ROADMAP 2021

2020 was a wild ride! (...let's not do it again.) Last year we delivered a ton of brand new monsters, 200+ new brushes, The Dungeon Master Series, a pile of dragon landscapes, a new gold-plated sketchbook, a bi-weekly Twitch broadcast, #LETSDRAWMONSTERS, expanded mentorships, a new Discord (thanks Adriano!), and we even started an art cult dedicated the all-powerful Staedtler 925! *whew* WHAT A YEAR!!

It was crazy and a lot to top, but we've got so much left to do!! SO LET'S GET READY TO ROCK IN 2021! Here's to new goals, new aspirations, and new projects! I hope you will all join me in setting crazy, bold, nigh impossible goals for yourself, and then driving yourself right along the very edge of madness to achieve them! It's not about money, it's not about glory, it's about CREATION!! 

2020 tried to take us down, tried to break us, drag us down into the mud. BUT WE'RE STILL HERE!! AND YOU CAN HAVE MY STAEDTLER WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM MY COLD, DEAD HAND! This year, I want us to make new art that will blow people away! I want us to give them something they've never seen before! I want us to do something AMAZING! 

FOCUS for 2021:

This year, while we will continue to bring you brand new guides, wallpapers, brush sets, mentorships, demos and livestreams, we will also be diving into some large-scale new projects! 

THE FAERIE QUEEN - The first big announcement I have for you is that I have been commissioned to create a multi-volume illustrated edition of The FAERIE QUEEN. Starting in February It's going to be 70+ illustrations and I will be sharing a lot of the journey, drawings and final art with you here as the project progresses for everyone in the $5 tier. 

MORE CONTENT for the MONSTER OF THE MONTH - The $10 Monster of the Month has been the bread and butter of the Patreon since its inception, and this year will be a big one for the series! 

First, we will be producing our first Monster of the Month sketchbook, which will include all the drawings made thus far for the project and will reveal a TON of new development, characters, and behind the scenes work! 

There are hundreds of drawings yet to be released and we will be previewing them here first leading up to the launch. There are a TON of unreleased minions and henchmen, and it is high time we started working through some of those! Next week we will launch our first monster battle poll of the year, which will show off what these monsters and minions will look like together. In 2021, we will be painting a monster AND their henchmen minion each month. 

Second: After the sketchbook, we will begin to focus hard on a full-length, written guide book to the monsters, featuring all the full-color work and backstory we've created thus far. When we begin this, you can expect a lot of new kinds of images to start appearing alongside the monster each month!: 

• Artifact of the Month
• Unlikely Hero of the Month
• Minions and Henchmen
• Environmental Vignettes
• WARBAND Encounters

Third: Later this year we will finally reveal the project's final form (the Jurassic park style Monster “theme park” *wink, wink*). When we finally make the reveal, we will also launch a new physical reward tier to go along with it which will offer monthly monster materials in the form of stickers, cards, stat sheets, prints, (...and possibly something a little more dimensional...) I am aiming for a mid-summer launch for this new tier. *fingers crossed*

Overall, it's going to be a LOT of art for the $10 tier. To keep everyone's inboxes from flooding, I am going to try to keep posts down to just 1 or 2 a month, but these posts will likely feature several pages of bonus content beyond just the standard single monster! Also as we delve into new kinds of imagery, you can expect brush sets that focus on new elements and surfaces as well!

FANTASY BATTLES - In early 2021 I am going to be starting a new series that will be running alongside The Faerie Queen for the $5 Tier. In it, I am going to be tackling a few epic battles from Tolkien, Pratchett, and other fantasy literature greats. These will be larger scenes, with complex environments and tons of figures. Since these are going to be larger undertakings, and since the Classic Fantasy Illustration tier will be primarily taken up with work for the Faerie Queen, I will be working on these battle scenes with no set deadline for the final; but you can expect a monthly update post with a lot of drawings, color comps and behind the scenes development work each month. We will also be livestreaming these illustrations on Twitch so everyone will be able to follow along as we research, design, lay-out, draw, and paint each battle!

MYSTERY PROJECT WITH ANNIE - Nearing the end of the year Annie and I will be announcing a new project that she and I have been working on in secret for quite some time. We are very excited to begin sharing the work, but want to get more of it together before revealing it. Starting in fall 2021, we will be sharing some of the creatures from this project each month.

PLAGUE OF DRAGONS - We have a lot more to do in the series, but are going to be giving the series a break until after we wrap up production on The Faerie Queen and the Monster of the Month Top Secret Project.  The Plague will return again at the end of the year!

TUTORIALS: Due to the high demand, and all the content we've generated on Twitch, in 2021 this tier will be broadened out to also include videos! The $15 tier will now offer a mix of video demonstrations, Drawing Dragons chapters, Twitch demo VODs, time-lapses and our classic written step-by-step guides. Each month will bring something different. This means that many of the old demos that are no longer up on Twitch will finally be made available again! In the next few days $15 subs can expect a post with some of the popular VODs here with many more being added each month. The goal is ultimately to give subs for this tier access to EVERY VOD and video demo I have ever done.  

TWITCH: Speaking of Twitch! Thanks to your support here we were able to expand our Livestream to a bi-weekly event, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 5PM EST.  The plan is to continue this in 2021! We will be *slowly* improving our channel's features, emotes, sounds, and so on as we have the time, and will continue to focus heavily on community events, presentations and prepared demos in both traditional and digital media. I look forward to hanging out with you all again on the streams this year!! 

#LETSDRAWMONSTERS RETURNS FOR 2021!!!  We will keep the monsters going for most of this year and will continue to host the event on the first Wednesday of each month, 5PM EST, on our Twitch channel. https://twitch.tv/justingerardillustration We will also continue our community voting for the Golden Sluglord, as well as giving out monthly prizes for submissions of particular cleverness, humor, horror and excellence. 

Our first event of the year is this coming Wednesday, January 6! Come join us!

MENTORSHIPS:  2020 was awesome for mentorships! Unfortunately, due to the high amount of sign-ups we now have, and the time constraints we are facing during the pandemic, we are going to be making some slight adjustments to the program.  The hope is that this new format will allow me to keep up with my work obligations, while at the same time opening up more spots for those of you who have been waiting for so many months for a mentorship. Moving forward, the Mentorships will remain at $150 per month, but will be changing to one 60-minute course for that price, with an option to upgrade to 120 minutes for $300. (If you would like to sign up for for the 120 minute course, all you need to do is make a custom pledge amount for $300 at the beginning of the month and we will make sure to get you in.) As before, I will also be still doing a follow-up email at the end of the month to give feedback on any images you have been working on since our meeting.

*THE MENTORSHIP SCHEDULE  for January will be emailed to everyone who signs up!

Eventually we may transition the mentorships series to a more traditional online class structure, like Smartschool, as this might help accommodate a larger volume of sign-ups, but this is likely a ways off. For now, we are going to keep the format the same, where it is self-directed and I provide guidance to you where you are in your career right now, with whatever will help you take the next step forward.

DISCORD: 

Most of you have already joined our cult. You've got the Strathmore Bristol *SO CLEAN*, you've got the Staedtler 925, with razor sharp .5mm lead in 2h and 2B, *SHINY AND CHROME*. You are pushing yourself FURTHER and are on the good path.  Those of you still considering it, JOIN US!!:

https://discord.gg/cBRFySW 

Most of the more informal discussions surrounding the Patreon, the Twitch, and the art world in general occur here, and it is also the best place to stay up to date on the live-streams and community events.

Making art for all of you here on the Patreon has been the most fun I've had in my whole career. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! I’m looking forward to another great year with all of you!! 

-jg