THE ART OF... Volumes 10-12

Where did the summer go?
8 days ago – Fri, Sep 06, 2024 at 09:45:06 AM

I can't believe it has been two months since our last update! 

My most humble apologies, but this has been a whirlwind summer for me, and I know the team has been busy too. Traveling to conventions, judging painting competitions, family visits, and kids getting summer jobs. It has all been very crazy. 

At the same time, we've been working hard to keep the books moving towards their deadline, and at the same time ensure that they are the best they can be. Work is well underway on all three, with Roman's book the closest to reaching the finish line (the second editing pass should be completed this weekend). 

One of my favorite parts of the process is working with each artist on how we'll present certain aspects of their story. For example, Roman is not only talking about creativity as his focus, but we also have a dozen or so Milestones to present along the way. These Milestones talk about turning points through Roman's career, points where he was perhaps struggling with something and came to a specific realization that helped him move forward. We've decided on presenting these on a green background accompanied by an appropriate photograph or miniature piece (we all know his favorite color is green, right?).

At the moment we have about 100 backers that haven't completed their BackerKit survey. I'll send another reminder today, and it would be great if we could get those squared away soon. (if you don't receive a reminder today, then you are already sorted). :) 

And finally (for this update) the "late pledge/pre-order" store is still open, so if you have any friends who missed the campaign, they can still place their orders to get their books early next year. Here's a link you can share with them: 
https://the-art-of-volumes-10-12.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Thank you all for your support, and I'll be back with another update soon!

Cheers
Dave (and Roman and Sam and Josua)

BackerKit pledge manager surveys, and the Pre-order Store!
3 months ago – Tue, Jun 25, 2024 at 05:27:50 AM

Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone!

The Smoke Test went well yesterday, with more than 60% response rate and zero questions or concerns. That means it is time to send out all of the surveys! I've pressed the button to do just that, so take a look in your email (and check your Spam or Junk filters) for an email from BackerKit and jump on it!

Pre-Order Store

In addition, I've opened up the Pre-Order Store on BackerKit, so that any of your friends who missed the campaign can place their pre-orders for the books (and artcards and bust). That Pre-Order store can be found here:

If you have already pledged, you DO NOT need to place an additional order on the Pre-Order store.

And it is fun to know that things are moving along well, I'm currently working on a section of Josua's book focused on his process and featuring a cute little robot. Note: this is a rough layout and text has not yet been edited. 

There will be more work-in-progress shots to come as the books take shape. Very exciting!

Cheers
Dave (and Roman and Sam and Josua)

Time for the Smoke Test!
3 months ago – Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 06:17:01 AM

Everything has finally fallen into place, and we are ready to send out the Smoke Test from BackerKit.

This is part of the survey process where surveys are sent to 5% of backers to see if we've made any mistakes when setting up the pledge manager. These mistakes are much easier to correct before everyone has been able to find them. So, if you see your survey pop into your inbox today, please fill it out and help us find any errors. You'll be able to upgrade your pledge levels, decide on any Add-ons, and spend any additional credit you may have added during the campaign.

Assuming there aren't any/many problems, we should be able to send out surveys to everyone tomorrow or overmorrow (apparently an old word for the day after tomorrow).

AND, once we've sent those out, we'll open up the BackerKit pre-oder store too, for late pledges.

Thank you all for your support. We are very excited to be bringing you these latest additions to THE ART OF... journey.

Cheers
Dave (and Roman and Sam and Josua)

You did it! Thank you, everyone!
3 months ago – Fri, Jun 07, 2024 at 02:09:16 PM

Thank you, everyone! This, our fourth step on THE ART OF... journey, has been made possible by your support and faith in the project!

As you know, Roman, Sam, and Josua are already writing their books, and over the next few months they'll write more, I'll get to do a lot of layout, and we'll have some fun updates for you!

But what's next?

Well, the next thing is to take a nap.  

Kickstarter will start charging your cards in the next few days, and we get to start building out the BackerKit pledge manager so that we can send out your "surveys" in about two weeks time. These surveys are where you get to let us know which Add-ons you specifically want, as well as change your pledge level if needed, give us your shipping details, and pay for shipping on your final order.

Then we continue working on the books :) 

So, from Roman, Sam, Josua, and myself, we want to thank everyone who backed our project, everyone who shared it with their friends, posted it on social media, talked about it on YouTube, clicked on the many ads we ran (thanks to Aaron of Jolly Lark), and for the first time, the Big Child Creatives team who collaborated with us to create an incredible new piece of miniature art! We'd love to work with them again and make more cool stuff!

Cheers
Dave (and Roman and Sam and Josua)

Bigger Books and the Final Push!
3 months ago – Thu, Jun 06, 2024 at 05:01:43 AM

It was great to wake up this morning and see that we had hit the stretch goal to add EIGHT pages to ALL THREE books! Very exciting!

We're also now well on the way to the next stretch goal, a free PDF tutorial from the team (Roman, Sam, and Josua) about painting up the wonderful Halfling Rogue bust from our collaboration with the amazing Big Child Creatives (available as an Add-On for the campaign).

We have just under 36 hours left in the campaign as I post this, and still more to come. With your help sharing the campaign around we could meet our next few goals by the time things wrap up tomorrow evening, and make these books even bigger. 

Thank you all for your support! 

Cheers
Dave (and Roman and Sam and Josua)