Crabs with Fics (among other things)

This is an abbreviated list. The full requirements are on the Artist Guide page.

You will produce a polished illustration tangibly inspired by the fanfiction you’re paired with.

What does tangibly inspired mean? You can choose to depict: 👉 the featured characters 👉 a specific scene from the fic 👉 a broader, more symbolic illustration, like might be used for a book cover What route you take is up to you! You’re encouraged to talk to your writer for inspiration, but this is not a commission, so follow your imagination and inspiration.

Do I need to be a professional or experienced artist to join? What if I only like certain Dragon Age games or content?

We accept artists of all skill and experience levels! You do not need to be professional or experienced, and there is no application/jurying period for this type of event. Once you sign up, you’re in! Our writers’ fics cover all four Dragon Age games, with themes ranging from modern AUs to canon retellings to NSFW & darkfic. Whatever part of Dragon Age is your favorite, we have a fic that will interest you!

About Claims & Matching:

Anonymous pitches will be available from August 3rd - 10th. Artists will submit a sign up form ranking the six (6) fics they most want to work with. Then, the mods will match up writers and artists based on those rankings. The fics on offer range from Teen to Explicit and have a variety of relationship types, including platonic and crossover ships. Some of our writers are focusing on canon characters, while others are including OCs. You can find an example of the information provided in the pitches here.

If you’re an artist interested in creating an illustration based on a Dragon Age fanfic, visit our pitch website at the link above, submit your sign up, and follow us here on tumblr to stay in the loop!

You can also (optionally) join our Discord server to get on in the hype and stay on top of announcements.

So that very precise big blue square? That's the original tower. Loads of Scottish castles start out this way - a big square lump in the landscape with other bits added on over the centuries.

That red square, though? That's the interesting bit.

It's the original doorway. It would have been accessible via a wooden staircase. If the old tower (or 'auld tour', if you're being Scots about it) had come under attack, residents would have just burned the wooden stairs and waited out the siege.*

I'm not saying that's why Skyhold has going on - goodness knows what that's about - but there is precedence IRL for high-up doors in buildings likely to see combat.

Other cool things you might be able to see from this picture: there are no low windows on the auld tour - that's to stop folk from trying to climb in that way. There are some arrow slits (I think - it's been an age since I was in that neck of the woods... a Dragon Age if you will 😉) but the lower floors would have been used for storage. When you get high up enough for accommodation, the windows get bigger to let in light. They're still not big though, for actual windows that might be useful, you have to look at the newer parts of the castle.

Anyways, I just think it's cool to see tower-defense strategies that aren't just moat or motte & bailey related - that tends to be most of what we see in fantasy. And like, the Scottish tower houses are still from the same neck-of-the-woods as these other structures - it'd be nice to see what the rest of the world outside of Europe was doing for defense at this time.