Wicked Bone Club Challange

This is our number one rule! Please remember that your design MUST match the theme.

Originality and “thinking outside the box” is always encouraged and we love creativity, but if your interpretation is way too eccentric or you twist the concept until the theme is unrecognizable, it will have no interest to us or the other artists of the community, and your work will not be relevant for the challenge.

If your design doesn’t get approved by the group moderators, please don’t attempt to submit it again, as this can lead to a temporary or permanent ban from the group, so please be very careful.

This is our rule number two. It should perhaps be simply read as ‘‘avoid backgrounds’’, but since they are in fact allowed for this contest if you decide to include one you should read the following very carefully, as there’s a lot to unpack here. For a start, the golden rule is: remember that the artworks submitted to the CD Challenge must be focused on the characters, not on what is happening around, or behind their backs.

Your design can be created in any style and for many hypothetical purposes. For example, your artwork could be a character study created for an animated 2D, 3D, stop-motion, or live-action movie, and perhaps, for a mobile app and a video game (these are ”model sheet entries”, which are by definition, what is considered proper character design in the animation, game and movie industry). Your artwork can also be the illustration of a character for the cover page of a novel, a pen & paper role-playing game, a tabletop game, an art book, a comic book, or a children’s book (these are ”illustrative entries”, which are welcomed in the group even if they are not proper character design), and it can also be a design for a t-shirt, a brand or a sports team (these are ”mascot entries” which are also acceptable as submissions in the group). Whatever the type of artwork you decide to submit to the group (model sheet entry, illustrative entry, or mascot entry), please make sure avoid to drawing or painting any overly complicated and distracting backgrounds.

Designing a character with a monochrome, flat, and plain background is by far the BEST (and clearly the easiest, most effective, and what we actually recommend) way to submit an entry for the CD Challenge without running into any possible issues, but this solution is not mandatory. Minor objects and elements next to your character (barrels, rocks, bushes, tree branches, furniture, etc.), simple backgrounds/environments (minimal, low-detailed, blurred, out of focus, etc.), or even more complex ones ( a detailed pattern, etc.) can still be included in your design for the CD Challenge, but please keep in mind that your main focus should always be on the actual character you are portraying, particularly the visual and narrative elements that define the look and the presence of it (outfit, silhouette, shapes, gestures, attitude, mood, etc.). The character in your artwork is what should matter the most, and that’s why it needs to be properly seen.

Keep in mind that we will also evaluate the quality of the background compared to the character: if we think the design for your character is good, but your background is not properly crafted, we will ask you to remove it from your artwork (or to include something more minimalistic). The same goes if we feel that the character is not properly framed or it appears to be too small (in that case you’ll be asked to crop the frame closer to the character).

So remember: if you decide to include background elements in your artwork, you will also take the risk of potentially not having your entry approved in the CD Challenge group. It will also diminish greatly your chances to be chosen as a Winner of the CD Challenge, so please be extra careful with it, and if you don’t want to run into any issues… make your life easier and avoid it completely!

Rule number three is probably the most common mistake made by new members. Your design must include a full figure of a character. Not just the head, not just the head and torso, we want to see the entire character. There are only 4 exceptions to this rule:

• If minor elements* (such as tall grass, dust, fog, snow, water, sand, a long vest, part of a sidekick, etc.) cut or cover a small portion of your character, your entry might still be considered ok.
• If your character rides or is inside the cockpit of a vehicle: in this case head, torso, and arms could potentially still be ok (see ”Vehicles & Mounts” paragraph below).
• If part of the lower side of your character fades in the background due to a high-speed motion trail effect.
• If only one single limb is out of frame (a hand, a foot, etc.)
• Examples of minor elements: A knight with his feet in a puddle, a giant with a crowd of small additional characters covering his feet, a Victorian lady wearing a long dress that doesn’t make it possible to see her shoes, a magician with a long vest that touches/fades into the border of your artwork’s frame.

It’s also important to keep in mind that if you find yourself using perspective or foreshortening in your design, you might be going in the wrong direction, as they can be used as a way to bypass the full figure rule. Avoiding perspective or foreshortening is not mandatory, but a design that uses these techniques might not be approved in the group if we think that it doesn’t show enough elements to portray your character, so please be extra careful if you decide to use them.

Rule number four is also really important: Create only ONE SINGLE MAIN CHARACTER based on the theme. If you think it is necessary to deliver your idea, you can still draw additional characters or creatures* (like a sidekick, a minion, or a pet) but please make sure we can clearly see who is your main character for the challenge. Keep in mind that if your design includes more than one character based on the theme, it will be impossible for us to rule out who’s the actual focus of your work, and your entry for the challenge will be ultimately considered as a “line up” of characters based on the theme, which is against the rules.

Infants and children can be considered sidekicks only when your main character is an adult. Possibly, these hypothetical children/infant characters should be portrayed as ‘sidekicks’ and not as ‘an opposite force’ (for example a mum carrying her infant child is ok, but an adult thief confronting/fighting a child vigilante probably wouldn’t). This is why you should always make sure to avoid portraying multiple characters confronting each other in a (so to speak) fighting game-like fashion. If it’s unclear who is the main character of your design, your submission will not be approved. On the other hand, if your character (based on the theme) is clearly identifiable as the main character, it’s then ok if you portray it next to a sidekick (or even if it crashes one of his minions under his foot). A character with multiple heads and one body will also count one character (Siamese twins, hydras, etc.).

Additionally, depicting multiple characters that look identical to one another in an illustrative fashion, will also count as a model sheet (different poses of the same character in 1 sheet), and therefore be accepted. This specific type of entry is very tricky and could be rejected, so avoid doing this when possible.

If you are confused about any of these rules, please don’t take any risk and include only 1 single, easily identifiable character (based on the theme) in your work. You can safely stay away from these grey areas of the rules by submitting a so-called perfect entry (see ”Perfect Entries” paragraph below).

Finally, we also suggest you not make the additional character or creature overshadow (in size) your main character (see ”Vehicles & Mounts” paragraph below).

• Examples of additional characters/creatures: a pirate with his parrot, a mum with her child, a knight with his squire, a witch with her cat, a troll with insects flying around him, etch.

Rule number five: you can post only a single design** for each monthly challenge, so make it count! You have (more or less) 25 days to work on the design of a character, so please make sure you are 100% done with your creation before posting it in the group. Failing to follow this rule will lead to a ban from the group.

You cannot post more than 1 single image in your post, so please don’t submit posts with multiple pictures in them. Close-ups, alternative versions, props designs (gadgets, weapons, alternative outfits), and W.I.P.s (painting process videos, gifs, or sheets) or any other further exploratory designs for your character can still be shared in the group, but exclusively in the comment section of your own post (see ”W.I.P.s, props and gifs” paragraph below).

• *Posting more than one artwork per challenge, or the same one twice, can lead to a permanent ban, but occasionally we allow posts with major technical issues to be replaced. Please scroll down below to the section ‘‘How to Submit’’ (paragraph: Withdraw an Entry) to learn when this can be done.

No, it’s completely up to you to submit your character in 2D or 3D in whatever style you prefer as long as it aligns with the theme & guidelines.

You can always reach out to our moderators on WBC discord.

No, that will be detectable and will disqualify your submission.

Yes, as long as the main (theme) character is there you have complete creative freedom.

Each challenge usually runs for 5 weeks, always check challenge schedule and countdown clock.

No, this is done by organizers and all contestants will be labeled on their submission name and social account(s).

Download the challenge assets pack and read the guidelines for your tier carefully.

Yes, all submissions are showcased in challenge montage and every artist is featured.