Think of the Children 2008 Project

Think of the Children is a mass-deviantART artists and writers collaboration in creating a project for sales with proceeds going towards charities that benefit children.
Started in 2006, the first Think of the Children saw much success and support and has thus become an annual project with the participation of many big names in the deviantART community. The 2008 project carries the theme of children's fairy tales in the form of an ARTBOOK to be published and distributed through lulu.com.

While many may perceive fairy tales as magical stories ending with "happily ever after," the fact is that the morbid nature of the tales had been lost over time thanks to the glorification and revisions produced by popular studios such as Walt Disney and DreamWorks. The project strives to bring back the fairy tales in their original glory with a few new twists and details supplied by the talented writers rewriting the stories.

The project is a non-profit project divided among some of deviantART's most talented artists and writers working together to develop a fairy tale collection for publication with proceeds going towards UNICEF to help those in need. The profits made will be sent via a PayPal account created specifically to fit the needs of Think of the Children and the profits made will be sent every month as the money is received from lulu. The finalized project would be available for sale on the Internet internationally.

The current project deadline is JUNE 1, 2008.
However, writers should finish by APRIL 30, 2008. Artists should start at that point after reading the story written by the writers that they would be illustrating for and submit their art by JUNE 1, 2008.

THERE WILL BE A PROGRESS DEADLINE ON APRIL 20 FOR WRITERS, AND MAY 20 FOR ARTISTS. This means that you must submit a draft. If you fail to do so, you will be removed from the project. This is just to ensure that everything will be done on time.


Guidelines for participating ARTISTS [PLEASE READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING]

- There is no exact implemented style to the project. Feel free to use your own style, your own characters, and your own colors.
- There is a requirement of at least one HUMANOID in the drawing unless it is a fairy tale with only non-human characters. The humans may have animal ears but please keep those to a minimum unless ordained by the story itself. (This is to preserve uniformity throughout the project)
- There is no limitation on colors. It can be as colorful as you like. Black and white is NOT recommended; full color is preferred.
- NO OEKAKI PLEASE. Oekaki images are far too small to produce high-quality prints.
- NO FANART PLEASE. Please try to use your own characters instead of copyrighted characters from series. (Since this might contradict copyright laws)
- Please have some sort of background, not just a single flat color. It is not expected of you to produce full landscapes but please have some indication of an anchor point, not just a canvas of floating objects
- NO ADULT MATERIAL. Please try to keep guro, hentai, nudity, violence, horror, etc. to a minimum. Remember, there is a possibility that copies of this collection may be distributed to children of all ages.
- The image does not have to be digital, although that would be preferred.
- The image MUST BE AT LEAST 200DPI (dots per inch or "Resolution" as it appears in most art programs) at 9inches by 12inches. That means the image must not be smaller than 1800pixels wide by 2400pixels long (LARGER IMAGES ARE PREFERRED)! 300dpi (2700pixels by 3600pixels) or even larger would be preferable although it is understood that some computers may not be able to support such large files. But please keep it to at least 200dpi. This is very important to ensure high quality prints. Any images smaller than this size cannot and will not be used.
If the image is a traditional work, please scan it as a high quality, high DPI count scan and edit it to look as clean as possible. (If you need any help with this, feel free to contact Jieyi)

Guidelines for participating WRITERS [PLEASE READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING]

- There is no exact implemented style to the project. Feel free to write within your comfort zone, apply your own characters, include details of your choosing.
- There is a requirement of a MINIMUM of 2700 words in your version of the fairy tale but it CANNOT exceed 4000 words.
- It is asked of you to keep to the main storyline and ending (the retention of the original ending is especially important) although you may place the story in a different setting or time frame with different details (but please inform the artist working on the same story of these details). It is also preferred that you retain the original characters' names to retain the integrity and identity of the original fairy tales.
- NO FANFICTION PLEASE. Please try to use your own characters instead of copyrighted characters from series. (Since this might contradict copyright laws)
- NO ADULT MATERIAL PLEASE. Please try to keep everything to a rating of PG-13. It would be nice to keep some of the morbidity introduced by the original writers. However, please DO NOT go into extreme detail with gore, sex, horror, violence, etc. Remember, there is a possibility that copies of this collection may be distributed to children of all ages.
- DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. Please send in ORIGINAL work. Do not plagiarize, paraphrase, copy & paste, etc. Any such work will NOT be accepted.
- Although it is not restricted, please keep vulgarity and language to a level appropriate for children and young teenagers.

To BOTH Artists AND Writers, before working on your portion of the project, contact the person working on the same story as you so you may work together and coordinate the work. (The artist should work together with the writer. In essence, it is something of a group or pairs project). Illustrations and stories should synchronize.
If you are unable to work together (whatever the circumstances), please tell Jieyi, who will act as a mediator.

IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE WRITER FINISHES FIRST AND THEN THE ARTIST FOLLOWS UP WITH AN ILLUSTRATION.


When you are finished with your part of the project, (FOR THE ARTISTS): please send the high quality, full sized, either .JPG or .PSD [whichever is more convenient for you] OR (FOR THE WRITERS): please send the full .DOC or .HTML [no other types of files please!] file to Jieyi at RHEXE@HOTMAIL.COM.
PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME (or the name you wish to have published), CITY, COUNTRY, AND AGE IN YOUR EMAIL.

IF THERE IS ANY REASON AS TO WHY YOU CANNOT COMPLETE YOUR PART OF THE PROJECT [ON TIME OR AT ALL], PLEASE CONTACT JIEYI WITH ADEQUATE TIME BEFOREHAND SO ADJUSTMENTS MAY BE MADE.

If you have any questions, please contact:
JIEYI at: Jieyi@dA | rhexe@hotmail.com: MSN/E-Mail