Dream

The 4th of 5 works! This almost about concludes the reveal (there's a bit of a surprise on the last one!) of the artworks going out to my first major art fair next week. I'd like to write a little about how I've prepared the whole thing so feel free to read along!

Art fairs are a sort of event that most of us regular internet people don't really come into contact much, or at all for that matter. When you think of fine art and stuff that's pretty hard to understand, that's the main kind of thing that really goes to these art fairs. Interestingly I've been given an opportunity to go to a fairly major one this time, so I thought pretty hard about how I wanted to do it.

On one hand, I'd love to just draw what I usually would do, and just have fun going along with the flow. I certainly think there would be nothing wrong with that, and it would certainly be more familiar and comfortable.

But on the other hand, I've seriously considered whether it might be a good idea to really tailor the artworks to the kind of occasion they're being made for. Not that I ever planned to go off the rails making fine art (not that I know how either), but I considered putting in some extra work to make a few pieces that are more suited to being printed out (at a large size) and hung in someone's home.

In the end I mostly decided to go with the latter option. After all, such opportunities are to be cherished, and it would be a good challenge to really see what I can do with a different set of requirements. In the end I would never say I'm satisfied with the result, because I think it can always be better with more targeted practice (which I lacked for this specific run!), but I can say I'm pretty glad I did this.

Beyond the challenge and technical lessons learned, it has been a much needed reset from the usual Bad Guys themed stuff. Looking back, I've lost a bit of steam in terms of creativity and execution, and this few months of really just focusing on a few pieces has really kicked that engine back into life.

It really puts into perspective how easy it is to subconsciously slip to a 60-80% effort mode when things become routine. A mixture of comfort and fatigue is really deadly! Rather than thinking of how I can make every next set the best ever, I started thinking of upcoming sets as a collection of ideas that are "good enough". For that I sincerely apologize, and I want to start doing my best again for everyone who has supported me until now.

Thank you for reading all this, and as always feel free to let me know what you think!

p.s. And the event is just next week! Please feel free to come see me if you can, I'd love to talk to everyone in person :)