Rules and How To Join

Membership

First: Read about Windsonde!  You can find a directory to all the information on the home page.  We recommend starting with World Rules and Information. 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.
1. 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 gryphons 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 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.
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 (not just burn/dodge or multiply), we'd like some light sources to be depicted. Gryphons 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.
IF YOU USE THE SMUDGE TOOL OR THE BLUR TOOL TO CREATE ANY KIND OF BACKGROUND OR MARKINGS OR "TEXTURE", DO NOT APPLY. We've seen too many people trying to shade or create backgrounds or grass or anything with smudge or blur as their main tool. We hate this. It is not skillful. Do not do it. You wind up with blurry, blobby, amorphous backgrounds with no definition or depth. WE HATE THE GRASS BRUSH. NEVER EVER USE IT TO CREATE GRASS. It looks terrible and makes you look VERY amateurish. 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 complete the challenges 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 and if a work does not demonstrate the quality we are looking for then it will be rejected.  Once we know you can achieve a certain skill level, you need to keep demonstrating a skill level appropriate for our group.
Third:  
Once your membership application is approved, request a gryphon combination  HERE!.  Please specify if you are requesting a Tookie Islander.
Fourth: Once combination is approved. You can create a character sheet that must include:
A full view of your character
Character name
Aery
Current Rank
Fifth: Submit a character sheet to the proper aery folder that includes the following information in the “Artist’s Comments”:
Aery Name: Character Name: Character Species Combination: Be specific please. Scientific names are encouraged. Rank: All characters begin as a "Young Gryphon" (or "Young Tookie" for Tookie Islanders). Gender: Character Personality:

Challenges:  All challenges require art (traditional or digital) for their completion.  This means the work needs to follow the standards outlined above.   Pieces can illustrate a scene from the challenge or depict a comic-strip of what happens.  Challenges also have NO DEADLINE.  Challenges can be done at your very own pace!

Number of Characters: You may not request a second character until your first character has completed at least 3 challenges.  The same goes for a Tookie Islander.  However, you may have a regular gryph and a Tookie Islander at the same time. Note: all additional characters/sheets still require the above information to be accepted.