Hey everyone,
I just wanted to say thank you to those of you checking in on me, and apologies for dropping off the map. I'll be transparent, it's been a struggle recently - I know my work is usually super cheerful, so I hope you'll forgive this update being a different tone.
For the past two years, I've been more and more stressed about how to adapt, now that AI has changed the rules. At the moment, things still seem okay, but what changes do I need to make now to still have a job in 5, or 10 years? As usual, my reaction to stress has been to overwork myself.
All that has recently come tumbling down on me and about a month ago just kind of knocked me over. It took some time to figure out my thoughts, and sort myself out.
Here's some of those untangled thoughts:
I love Magic. I don't think it's going anywhere.
Currently, it doesn't look like Wizards is going to change their human-only art policy. But can I stake my entire livelihood on that? One decision from the top of the chain can change this quickly (see US trade policy).
I'm lucky enough to be an established Magic artist, but there's a large amount of highly talented illustrators that will be looking for the shrinking remaining opportunities - downward pressure on commission rates and availability will be immense. Commercial illustration as a career is going to get a lot worse.
I'm SUPER lucky to have an amazing community of supporters that love my art in you guys. Honestly, looking towards the future, I feel like this Patreon and the Kickstarters are the one thing that's not going to get screwed up by AI.
I do need a creative outlet, and I love doing creative work. I also love the logistical aspects of running projects. In a really weird way, I feel like this is what playing Magic and my projects have in common - both are about building systems while also expressing yourself.
I'll certainly keep doing art. But - I'm not sure how that is going to look for me in the future. For one, I'm worried about being the last horse carriage on the road. And also - in a weird way, I feel like I could probably do better art if it was something I did just for the sake of it.
On top of that, I've been grieving painting. I've spent my entire life - I was 21 when I started working on Scars of Mirrodin - tens of thousands of hours, learning to paint, only for a machine to do the same thing in seconds. Sure, art is about meaning, but the technical skill, expressing light and form with brushstrokes, has gone from satisfying to hollow. I still enjoy it, but it's not the same. For commercial work, it's frustrating - if your job is to do the dishes, doing them by hand feels so tedious, now that dishwashers exist.
But I love being creative, and maybe that means that for personal work (like my tokens) I should just lean into that. Experimenting with styles, telling little stories, inventing characters, doing something that's funny or relatable - all these things are what makes us human. I think that's where I'm going to go with this token project. I also have a feeling that this is part of the reason you guys have been enjoying the art I make - I've always tried to do my own thing, and I'll keep doing that. Who knows, maybe it ends up as a blessing in disguise.
So in practical terms, what does this longwinded blog post mean?
I wasn't able to do a token for March, and I'm skipping April as well. Of course you guys won't be charged. I'm hoping to pick it back up for May.
I'll get to work on the messages and comments I missed - again, I apologize for just going silent like that, it doesn't at all mean I don't value your support.
The cardboard collection Kickstarter is still on, but I will probably shift it to autumn, until I can be sure there's not going to be a massive tariff hike between project and fulfillment. I might do a regular art print Kickstarter in the meantime.
For the future, I might have to slow down a little - I'll figure out what this means as I go.
As always, thank you guys so much for your support. I'm grateful to have all of you supporting my work and I hope I'll be able to do work that makes you happy for a long time to come :)
Best,
Johannes