Tag: Announcements

Currently Reading: Cassiel’s Servant

EDIT: I’ve added some share links at the end of the article for anyone who’d like to help me signal boost!

My Story Sketcher journey begins with Cassiel’s Servant by Jacqueline Carey! I was originally going to begin with one of my top Fantasy faves, Kushiel’s Dart, after it was very popular on my poll, but Cassiel’s Servant arrived just in time to tempt me to embark on what will be a new, but familiar journey, as Cassiel’s Servant tells the story of Kushiel’s Dart from the perspective of a different character, the stoic warrior, Joscelin Verreuil.

How I could resist a brand new venture into one of my favorite affirming and inspiring Fantasy worlds, especially during Pride month?

(Cassiel’s Servant cover art by Mélanie Delon)

GENRE: Romantasy | PAGES: 528 |  RATING: Mature Audiences, Spice Levels High! Though my art will be no more graphic than PG-13

SYNOPSIS: In Kushiel’s Dart, a daring young courtesan uncovered a plot to destroy her beloved homeland. But hers is only half the tale. Now see the other half of the heart that lived it. 

Cassiel’s Servant is a retelling of cult favorite Kushiel’s Dart from the point of view of Joscelin, Cassiline warrior-priest and protector of Phèdre nó Delaunay. He’s sworn to celibacy and the blade as surely as she’s pledged to pleasure, but the gods they serve have bound them together. When both are betrayed, they must rely on each other to survive. 

From his earliest training to captivity amongst their enemies, his journey with Phèdre to avert the conquest of Terre D’Ange shatters body and mind… and brings him an impossible love that he will do anything to keep. 

Even if it means breaking all vows and losing his soul.

The Journey Ahead

Here’s the plan for my journey with Cassiel’s Servant! For this book, I’ll be creating:

  • My own variant version of a cover for the book, to be offered as a Limited Edition print. All Patrons will be getting a deep dive into my cover creation process! (Limited Edition prints to be offered to Patrons, tier to be determined).

  • A bookmark to commemorate the occasion. All Patrons will get a downloadable version. (A physical bookmark with a tassel will be offered too, tier to be determined).

  • Sketches of particularly inspiring characters, concepts, scenes, etc. that inspire me along the way. To be collected as a PDF for Patrons (tier to be determined) and available to others via my digital shop items.

Once I have a better idea of how much art I’ll be making after this first experimental book art journey, then I’ll make a proper announcement about what goodies my Patrons will recieve at what tiers. There’ll be an announcement and a PM sent out to keep everyone in the know so you won’t miss out on any of the limited or exclusive goodies.

(The variant cover I created for Kushiel’s Dart. Will I be brave enough to do traditional art for a variant cover of Cassiel’s Servant???)

Read Along!

I’ll be doing my own Book Club-style reaction posts sharing my art and thoughts inspired by this book as I read in this dedicated Discord channel. Feel free to hop in and discuss with me! Spoilers/spoiler-y art will be hidden by spoiler tags.

—-

It’s been a few years since I read Kushiel’s Dart, which has me excited to see this familiar world once again, this time through the eyes of Joscelin, who will no doubt have a unique perspective and history as a warrior on a different battlefield than Phedre’s glittering courtesan arena.

I’m also excited to let my book/Fantasy nerd flag fly with this new art adventure. It feels good to get back to my heart’s passion for storytelling and art driven by deep character exploration. I can’t wait to see what comes out of this journey!

– Ang

Share Links

This is a small operation of just me and occasionally my husband who serves as my IT department, so if you’d like to help me spread the word, I’d be incredibly grateful! You can signal boost these posts:

Introducing My New Patreon Theme: Story Sketcher

We’ve been on a long journey with the Birthstone Goddesses, friends! Today, I’m happy to officially announce the start of a new journey here on my Patreon! As you all know, I’m hoping to indulge more of my Writing Muse in the future, so I wanted to theme my Patreon around my new visual storytelling focus.

What is Story Sketcher?

It’s the name of what I’m calling this multi-disciplinary endeavor to immerse myself in stories and art! So many great new classic Fantasy novels have come out over the years that I’ve missed out on because I’ve been playing video games or reading comic books instead.

No hate to gamers and comic readers because these are valid story forms I adore too! Mostly, I have personally missed out on so many novels because I felt I didn’t have time to read and enjoyed the ‘quicker’ injection of stories via these more visual formats.

Now, I realize that if I want to write more stories that it’s time I get back into the novel reading habit to increase my own knowledge-base. What better way to do so than enticing my Art and Writing Muses to come together in a flurry of art creation inspired by books?

As I read each Fantasy book in my To Read pile, I’ll be making art inspired by the story, which will tentatively include:

  • A variant cover for the story for my Cover Art Portfolio (the main goal!)

  • Sketches of characters, scenes, locales, etc. that inspire me along the way

  • B&W short comics, should any scenes particularly inspire me to practice this skillset

  • A bookmark to commemorate my journey with each book

(The variant cover for Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, one of my favorite Fantasy books, that I painted in 2013.)

About the Bookmarks

I have to interject with a story about how much of a book wyrm I was as a kid! I was a lonely Army brat because my family would relocate every 2 years. Books were my escape from the loneliness. Libraries, in particular, were my escape from the bullying of other kids for being the forever ‘new kid’.

Each time I finished a book, I’d commemorate the occasion with a bookmark. Here’s an old one from the Monsters of Mythology series that I absolutely adored because it shared the untold stories of the ostracized monsters of Greek myth. These were lesser known fictionalizted stories of their untold tales before they became the misunderstood beings we all know.

(I wish I could find more of these old bookmarks I did. Alas, they are lost to time! This was the only scan of one I could find for now.)

Making bookmarks to commemorate my journey through a book is a tradition I want to bring back for adult-me. I suspect my bookmarks for Story Sketcher will be colored, but we shall see. It will all depend on how the story inspires me! Sometimes things just look better in black, white, and gold.

What can Free Members & Patrons expect?

Free Members will still be able to see just the art on social media and in monthly compilations, but they’ll miss out on any deep dive art notes and behind the scenes articles I’ll be sharing just for Patrons at all tiers. Patrons will also be the ones to get access to any Patrons-only Merch I’ll be designing inspired by my book-reading journeys.

(Sketches from the deep dive about my Kushiel’s Dart variant cover. An example of the kind of notes & WIPs Patrons can expect to see!)

Upcoming New Merch

I’m currently brainstorming on all the new Merch possibilities for this theme, but will need some time to figure out the logistics and how I’ll offer them to you all. I want to go through my first book’s journey and see what shakes loose, art-wise, before I commit to any particular designs just yet!

But while we’re here dreaming, I’m currently pondering the following new Merch offerings, which will likely be mainly available exclusively through my Patron tiers, which I’m still deciding on once I have a better idea of costs:

  • Limited Edition signed prints of the cover art I make

  • Bookmarks for each book I read (Digital printables or physical)

  • Bookish-themed stickers

  • Bookish-themed pins

  • Pins inspired by the books I’m reading (characters-inspired, symbolic, etc.)

  • PDFs of all the sketches available for a book in a compilation with my notes

Tell me which items get you the most excited so I can gauge your interest and where I should spend my effort!

So what am I reading first???

In my theme poll, many of you wanted to see more of my explorations of the world of the fantastic Kushiel’s Legacy books by Jacqueline Carey! With that in mind, I’ll be introducting the first book I’ll be reading and exploring with art in the next post (though my updated Patreon About page already has a spoiler for what book I chose, hee hee).

How often will I post on Patreon?

It depends? I aim to finish a book per month, which may change depending on the length of the book, how much art it inspires me to do, etc. However, this is meant to be a fun side project, which means if I get busy for any reason, I may post less.

It’s best to treat this Patreon as more of a Tip Jar where you can enjoy the perks of my already existing archives of coloring pages, tutorials, etc., with new material to come as and when its creation happens. I will make a post announcement to Free and Patron members when I’ll be offering new Merch or downloadables you guys might want so you can be sure not to miss out on it or to pledge as-needed, should anyone need to be more discriminating with how often they pledge.

My account is a Charge Up Front account, so you’ll never be charged less or more than the monthly fee!

WHEW that was a lot of information! I’ll be introducing the first book from the To Read pile in the next post so this post doesn’t run too long. I’m so excited to start this interdisciplinary journey that I have been thinking about attempting for a few years, now. I hope you all will stick with me during this grand experiment!

– Ang

New Upcoming Patreon Theme! + Where to Find My Exalted Art

Thanks to Patrons’ votes in my last big poll, I’ve finally made a decision about where this Patreon will be going after May.  Your insights were a big help in choosing what I’ll be focusing on next, with so much inspiration pulling my muse in different directions!

My top two contenders were, much to my surprise, the Kushiel Concepts theme and the Exalted TTRPG theme.  Color me surprised to see two of my most niche topics be at the top!  I’m so pleased these passion projects would be appealing to you guys.

KUSHIEL CONCEPTS is our winner, which means I’ll be exploring the following once June rolls around:

  • My own variant book covers of the first 3 books, Kushiel’s Dart, Kushiel’s Chosen, and Kushiel’s Avatar (maybe further into Imriel and Moirin’s trilogies, if the muse strikes me and the interest in this theme stays strong)
  • Favorite moments, character concepts, etc, as I re-read the books
  • Designs of the sigils of the Court of Night Blooming Flowers & noble houses of Terre d’ Ange
  • Plus other ideas as we see how the muse inspires me while I read!

I’ll also be designing a new suite of Kushiel-inspired Patreon-exclusive merch, which I’ll announce later on as I figure out what might be a cool thing to make.  Perhaps a series of night-blooming flower stickers inspired by the Court?  Fancy stained glass noble house sigils?  Let me know if you have ideas of things you’d love to collect!

I’m going to think about this and do some planning while we wait on May to arrive.

But what about my Exalted art?

I’m still going to be making Exalted art, stories, and resources just for my own fun and on my own time, but it won’t be shared here on Patreon, as that’d start to get confusing if I tried to mix it in with Kushiel/Fantasy things once that theme revs up here.

My solution? – A dedicated place for my Exalted things on Ko-fi.

I’ll be posting all Exalted art/writing/resource updates and future Exalted Character of the Week compilations there in the future, so go give it a follow if you like that particular facet of my TTRPG-related art.  I’ve shared my free fan resources there, for those who need art templates and resources for playing their Solar characters.  

If you like the Exalted things I do, Ko-fi’s set up to where you can leave me a monthly or one-time tip there as well, or just enjoy the project, which is 98% free to enjoy, minus a couple of perks for monthly tippers.  This way, I don’t feel like my Exalted fans are left out of the fun and I have a chill place I can share that TTRPG hobby.  I also like the idea that my Exalted stuff stays free of too many expectations so it can remain a fun and carefree endeavor!

Well that’s enough of my excited ramble!  I hope you all are as hyped for a change in theme here as I am.  I’m looking forward to reading some of my favorite books and deep diving into some really cool imagery!  Perhaps it will pave the way for other fun book series I’ve enjoyed and would like to do fan art for?

Till next time, I’ll keep sharing interim inspiration and art till Summer arrives!

<3 Ang

March 2024 – Happy News, Patreon Plans, & New Tarot Preview

March was both the worst and best month, all at once. I’m so happy to report that after the bombshell February we had in which my husband was laid off from his job and suffered some possibly-cancerous symptoms that his test results are in. While some things aren’t normal, cancer has been eliminated as a possibility!

The ghost of this bad news has been hanging over us since early February and we’re both so relieved to hear it’s not the worst case scenario. He’s still got some challenges ahead, but they won’t be as nasty as cancer.

Knock on wood! Now, can cancer and serious illness leave us both alone till we’re at least 80? Please and thank you!

Once my head stopped spinning from all the life chaos, I had just enough time to catch my breath and dive headlong into finishing the X of Swords piece for the Stained Glass Tarot deck coming this year. Patrons got a deep dive into this process, as well as a look at a detail of the final painting. I can’t wait for you all to see the final painting once the deck debuts! I’ve been peeking the art from the other artists and it’s gorgeous stuff. I’ll be sure to let you all know here when it goes live on crowdfunding.

Meanwhile, the poll results have come in and I was really surprised at the results! There’s more love for my niche interests than I thought there’d be, which makes me very happy. Once this Patreon resets themes in June, expect that theme to be all Kushiel’s Legacy for awhile! Prepare yourselves for angels, masquerades, and fantasy fashions.

I really can’t wait and I’m currently plotting on what other themed Patreon goodies I can roll out for the event! Read more about the poll results and my plans for this grand relaunch theme here.

In that same post, I also mentioned that my Exalted art will be moving to a new space in the future. Rather than have Exalted art sneaking in here making a confusing mess of my Patreon in June when I start talking about more book-inspired art, it’ll have its own tidy home on Ko-fi where everyone can follow it for free (or pitch in if they want some small perks).

Posts Planned for April (Tentative)

  • Blue Eye Samurai x Exalted Fan Art

  • Movies That Make Me Want to Paint Part 2

Posts in March

—-

Even though life doesn’t seem to want to slow down and let us breathe, I’m happy for the Spring here, which has been flowering with beautiful dogwoods. They’re a good reminder to slow down and appreciate the beautiful things for a few fleeting moments before I get caught up in the chaos. I hope you all found some little bits of happiness this month too.

– Ang

The Woven Path Tarot Deck + 20% Off Holiday Sale!

The time has come, my dears!  I’m full of happy news today to announce that the beautiful gilded deck that I worked on alongside my talented colleagues at the Changeling Artist Collective has arrived to my shop just in time for my yearly holiday sale.  

It’s so beautiful!  The cards are weighty and gorgeous with 2 foil colors.

You can watch a flipthru of the tarot deck here.

—-

I was responsible for the Temperance card of the Major Arcana (which I shared more Behind the Scenes about its creation here).  This card’s themes of balancing and tempering one’s strengths and weaknesses appeals to my ongoing journey as an artist seeking self-discovery and improvement.

The rest of the deck is also full of gorgeous art inspired by medieval tapestry, making it a unique collaborative deck.

These decks were independently printed, so they are extremely limited!  They will only be available from the participating artists.  I have only 7 left as of this writing!  Snag a deck here.

The Spirits of Winter Return

For those who love the glitz and shine of holiday themes, my Spirits of Winter art series has also returned to my shop for a limited time (till the end of January).  I’ve also made sure to stock the Christmas cards and prints for those who enjoy spreading the holiday cheer!

I’ve also made sure to stock a few sketch originals for those looking for small one of a kind gifts under $100 that won’t break the bank.

—-

  • Find my Fine Art shop here
  • And if you fancy more of my Kushiel’s Legacy and ttrpg/geeky art, find my Fantasy Art shop here.  The holiday sale also extends to this shop!

—-

As ever, I’m grateful to anyone who shops small this year!  Times have been rough for artists and every little bit helps my lil one-person biz out.

In the meanwhile, I hope everyone enjoys a bit of time to relax, reflect, and have some good food!  I’m going to do my best not to set any rum glaze on fire this year.  Stay happy and healthy and I’ll be returning soon with more art musings!

– Ang

IMPORTANT! Upcoming Changes to This Patreon

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared anything here, friends!  I’ve taken some time to let myself rest, recuperate, and reflect.

As the Birthstone Goddesses draw closer to their finale, I’ve been pondering where I go once this years-long project wraps.  This Patreon began 9 years ago as an experiment in a new, exciting format to help support artists, with the Birthstone Goddesses occupying over 6 years of that time.

But now, times are changing for my husband and myself.  I’ve been working in overdrive for so many years to provide constant Patreon material, feeling the burnout from my long project, and feeling the crunch of an industry that’s slowly strangling illustrators like me out of the profession with machine-generated art trained on my years of hard work.

I’m so tired mentally from these industry shifts and recent ongoing health issues involving chronic illness have made this feeling even worse.  I’m struggling to even create art anymore, especially as I feel myself moving away from art and more into writing and other story-driven endeavors.  That’s meant less material to share here as time has gone by as I have been struggling to solidify where it is I want to go next as a creative professional.

What’s Next?  Looking to the Future

The Birthstone Goddesses were about creating a passive income for me as an artist with beautiful merch that brings light and tranquility to our everyday lives.  It was also something I owned controlled by me and not a publisher or company that didn’t value my work.

By contrast, my future projects are looking to be more narrative in nature, possibly comics, possibly illustrated novels, possibly even animatics, or some combination of all of these things!  All I know for sure is that the Illustration industry doesn’t feel safe for me anymore and I want to focus on the passion projects that fulfill me and add more to the world than a ‘product’, especially a product that works for someone else and not for my good as the creator.

These ambitious ideas need time to bake while I work through current health challenges, take new classes to educate myself on multimedia approaches, and settle into a new, focused me!

And so I’m making this Patreon primarily a Tip Jar with Loyalty Merch perks until further notice.  I’ll still be offering WIP’s, sneak peeks, etc, but at my own pace so I have the energy to work on my projects without stress.

My archives of digital downloads & private Discord access will still be available for Patrons, plus I’ve added brand new Patreon-exclusive Loyalty Merch rewards for those who choose to support me here!

Loyalty Merch is Already Here!

I wanted to give something extra back to you all for supporting me here aside from digital archive/Discord access, so I’ve added brand new Loyalty Merch Rewards to ALL of my tiers starting at $5 and up!  I have been working on several Patreon-exclusive designs for the past few months and I am so pleased to FINALLY be able to share them with you all!

Here’s a little taste of one of my new Patreon-exclusive designs, the Wheel of Eternity featuring the 12 new amulet designs for the Birthstone Goddesses (more merch previews coming in the next update):

Current Patrons don’t need to change a thing.  If you’re currently pledging at $5 and up and have chosen a tier with benefits, you’ll start earning time towards Loyalty Merch deliveries starting on June 1st!

Loyalty Merch begins to be mailed out after every 3 months of successive support and every 3 months afterwards up to a year.  All you need to do is make sure your mailing address has been entered into Patreon, your country is on Patreon’s allowed shipping list, or opt out if you don’t want to recieve anything in the mail.

Your pledge already includes the cost of shipping, even for international shipping!  Patrons outside the US need no longer add any extra funds for shipping to their pledges.

I’ll be sharing a visual preview and FAQ of exactly what Loyalty Merch will be added to each tier in the next update once I get my hands on the physical proofs, so stay tuned for that post!  In the meanwhile, check the descriptions of your tier here to get an idea of what merch is coming your way.

The higher you pledge, the fancier your Loyalty rewards will be!

Summary of Patreon Changes

– New digital downloads (wallpapers, premium tutorials, etc.) will only be added as & when I have time to create them, making this Patreon more of a Tip Jar.  I’ll post a head’s up when new material is coming to my digital downloads.

– New Loyalty Merch (IE. mini prints, stickers, mugs, and tshirts) have now been added to each tier starting at $5 and up!  If you’re currently pledged, you’ll start earning towards Loyalty Merch on June 1st.

See my Tiers list for a peek at what merch you’ll be getting and to update your pledges before June 1st!

– A Loyalty Merch visual preview + Merch FAQ is coming soon!

– I’ll still be sharing WIP’s and sneak peeks here on Patreon, especially during the Birthstone Goddesses’ final phase.

– My future projects will be totally different than the Birthstone Goddesses. Brace yourselves for narrative projects and Fantasy genre geekery!

—-

That’s all for now, folks!  This was a lot of info, so if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments or drop me a message.  I’m happy to help as this Patreon transitions fully into a new structure.

Thanks to everyone who has stuck it out with me thus far!  It’s been an amazing journey and I hope to keep sharing the ride for as long as I can stay creative.

♥ Ang

September 2020 – Website Re-launch, Positive Vibes, & Upcoming Fun!

This year has been an odd one, to say the least, and I can’t believe we’re already 9 months into it!  The trend of re-centering myself and taking things slower continued in September with a month that was filled with biz maintenance tasks and exploring a new project in the Tarot vein, something I’ve always wanted to do!

I miss seeing all of my kindred spirits at conventions, but I admit to enjoying this extra time I have to update that old website, take stock of all the art I have around here that hasn’t made it into my shop yet, and other important things that never seemed to get done when I was rushing from deadline to deadline.

All in all, the big positive I’m taking away from this year is that despite not having conventions, I’ve made some great strides in improving my online presence as well as giving myself important rest time that I had been meaning to take for way too long!  Kev and I are happy and healthy and that is a blessing in and of itself.

As we move into next month, I feel such a swell of relief that I am taking October to truly focus on art themes that I have pushed to the side for years now!  I love my Birthstone Goddesses, but I have sorely needed this complete break from the subject matter so I can return to the final leg of my journey with them refreshed later.

New Website Launch!

For those who missed the posts, my Art Nouveau site has gotten a complete makeover!  I’ve retooled the entire website and menu so you can easily find all of my collections and explore the art process for my pieces within!

Coming in October

I’m so very excited to indulge my geeky muse with a tabletop RPG-inspired Art Challenge featuring the cool world of Exalted in October!  I’ll be active on my Patreon’s Discord community sharing sketches, inspirations, and thoughts.  I also have a section dedicated to Art Challenges, if any Patrons would like to join me there during this busy creative month!  

You can read more about Exalted, the Challenge I’m doing, plus see a few teases of art here.

I’ll also still have a coloring page release for my $5+ Patrons, so stay tuned.

Digest of September’s Posts

New Rewards Added in September

—

Are any of you taking on a creative challenge in October?  I’d love to hear about it!  I’m always keeping a list of challenges, since they have been proven to be excellent ways for me to jumpstart my muse and have proven to be good mental/creative breaks in the past.  (See my Monster Girls)

I’m so excited for next month! I can’t wait to share and hope you will enjoy the diversion as well.  I know you all come for the Birthstone Goddesses, but I hope you’ll stay for the gunslinging demigod ladies (at least for a little while)!

More soon,

♥ Ang