Looking back 2022 - Forward to 2023 (Patreon)

2022 was a unique year for me. Lots has changed and I'm learning a lot about myself. If you are curious about what's going on in my studio, here's an in depth look.

Enjoy!

Work/Life Balance

At the start of the year I rented an office space outside my house and established firm work/life boundaries for the first time since I went indie nearly 10 years ago. I felt that if I could ward off procrastination and distraction, I could produce a superhuman amount of work.

In the end, after about 10 months of strong productivity in my office space, the novelty of it started to wear off and the reality of how my year was going settled in. While I was finishing a decent amount of paintings in 2022 but I was filling a lot of my time with additional office work. I was spending a huge chunk of the money I get from Patreon each month to basically sit in a box and do emails. The end result of this experiment was probably a net positive because I had finally been able to separate my working self, from my everyday life obligations. I wish it had turbo-charged my creative efforts along with the administrative stuff, but I have to concede that it didn't. Starting this month I've moved back to my very strange home office (a converted fallout shelter) and bid farewell to my daily commute.

AI - Artificial Intelligence

This was also the year of AI for me. From around March onwards I've done a lot of experimentation with AI tools like Disco Diffusion and MidJourney. Just like with the office space, AI assistance seemed like a path to dramatically increase my creative output, but it also failed to accomplish that goal. While there are still potentially useful applications of AI assisted art, I have regained a love and respect for my older methods of working. The path of playing with machine assisted creativity has lead full circle back to my sketchbook. I strongly believe that if I want to make more art at a higher quality, I just need to spend more time drawing.

There's a lot of controversy around AI right now that I'm really not interested in wading into. It's always sad to see the art community fight itself. While I'm not interested in taking sides, I still don't have a problem with AI training models built on my art and I look forward to using it to experiment with ways it can remix my art in unexpected ways.

No more shipping

One of the major fruits of my year doing too many emails was getting my merchandise into a set of global shipping hubs that automatically connect with my store. I'm still working out some kinks, but that means that this was my first full year without thousands of pounds of custom merch appearing on my front doorstep. It also means this is the first year without near daily trips to the post office with giant Ikea bags full of tubes and boxes. 

I've been so used to having less time in my life due to constantly managing my store's shipping, that I don't think I was fully aware of how much time I've had back in my schedule. Now that I've had some space from it, I really feel confident I'll reacclimate to spending more time drawing and writing again.

I've been doing shipping as a part time job for nearly a decade now, so I think it's fair to expect a period of mental transition. 2022 has been a lot like the first year I had after I stopped working a regular job. Lots of thrashing about and taking random freelance assignments. A gap year really. Maybe 2023 will be similar to that first year when I started Angelarium full time. That would be nice :)

What's happening in 2023?

The Angelarium RPG

I'm in contract negotiations regarding an Angelarium RPG to be written and published in cooperation with a major RPG publisher. I had announced the beginning of development earlier this year, but that project was killed shortly after it started when discussions with a different, indie RPG writer fell through. The way it's looking now, I'm feeling much more confident but it's fair to stay cautious until there is a firm agreement in place.

The Art School

I've been doing private mentoring for the past 10 years and it's been a really important part of my life. In the back of my mind, I've believed that once the right resources came together, that I would embark on making an educational product that would allow me to teach people on a larger scale. I believe that time is upon me now and I'm paving the way to create an online art educational platform featuring all original content, live teaching, and a focus on community. That's going to be a big project, but I have a huge amount of teaching experience to draw from and a partner that I'm working with has all the technical knowhow necessary to allow us to deliver something that people are going to love.

Oracle of Watchers

I finished Oracle of Watchers late in 2022, but I pulled its release at the last minute. The final art, the writing, and the Kickstarter campaign were all basically ready to launch but I chose not to launch it in partly due to timing, but also quality. Timing wise, I missed my release window before Christmas but more importantly, I was not happy with the product samples I was getting from the printer I planned on using. However, since that point, I've been in talks with a publisher about working with me to help dramatically raise the quality bar, extend the products reach, and lower costs all at once. We have a rough agreement sketched out for the release of this long awaited deck, and I hope to be making some exciting announcements for it later this year! Probably summer time or fall. This should be an easy one because all the work is done, I just need to fit it into the publisher's release schedule.

Angelarium Tarot

I plan on releasing at least one new Tarot card per month throughout 2023. It's a big project, so my plan is to just keep a steady pace rather than push it to the backburner. This is potentially going to be one of Angelarium's most widely viewed collections, so I want to make sure that it's well thought through and given the time it needs to flourish.

Thanks for reading and feel free to ask any questions if there is something that has been on your mind.

Best wishes,

-Pete