secret that I’m a huge star wars fan, so being able to embody one of my favorite characters really makes my inner child proud. It had been about six months of work with help from my best friend. But the whole project was a labor of love. The accomplished feeling you get when you finish and admire your own work is a big motivator for me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a land surveyor by day and a creative by night. Cosplay has been a huge part of my life and has blessed me with opportunities and great friendships I never would’ve had outside of it. For about nine years I have been almost consistently working on a new project. I started knowing virtually nothing. I went from wearing a cheap party city Spider-Man suit, to building movie realistic cosplays. I owe a lot of my knowledge and experience to my best friend Carlo whose a creative genius!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of the building process is overcoming some of the challenges with having to learn something new when approaching different projects. That challenge of trying to push myself with more intricate projects every year is really rewarding.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The most complex project I’ve ever worked on is my Mandalorian armor. It is considered complete, but I’m still years later adding and making improvements. I was struggling with the paint job for the better part of six months, and had to take several long breaks. It’s important to take breaks when you’re getting frustrated and burnt out instead of grinding through. Giving myself time to distance myself from it and come back in fresh really helped me to get through the project.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @vanillawombat
• Facebook: Vanilla Wombat Cosplay
• Twitter: @vanillawombat

Image Credits
Photo credits: @brilanimagery and @mykey2lyfe_creations on Instagram.