Greetings, Sunnydale After Darkers!
Congratulations to this fabulous community for another successful event! We are so thrilled by the response to the Pen & Paint event this year! It was an absolute blast seeing so much new and incredible artwork and all the varied stories they inspired.
Every summer, since it is SAD-iversary time, we get retrospective and think about why we started this archive in the first place. Community, collaboration, fun! And we try to highlight those themes with the summer event. This felt like a wonderful way to bring artists and writers (and betas and commenters!) together in a fresh way. We hope you had a great time doing it and that artists had fun being in the driver’s seat for a change! Please let us know if you’d like to see this event repeated in the future.
There were 125 submissions to this event which earned a combined total of 1,962 comments, which is just amazing. There were 61 pieces of art and 64 fics! Seriously incredible.
A super special shout out to Lilacsandorangeblossoms for their 12 submissions! And also to Claire, Desicat, and Harmony99 for submitting 11 pieces each. Way to go, guys! 
Please know that even though the event may be finished, so long as an artist leaves their series open, everyone is still free to continue writing fic to art or creating art based on art! The open series concept is one that can be used at any time for anyone looking to collaborate with others. If you’re a writer looking for an idea in the future, there are still 18 pieces of art from the event that have no fics attached… yet. And artists, feel free to post your art in the Challenges section if you'd like a better shot at seeing a story for your art.
As for awards, we’d like to reveal the absolute gems created for us by the incomparable JSBirsa. These hand-drawn awards feel aptly creative and special for this art-centric event. Huge thank you to her for working on these for us!
Here they are again in full size so you can appreciate them in all their beautiful glory:
All awards have been distributed. If you feel like you deserve an award that you did not receive, please make sure to let an admin know so we can help you out!
Thank you again to the artists, authors, betas, commenters, and readers for participating in this event! You all make every day here at SAD such a joy.
We love ya. 
--Dusty, GetItDone, Chelle, and Grief Counseling on 07/02/24 08:46 pm 7 Comments
And PS ... those awards are just everything! EVERYTHING! Absolutely gorgeous! I am gobsmacked by the talent here!
This was such a fun event! I would love to see this run again! And also, congrats to Lilac for having 12 fics. That’s freaking amazing!
Thank you for the stunning awards and for more inspiration than I could manage. π My to-write list just keeps growing.
And look at those numbers! π₯³
The number of Art without stories attached might be a little lower, though. Two of my art submissions got a written response in the last week but they weren't added to the series. π
This is phenomenal! I loved the event and would definitely enjoy seeing it return again in the future. Huge kudos to Jasna for those exquisite awards! They are truly breathtaking. And thanks so much to the Mods for organizing another fantastic event! 
Jasna, the art for the awardsππ₯°π!
This was a really great idea for an event, to turn things around and give the reins to the artists. And damn them for making so many awesome and inspiring pieces! I wish I had time to respond to more of them, as they were all so great and thought-provoking. And I also bow down to Lilacsandorangeblossoms, Claire, Desicat, and Harmony99 - you guys totally killed it with all those submissions!
Thanks also to JSBirsa for the wonderful drawings and awards! I love all the detail and how fitting they each are to the category.
Seeing those numbers for Pen & Paint almost made my eyeballs pop out of my head. Thank you ALL for showing up and showing out. Watching everyone work so tirelessly to keep Spuffy alive makes me incredibly happy and beyond proud to be in this fandom with you. You are all wonderful in every single way and I adore you!