jessie^art^etc

You don't need a ref sheet. You can have a character sketch with a color swatch or just colors described on their page. You can use a video game CC to make your character and use a screenshot of that. You can use images other people have drawn for you, including commissions. You just gotta credit. Don't let lack of source material stop you from joining because you think you need a professional level character sheet for your kids.

Points matter in that it is a battle, sure, but they're not that serious and you don't need to draw detailed works of each attack or revenge. If all you have the spoons for is a sketch, you can do a sketch! Do what you're inspired, motivated, and have energy to do, you don't need to stress yourself over this.

AF actually has a lot of tools to really fine-tune the experience you want. You don't need to worry too much about someone misrepresenting your characters or taking any liberties you don't like. I also really personally enjoy the bookmarking system because I'm extremely adhd and it helps keep me organized and focused.

Always use a thumbnail. The site is not going to crop a flattering image of your full image that best showcases it. Learned this after having really unfortunate crops of my art. This also goes for displaying characters. Use a thumbnail that you think best shows them off. (although this year i've noticed people doing matching thumbnails for all their characters which is also cute, but definitely time-consuming)

Lastly, this is a month long opportunity to just draw characters you love or gifts for artists you admire/friends. Don't let others guilt you, or stress you out! Some people can pop out almost 1 full image a day. If you're able to do 1 or 2 for the entire month, that's still 1 or 2 drawings that you were able to do and likely made someone very happy! Just have fun with it and don't let it stress you out.