If you’re an artist on discord, you need to hear this

Discord has become a popular place for building art communities. It’s excellent chat features and easy image sharing makes it a great tool to form communities, get feedback, and make friends.

But there is a dark side to these pocket art communities.

I hear too often from artists that they feel like crap after interacting in art discords. I want you to ask yourself this question before you continue to put yourself in those spaces.

If your friend was experiencing what you’re experiencing, would you be ok with that?

I know you want to be treated better, because you DO deserve better. But the reality is you can’t control the behavior of others. You can’t force others to treat you with respect. But you can control where you spend your time.

When I was a kid I was bullied a lot. A lot of people treated me like crap, and as a result I had very low self esteem. That’s why cultivating a healthy, supportive and motivating art community is so important to me.

Some other questions to ask yourself before going into any art discords:

💖Is there a lot of drama?

💖Do they have community guidelines and rules and do they actually enforce them?

💖Do people treat each other with respect?

💖How do the mods handle situations? Do the mods take action when you report a problem? Do they abuse their power? Do they act with compassion?

💖 MOST IMPORTANTLY: After spending time in that space, do you walk away feeling better or worse about yourself?

So before you go back to a toxic discord server, remember that you deserve better. Keep looking to find a community that is deserving of you.

If you’re not already a part of the Paperdemon community, please join us to get support, inspiration, and motivation.

💖💖💖

Enlist! Join the Vanguard

I recently volunteered to make art for a 2025 Erend pinup calendar fan project for the month of May. Erend Vanguardsman is the captain of the Sun King’s Vanguard in the Playstation/PC games Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.

Inspiration

This idea came from boobaloof in the Two Minutes discord server. They shared this army enlistment poster and suggested someone make one that says “Join the Vanguard”. I thought it was a brilliant idea. No one else jumped on it so I grabbed it and made it happen.

Enlist! Join the U.S. Army

Sketches

I Initially started with a portrait image similar to the original. But the pinup calendar was going to be a landscape format so i adjusted it.

Final

Here’s the final art!

Enlist! Join the Vanguard
Enlist! Join the Vanguard. Erend pinup calendar for May

I don’t often have time for fanart but I’m glad I at least got in a few fanart pieces this year. I have a few more Horizon fanarts I can share later.

Willow | The Star

PaperDemon Art RPG weekly prompt #57

 Draw or write your character as a card. Are they more of a regular card from a playing deck? How about a tarot card? What makes them that card?

I rarely participate in a weekly prompt challenge, even though a lot of them are fun. I just don’t have enough time to play my own game these days.

But this prompt I really got excited about and had a ton of fun doing.

The colors are kinda too bright but I dig it a lot.

Sometimes I wish I could take a break from website coding so I could focus on creating art and playing the game.

Cyrus Skyllo

If I recall correctly, I created this character during a livestream in the Amaru discord server that I helped host about creating characters.

I actually have gotten quite attached to this OC and have drawn him in several other illustrations. I’m not totally happy with his clothes so I’ll probably redesign him later.

Minimaid has helped develop this character further by roleplaying him as the investigator in our first Guild Night RP event.


Character Name: Cyrus Skyllo

Character Age: 28

Character Species: Paperdemon

Hair color: Purple

Eye color: grey

Skin color: grey

Wing color: greyish purple/pink

Biography

Cyrus likes to be alone. He has trouble connecting with others and often is misunderstood by others in his life. He experienced trauma in childhood, something he doesn’t talk about. So he’s often very cautious around other people because he finds it hard to trust him. He likes to spend a lot of time researching and gathering information before taking on a task. The more prepared he can be, the more comfortable he is. If he doesn’t have enough information, he can get really agitated or fearful and run away from the situation.

It is unknown which portal is his homeworld. But maybe one day he’ll feel comfortable opening up to others about it.

Willow and Jerle investigate the Rootways

Art was created for the Decra Drain Art RPG challenge.

Jerle and Willow rappel down to investigate the rootways underneath the city. They discover a portal underneath the city is draining power away from Aridin’s orbs. Adrian, the Black Bandit is nearby and Willow suspects he’s behind all this given how suspicious he looks. But Adrian is just there to investigate the situation too.

Thank you Minimaid Minimaid for lending me your character Adrian!

Prompt #3 – Rootways

You trace the energy drain to its source– somewhere down in the city below. The roads themselves feel rich with energy, and you discover that the power has sunk beneath the surface of the city down into the roots below. To your surprise, you discover intricate, recently grown tunnels of roots that stretch under the city in a complex labyrinth. Who has built them? Why? How are they taking the orb’s power? Draw or write about your character investigating the root tunnels below the city. Your piece must include your character and either the root tunnels or those responsible for them.