š #13.5 A mild sense of unsettling PANIC
When your planned plan looks like it's not going to go to plan.
The sun is up, Iām in a fresh new āQuarterā of the year, based on dividing it up into 12 week lumps, itās light, full of flowers and not freezing cold each time I head to and from the studio. Itās very much traditional, positive start of new things season.
However, this year I feel an unsettling shifting of, well, pretty much everything. We always knew when we put out content onto other peopleās platforms that it was a risky move. Getting everything I do onto my own website has been bubbling around at the top of my to-do list for years now. I make plans, pick at it a little bit and then go back to:
One: itās just so easy to put things everywhere else, thatās where all the people are, andā¦
Two: keeping your own website going is hard work and thereās only so many hours in the day.
For people following along youāll know Iāve had trouble enough just keeping my shop updated with pen plots, let along putting everything about whole projects on there. Keeping track of works in progress, all of the outputs, a write up behind the thinking and a look under the hood of the code. All things I wanted, want, to do, but other things pick at my limited time.
But then, suddenly places like Twitter maybe/maybe-not blocking links to Sub Stack, or whatever random arbitrary decision theyāve made today make you go āoh shit!ā, quickly followed by āI really need to get everything I do somewhere I control, because if all of this goes away I want my little life-raft already set upā.
So here we are with newsletter #13.5 (because for busy reasons) I missed last week and I want to test that hiding SubStack links behind my own domain name works for the moment. This video from Laura was also very timelyā¦
ā¦if youāre an artist (even if youāre not) itās well worth a watch. Of course itās also creates one-more-thing to do on your ever expanding list of things to do, which is a whole different issue.
# more UNSETTLING
A tiny bit of NFT news before we get back to pen plotting stuff. And Iām sharing this here first because a) youāre my team and b) I havenāt fully figured out what Iām thinking yet.
Iāve had this idea in my head that my work falls into two areas, the print & pen plots, and then the digital NFTs. At the moment the income from the digital NFTs covers the expenses involved with the printing and plotting.
This worked because I had the good fortune to be an artist on the ArtBlocks platform, and Iāve been creating a series of works while working towards the big curated (to be confirmed) project at some point in the future.
Iāve enjoyed this series based approach, because Iāve had the ability to explore and evolve the project through a series of small releases in a way that not many artist have been able to. Thereās very much an air of either go-big-or-go-home or every project has to be significantly different otherwise thereās a group of art collectors whoāll get cross at you for ādilutingā a previous project. When you look at a series or work spanning years or even decades in the traditional art world this is clearly bullshit. Iāve been able to fortunately, somewhat by design, sidestep that.
Hereās the thingā¦
As ArtBlocks changes and new artists come onto the platform, and the market changes and [points wildly at everything] I have a choice. I can keep releasing the 70s/80s/90s Pop on ArtBlocks, but with a lot longer time (like LOT LONGER) between each release. Considering each of the next few releases (80s Pop: Roxy, Pop95, POPY2K) are āmini-dropsā of around 88, 95 and maybe 200 that doesnāt make much sense for me.
ORā¦
I can spin up a White Label āArtBlocks: Engineā version of the platform and go it alone, something Iāve been chatting with Art Blocks for a while about anyway.
The market is currently terrible, so Iām really feeling like Iāll miss the safety of it being an official ArtBlocks release, thereās no denying thereās a boost from being directly there. But at the same time the draw of striking out on my own, and being able to set my own release times, and use the Engine to do extra things like super-mini-drops and AirDrops has a certain appeal.
Although, I must confess, very scary.
This could be the best idea ever, the worst idea ever, or either may makes no difference because the market is screwed anyway š¤·āāļø
Either way, starting next week (on twitter of course), Iām going to start floating the idea of spinning off 70s/80s/90s/00s Pop into its own thing. Even though that also means getting my own website sorted because all the information about everything needs to go somewhere!! Honestly a bit terrified!
# Back to pen plotter world
Meanwhile, back in the safety of pen plotting, anyone who watched my #WeekNotes, (more about WeekNotes here: A pre-history of weeknotes, plus why I write them and perhaps why you should too (Week 16)) - will know Iāve decided to double down on pen plotting for most of this 12 week āQuarterā.
Last week, before the whole āgo out on my ownā ArtBlocks thing, that made sense, I guess now Iām doubling down on pen plotting and all the other stuff related to above, oh well!
What this means is Iām finally going to get around to making the āIntroduction to Coding for Drawing Machines 101ā series of tutorials.
The plan was to have them all made and then release the whole course (on YouTube, for free) in one go. But over the year Iāve come to learn that I can only really make one video a week (plus the Weeknotes), so if I do that I either just donāt post anything to YT for about 3-4 months, or, what Iāve decided to do instead, just post roughly one a week until theyāre all done.
Itāll be a bit frustrating at the start for someone finding them because there may be only one or two, but itās hopefully the kind of content that stays relevant for two to three years, so for future-people itāll make perfect sense.
With that in mind Iāve grabbed a few more pen plotter things, a new-new brushless servo, one of those magnetic board things (which tbh I kinda love after even just a couple of days), and a whole ass iDraw machine, because people ask me about them all the time and if Iām making some tutorials I figured I needed something other than just the AxiDraws.
The last two videos are here, one VERY LONG, and one VERY SHORT.
This week Iām shooting the unboxing of the iDraw machine, of course I forgot it was stupid EASTER so Iām a couple of days short this week.
5,000
I havenāt really celebrated this anywhere else, but we hit 5,000 subscribers on YouTube, which honestly is kinda amazing for a channel about pen plotting and generative art (and being an artist in general).
Iām interested to see what weeks of posting tutorials will do to subscriber rates (Iāll let you know), but now it looks like Iāll be dropping āWhy Iām using ArtBlocks: Engineā, āHow to set up ArtBlocks: Engineā, āLook, hereās my project on ArtBlocks: Engine, please go an buy itā, and āHereās how launching my project on ArtBlocks: Engine wentā videos in there too š
10k is the big target!!!
And with that, donāt go follow me, go subscribe to Lauraās channel instead: https://www.youtube.com/penfriendrocks ācause sheās got a series of videos coming up about being a creative artist in these current testing times.
Hah, this was supposed to be a quick point-five newsletter, so Iād better go. I hope you have a lovely week, andā¦
I love you all!!
Dan