2020 IN A NUTSHELL - DEC 2020
Well as we all know covid had a massive impact on the arts. All comic conventions had been canceled from March the 13th onwards and it was time for me as an artist to change gears.
As you all know fantasy art is my passion, comics, surrealism nature and video games. Comic conventions have been my bread and butter for a long time so losing them has been challenging but I wanted to share some ways in which rebounded to make 2021 a stronger year and to keep my art alive.
Over 2020 I was also crippled with graves disease so I could not do much so my assistant Christy did do a few things on behalf of me which will now pay dividend from Feb of 2021! I also had two creative people come on board to save the day and while I healed and have been on a journey of recovering.
Firstly I was signed to one of Americas Largest art and illustration Agents and thanks to my staff all my work was sent to the agent to sell onto many products.
I signed to one of Australia’s biggest diamond art painting publishers Treasure Studios Art
The agent in America signed a deal with a publisher in Australia who released three of my puzzles in Kmart in October which was a massive win
Also in December of 2019 I created a large commission worth $7000! for a private collector which I may post in a future blog. The client had paid it off by January of 2021. This commission and the sale of another original painting the Russell Falls painting worth $5000 in December of 2019 was instrumental in allowing me to save funds during this crisis.
So since march of 2020 when all the cons had vanished I had some savings to rely on and not only that of course financial support due to my illness and covid. I wont go into that as it is personal. However this blog article is to inform artists of other opportunities and how to survive during a pandemic. The big lesson is be original don’t rely on fan art or even comic conventions, I have been selling my original paintings and prints for years now online! But the last two years I have sold many originals and they have allowed my fantasy art to grow and kept my art alive.
Also look into licensing whether you license your work to an agent or individually to different companies it is worth going down that path especially in a pandemic. Honestly covid has affected how many deals my agent can get me and it has affected what sort of fantasy art has been sold to publishers. Maybe during a normal year I would have made more deals. However many of my fantasy artworks from the past have been snatched up and I now have 3 puzzles released in KMART.
NOT only this two artworks a unicorn and animal forest masterpieces painted in the past have been snatched up by Sunsout a major international publisher and those puzzles are set to be released in 2021
The Luminous Ages video game in the works and novels
I have been lucky enough to find a programmer who is interested in working on the Luminous Ages Video Game it is in very early stages. We have a prototype in development and some cool level designs
By late 2019 I started to work on my next illustrated novel Tavern of Dreams. Recently I picked up the book and started editing and adding more illustrations to the book. I am almost ready to launch the book around March 23 on Kickstarter.
Not only this Rod Ramos Rodolfo an old contact from 2018 at New York Comic Con has come to the rescue to work on the new LUMINOUS AGES COMIC the BAIZE (BOOK OF MONSTERS). He has started penciling pages creating flats ready for me to start painting pages in 2021 to get this book ready for patreon and Kickstarter in 2021!
The good news though fans is that I am healing from my graves disease and managing the associated anxiety that comes with it and I am in recovery and healing well. While the world and myself have been sick I have been using this time to get better and delegate things and prepare for a brighter future. I plan to get back to part time work in February and hopefully with positive blood test results back to full time work by April. You will start to see content coming out in February on wards and I plan for a massive Kickstarter in mid February for the new Illustrated novel for Luminous Ages which continues on from the last graphic novel.
Lets hope 2021 is an amazing year for us all and things improve for the world, peoples health, the economy and more. It saddens me to see the suffering that the world has endured and the countless innocent and vulnerable lives lost. I feel blessed that with my auto immune condition I have not been targeted.