KickstarterForum.org

I have bounced ideas off my small team, but in reality I am the only one in which my campaign is the campfire of my life right now......and the last few days have seemed like I am content to stare at the flames, content with the occasional pop and warm glow.

There is a double edged sword with reaching your goal in a few days. Since any one reading this within a month of two of my posting it, is on the ground floor of the crowd fund starscraper (forget the sky, if your project gets going you are on a rocket ship to the stars) you will understand why.....

Many of your backers have to be herded like a bunch of mewling cats to your campaign and be enticed to pledge. I think this is more of an issue if you are in the green with your first campaign.
I may be dead wrong, but I believe some of the seasoned backers would actually be wary of a first timer with a wildly successful first campaign. Why? It is tantamount to someone on eBay with 0 stars selling a 2012 BMW m3 for $12,000 in perfect condition. Maybe the guy just needs money now, but Occam's razor slices through and sane people refuse to bid.

There have been a lot of unsavory project managers, that is why http://www.vaporstarter.com is essential and even more so as our community grows exponentially in the next year.

My point>Unless you are tapped by the Olympian Gods on Mount Kickstarter your first time with a Staff Pick (which becomes almost a stamp of approval) most long time backers will probably wait and see. They may not even think you will run for the hills with the money, just if your project explodes in popularity and the coffers are busted, perhaps you will unable to fulfill your rewards. Many project managers vastly underestimate shipping fees and their production costs, get hamstrung like the polar pen by unforseeables--and few refund like they should.

I need to find ways to give a shot of adrenaline to my project. My social circle seems to think it was some sort of charity. Despite many posts explaining what was going on, they think my art was me advertising my skill. They seem under the jmpression that the campaign is over. The banner on the school fence with the thermometer is completely red.

I don't want to spam fantasy art forums. I can not afford to run the 12 prints, frame them and try to do a gorilla art show on Coast Highway in LA Jolla (an idea I had).

HALP!!!

Hey Uly. You always have such colorful comparisons with imagery lol.

Have you considered implementing stretch goals? I know I asked you this before. It's one way to incentivize new backers. Have you reached out to any art-related blogs? What has been your response if so?

I did add a stretch goal a few days ago, a 5x7 promotional print for everyone who pledged over $15. Also a 2 page (I probably will expand it to more pages--you know I love to spew, Sal!!) "blurb booklet" that I will print via http://www.nextdayflyers.com .

When Danielle and I were gypsy crafters on Maui and licensed street artists in San Francisco we made "blurb cards" that we placed in the back of the prints under the protective sleeve. It was a brief artist's statement as well as info on my craft and our defunct website (http://www.mysticmoonprints.com).

I am stumped and have been summarily ignored by every art bog I have contacted. I am a huge fan of the former Disney artists, Chris Oatley. He has an online art school and his website has amazing information for emerging concept artist and freelance artist. I reached out to him via email and no response. I also contacted Noah Bradley (another amazing artist who does concept work in the fantasy art world) and Cynthia Sheppard.

Both Noah and Cynthia are Big Name fantasy artist--in fact at my new job at Fry's Electronics I found a glossy fantasy artist instruction magazine and Cynthia was featured on the cover. The traditional art world seems not to be as open as the crowd funding world. Information and helping one another--or at least helping a nobody in the field, like me--do not seem part of the culture.

It will be strange to witness the possible flood of the old guard fantasy artist brigade invading Kickstarter. The $235k Brom project and now David Dellamare and Wendy Ice's 60k Alice Illustrated Book project is bound to be talked about. I am sure there will be many more campaigns in 2014 featuring Big Name artists like Amy Brown, Selina Fenech, Jasmine Beckett-Griffith and maybe even Noah Bradley and Cynthia Sheppard.

That is why Wendy opening the studio door and hearing my pitch--and then showing David my work when I returned with the original of "The Wind That Sleeps that I had just finished after working on it for a year and opening his door whilst he was painting--and taking the time to give me pointers and talk about marketing fantasy art is so rare. I have tried many times to be part of a community or ask for help from other artists. Nothing has ever come of it. In a decade the only artist to help was David and forget about an art manager helping like Wendy. I am not even on their radar!!