Welcome to the #hardtober challenge of 2025!

#hardtober2025 is all about (erotic) Folklore (the topic for next year's #hardcover edition). It is bout myths and fantasies. You have the option to either make single entries per week or make one artwork that combines all of them. Or perhaps four artworks that can be combined into one large artwork, if you are ambitious. As always, every level of (explicit)nudity is allowed, as long as the image would likely get you into trouble on social media (which is the entire point of #hardcover as you know).

Week 1: Dance | Week 2: Mask | Week 3: Vision | Week 4: Ritual

We start on October 6, 2023 (or earlier if you prefer), then continue to week 2 on the 13th, week 3 on the 20th, and finally week 4 on the 27th. Use #hardtober2025 and #hardcover2025 in your posts on Bluesky and Instagram, and feel free to tag us on Bluesky so we can share your posts on our profile: https://bsky.app/profile/hardcoverart.com

Please do not send us artwork depicting non-consent, underage characters, or gore.
Please do not send us fan art of IPs and characters you don't own.
Don’t join if your personal views and art marginalize other fellow humans. We have no space for homophobes, sexists, racists, xenophobes, or any prejudiced individuals and their bigoted ideas.
Complete or partial or overpainted: Absolutely no AI slop is allowed!

Please use the A4 format (210 mm x 297 mm / 8.3 in x 11.7 in) and a resolution of 300 dpi. We are looking forward to your entries! You can share your process on our Discord server and join our community of artists there. Please do not upload files larger than 10MB and in formats other than JPG. Thanks!

⚠️ Please name your files like this: your-name-or-alias_title-of-artwork_week.jpg

The four winners are invited to join #hardcover2026 and win a copy of the upcoming Book by Winton Kidd.

Credits

Art: Lucie Duboc
Logo: Viktor Pushkarev