The day after tomorrow, Friday, February 3, my 2022 sketchbook Mind Astray launches on Kickstarter. And you know what? I don’t think I’ve been this nervous about a launch since my first one 3 years ago.
CLICK HERE and hit the button to get notified as soon as it launches, BTW.
Why am I nervous?
This is my eighth Kickstarter, after all. I should have this down to a process by now, right?
Well, perhaps you’ve heard of this little thing called A.I. Art? Kinda blew up the internet a couple months back. All the kids were talking about it. For just a couple bucks you can get a computer algorithm to make a piece of art for you that looks anywhere from pretty good to good enough. Not only that, but you can get it to mimic the style of your favorite artist as well. Quite frankly, it’s hard for a human artist to compete with.
Last year, when I launched the first Mind Astray, I envisioned it not only as a way to share my lesser seen artwork and processes with people, but also as my big commission drive for the year. Made especially special because commissions purchased through the Kickstarter would actually wind up in backers’ books! Thus each and every copy of Mind Astray would be unique to the backer!
But then, right as I was starting to think about the 2022 edition, BOOM! A.I. Art comes and blows up and the whole art community is on edge! Now I’m left wondering, is anyone even going to want a drawing from me when they can just go get a computer to poop something out for a couple bucks? Or even free? Is anyone going to want me to draw their TTRPG character anymore? Or give life to the funny little idea they have in their head?
So that’s it in a nutshell. It’s daunting having not just one’s career, but one’s very identity supplanted by a machine. The John Henry moment has finally come for the art world. The djinn is out of the bottle and it ain’t going back in.
Hence why the tagline for Mind Astray 2022 is “Rage Against the Machines”. It’s adapt or die time. Personally I choose the latter. Will we fly or will we fall? All I know is, I’m going down swinging.
So I hope you will follow along, share the campaign, and CLICK HERE to get notified when we launch.
A.I. Art is the new game in town. Now it’s time to see if town is big enough for the two of us.
Hope I see you Friday!
Till then, be good!
But not too good 😉
– Nathan
