My biggest mountain honestly has been the character claiming. I understand why it was set in place, but in my opinion it is done too soon. Look at the long list of claimed characters for this year, and how few actually managed to make their picture in time. When a theme is chosen the way my brain works it looks for an original idea first that makes a great match with that, and it doesn't matter what characters it involves. Then when the idea is there, and the main character is already claimed, I have to restart this process, but in a disappointed mood which kills my inspiration.
This.
Sometimes having an idea that is bearable takes a long time.
I don't have a great solution, though.
> Or the claiming can't be done until you've shown Maggie at least a decent sketch.
That sounds good basically, though at least I'd need (depending on workload) quite a lot of time and image development stretches over the year.
> Like said there are a number of places we can go, but I can understand if people don't want to sign up for some places, like Facebook; though the groups do offer a private setting so you know exactly who
> can read it.
It's not the people "hanging out" at FB or other (anti)social media (okay, sometimes it probably is the very people), it's FB/google's business politics, their severe lack of data reduction and data economy. I like this place since it offers a forum and a gallery at the same time. It doesn't come with tons of JavaScript and advertisements.
On the other hand, yes, it needs maintenance and hosting to be paid.
> On to the promoting part; we can all chip in on that, on whatever platform we are. I'm sure we can come up with a nice text that we can all copy/paste to spread the word. There is indeed not one place you
> can reach all, everyone has their fave new places to hang out nowadays.
Ah, back in the days (of glory) there were mailing lists one could subscribe to...
But yes, everyone can try to spread the word. Though it would've been easier with some central spot where people come by occasionally to gather news and information.
> I like the idea of shortening the timeline as well, because it's true; it's a long time to wait to showcase your work online, when you already finish in April.
Did anybody ever finish so soon?
> my focus tends to be better when I actually finish one project at a time.
Luxury!
It would be nice to have a dedicated time for it, but I hardly ever had that yet. Thus I have to spread it over weekends and occasional holidays and some evenings. But there are also other interests or necessities competing for my attention.
I'd definitely want the calendar to continue. It's one fairly steady thing for ... roughly 20 years? It was something that brought me back to do artwork. And it is something that still show some life and connection within the EQ "community".
Richard and Rob who have both been instrumental in making the printed calendar happen over the years are unfortunately just too busy to continue.
However Richard said if I am willing and able to take over that part myself they would love to see the calendars keep coming. He said that the work and the imagination they display are a real treat and to
make sure he can order a couple of copies of each edition for the Warp archive! Which I thought was pretty special.
Well, the pure printing shouldn't be much of a problem. First off things end up in digital form. So someone able to make a CMYK PDF from it could create the very PDF file and that can be printed around the world. In my town you have copy/print shops "every second corner" (okay, that's exaggerated) and several real print services which all offer all sorts of megaposters, banners, textile printing, business cards and whatnot.
The thing is - how to distribute those? Hardly any of them offers this worldwide end-user business connections including a shop and handling communications and shipment + customs declaration. That were the benefits of cafepress, redbubble and the likes.
Do we have any numbers? But I guess it is more than 50 units - and in this range of numbers it's probably too much for a normal person to handle all that in their spare time.