Mixing photos and imagination - Feb 9-11, 2026

This was my first and last attempt at completing a “#hardcover challenge”.

#hardcover is a group of artists that create “adult” art as a response to the increasing amount of censorship on social media.

On their Discord group, the offer a photo reference each month and members submit their art inspired by the photo. I was impressed by the work I saw and decided to give it a try.

To begin with, I had no idea how to use the photo reference as inspiration for something other than what the photo shows. Finally, her stomach tattoos of small dragons came to my rescue.

Initially, I imagined the dragons actually emerging from the tattoos, but that’s way beyond my skill level at the moment.

Instead, I decided to just add the dragons in the background, as if she were the “mother of dragons” and her tattoos represent her three companions. Once I had that idea, I needed to put her in an environment where we could see the dragons from the distance with little detail, so I drew her perched on the edge of a cliff with the dragons flying off in the distance.

As you can see, my ability to draw from imagination was VERY limited as took on this challenge. I’m curious to see if I am able to improve over time.