OFFICIAL GROUP RULES

(1) Somewhere in the description or tags of your OC artwork there SHOULD be a short blurb that says something to the effect of "This is MY character" or "This is my OC" or "OC" or "Original Character" 
Your OC artwork is encouraged to have an introduction to the character. It can be short and sweet or incredibly detailed - we would just like some proof that your character is a proper, original character.  We don’t want our group to become a second gallery for every random image you've ever drawn.  What we require is that you mention that it is your original character- or who's character it is if not yours. You can do this in several ways; a "©" next to your deviant name and the name of the character in the description is helpful, you can write it like this: "Character © me" We DO NOT ACCEPT THE © symbol that DeviantArt puts automatically after your deviant name as an accept or pass on the rule. You must write Character © me in the description or "Character belongs to me" or something like it, or even simply say, "This is my original character" in the description.
We will also accept "OC" or "original character" written in the tags OR in the title of the artwork as a pass on this rule because you made a conscious decision to include the words "Original character" or "OC". 

(2) We no longer accept artwork using bases. 

We DO NOT accept obvious tracings or photo manipulations.
We DO NOT accept adoptables.
We DO NOT accept 3D-modeled images or anything that looks like 3D images (only drawings and paintings of digital or traditional medium are allowed).
We DO NOT accept photography. 
We DO NOT accept images that have been photo manipulated. Such as a photograph of a person-- we only accept drawings and paintings of your characters-- no cosplay or photographs of real people. We do accept the use of stock in one's drawing, but it must be altered greatly to fit your drawing/painting and it should not look like just another photo manipulation. All stock should be credited to the rules of the stock provider. 
We DO NOT accept  POETRY.
The reason is mainly because it can be too vague about a character. We only accept actual stories you wrote about a specific character that you made up and who has a back story or at least some information in the description so it's not just a vague story about a character that might or might not exist. We would like to see actual info on your character so that it isn't a flimsy non-character or idea. We only want solid original characters. We understand that some might not want to share all info about their characters, but you should at least include some small info on your characters with your literature submission. Once again, we will NOT accept poetry format literature NOR random journals that have nothing to do with your original character.

(3) OriginalCharactrClub is not the place to showcase your crafts, however original they may be. We do not accept Cosplay, Sculpture, nor any other kind of artisan or craft work. We do not accept photography of any kind. We only accept Drawings and Paintings of the Digital or Traditional medium or written literature on your characters (excluding poetry).

(4)  We enforce quality control now! Nothing too drastic - but we want to see effort being put into your art, whether it's beginner, intermediate, or professional level.  That means sketches must be clean, coloring jobs can't be scribbly, no bad scans, no low quality photographs of art, no art supplies or sketchbook binders/spiral rings or folded pages in the photo, no un-cropped works (please exclude miscellaneous background objects from your work), and no doodles on lined paper. Please also submit work to the appropriate folders. If you made a sketch, it should go to the Sketches and WIPs folder. If it's a fully developed work, send it to one of the other folders such as General Fiction.

(5) Nudity, gore, or sensitive content must be have the mature filter enabled or it will be declined.

(6)  Please, be respectful to other members and our admin staff. We’re here to help you and are more than willing to listen to your grievances if presented in a respectful manner. Anyone who is rude to the founder or the co-founders or contributors will be blocked from the group and reported for harassment and hostile conduct. You CAN be banned from DeviantArt for hostility to another member. Please act responsibly, we are only trying to get your work accepted into the group. Everyone has to follow the same rules.

(7) Please submit your work to the correct folders. You may want to refer to the Folder descriptions journal here: fav.me/d9bh40d

(8)  DO NOT SUBMIT TO THE FEATURED FOLDER. We will periodically select pieces to be featured.

(10) Do Not submit more than one (1) work per week to the group. This is a new limit to help stop the flooding of the inbox by those who wish to abuse the group by dominating the inbox. We will no longer allow more than one submission per week. Be advised that incorrect folder submissions will be DECLINED and you will not get another submission to replace it.
SPAMMING ADVISORY: Do not advertise your stuff on our home page. This means NOT to advertise your contests, kiribans, commissions and any other thing that you are trying to get the word out for directly on our comment section or any other section using comments.  You will be blocked and reported for spamming. You may use our folder titled "Contests" to get the word out about a contest you have going on. We prefer the contests to be OC related.
**Please note that multiple submissions of the same image/deviation will also not be accepted. Please only submit an image once. Also, please do not submit multiple or alternate versions of the same image. Pick one and stick to it-- all other similar images will be declined and only one that follows the rules will be chosen.

(11) We do not accept self-portraits, real-life portraits, or random images from your gallery. No matter how stylized the self-portrait (or persona), life portrait/drawing, still life, abstract drawing, etc; we do not consider those to be OCs. Please do not try to abuse our group to your gain. Those things will not be accepted here.
Please make sure to follow rule # 1 and state that the character is yours or please put "OC" in your tags. Your work will be rejected if it doesn't appear to fit in with the group theme such as if it is a real-life portrait, still life drawing, landscape drawing or other such artwork or writing that is not an OC or which doesn't appear to be an OC. The list goes on and on about what we won't accept, so make sure whatever you submit is not conflicting with our group theme.  We do NOT accept things such as Adoptables, Personas/Fursonas, RP prompts, D & D prompts, Kiribans, random journals, or other such things that advertise anything other than a Contest or a Commission sheet (There are folders in our gallery which are for these two topics called "OC Contests-- Advertise them here" and "Commissionable Artists").

(12) Please do not harass the founder or any other admin about how long your submission is taking to be reviewed. Harassment will not be tolerated and you will be blocked from the group and reported. Submissions will be reviewed anywhere from once a day to once a week up to as much as once in a three week period, so rejection or approval may take some time. We appreciate your cooperation on this and your patience. You can check out the Original Characters we have already collected in our gallery while you wait on your submission. This is not the group for you if you expect immediate approval. We all have lives (hopefully) and we must live them in addition to the fun we can have here on DeviantArt.

(13) Our group is about Original Characters and Original worlds/stories.
We reserve the right to decline anything we feel is too much of a fan art, even if it has your OC or FC in it. 

(14) Newer Artwork Only.

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While you're brushing up on the rules, make sure to check out our FOLDER DESCRIPTIONS journal too - we have some new info there on our folders

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Side notes from the founder and co-founder :


OC reference sheets are strongly encouraged but not required, though we do offer a folder for them. An OC reference sheet has the character's stats and other information either in the actual deviation or inside of the description. It could include things such as: the name of the character, age, height, personality, abilities, etc.
Some groups may consider an OC Reference Sheet to only be something that contains the info for the character ON the actual image itself. We are a little more lenient as long as you follow the other rules.

If you have any questions, feel free to note the group or ask a question right here.