In addition to the rules outlined in our Terms of Use:

Ownership

You must be the artist and creator of the work you are submitting.

If you commissioned a piece and have full publishing rights, we still ask that you have the artist share it under their own account. Newgrounds is all about artists sharing their art in that way. We will be bringing multi-authoring to the Art Portal, at which point commissioners will be able to be credited alongside the pieces they commissioned. We've made some exceptions here in the past because multi-authoring wasn't available but have since decided it's best to stick to our original rules.

AI Art

AI-generated art is not allowed in the Art Portal. This includes using tools such as Midjourney, Dall-E, and CrAIyon, in addition fractal generators and websites like ArtBreeder, where the user selects two images and they are combined into a new image via machine learning.

There are cases where some use of AI is ok, for example if you are primarily showcasing your character art but use an AI-generated background. In these cases, please note any elements where AI was used so that it is clear to users and moderators.

Tracing and coloring over AI-generated art is something best shared on your blog, as it is much like tracing over someone else's art.

Making art from scratch that is inspired by an AI piece is ok. Here are two good examples: Maiden of Flames and Hermin. Both pieces reference the AI art they are based on while being original pieces in their own right.

Bottom line: We want to keep the focus on art made by people and not have the Art Portal flooded with computer-generated art.

Photography

Photography is not allowed in either public or private galleries. We prefer to keep the spotlight on hand-made works. Photographs of sculptures, paintings or other hand-made items are acceptable; here's a guide for photographing your art. Filtered photographs are not acceptable. While we respect tracing as a teaching tool when source images are fully reported, please use places like your blog to share traced images, rather than the Art Portal.

You may submit collages with photographic elements, providing they constitute a new work of art with handmade elements. If possible, please post links to any photographs, or elements of the collage that were not made by you, to help us determine if the submission is suitably transformative.

Scene Creators, Third Party Assets

Do not submit images made from other people's assets or from scene creator programs.

This includes art made with Source Filmmaker; if you did not create the character models, please do not share your piece in the Art Portal. If you are creating your own models and your work is removed, PM Tom. Also be careful not to produce the art equivalent of shovelware, by uploading large numbers of similar entries to the Art Portal. Activity such as this lead to a growing community backlash against SFM.

Any 3D assets not modeled by the uploader should not be primary elements of your piece and should be credited and linked to when possible, to help us determine if the submission is suitably original / transformative. In general Daz3D entries aren't allowed because they are largely composed of pre-existing assets. This is another situation where we became less lenient over time due to the ability of people to flood the Art Portal with renders.

UnrealEngine's MetaHuman would similarly be treated as third-party assets, since the software is creating the model.

There are numerous scene and character creator tools beyond the ones listed above. Any software where you arrange pre-made assets is not accepted in the Art Portal. Examples include Koikatsu Party and Gacha Life.

Similarly, please do not submit images where you have added captions or stories over someone else's artwork.

Typography is allowed, as is text in comics or story pieces but please avoid pieces that only consist of unmodified text.

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Teaser images for live-streams, content off-site (such a Patreon perks) and storefront items (such as Etsy plush for sale) can be submitted, however please uncheck the “Finished Piece?” box so that it only shows on your personal gallery and in the feeds of your followers. If it appears you are spamming the Art Portal purely to promote links and not to share completed pieces of art, your entries may be removed as ad spam.

Multiple Image Variants

If you have multiple versions of the same art with subtle differences, such as different background colors, it is preferred that you either post the variants in the commentary under the original piece, or not mark the variants as Finished Pieces so they don't all show up in the main Art Portal listing, crowding out other artists.

Age Guidelines

Please don't create and share adult art here if you are under 18; it's awkward.

Your art may not depict a sexually suggestive image of a child. This judgement is based on the image alone, regardless of whether you say the subject is 18+ in the comments. Lolicon, shotacon and cub art fall under this category. If you appreciate NG's space for adult art, please don't test our boundaries here. At the least, you'll be de-scouted for testing the line, if not banned or deleted.

We generally make decisions based on whether the character in the image looks like an adult, however lewds of actual people may be treated as harassment and removed. Creepy territory also includes creating lewds of a persona that was created by a minor, even if done with adult proportions. Ask yourself how creepy you are being with the art you are creating and if it's creepy behavior, expect it to potentially be removed.

Art that implies sexual situations with a minor is also not allowed. This may extend to image sets, where some seemingly acceptable images may be removed if they are part of a larger image set that involves sexual situations with a minor.

Content Ratings

Here is an overview of how ratings should be applied:

E - Nothing intended to arouse, no violence, no bad language, no adult themes including alcohol, tobacco, drugs or fetishes.

T - Fully-clothed, lightly sexy pin-up, mild cartoon violence, mild explicit language, mild mature themes, no fetishes.

M - Sexualized characters, violence, explicit language, fetishes, mature themes.

A - Nudity, sex, skintight or see-through outfits that leave nothing to the imagination, extreme gore, fetishes, extreme adult themes.

Please make your best effort to rate your art appropriately. Mild artistic nudity (non-sexualized butts, mostly) is allowed in M-rated submissions but we ask that nudity not be shown in a thumbnail unless a submission is A-rated. Any nudity with sexual undertones should go ahead with an A rating. Anything that gives the impression of nudity, like a skintight outfit that retains all of the shapes of what is underneath, is a safe bet for an A rating.

Note: Our standards for what is considered Adult have been expanding, to both better meet the expectations of viewers and to stay in line with growing regulations. If you are uncertain about how to rate your art, it is preferred to rate it on the higher side.

Having your content ratings adjusted by a moderator is not a punishment but please try to correctly rate your art. Artists who regularly post adult art without an A rating may find themselves de-scouted for the sake of making the site safer to browse.

Anything that could be considered pin-up art should at least be rated T, though gratuitously endowed or oversexualized pin-ups belong in M or A.

If your work involves a fetish, please include the "fetish" tag along with a tag for the specific fetish, so people can filter accordingly. If your work involves gore, please include the "gore" tag.

Multi-Image Content Ratings

Your project has a project-level content rating and the option to set the content rating on individual pieces of art. Currently, our hubs and search features will only refer to the project rating, so you will want to rate your project based on the intended audience. Here are some example scenarios:

Example 1: You have uploaded a comic with ten panels. Eight of these panels are rated T but two of them are rated A. Because the A-rated content is necessary to the story, you should rate your project A.

Example 2: You have uploaded a series of variants of your OC in different outfits. Most of these variants are rated E but you have one that is rated A. You could choose to rate your project E and people will find it while browsing E, or you could rate it A and people will find it while browsing A. If someone browsing E views your project, the A-rated portion will be filtered if they don’t have A-rated content enabled. In the future it’s possible your project could show up in both E and A results but that will require a larger re-architecture on our end.

Hate / Bullying

Your art may not promote hate towards a race or sexuality, or celebrate / fetishize hate groups. If your portrait of a "sexy nazi" is removed, this is why. Also please avoid the use of slurs. You might think, "I can use the n-word because I'm black" but anonymous people will use that excuse to try and get away with stuff so our rule is that if it appears derogatory, we're gonna treat it as derogatory.

You may not use art to bully another user.

More About the Art Portal

If you are looking for more information about the Art Portal and how it works, please see the Art wiki page.