Hey everyone,
I’m back on track, after being sick and a little low on both physical and mental energy around the holidays. Now it’s time to take a look at my plans for the new year (which already sneaked almost 2 weeks off the calendar 🤨).
A crop of my latest finished artwork, Urban Oasis, for Huawei. The full piece + a long version of this newsletter is up on my Patreon.
Looking back at a successful year
Career-wise, 2023 has been a fantastic year – with lots of incredible projects, a good income, and new connections in the art world. A big up for me was making the Lines book – I've been surprised how fulfilling this project actually was to me.
The big issue for me is always: time, and not having enough of it. 2023 had lots of very stressful periods for me, as I ran after to-dos all the time, while announcing the next thing already. I want to improve on that in the future, even for the sake of not being as productive on all ends at once.
Giving 2024 a headline
Playing my skill cards, the ability and longing to be a communicator, having visions – but also keeping a focus. Balancing these two side is the challenge. I don't know how I'll tackle it, but let's see what strategies come to mind in 2024. While this may be somehow unspecific, here's some more concrete goals I want to achieve this year:
1. There's never enough books in the world!
Of course I want to make another book! Lines was just too much fun. I've got a very clear idea of what the next one could be, I'll most likely not make it alone, if it happens. But please stay put for a bit, until I can share more info.
My personal world has been so digital lately. Social media, NFTs, my art process is fully digital as well. The tactile feeling of a book, and the whole process of making it..I want to make that a constant part of my professional life!
2. A video course, and more educational content
Here comes something I'm really excited about: I'm going to produce a big video course, explaining in detail how I make my art, giving insights into tech tips & tricks I use, probably covering topics around turning your art into money, and more! I’ve already started working on this, and I’ll keep you updated about it soon!
3. Quo vadis, Social Media?
Social media platforms have been a big part of my success, but just like so many other creatives, something feels off for a while now. Turning away from being community-centered, to a focus on content – fast-digestible throwaway clickbait content.
This is not really a specific to-do or project I want to finish. It's a piece of mindset: I don't want to accept the course of things, I think there's still fun to be had as a community! And that's why I don't want to stop holding challenges and such, even if there's just 5 people taking part.
However, there’s no doubt that other forms of reaching out to you will become more important. That’s why I also plan to focus on making this newsletter bigger, and better. If there’s anything you’d like to see more often in this, please let me know by just replying to this mail!
4. Developing my art style
If all goes as planned, I will also finish a couple of my personal art series this year. The most important ones being Japan Days and Curious Cabins, two series that helped me to further develop my style and storytelling skills in the last years.
With these series coming to an end, there's two things I'd like to try next: make more art with a personal reference to my world of thought, something with a more emotional and intimate storytelling. And I want to improve how I use the overflowing grade of detail in my work to tell such stories in a more epic way. That sounds a bit vague and wild, but we'll see! This is more like a "second half of the year-goal" though.
5. Patreon
My Patreon is turning 2 years in a couple weeks, and I'd like to make some adjustments here as well. Maybe re-work the tier structure, work on the design here and there. Improve it here and there.
There’s also a longer version of this article on Patreon, if you’re interested in reading it, check it out here!
That's it, and I think it's all manageable, and not too unrealistic. But I never know how much commissioned work will actually come in – it's one of the thrills of being a freelancer. Sometimes, you don't get any offers in 2 months..and then, suddenly the inbox is heating up hard. 😄
I can only promise you keep you up to date here, and I'm looking forward to an amazing year!
Thanks for reading!
Stefan