Rules And How to Join

Second: Submit the following application for membership, using the "Join Our Group" button on the home page (not a Note!), which must include all elements listed below:

Select at least three of your works that you feel demonstrate proficiency in the following areas:
Proper animal anatomy: This is a big deal.  Proper anatomy can make or break an illustration and while dragons aren’t living creatures they consist of animals that you can actively reference.   “Style” is no excuse for bad anatomy and the best stylized art works with altering proper anatomy.   We recommend including a piece that demonstrates some understanding of bird and bat wing anatomy if you have one.

Basic construction of environments/perspective: Composition is important when illustrating a scene (such as those our challenges require).  How an environment is constructed, the perspective on that environment and the subjects in it, and the use of negative space are all key elements in illustration. Depth, texture and color are all very important background elements.

Clean, careful work: These works show that you spent time with any line-work in the illustration and worked carefully, not sloppily, on the elements within the image.  This means avoiding overly sketchy lines, coloring within the lines, and defining details properly.

Color Theory: You don’t have to be a master of color theory, but showing that you understand the basics is important.  Color use that ranges beyond highly saturated colors and demonstrates an understanding of value is what we are looking for. Trees are NOT poo brown color. Grass is not bright, uniform green. Please eyedrop off photographs if this is confusing to you - you will see that real colors are not always what you expect and change with lighting and environment!

Shading and highlights: Even if you do this unconventionally with Photoshop's various tools, we'd like some light sources to be depicted. Dragons have depth and texture as do their environments.  Demonstrate to us that you understand how to give your characters and environments depth. Just because you CAN put shading on something does not mean you can do it correctly - please review your work to ensure depth is represented properly.

Please do not use the grass brush or the smudge tool! We hate the grass brush and the smudge tool.

Keep in mind that we are not trying to select only the “elite” for this group, rather we are trying to select artists we feel can submit pieces at the level of quality we require for the group.  The goal is to make sure we aren’t wasting anyone’s time on both the artist’s end and ours.  Therefore, we reserve the right to reject applications without comment or explanation and assume that you understand that rejection is a risk you take by applying.

If your application is rejected you are welcome to apply again if you feel that you have improved or have created works that demonstrate the above criteria.  We encourage artistic growth and if we can be a motivation for improvement then all the better!

If your application is accepted please proceed to the next steps in character creation.  However, please note that this does not mean all of your works will be automatically accepted!  You are still required to adhere to the quality guidelines for every piece you submit.

Your character sheet must include a full view of your character, character name, and clan.

In the description, please list your character's rank, personality, history, special abilities, and any other pertinent information. There is no need to write a novel! A few sentences is fine.