2024 YEAR in REVIEW

At the end of a year I like to look back and see what my goals for the year were, and do a post-mortem on how my plans turned out. One might think that this kind of harsh internal scrutiny at one's own failures is a sure-fired way into a spiral of depression and self-loathing; but I like it! Failure is okay! If you aren't FAILING, then you aren't setting your sites high enough! DREAM BIG, FAIL BIG; that's what I always say.

So did we fail or succeed in 2024? We can actually see, with METRICS! In our ROADMAP 2024 post I set out 4 major goals in 2024:

GOAL #1: Make Martians

Okay, so right off the bat, we have to admit that we didn't end up doing exactly what we set out to do, which involved digitally-painted creatures as assets in the digital game, as well as "Trader Portraits" and interactive backgrounds, but I feel that we more than made up for it in the sheer volume of creatures designed and drawn for the series this year.

I am really happy with where it is at the moment and am looking forward to finishing the Spacefarer's field guide in 2025. Plus, I know it's early in this post, but I'm going to cut myself some slack for the lack of digital painting on this project. The proliferation of generative-AI this year left me disgusted and I ended up switching gears midway through the year, temporarily swearing off digital painting for my personal projects in the process. I will probably come back to it at some point (particularly if Procreate released a desktop version) and tackle these more digitally-focused aspects of the project, but at the moment I am really enjoying drawing in traditional pencil again. I'm giving myself a win on this one.

PERSONAL SCORECARD:  1 for 1

GOAL #2: Monster of the Month "Denizens" Poster Series Completed:

There's no other way to put it other than this one is a HARD FAIL. We got almost nothing done from this one in 2024.

But this may have been for the best. As time has gone on I had drifted away from the notion of it as a poster series, and became interested in it more as a calendar series. This, and the fact that I haven't had the time to write more of the story for the larger project, is part of why I dropped the ball on the Monster of the Month series in 2024. However, NO EXCUSES, I want this thing FINISHED in 2025. (Or if not totally finished, at least the Denizens series as a calendar!)  We're taking an L on this one.

PERSONAL SCORECARD: 1 out of 2 

GOAL #3: The Dungeon Master Series Completed

Finally, an unequivocal MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! The series has honestly been one of the most fun and rewarding projects to tackle and the calendar format is something I have wanted to try for decades. (We sold out in just 6 weeks!) This was such a great experience all around and I plan to try it again next year.  

PERSONAL SCORECARD: 2 out of 3

GOAL #4: Mystery Project 2024 ("The Dark Wizard's Market")

As part of my journey away from digital painting and back home to classic pencil drawing again, we started our mystery project, "The Dark Wizard's Market" midway through the year. While we didn't finish anything major for it yet, we made a solid start on this project. I look forward to seeing where it takes me in 2025.

PERSONAL SCORDCARD: 3 out of 4 

Overall, not bad for projects!

I chalk a lot of the project failures this year to a midyear disillusionment with digital art after the massive influx of Generative-AI garbage. I just really wanted to get back to my roots and do more traditional pencil work. Plus, I was working on Magic the Gathering full-time this entire year while juggling these, which feels like some kind of accomplishment. (Don't I get some kind of artist's merit badge for that sort of thing? ...No? Are you sure?)

But as I look back, there are a few things that feel were lacking in 2024 that I want to do in 2025.

The first is more traditional oil paintings. We did a few in 2024, but not enough! I still feel the urge to move away from digital as the world drifts into a desolate Generative-AI apocalypse; and my oil paints have been calling me for some time now. Will 2025 be the year?

Another subject I previously did a lot more of were what you might call, "cozy images". Art is made for a lot of reasons. Sometimes as a love-letter, sometimes as a sermon, sometimes as a meditation, sometimes as an emotional response. In the case of cozy images, Art is made as a counter-to-chaos. Life seems to be getting more and more chaotic, and since my normal work tends to be painting scenes of chaos, it might be nice to take more breaks in 2025 to paint something quiet or even pleasant scenes, to counter the sense of chaos right now. So, along with all the adventuring heroes and marauding monsters I'll no doubt paint in 2025, I'd also like to paint some cozy images again.

Finally, I feel like I got off-track with this Patreon this year. In previous years I had a really good routine of posting drawings at the beginning of the month, then color finals after that, and then tutorials and/or process guides. This year was a bit of a shambles, and part of that was the stopping and starting and redirection of projects. I want to get back to that basic draw/paint/explain format again in 2025 that focuses on character designs and classic fantasy illustrations. I find the format we were rolling with back in 2019 more rewarding and the community always seemed to enjoy it as well. And I'd love it if we can mix in a poll at the beginning of each month as well.

Finally, while we did launch #LETSDRDAWMONSTERS2, we didn't livestream nearly as much as we should have in 2024. I'm not sure what to do about streaming. It's become increasingly really hard to manage with my NDA work. I plan to keep doing it whenever I can, mostly just as a casual hang-out with the community. But I love the NDA work I've been getting this past year, and I won't say no to any cards if they keep coming, but if the work does slow down I plan to stream more with any time I have.

January 1st I am going to be sharing my goals for next year in ROADMAP 2025, and on January 2nd you can expect a materials post on MY FAVORITE NEW TOOLS for PENCIL ART in 2025 shortly after that.

And my question for you: Is there anything you missed in 2024, or wished we would have done more of? What have your favorite series been on this Patreon? Let me know in the comments!