Specs

I haven't bought the book yet, but the pages will be clear toploading pages (like these—essentially big flat clear pockets) and measure 12" by 12". That's a little bigger than standard American printer paper, and just big enough to fit A4 paper. Many American sketchbooks are 9" by 12", which will barely fit.

Since this is a physical book, traditional art works best if you can manage it. My address is at the bottom. If you'd like to do traditional art but don't have a postage budget, let me know and I'll see if I can figure something out.

If you'd really rather do digital art, no problem! We have a super nice photo printer I can use while PK's away. Email me a .png file that's at least 300 dpi (and tell me the intended print size!). Don't send me .psd; I don't have Photoshop and can't guarantee GIMP won't eat your file.

The medium is thus: anything that I can fit within your 12" by 12" page. It doesn't have to be a single drawing, or even a single sheet of paper. Some things you could do:

• Draw a comic, cut out the panels, get some stickers to go around the corners, and tell me how to arrange them.
• Cut out fabric in the shape of characters and arrange them on a quilt background.
• Take some old-school 4" by 6" photos and use them as backgrounds for papercraft characters.
• Use foil, newsprint, and other flat materials as textures—either in the art or as decorations.
• Press some local wildflowers and glue them atop the flowers in a painting.
• Create a stained-glass effect by cutting out shapes of solid-color paper and either arranging or layering them.

These are just off the top of my head. I suck at art, so you can probably think up something way better. The best result of all would be for every page to be completely unique; it's a scrapbook, after all! Just send me whatever you want and tell me how it should look. If you need a second page, or want to put more on the back of your page, that's fine too. I can even glue an extra (small) something on the front cover for you.

Of course, you probably want to include your name somewhere, as well as birthday wishes for PK!

What to draw

The theme is PK's deviantArt group, #PMD-Explorers. It's all about Pokémon.

If you'd rather not draw Pokémon, no problem; PK also enjoys gijinkas. She's done some designs of PMD-E characters: all the guild leaders, and a more recent set of Merchants. These aren't strictly canonical though; she'd love to see your own interpretation.

PMD-E has lots of characters. There's a big gigantic list on the PMD-E wiki.

Here are some of PK's favorites. These are only suggestions! Feel free to browse the character list and pick whoever looks interesting. As a general rule, the characters PK likes most are the ones that have decently lengthy descriptions on the wiki AND/OR portraits by PK herself. Some characters have yet to appear in the story at all, but have a few paragraphs of backstory just because PK and other core showrunners like the character.

Of course, if you're already familiar with PMD-E, you should definitely just draw whoever you like best instead of sticking to this handful of examples: variety is the spice of life and all! Not that PK would complain about an entire book of Kecleons, either.

• PK is PK's avatar. Obviously. Runs the Merchant guild.

  Defining features: Purple! Head shape is a little pointier than a regular Kecleon, and eyes are squintier. Short-tempered. Wee bit disorganized. Loves cake. Loves money almost as much as cake. Tail currently sports an engagement ring from Twigs (gold with ~6 different-colored gems embedded around it).

• Shroomsworth is vice-leader of the Merchant guild. He and PK had a unique romantic relationship for a while in-universe, but they've since had a falling out.

  Defining features: Monocle. Acts like a proper gentleman and almost certainly speaks with a British accent. Often the target of pegging, for... some reason...

• Callahan is Marl's (PK's husband's) avatar. Takes care of paperwork for all three guilds.

  Defining features: Colored gray. Tips of tails stained black (with ink). Enjoys causing or watching mischief; basically trolls everyone all the time and does whatever he feels like.

• Anana is in-universe PK's sister, and possibly inspired by the real PK's real sister. Leads another Merchant guild in a nearby city.

  Defining features: Yellow. Prominent flower. Big trustworthy eyes (contrast with PK's) with two eyelashes. Always cheery and genuine, but has an uncomfortable sneaky way of getting what she wants anyway.

• Twigs is the PK's cat's avatar. Currently engaged to in-universe PK, though somewhat reluctantly on her part. Yes, she is marrying her cat.

  Defining features: Brown scarf. Tail currently sports an engagement ring. Rich, spoiled, kind of snooty and self-absorbed.

  See also: Styx, my cat's avatar, primarily known for being a deranged spaz.

• Lexy is my avatar. Runs a big fancy nearby library.

  Defining features: Dark fur on paws and tips of ears; also distinct tufts on ears. Haughty, impatient nerd; very clever/observant but extremely dismissive of most people.

One last thing: adult art is fine, but entertaining is preferred to titillating. Please avoid anything romantic or sexual if you aren't familiar with the characters' relationships and personalities; PK doesn't like canon being thrown out the window for the sake of porn.

Sending arts to me

The schedule here is a little awkward.

• PK is out of the country from February 28 through March 13.
• I'm also out of town to go do some nerd things from March 14 through March 23.
• PK's birthday is March 26.

So the best time, by far, for me to put the scrapbook together is in the middle of PK's trip. So please try to be done by the end of February, and aim to get me your artwork by around March 5. (It'll look a little suspicious if I get a flood of mail while she's still here.)

Please let me know when you've sent it, so I know what to expect in the mail. If you won't be ready until closer to the 26th, or if you have to back out, please tell me as soon as you can.

Here's my address:

Eevee
22704 48th Ave W
Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043
USA

The best way to mail artwork is to sandwich it between two sheets of cardboard and send it in a padded envelope. More realistically, you can put it in a document mailer—these are just big, stiff, cardboard envelopes. Writing "DO NOT BEND" prominently on the envelope may also be helpful.

And if you need to get a hold of me for any reason, my email is eevee.pkbook@veekun.com, and I'm usually on Google Talk at lexyeevee@gmail.com.