a touhou project themed fanwork exchange for the holidays
TOUHOU SECRET SANTA ART EXCHANGE 2021
ABOUT
The Touhou Secret Santa Art Exchange is a creative, Touhou-Project themed holiday art exchange open to both artists and authors alike. Participants are expected to create a personalized gift for their recipient without revealing their identities until December 25th.
how it works
Sign-ups:
Join the festivities by signing up here, now through November 12th!
Sign-ups are now closed.
Pairings:
Shortly after the application period has ended, you will receive an email assigning you a recipient based on your sign-up preferences.
Creation Period:
You will have roughly a month and a half from when pairings are sent out to create a fanwork for your recipient. During this period, we will also be doing a mandatory check-in to make sure everyone has at least started on their pieces.
Posting Period:
During the posting period, completed gifts will be uploaded on social media.
(Pieces will be posted starting December 25th at 12AM MST. We hope everyone can upload their works as soon as they can.)
RULES
1. Be Respectful.
Discrimination of any kind (racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, misogyny, etc.) will NOT be tolerated. This event is meant to be a safe space for everyone, including minorities. If you happen to show discrimination towards anyone for any reason, you will be automatically kicked from the event.
2. Keep other's preferences in mind.
If you do not wish to receive/create certain content, there will be a section in our applications dedicated towards preferences. We will try our best to pair people based on similar interests, however it may not be guaranteed that you'll receive someone who likes the same things as you. Please be aware and respectful of other's likes and dislikes when creating your piece. We understand that you may not have a particular liking towards someone's ships or characters, but under no circumstances will we allow you to show disrespectful towards another person for their interests.
3. Do not reveal the identities gifts of you or others' recipients/giftees.
Part of the fun of a Secret Santa is to keep your identity and gift a secret from your recipient until Christmas. For this reason, we kindly ask for you to refrain from revealing who you are gifting until December 25th. We also ask for you to avoid streaming/posting any progress of your work until after the deadline. If you do come to know another creator’s recipient or see progress of another's gift, please keep that information to yourself.
4. Have Fun! We want this holiday season to be a joyous celebration for Touhou artists and writers alike. We hope you'll have a delightful time during this fun event!
GUIDELINES
• All work must be new, original content.
• NSFW of any kind is NOT permitted. All works must remain SFW, as this is an event made for people of all ages.
• Please avoid the use of OCs or characters outside of the Touhou franchise. This event is focused on the preexisting cast of Touhou Project only.
(Exceptions may include characters dressing/cosplaying as other characters, or very minimal references to other series.)
• Small animated gifs, short animations, and comic strips are all acceptable.
• Chibis, headshots, half-bodies, full-bodies, etc. are all acceptable.
• Our minimum word count for fanfiction is 900 words. We do not have a set maximum word count.
• Fanfics must be written in English.
• One-shots, multi-chapters, and reader inserts are all acceptable.
• At least one work must be completed for a gift. You are allowed to make more if you'd like, but one piece fully completed is our requirement.
• Please do not gift unfinished work. We want everyone's pieces to be presentable for recipients. For this reason, we ask for you to please refrain from gifting work that appears incomplete (ex: sketches; rough drafts).
• Remember our schedule and the important dates! We intend this event to be a low-pressure and relaxed event for everyone to enjoy. However, saving things to the last minute and rushing to get it done does not give the best end product.
• If you absolutely need to drop out of the exchange, please contact us as soon as possible. Using Backup Santas (discussed under the Backup Santa tab), we will provide your work to someone else to handle.
• We will send out direct messages via Twitter on December 1st to check in on your progress. This is to see that you have at the very least started it, or to give us any updates necessary. We want to know that everyone will be recieving something at the end of this event, and this check in serves as a way of making sure of it.
(It is recommended that you are around 50% completed by then.)
• On December 25th, gifts will begin to be posted to social media. We recommend users to tag gift posts using the #TouhouSanta2021 tag so we can share it for others to see!
• You will be revealing who you were a Secret Santa to by tagging the person’s username on the post.
(Optional: You may DM the person you made a gift for instead of posting.)
• Be respectful and kind! Show gratitude to whoever made your gift, even if it does not fit your expectations.
• Most importantly of all, have fun and enjoy the event!
BACKUP SANtA
Sometimes, life comes at you out of nowhere and takes away from your time to create. This may cause you to push your work aside to attend to personal matters. This is why we have Backup Santas.
• Backup Santas are people who agree to be a backup creator in case someone happens to drop out. They are responsible for creating whatever was assigned to the person who dropped out.
• On the application form, you may select whether or not you will be willing to be a Backup Santa. If you select yes, you recognize the responsibility that you will be expected to write or draw on a possible short notice.
• We will notify you as soon as possible when your backup is needed. Upon being notified, you are expected to create both your original assigned piece as well as the backup piece by our deadline.
Schedule
Application Period - November 2nd - November 12th
(Or until applications are filled)
Matchmaking Period - November 3rd - 5th
Pairing Emails Sent - November 6th
Gift Creation Period - November 6th - December 24th
Check-In - December 1st (50% completion reccomended)
Gift Posting Begins - December 25th (12AM MST)
FAQ
Q: Where can I sign up?
A: You can sign up using our application form found here.
Q: How big should my canvas size be?
A: Any canvas size bigger than 500x500 will do.
Q: I'm not so talented in what I create, can I still join?
A: Our event is open to artists and writers of any skill level!
Q: What's the minimum word count for fanfics?
A: 900 words is our minimum word count.
Q: What do I do if I need clarification for my assignment?
A: Do not contact your giftee. We will contact them ourselves and get back to you with some clarification as soon as we can.
Q: What should I do if I don’t like what I’ve been assigned?
A: We try our best to match people accordingly upon similar interests. Altough we understand some things may not match up. For this matter, we must kindly ask for you to respectfully accept and create your prompt to the best of your ability for the sake of keeping organization within the event.
Q: How many people are you accepting for this event?
A: Our maximum capacity will be set to 50 participants.
Q: Is there an end-date to the posting period?
A: To keep pressure off our participants' shoulders, we do not provide an end date for the posting period. Participants can post their works well past December. However, we strongly recommend for participants to submit their works by January 31st.
Q: I have other concerns not addressed on this FAQ.
A: Please make sure you thoroughly read through our Rules and Guidelines. If you happen to have any other concerns, feel free to send us a question on our CuriousCat!