Artists these days have a huge array of tools at their disposal to improve and streamline their art process. However, use of some of these tools can go against the spirit of an ARPG that rewards creative effort, so Succubuns has placed restrictions on how heavily a piece can rely on these tools and still receive a reward.
Please note that, aside from AI image generators, there's nothing wrong with using any of these tools in your personal art! However, we cannot award carats for art created with too many shortcuts.
Generative AI
Works created using generative AI programs are not allowed on Succubuns in any capacity. Submitting AI generated content is grounds for an automatic ban.
Premade assets
In the current day, many art programs such as Clip Studio Paint offer a wide variety of premade assets to assist an artist's workflow, such as textures, asset brushes, and 3D models. We cannot reward players for submitting things they did not draw, so if a large portion of your submission is made up of these kinds of premade assets, it will not be accepted.
Stamps and Asset Brushes
Succubuns considers a stamp or asset brush to be any brush that lays down a premade asset or a row of premade assets in a single stroke, such as a tree brush or a fence brush. While these brushes are made for artists to use in this way, we do not consider backgrounds made out of asset brushes to be hand drawn
Please note that this rule includes leaf brushes and grass brushes. If you're creating an outdoor scene using a brush that creates whole leaves, leaf clusters, or blades of grass, those elements will not count as being hand drawn.
Simple Asset Exception
A background that is fully hand drawn and complete without the use of stamps or asset brushes may utilize low-coverage, simple asset brushes for the sake of adding visual interest.
Asset brushes may be used to add things like sparkles, hearts, and music notes, as well as things like leaves and grass when used as small accents. If the background is still complete with all asset brushes removed, it can be accepted.
3D Models
Though it's become a common practice for many artists, especially comic artists, to use premade 3D models to set up the backgrounds for their art, we cannot accept backgrounds that appear to be built from models rather than drawn by hand.
Players may reference 3D models or use them for rough paint-overs, but 3D models cannot be visible within a piece, and elements of a piece should not appear to be directly traced from a 3D model.
Premade Textures
Some types of textures can act as icing on the cake to a finished work, but when they are used so heavily that a background can't stand on its own without them, they cannot be accepted.
Background Textures
Submissions may not use premade background textures of things like brick walls or wood floors, which include 3D elements that would normally be drawn with lineart, to make up a large portion of a background. If one of these textures makes up more than 1/3 of the background, it will no longer count as a hand drawn background, and will be rejected. Pieces with less than 1/3 texture coverage will be subject to approval depending on if they use other assets or have sufficient hand drawn detail.
Patterns and Quality Textures
Patterns are generally layered over colored/finished elements of a piece, typically to add visual interest to fabric or wallpaper. These sorts of patterns, even ones made with stamp brushes, are allowed to be used. However, patterns do not contribute to the complexity of a piece, and a background must be able to stand on their own without them.
Similarly, quality textures are simple textures, such as a grainy or paper textures, layered over finished elements or entire pieces to affect the "feel" of the piece. These are always acceptable to use. 
Reused Elements
A reused element is a hand drawn element that you created yourself, but have used multiple times within one image. This includes elements that are drawn in a piece utilizing a symmetry ruler, so that drawing one element also creates an identical mirrored element.
Reused elements are allowed within submissions, but do not contribute to the complexity of a piece—a background must be able to stand on its own without any of the duplicated details. Elements may not be reused across multiple different pieces.
This banner uses symetry for the chandelier and has some repeated elements in the tables and floral arrangements-- however it also has significant amounts of hand drawn detail, so it still counts as complex.
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When in doubt about using assets in art submissions, just remember that hand drawing elements is always acceptable, and will help you to better develop your artistic skills!
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