Got a sketch of your favorite player-character or villain? Or maybe you just like drawing super-heroines or robots? If you're in the mood to share a drawing with the world, I'd love to have you aboard, and I'll include you in the next revision of the Scrapbook! All styles are welcome!

You can download the current set for free on the Free Downloads page. Enjoy! If you want to add your own mark to the set, read on:

How to Participate

Just draw a character that you'd like to see as a Spark! Draw him/her/it (or any creative combination thereof) both front and back, on clean, white sheets of 8.5" x 11" paper (or smaller). Send the drawings to me, along with the character's name and description as you want it to appear in the documentation (see the character writeups on the Dungeoneers or other sets for examples). As long as they're "sparkable," I'll do my best to include them.

Sparkable?

There are a few rules to follow when drawing Sparks. Your drawing should be strictly black and white - no greys, no shading, no colors, dithering or stippling. Cross-hatching and other texturing should also be kept to a minimum; the font format works best with bold lines and clear details, with a minimum of mess. Nice, clear, black ink on white paper is essential. Line-weight should be on the heavy side; remember that your drawing will frequently be printed less than an inch tall! If you find yourself "sketching" or using lines that are too fine, switch to a thicker-lined ink-pen or a larger brush!

Sparks should not be wider than they are tall. Ideally, sparks should be less than half as wide as they are tall.

Sparks should be original. That is to say, a stereotypical chick-in-chainmail-bikini is fine, but an obvious tracing of an old Red Sonja cover is not. Likewise, avoid (or carefully disguise) any ventures into established "intellectual property." A character vaguely reminiscent of Captain Kirk is fine, but a recognizable drawing of young Bill Shatner in a Starfleet uniform is a no-no; since the real owners of Star Trek wouldn't approve!

Apart from that, your Spark can be anything at all: a blocky robot, a superhero, a covert operative, a sorceress, a battlesuited trooper, a wily street-kid, a mech, an alien insect-critter. It can be a "player character" type or a "nameless foe to be printed in hordes" type. It can be serious or silly. It can be very badly drawn, for that matter . . . This isn't an "art contest;" it's entirely for fun, and we're not looking for "professional quality" stuff; just interesting fan-art that we can all enjoy in our games.

Legal Stuff

You will retain all rights to your artwork. By submitting it to the Fontworks, you're granting me a perpetual license to use it in a non-commercial Sparks set and on the Sparks web pages. Users of the font, in turn, will be granted the usual Sparks license: unlimited private, non-commercial use of the images in the font. In short: You own the art, but you're letting the rest of us play with it, provided it isn't re-published or sold. The artwork will be returned to the artist provided a stamped, self-addressed envelope is included with the submission – but it's just as easy to keep the original and submit a Xerox. If your Spark can't be photocopied without losing vital detail; it's probably not "sparkable" anyway (see above)! Artists get credit both in the font and in the documentation.

Get Drawing!

Send your submissions to the mailing address specified on the direct ordering page. Include an e-mail address so I can get back to you quickly. If you have a scanner and would prefer to submit your work electronically, click here for the file specifications. Note: to keep any one style from dominating the Scrapbook, I can accept no more than four Sparks per artist! If you want to draw more than that, and you can draw as well as the professional Sparks illustrators, email me a proposal and we'll talk about contracting you for a full set!