Okay I'm slightly early with this, but, who cares?

If you signed up to participate in the Secret Santa event her, AND got a confirmation reply from me, AND actually drew something for someone else, but did NOT receive a gift from someone else, please comment here.

There ended up being a weird mix-up earlier in December, first with one note not going through and then one person being basically M.I.A. when I went to send out the assignments, so I'm pretty sure there's one person who didn't end up getting anything, but I just want to be totally sure.


If anyone ends up replying that they indeed didn't get any artwork even though they signed up and drew for someone else, then I'll ask for any volunteers to draw that person's requests.  You don't have to have signed up for the Secret Santa to volunteer to draw the make-up gift.

My sincere apologies in advance for the mix-up, or for that person falling through, or whatever the explanation is.

Also, if you DID draw for whichever person, and you're just late, be sure to send me a note about it. I'd say it's fine to go ahead and send a note to the person you're drawing for, too.



And finally, here's to a more organized 2016, filled with more regular posts and fewer random problems with the group! :party:
All right, sign-ups are over! You should have received a note from me telling you who you were drawing for. If you did not receive that note, please tell me.

Okay, I'm not sure if any of the notes I sent actually went through. And one of the people who signed up is suspended from the website. I've reassigned the two people who were affected because I'm not sure how long that suspension will last.


What IS a Secret Santa event?
The Secret Santa is a gift-giving event in which people have to give a gift to one person. No one knows who they're getting the gift from until they actually get the gift (and in actual settings with physical gifts, sometimes they never find out who the gift is from).
Here on dA - and probably other art websites - people have adapted this to give art. One person in charge of everything (in this case, me) had some system of randomizing the names (I run a list through a randomizer thing and match it up with the sign-up list), and then will send a note to everyone telling them who the gift is for and what they want.


So what happens?
I will use names.
Alice, Bob, Doug, and Paul all sign up to participate. They send notes saying what they'd like as a gift. I shuffle things, and so Bob is giving Doug a gift, Doug is giving Alice a gift, Alice is giving Paul a gift, and Paul is giving Bob a gift. They all work on their gifts, all the time wondering who their gift giver will be, and then eventually they all get their gifts.
I will explain more later.



:bulletgreen:Hm, neat. So how do I participate?
Send a note to to the group saying you'd like to participate (be sure to put Secret Santa Request in the subject) and include up to three art requests. All three MUST involve an original character of some sort - ANY kind of original character: a totally original character, a fan character, even someone else's character.
:bulletred:If you have a pretty detailed request, you should have another request that's simpler, or say you don't mind if the person doesn't follow the request to the tiniest detail.

:bulletgreen:Here's an example:
1. I'd like to see my character Jake [link to image references and any relevant bio information] just hanging out in some winter setting.
2. I'd like to see that same character in a plaid green coat with a solid yellow scarf outside in the snow with shopping bags whistling some Christmas song.
3. Or my characters Annabel and Morgan [links to references] sunbathing on a beach, Annabel preferably in a blue, striped bikini as seen here [reference]

:bulletgreen:You do not need image references, but that would obviously help. The references do not have to be drawn by you.



:bulletgreen:The three requests can be for the same character or different characters.

:bulletgreen:You need at least one request that features only one character, and one request that is simpler for artists who are either too busy to do something more complex, or aren't confident they can pull off a more detailed piece; two of your requests can include a super-complex scene with a bunch of characters, but at least one request has to be simple.

:bulletgreen:There are no further rules about what you can and cannot request, as long as it's legal and isn't breaking any of deviantART's rules (ie, no child pornography, no self-harm, no racism, etc. I don't expect anyone to request anything like this, but I like to just mention it so there's no confusion on the off-chance anything like this comes up).


:bulletyellow:For the gift YOU draw
You only need to fulfill one request out of the three. If you're feeling especially generous, you can do two or all three of them, or combine them somehow.
Do the best you can with the requests, but don't worry if you can't follow the requests completely.



:bulletred:You can un-participate at any time during November. If you already sent a note with your requests, you can  send another saying that you've changed your mind and do not want to participate after all. You cannot un-participate after the 29th.

:bulletred:You can also send a note with any changes to your requests before the sign-up deadline.
-For instance, you can decide you want your OC Stephen drawn, so send a note saying you want Stephen to replace one of your other requests.

If you're un-participating or you have a change to make to your request, send a note to the group with a relevant subject. "Secret Santa changes" or "Secret Santa - Dropping out", something like that.



:bulletblue:Other Important Information
You have to submit your note by November 29th. You will get your assignment - who you'll be drawing a gift for - on the 30th. (Re: Time Zones - I live in Washington state so my November 29 will most likely end after yours, so don't worry about the time zones. Basically you really just need to get your note in before I start sending out the notes, which will hopefully be at around 10 am on the 30th, which will actually be the evening or night for most of the world.)



:bulletblue:Your gift is due by December 31st. You can upload it at any time, although uploading it around the 25th would be nice.
If you end up having extenuating circumstances that prevent you from uploading your work in time - your scanner died, you had some long power outage - just send a note whenever you can (obviously you might have trouble doing that if your power is out).



:bulletgreen:When you've finished your gift upload it to your dA account and contact the person your gift is for with a link, and submit it to the "Secret Santa 2015" folder.


:bulletgreen:Your gift can be digital or traditional, or even something else. If you feel inspired and want to make a doll, or plushie, or something besides the usual picture, you can go ahead and do so, or you may want to contact the person whose gift it is and ask them if it's okay (or you can note me and I'll ask them for you). If you would like to arrange for physically sending your gift through the mail, you will have to arrange that with the other person. (Side note: I'm not sure anyone has ever done anything for Secret Santa aside from regular, visual art).




When January comes, I will ask if anyone who signed up didn't get a gift but still gave one, and then there's a system set up from there to make sure everyone gets something.



The number of participants, as long as it's at least 3, doesn't matter. The way I mix up the lists, it doesn't matter if there's an odd or even number.


Be sure to ask if you have any questions. You can just comment here if you have questions about the process, but send a note if you have questions specifically about the request you're making or the request you've been given (when the time comes).


If you hear of any Secret Santa/Art Trade events going on that anyone can participate in, be sure to comment or send a note with the info!


All right, I think that should be it. Happy drawing! You can start sending your request notes now!



Oh, and we'll hopefully resume normal "posting" in January. I just wanted to do the Secret Santa thing this year and people have complained before that it's hard to have both SS and the Postings going on at the same time. And since the Postings have turned into more traditional art trades now, that might just have been even more confusing to have both on at the same time.
Hello everyone!

This group has been very quite for a while, but recently I have had a couple new members and old asking to start up the trades again. If we get enough responses I don't mind starting them back up, but the only prizes I can offer at this time are drawings from me.

Please comment below if you would like to participate in the monthly trades again!
Suggestions on how to make the trades more interesting or better are welcome as well!

- Thanks
Foxbride
Sorry that this is late! I have been super busy with a ton of projects due for work. Please forgive me!

So this months theme is Magic! Maybe draw the OCs with a magic power that would be cool or they might have?
Again the theme is optional! Just a suggestion really and you may interpret it any way you wish!

With that said time for sign ups! You have 2 days for signups! That means end of Wednesday the 4th to signup!

:star:Name: Your OC's name.
:star:Ref:  Any relevant links - pictures drawn by you or others, reference sheets, any helpful written information.
:star:Short Description of Personality:  Anything that gives the other person a good idea of who your OC is.
:star:Theme suggestions:  Your suggestions of what you might like to see the other person draw for you!
:star: Next Months Theme: What you would like to see for next months theme!

Assignments will go out Thursday the 5th! Submissions are due March 29th!

Participation List

:icontomoyoichijouji: - :star::star:
:iconluciiferscrow: - :star::star:
:iconbirdhousebirdy: - :star::star:
:iconbribble: - :star::star:
:iconmaddi-lion: - :star:


You will not receive a star unless you finish and submit your piece! Thank you all for your participation! We will be keeping track here to see who wins at the end of the year! Prize is an art book!
--------------------
People Who Owe Art
(just keep in mind, you can not join another month until you finish the month that you did not complete. Note me when you complete your missed piece and you will be taken off the list! )

:iconhikari-kojikoe:
Hello, it's me, kaching12! It occurred to me that the Member Catalogue hadn't been updated in two years, and so I was going to update it, but... Does anyone actually want me to? Has anyone found it useful at all?

I do like the idea of having a list of group members who take commissions and requests and such, but it's annoying to upkeep and maintain, and if nobody's actually using it, then I won't bother.

I mean, it hasn't been updated or even mentioned in two years so I'm guessing nobody's found it useful lately, particularly with the number of deactivated accounts on there, and I'm sure plenty of people have changed their commission/request info since the last update.

So just leave a comment here with your thoughts. Have you ever used the Member Catalogue? Did you not know it existed (even though there's a link to it on the group's front page in the second left-hand box!), but you think it's a cool idea and would like it to stay? Would you agree that it's time to get rid of it altogether?


As a final note, I'll say that if there's enough positive feedback for keeping the catalogue, I'm going to try to format it. It's basically just a big vertical list of icons right now. I may appropriate some of the older journals - so one journal for commissions, one for requests - and keep the links to those journals in the member catalogue.

That is, only if enough people like the idea of the catalogue and genuinely find it useful


Here's the catalogue in question: monthlyoc.deviantart.com/blog/…
Please comment with your feedback HERE and not on the catalogue blog. Please do not leave comments on the catalogue entry at all.

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