The Realm Ethereal: The Book of Dreams art book Kickstarter Prelaunch

[artofrene]

After four years of working on my original art project, The Realm Ethereal, I'm finally stepping up to the plate to announce I'm working on my first Kickstarter campaign! The Realm Ethereal is an art project I started as I began my journey into digital art. After I bought an iPad Pro, I began dabbling more and more in drawing digitally. The speed and ease with which I could create on the fly inspired me to draw and even paint more and more.

As I started creating my characters, I noticed I was building a stable of my own original creations in a world where I can shape and form them to be the best of comics and fantasy, at least in my head anyway.

The Realm Ethereal has become my passion project for creating a universe of colorful, fantastic, and dreamlike characters. I’ve never poured more into an art project than I have with this project. The Realm Ethereal has become a body of work that includes paintings and even a comic book series. So yeah, I’ve been painting, drawing, and writing a lot!

This is my first ever Kickstarter, so I'm learning much as I've set up the campaign. I'm sure I'll learn even more as the campaign progresses.

​​​​​​​My Kickstarter prelaunch page is now up, and I guess this is where we see how many people would be interested in looking at what I have to offer for this campaign. Below is the link to sign up and be notified when the campaign launches.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/realm-ethereal/the-realm-ethereal-the-book-of-dreams

[artsnake]

the link does not work.

[artofrene]

Thanks for catching that, artsnake. I tried to like the devil to get that link to work, but it just won't link up. I even tried to link up to my own website, but no dice.

It's a pain, but you can copy and paste the URL into a new browser, and it does come up then.

Or click my name in my bio which takes to my website which will have the link.

[artofrene]

Alas, my Kickstarter failed. It makes sense it didn't gain any traction, I have such a small following. Oh, well, I'm still at: I'm ordering a small batch of books that I'm selling as a pre-order directly on my website. You can find it here: https://bit.ly/3X8g706

[pandayboss]

Sorry to hear that, Rene. I know how much time and effort you put into the project. Amazing how you churned those amazing work of art on Instagram & FB. I'd thought you have a lot of readers already. Have you tried in IndieGOGO?

In this kind of business, it's make or break. There's still next time, my friend.

[artofrene]

Thanks, Dario. I haven't tried IndieGogo. I thought about it, but I think my next focus is going back to my comic book series for The Realm Ethereal. I will get a new issue going, maybe try to crowdfund that.

[artsnake]

It is a bit of a trick to build an audience. You could do some sensationalised content on Youtube. Just doing art stuff is not enough. If you could figure out some controversy to get involved with, that would be great. Still easier said than done.
I like indegogo from just looking at it. They have the in demand feature so if you get your minimal backing you can keep the campaign going while you figure out how to get more exposure. I have seen people go a year or more slowly building up supporters.

[Neil Allen]

I understand the temptation of doing sensationalized content on Youtube, but I would recommend against that if it isn't your real passion. A few reasons why:

First of all, it lacks authenticity.

Few legitimate backers like publishers or whatnot would want to touch you, so you would ALWAYS need to rely on being an internet personality.

You may (or may not) build a fanbase of politically activated angry people, but they would be drawn to your content for reasons like that, not really because of your actual creative work.

I guess you would need to ask yourself if that would be fulfilling for you. It would not be for me. And all of this would be a serious mental chore to maintain.

About your campaign, I think it would be a good idea to go back to the comic and try doing something with that. You seem to have a mythology, and it may be really interesting in your own head, but it doesn't seem tangibly built up enough for people to care about it. Thus, if you release just an artbook based on it, it's no big surprise to me that people didn't back it.

It's a lot of work, especially for one person, but you would be much better off building your mythology and getting others invested in it first. You would likely need a narrative to do that, and one that has enough meat to the content for people to dive into it. Toy sellers in the 1980s realized that which is why all those action figure selling cartoons were made.

As for how to get followers without doing sensationalized content...that is a big discussion in itself, but, of course, it isn't easy.

[artofrene]

Originally Posted by artsnake

It is a bit of a trick to build an audience. You could do some sensationalised content on Youtube. Just doing art stuff is not enough. If you could figure out some controversy to get involved with, that would be great. Still easier said than done.
I like indegogo from just looking at it. They have the in demand feature so if you get your minimal backing you can keep the campaign going while you figure out how to get more exposure. I have seen people go a year or more slowly building up supporters.

I'm going to focus next year on showing a lot of my process when it comes to how I approach drawing a comic book page, digital painting, etc. That will be how I become famous I'm going to do voiceovers while I draw, talk about my process. In a time where AI art is rearing it's head, the only thing I can rely on is: me. AI art lacks the human touch, and I guess that's ok for corporations. I'm still looking to build a small but dedicated following. Plus, everything I do with my art, I genuinely enjoy doing. I draw what I want, how I want and when I want. Good thing I've got the day job that pays the bills.

I will consider Indiegogo next time. I like that you can keep the money that has been donated even if it does not reach its goal. At least that's something.

[artofrene]

Originally Posted by Neil Allen

I understand the temptation of doing sensationalized content on Youtube, but I would recommend against that if it isn't your real passion. A few reasons why:

First of all, it lacks authenticity.

Few legitimate backers like publishers or whatnot would want to touch you, so you would ALWAYS need to rely on being an internet personality.

You may (or may not) build a fanbase of politically activated angry people, but they would be drawn to your content for reasons like that, not really because of your actual creative work.

I guess you would need to ask yourself if that would be fulfilling for you. It would not be for me. And all of this would be a serious mental chore to maintain.

About your campaign, I think it would be a good idea to go back to the comic and try doing something with that. You seem to have a mythology, and it may be really interesting in your own head, but it doesn't seem tangibly built up enough for people to care about it. Thus, if you release just an artbook based on it, it's no big surprise to me that people didn't back it.

It's a lot of work, especially for one person, but you would be much better off building your mythology and getting others invested in it first. You would likely need a narrative to do that, and one that has enough meat to the content for people to dive into it. Toy sellers in the 1980s realized that which is why all those action figure selling cartoons were made.

As for how to get followers without doing sensationalized content...that is a big discussion in itself, but, of course, it isn't easy.

Making my own videos and me giving my own take on art will be about as sensationalized as I could get. So, no that would not be fulfilling for me personally. I have no desire to step into some kind of SJW or 'Gate movement. I just wanna make art, fer cryin' out loud

I started the paintings of the characters first, then eventually created a comic book series. The comics are free to read on my website, always have been. Here is the series: The Dream Awakens

Thing is, I like to both illustrate with paintings and do comic art. It's my kryptonite.

So yes, next year I'll resume with the comics. It's just the Kickstarter took so much time, more than I thought. I lost like two months gearing up for that. But, it was my first time. Now that I know how it works, I'll be better prepared for next time. Thank you for the insights!