konichiwa!~

it's cool to meet another new fan cel artist, and 
although i'm sure that you've read the other 
posts, i hope you're in it as a hobby and not a 
business.  if you've ever been to my gallery 
you'd know that i suck :), but the people that i 
do commissions for don't seem to think so so it 
works out even in the end...

anyway, it's ok to want to make your cels look 
like the original series, but i hope that trying 
to sell a fan cel off as an original is not your 
intent.  collectors are very smart when it comes 
to nit picking cels, and rarely they're ripped 
anymore, which is something that makes me glad 
because of all the fan cel producers that try 
this.  to answer your questions...

1) the standard materials and brands that the 
original studios use are not materials that you 
want to mess with.  they are not meant to make 
the cels last longer than running through the 
camera.  if you want to make fan cels that will 
last, then most fan cel artists including myself 
use Duralar brand acetate.  there are other 
punched acetates, but they tend to bend and tear 
too easily.  plus duralar is an acetate and mylar 
combination, better for the environment and 
longer lasting than regular acetate.  and just 
about every fan cel artist uses a different brand 
of paint, i myself use various brands.  i hear 
that anita's arcrylics are good, but i usually 
use jo sonya's arcrylics.  then there are 
specific cel paints, like those that someone 
mentioned at chromacolour, which are probably the 
best to use but run at about $8-9 a bottle.  as 
for pens, i have used radiograph pens with india 
ink in the past and have found that i don't like 
them, although they may be for you.  currently i 
am using Staedtler pigment liners, but i have 
also used Zig brand millenium pens and other 
various brands.  you always want to make sure 
that your pen is acid free, archival quality, 
lightfast, waterproof, fadeproof and non-
bleeding.  i buy my supplies online, since it is 
cheaper than going to a local art store, and 
there are various sites.  the ones i frequent are:

Dick Blick's:
has great sales and good prices on acetate...
http://www.dickblick.com/zz007
/22/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=231

and jo sonya's arcrylics...
http://www.dickblick.com/zz007/
22/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=231

ChromaColour:
higher end animation supplies:
http://www.chr
omacolour.com/

there are also sites that you can go to to get 
help with making fan cels, my personal favorite 
is Gwen's fan cel forum at darksidemillenium:
http://pub36.bravenet.co
m/forum/show.php?usernum=3087734918&cpv=1

2) your best bet for paint color schemes would be 
to just print a reference.  i saw someone else 
post this in this thread, but i do this as well:  
make a printout of the image that you'll be 
painting, or in an original fan cel case, the 
character that you're using.  mix your paint 
color and then dab it on the paper next to the 
color that it's supposed to be.  LET IT DRY.  the 
thing about arcrylics and acetate is that they're 
usually not exactly the same after they dry.  
after it's dry, you'll be able to see the colors 
together on the paper.  as to buying settei 
books, that's an expensive route to take.

no offense, but the information you've provided 
makes me nervous.  you want your cels to look 
exactly like production cels, you want the same 
materials (that don't last) as the animation 
companies use and you're willing to dish out 
major cash to buy settei books for color 
matching.  i just want to warn you, like others 
here have, that if you're planning to rip people 
off it's not going to work.  this forum is 
connected in one way or another to most cel 
collectors online and off.  like i said before, 
we're not stupid, and one post to this forum will 
have a ton of people nitpicking a cel image to 
see if it's real or not.  please don't do 
anything like trying to pass off a fan cel as an 
original, because it's people like that that make 
all of us those nasty little fan cel artists...

the information that i've provided will help you 
on your journey to making fan cels, however 
you'll still need to be able to draw and ink 
correctly.  it will take time for you to get this 
down, i'm still a little iffy on the inking part, 
but everyone gets better as they go.  good luck, 
and please heed the advice of people on this 
forum.

haruna