New Original Art, Hot List and New Stretch Goals
about 3 years ago – Mon, Feb 08, 2021 at 07:47:00 AM

Hello!

Jon-elf here again. Welcome, if this is your first update! (and hey, welcome if you've been here since day one too!)

Stretch it!

So! We have revealed some new stretch goals. We can now see up to the lofty heights of £25,000. At this point, Ralph will choose one of the compositions you voted on to become fully sketched, colour composed, and painted as the back cover of the book! 

If we can get to £25,000 then that will also unlock another round of back cover original art reward tiers. That's pretty exciting stuff. There has never been a better time ot share the campaign on social media, or just drag a few friends on board. You could even press-gang their votes in the next poll! (Gosh!)

Speaking of original art tiers:

The Lost Reward Tier

I'm not entirely certain this will be available by the time I've finished typing, but there's a new Original Art Tier for the Introduction Border. It appeared in the PDF catalogue, but never in the backable rewards. Entirely my fault, and my apologies if you've been searching for it. The Introduction Border is certainly a nice one, and these look amazing framed. Grab it while you can - I'm sure it won't last.

"Ralph Horsley is one of the most prolific and talented visual storytellers of our time. The definition and detail in his illustrations is utterly immersive. Ralph proudly carries the torch of legendary fantasy artists and continues to pave the way for this inspiring genre that carries us forward." - Prof. Jon Sideriadis, Author and Illustrator of Astromythos.

Hot List

Prestigious Kickstarter-obsession site Kicktraq (oh gosh I spend far too much time on Kicktraq) publishes a daily list of hot projects. I was delighted to discover that we are number two in all art projects on Kickstarter! Not just game art, or illustration, as noble as those categories are. Nope, we're smashing the doors in on the whole Art category. And that's all thanks to you!

Thank you for all your amazing support!

Jon (and Ralph. He's busy painting Magic cards right now...)

And the winner of the second poll is...
about 3 years ago – Sat, Feb 06, 2021 at 04:32:58 AM

Hello!

Jon the campaign-elf here again!

The latest poll is over, and the winner is...[overly-dramatic reality TV pause...] B! Thanks for all your votes!

I can certainly see why this one won, although every poll has been pretty close, so we’re looking at if we can do something more with the other designs, since they proved so popular. Hmmm, every book needs a back cover after all... We’ll let you know!

The next stage is for Ralph to sketch the final image. This sketch will be made onto art board and directly painted over, so we can’t offer it as a reward to own, but Ralph is going to document that process to share with you.

Once the sketch is done, there will be some colour studies, and you’ll get the chance to vote on those, and we’ll offer the chance to own the colour studies as rewards!

Campaign Progress

In project news, we’re still steadily building towards an even bigger book! And you’ve unlocked a couple of wallpaper packs, which is great!

The Art Adventure book currently stands at 168 pages long, and we’re over half way to the very tasty size of 176 pages. Fingers crossed that we can get there! If you tell all your friends, and share the link around, we stand a good chance of clearing that hurdle in the next few days. Awesome.

Thank you for all your support - we're really delighted that there's been so much positivity around the book. And frankly, I cant wait to see it myself!

And wow - what a quote to end on. The master speaks:

“Ralph Horsley! His work is exceptional, from his sketches to his finished paintings! His originality is a huge unique finger print that distinguishes his work from any other. His art is dynamic in its design and execution. I love his work. On top of that, he is one great guy.” — Larry Elmore

Poll Results and a New Poll
about 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 04, 2021 at 10:04:21 AM

Hello,

It’s Ralph’s little helper Jon again!

So, the votes are in and have been triple counted by two impartial bodies, they’ve been verified, and the AB group is the winner by just one vote!

We’re going to press right along with our next vote to give you plenty of time to make a choice, and encourage others to your cause by roping them in to becoming backers!

Poll 2

It’s now down to A or B! Will we see the plein air art session, or will it be the inspirational wander through the woods? Only your votes can decide!

To vote for A comment “A” on this update. To vote for B, comment “B” on this update.

The poll closes this Saturday, at noon GMT. AT which point Ralph will begin the final detailed sketch, and there will be some colour studies to vote on. 

Other news

So progress has been amazing! With your support we’ve bust through another stretch goal since last we spoke, and we’re in the spot where another one looks likely to fall any moment! It will be amazing if we can push on to another 8 pages. As you can see from the video the book is going to look so good. Looking over the archives of material Ralph has supplied to us to make the book, there’s so much beautiful work that really needs to be included. Let’s hope we can get there! Give us a share on social media and let’s see!

Oh - The framed orignal art of Adventuring, Combat, Bestiary and World borders are still available if you’re looking for something really special to hang on your wall. But everything else has been snapped up! Gosh, we genuinely weren’t expecting them to go quite so fast! But all good - it’s wise to get them while you can, as they are truly unique collector’s items.

You can get a closer look at them in the PDF catalogue.

“Ralph not only holds a legacy of painting a story, in scenes with such detail as to impress this digital age, but is also a superlative gentleman and caring friend to the community.” - Chuck Lukacs

That’s it for this update - get voting!

Jon and Ralph

Thank you, and our first cover poll!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 03, 2021 at 03:38:53 AM

Hello!

It’s Jon here. I’m helping Ralph with the logistics of the campaign (along with overseeing the production of the book,) so that Ralph can get on with the important work of painting his amazing artwork! But don't worry - you will be hearing from Ralph throughout the campaign, and he has asked me to pass on this message this morning:

“I was definitely nervous in the lead up to this campaign’s launch. I have put  a lot of work into realising my long held ambition to create a book showcasing my artwork and wondered how it would be received. I have been overwhelmed by the support from all my backers, and fellow artists helping with the promotion.

I just want to say a big thank you to everyone. I am very happy to know that this project will be realised. Now let’s all decide on the cover artwork!”

We'll come back to that cover artwork in a moment. First:

Stretch Goals

Amazing progress overnight! I know it means a huge amount to Ralph, so it’s really good to see us making such great headway. With that in mind, we need to reveal some stretch goals! These are very simple - we all just want a bigger book!

We’ve slotted in the stretch goals graphic to the campaign section, and here they are for your reference.

As you can see, we’ve already grown the book to 160 pages (!), and you’ve unlocked the first digital wallpaper pack. These feature some of our favourite Ralph Horsley images for you to use on your desktop or device of choice. We’ll include some zoom wall papers too, since who wouldn’t want to conduct a meeting from inside a Wildborn painting?
If everything works as intended you’ll get these packs to download during the campaign.

"Ralph Horsley is one of the most prolific and talented visual storytellers of our time. The definition and detail in his illustrations is utterly immersive. Ralph proudly carries the torch of legendary fantasy artists and continues to pave the way for this inspiring genre that carries us forward." - Prof. Jon Sideriadis, Author and Illustrator of Astromythos.

First Cover Art Poll

Down to serious business: one of the exciting things we want to do as part of the campaign is get your votes on the cover art to Ralph Horsley: An Art Adventure. You might have noticed we haven’t shown the front of the Art Adventure Book yet - that’s because its a work in progress, and you can help decide exactly how it looks.

Our first poll pits the four cover composition sketches against each other, in two groups. The two groups are A+B Vs C+D

Which two would you like to see go forward to the next round?

To vote, just comment on this update with “AB” for that group, or “CD” for the second group. 

Time is short to vote on this first poll - we’ll close the voting at 5pm GMT on Thursday. You can let us know the reason for your choice if you want, but you don’t have to. Simply commenting AB or CD on this update is enough to count.

Once we've decided which of these groups is best, we'll then vote on which sketch is the final winner, and Ralph will prepare the full sketch for the cover art. 

The final sketch will be filled with all the detail you’d expect from Ralph’s work, and there will be loads of easter eggs and wonderful things to discover hidden in there. The composition sketches just hint at things to come!

Precisely which composition sketch makes it to the sketch stage depends on your votes.

Thanks again for all your amazing support! And we're very much looking forward to seeing which group of cover composition sketches wins through! Get voting!

Jon (and Ralph)