Seasons Greetings PaperDemons. It's that time of year again when we do our yearly art trade event to bring good cheer to one another!
What is it?
The PaperDemon Secret Santa Art Trade is a tradition we do every year. It's a fun way to both create an art gift for someone else while also receiving an art gift. It can be very rewarding to create a gift for someone else and can also help you get out of an art rut or art block.
When you sign up for the PaperDemon Secret Santa Art Trade, you put in a request of what you'd like another member of the PaperDemon community to draw or write for you. Perhaps it's your favorite anime character or one of your original characters. We then mix up the names and assign everyone a person to create a gift for. Everyone participating will draw the request or write a story for the person they are assigned. Between Christmas eve and New Year's, we each post our gifts on PaperDemon!
Participation requirements
We've decided to add a new requirement this year. Last year we had a lot of new people sign up to participate in the event, of which they received their gift but did not deliver a gift in return. To maintain fairness, we're going to screen all applicants and only allow active community members to participate in this event. We're sorry to exclude brand new members of the community but, don't worry, you can participate next year!
- You must be an active member of the community.
- Please only sign up if you have the time to create a work of art or write a story before January 1st.
- Keep your request simple. For visual art, try to stick to one character, maybe two characters max. Assemble reference material related to your request so that your secret santa has enough information to draw/write about what you want.
Rewards
- 50 XP
- 2021 Secret Santa badge achievement
- Warm fuzzies from giving the gift of your creativity
How to participate
- Register to participate by December 1st by filling out the Registration form.
- Watch your private message inbox. Around December 3rd, I'll scramble the names and randomly choose someone on the list to create your request. You'll get a private message with details on who you'll be creating for and what they've requested. Remember, it's supposed to be a secret so please don't tell who you are Secret Santa for. That would ruin the surprise!
- Create a visual work of art or write a story of what the other person requested. *
- Post your art or writing submission on PaperDemon between Dec 24th and January 1st. Tag art with the tag secretsanta2021. For writing submissions, include #secretsanta2021 in the summary. Send a message to the person the gift is for with a link to their gift!
* It's a huge bummer for the person on the receiving end to not get their gift so please don't bail. It doesn't have to be perfect or complex either. Do something realistic with the time you have. If you do not deliver your gift, you won't be able to participate in future art trade events. If you think you might be late, have questions about the requested art, or any other trouble, please email me at [email protected] or message me on discord.
More info
Don't have time to create a full color art piece? Consider doing a refined sketch or line art on a solid background color.
There are no requirements in terms of how finished an art piece must be or a minimum word requirement for written works. But it should be clear that some time and effort was put into creating the piece.
Please also be understanding of the fact that participants come from a wide range of skill levels.
Not sure what to request? Here are some ideas:
- One of your original characters.
- Your favorite animal.
- Your favorite anime or game character.
- Your favorite genre of art, game, or fantasy.
- If you're participating in the PaperDemon Art RPG, consider requesting a story or work of art of your registered character.
Want to take a stroll down memory lane? Here's a look at what our community created in 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2008.