Body Double Challenge

I hope you all had your fun drawing dragons during #smaugust. Don't forget to collect your XP! We've got another challenge lined up this month for September.

But first a super quick community update: If you haven't heard, our community is collaborating to create an erotic art themed calendar for 2020. We've got 10 PaperDemon artists participating! Super excite! More details to come.

Body Double Challenge

Since many of us will be busy in September creating art for the calendar, I wanted to run a challenge that doesn't compete for our time with that. So for the month of September we are running a body double challenge.

What is a body double? Also, why?!

You probably know that in the world of film, a body double is someone who stands in for an actor during an action sequence.

But a body double in ADHD terms is when someone accompanies you while you tackle a difficult task (such as completing that really hard to finish animation project that you've been trying to get done for the past several years).

Your body double can be a fellow artist doing artwork or they can be a friend or relative doing something else entirely like reorganizing their collection of airline barf bags (everyone has one of those, right?). What matters is you have set aside time to meet with other humans in which you'll be working on your art.

The reasons body doubling is effective:

  • You are making a commitment with another person. It's harder to make excuses and wheezle your way out of it.

  • Seeing another person working hard inspires you to work hard.

  • It can be a chance to meet new people or catch up with old friends.

Ways you can body double

  • Invite friends to get together for a “Creative Times” session at someones house or at a coffee shop. You can even bribe them with pancakes.

  • Attend a local art meetup.

  • Livestream your art and invite the community and your friends to watch. If you do livestream, let us know your schedule in the PaperDemon discord so we can all join you! If you've never livestreamed before and are interested in trying it, reach out to me. I'd be happy to help get you started.

  • Watch an art livestream on Twitch or Picarto and work on your art while you watch.

How to participate

  1. Make an arrangement to body double with someone. Create art.

  2. Post the art you created during a body double session to PaperDemon during the month of September with the tag pd-bodydouble

  3. You'll gain 40XP for each submission.

NOTE: Only artwork can receive XP at this time. We're still working on offering XP to writing and comics.

Livestream schedule

I wont be teaching art lessons this month because I've got my own art projects to wrap up and need to body double to get them done! However I will talk through my process as I'm creating and am happy to chat about life, art, or mental health. I would love to have you join me for our own virtual “creative times”!

I'll be streaming on these days and times to help me get my own shit done. I'm mostly planning to work on my art for the 2020 calendar and Dragon Mall Quest.

Due to the mature nature of the artwork I'll be painting for our 2020 calendar, some of my streams will be done on Picarto. I know it's kinda lame to switch to another platform since if you want to chat with me you'll have to create a new account. But unfortunately, Twitch has pretty strict policies against mature content and that's out of my control. I would have chosen YouTube as a second choice since most people have an account there. But their vague policies I think don't allow sexually suggestive content.

Will I switch permanently to Picarto? I haven't decided yet. I think philosophically Picarto's mission of freedom of expression for artists is certainly inline with PaperDemon and Red Curtain values. But I currently believe the opportunities for growth and community are better on the Twitch platform.

Happy body doubling and don't forget to share your livestream links and schedule with the community! You can post it as a reply to this post or in our discord server.