So I'm trying to post something, first ever post actually, it's just a drawing on paper I took a picture of, tried to make it look as neat as I could, but now I'm trying to post it, and everything seems extraordinarily daunting. I don't know how to make a tag, how to tag properly, how to even tag my own artist name or make a new tag for it. I looked at the guides, but they weren't clear enough for me and I couldn't understand. I don't know what exactly to do because, like I said, first time posting ever. Do I have to hook up an outside account to this one or at least link and outside account? How do I tag something like a characters name properly, whether it counts as questionable or safe, things like that. I'm nervous even just making this because what if I mess this up too and it turns out I posted wrong? I just would like a bit of a guide to help me out that can set things out in front of me without any confusion or cloudiness.
Thank you to whoever decides to put up with me.

Hey it's okay, it's a new experience so it's natural to be nervous

• You do not have to hook or link up an outside account to this one.
• Character name tag goes like: charactername_(characterownername) If they have a full name, then you can separate them with an underscore: character_name_(ZoeBlossomDraws)
• Safe vs Questionable is usually very easy to tell, imagine kid friendly cartoons vs young adult shows
• If you post wrong, as long as you're honest and willing to listen and learn then people will generally want to help and be understanding

You didn't post this wrong at all, so it's okay

nin10dope said:
Hey it's okay, it's a new experience so it's natural to be nervous

• You do not have to hook or link up an outside account to this one.
• Character name tag goes like: charactername_(characterownername) If they have a full name, then you can separate them with an underscore: character_name_(ZoeBlossomDraws)
• Safe vs Questionable is usually very easy to tell, imagine kid friendly cartoons vs young adult shows
• If you post wrong, as long as you're honest and willing to listen and learn then people will generally want to help and be understanding

You didn't post this wrong at all, so it's okay

Ok so to put an artist tag, I can just put my name in the box?
And the character I want to post is named Avery, or King Avery, so would it be set up like "Avery_(ZoeBlossomDraws)" and "King_Avery_(ZoeBlossomDraws)" respectively for whichever one I did?

Basically, aside from capital letters getting auto-converted to lowercase. And then, please, once it's posted, click the "?" next to both tags (which will have red "1"s next to them), click "Edit Tag Type", and change them to Artist and Character respectively, so they show up in the right lists and with the right colors.

The different categories in the upload page, and the buttons, are just there as a sort of "checklist" for uploaders reminding them what types of things should be tagged if possible. You can actually type any tag into any box.

errorist said:
Basically, aside from capital letters getting auto-converted to lowercase. And then, please, once it's posted, click the "?" next to both tags (which will have red "1"s next to them), click "Edit Tag Type", and change them to Artist and Character respectively, so they show up in the right lists and with the right colors.

The different categories in the upload page, and the buttons, are just there as a sort of "checklist" for uploaders reminding them what types of things should be tagged if possible. You can actually type any tag into any box.

Alright cool thank you!

zoeblossomdraws said:
So I'm trying to post something, first ever post actually, it's just a drawing on paper I took a picture of, tried to make it look as neat as I could, but now I'm trying to post it, and everything seems extraordinarily daunting.

Ideally, you should be using a digital scanner instead of taking a picture of your drawing, or just make sure that your upload does not obviously look like it was taken by a camera.
Otherwise, it could get instantly rejected due to it falling under Low quality submissions under the "Bad Things to Upload" section of the Uploading Guidelines.

Also, if you haven't yet, do familiarise yourself with our Uploading Guidelines for what can and cannot be posted here on e621.

I don't know how to make a tag, how to tag properly, how to even tag my own artist name or make a new tag for it. I looked at the guides, but they weren't clear enough for me and I couldn't understand. I don't know what exactly to do because, like I said, first time posting ever.

Please follow our Tagging Checklist if you don't know what to tag. Also, do adhere to our Tag What You See (TWYS) policy when it comes to adding tags.

To put it simply, when you upload a post, you are required to insert no fewer than 10 tags into the post. There will be separate boxes for you to fill in these tags, with each tag being separated by a space.
The tags you can add into the post could be:

• The artist's name (e.g., artist:john_doe);
• The character's name (e.g., character:john_doe);
• The character's gender (e.g., male, female, intersex, etc.);
• The number of characters (e.g., solo, duo, group);
• The character's species (e.g., dog, cat, dragon, species:species_name, etc.);
• The character's body type/form (e.g., anthro, feral, taur, etc.);
• The romantic/sexual interactions between characters, if any (e.g., male_on_male for two males interacting with each other, anthro_on_anthro for two anthros interacting with each other, etc.);
• The characteristics of the characters featured (e.g., black_body, breasts, clothed, teeth, whiskers, etc.);
• The actions made by the characters (e.g., talking, smiling, hand_holding, kissing, sex, etc.);
• The objects in the scene (e.g., shirt, pants, table, sword, car, etc.);
• And many, many more.

You'd just have to make sure you adhere with the TWYS policy (i.e., tagging only what you see, not what you can assume/know) and that you have at least 10 tags in the end.

Do I have to hook up an outside account to this one or at least link and outside account?

It is entirely optional if you are the artist.
You don't need to do so if you don't want to.

How do I tag something like a characters name properly, ...

See topic #23553 or Help:Tags.

To insert a new tag with a specific category (e.g., artist, character, species, copyright), you need to include that category's name, followed by a colon, and then the name of the tag.
For example, if there is a character named "John Doe" that you want to insert, you type the following into the tags field: character:john_doe.

If you had already inserted the tag, but in the wrong category or is missing the proper category, please refer to topic #23553 to learn how to change an existing tag's category.

whether it counts as questionable or safe, things like that.

Refer to Help:Ratings.

If it is safe-for-work and anybody can see, then it is rated as Safe.
If it is not-safe-for-work and contains explicit scenes, then it is rated as Explicit.
If you are unsure or that it contains mildly mature or sexually suggestive themes, then you can rate it as Questionable.

I'm nervous even just making this because what if I mess this up too and it turns out I posted wrong? I just would like a bit of a guide to help me out that can set things out in front of me without any confusion or cloudiness.
Thank you to whoever decides to put up with me.

Don't worry, things are always daunting in the first place. Once you get a hang of it, you will work everything out in no time.
If you have any specific questions to ask, feel free to ask them here.

thegreatwolfgang said:
Ideally, you should be using a digital scanner instead of taking a picture of your drawing, or just make sure that your upload does not obviously look like it was taken by a camera.

Ugh, I remember ages ago on Tumblr seeing a post about some app that uses the camera but is programmed to produce scanner-like results, and I never bothered to make a note of what it was called. Does anyone even make flatbed scanners anymore?

errorist said:
Ugh, I remember ages ago on Tumblr seeing a post about some app that uses the camera but is programmed to produce scanner-like results, and I never bothered to make a note of what it was called. Does anyone even make flatbed scanners anymore?

Many printers are also scanners. There's multiple such apps, but they don't work as well.

Most modern phones, with good led lighting, can take a high quality image

nin10dope said:
Most modern phones, with good led lighting, can take a high quality image

a well-framed digital photo can be pretty good, but generally a scan is still preferable. witha camera you're necessarily going to have some curvature/distortion of the origial flat image, since with a camera the picture collects all of the light from its entire field of view and focuses it onto its sensor. where as with a scanner it takes a bunch of tiny pictures parallel to the original image so it's closer to a 1-to-1 representation of the original.

nin10dope said:
Most modern phones, with good led lighting, can take a high quality image

True, it is doable. Even with good, high-quality cameras, good lighting is an artform in itself. Then you need to get the art itself flat on to the camera, minimizing lens distortion, plus crop out the extra non-art stuff to have only the art visible. (Can cameras save pictures in .png or other lossless formats? Mine, a proper Canon camera and not a phone camera, does so in .jpgs, which I find annoying.) Most people, including many artists, are not skilled photographers. For the common schmoe, a scanner can take care of all that far easier than a camera.

clawstripe said:
True, it is doable. Even with good, high-quality cameras, good lighting is an artform in itself. Then you need to get the art itself flat on to the camera, minimizing lens distortion, plus crop out the extra non-art stuff to have only the art visible. (Can cameras save pictures in .png or other lossless formats? Mine, a proper Canon camera and not a phone camera, does so in .jpgs, which I find annoying.) Most people, including many artists, are not skilled photographers. For the common schmoe, a scanner can take care of all that far easier than a camera.

Fair
I like to think I did a good job taking pictures of my sketches but I'm not willing to submit them because they're just pencil sketches

Most modern smartphones do a lot of processing to pictures; the end result is often not very faithful to what the sensor sees. I'm not sure if that would make it count as AI-assisted or artificially upscaled.

For anyone interested in a deep dive into this topic, here is a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY8OFp0-UZw
AI stuff at 13:56.

Please do use an actual scanner if you can, it's always going to be much better quality than trying to take a photo with your phone. There are used ones under $50 on ebay right now