#WDZ 2018

[nicolecadet]

Tish - scifi book character & Preview from GW2 Zine Journeys

The last few months I’ve been working on the 2018 Wintersday Zine for the GW2 Collective. It’s been a big learning experience working with some amazing creatives who love Guild Wars 2 as much as I do. The feedback loops provided have pushed me to do some artwork that has been a little outside of my comfort zone. It’s made me realise I need to get back into doing dynamic poses/ sketching more.

I’ve struggled with art for the last couple of years. Health has played a big part, stealing energy and enthusiasm for anything beyond survival mode. I probably burnt out a little bit, a tried forcing myself to do more traditional work and became pretty unhappy with things I was producing.

But, I feel like I’m slowly making my way back to a happy place with art. I moved around my workspace a little so that my Wacom Cintiq is the primary monitor, and got an iPad pro so I could do work away from the computer. My day job is at a computer (I’m currently doing JavaScript fullstack development so I live in front of a PC). I’ve been able to knock the last 2 portraits out fairly quickly, and since the beginning of September have created 3 complete illustrations for the Zine.

Onto the art…

Wintersday Zine preview

This is a small preview from one of the 3 pieces that I’m collaborating on for a short story by writer J.Daggs for the 2018 Wintersday zine, Journeys. I can’t tell you much about the story because that would spoil things but if you play GW2 you may be able to guess something about her from her armour. 

Pre-orders are available until the 15th of November (there are some great perks and bundles available) and you can order yours here: https://gw2collective.bigcartel.com  . 

Pre-order information can be found here . Proceeds go to charity. This is officially sponsored by @guildwars2​ .  More previews by the group can be seen at @wintersdayzine, with the collective account at @gw2collective. They’re also on twitter, and there is an active discord group.

Commissions

I released this a little while ago. It’s a companion piece for Mira, with the character Tish from Paul Grover’s novel Ark of Souls . I got to read the second edition of the novel which is going through some editing but I thoroughly enjoyed it (it’s always interesting to read a book you’ve painted characters for after you’ve done the paintings). It’s character driven scifi, with a space opera feel. There is the ever present threat of space as the great danger, where people are still people with politics, the cost of war, and relationships between friends, family and loved ones, and survival of the fittest in harsh unfriendly environments. I’ll do a shout out when the new edition is released as I don’t know the differences between the first and second edition.

[peregyr]

I’m late in posting this, but here’s the piece I did for the 2018 Wintersday Zine, put together by the @gw2collective !  I chose to depict something related to the collections needed to acquire the griffon mount! It was a fun and challenging project, and I'm grateful to the WDZ team for their input and assistance--without them, it wouldn't have been possible.

[gw2collective]

ANNOUNCEMENT: Alchemy Art Group

Hey everyone! Zorav (Mel) and @qesque (Sara) are here to welcome a change in operations for the Collective. Starting earlier last week, we officially formed an LLC - Alchemy Art (@alchemyartgroup) - and we'll be continuing independent projects & more - follow us there! :D

We'll be kicking things off with a @kickstarter launching at the beginning of next month... and you'll see a lot of familiar faces. We'll be circling back to pins, fine art prints, postcards & stickers. :D (Book projects maybe later in the year.)

>> Shop: alchemyartgroup.com

(One of the many products we’ll have there - we have a mailing list you can get on here: http://eepurl.com/gdW1dr)

We're starting from the ground up - taking 10 members per month. Interested in joining us? We review portfolios on a month to month, and active members get discounts, Discord-only polls/info, and commission opportunities. 

>> More info: alchemyartgroup.com/apply-to-join

To answer questions: The Collective isn't folding (and nothing is on pause, whether you’re hunting for the last TT sets or watching your mail for the 2018 WDZ). We'll still pursue artistic projects under @guildwars2 in 2019 (our next "big" project will be the next Wintersday Zine, estimated around June-July). We'll have other things in the in-between, we'll announce them here.

Late last year, we'd proposed a large lore book project for the summer 2019 with a similar scale to Tyrian Tarot. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to reach an agreement that wouldn't have the mods working thousands of hours for free, so we were forced to scrap our proposal with ArenaNet.

There's a lot more to doing a project than just "doing it," and while it's incredibly unfortunate, the people involved in making it a reality couldn't afford to repeat a project like Tyrian Tarot without endangering . (Each project is more than just writing or painting; it's feedback, design, moderation, shipping, customer support, & more. For that, we appreciate everyone who dedicated their time in the last year and some, and hope it’ll continue in the future when we’re able.)

We have given around $50,000 to charity in 14 months, and for that, we've done something awesome and we're so very proud of it. We have no regrets with that, and look forward to WDZ in the summer-winter of this year (or anything else we can collaborate with ArenaNet).

The Collective will now operate under Alchemy Art (they have separate member rosters, and will have separate projects).

Website: https://alchemyartgroup.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/alchemyartgroup Tumblr: https://alchemyartgroup.tumblr.com/ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AlchemyArtGroup Mailing List: http://eepurl.com/gdW1dr

Thank you! <3

[crowsister-archive]

RT @peregyr: late in posting this, but here's the piece I did for the 2018 Wintersday Zine under the @GW2Collective ! a big thank you to the WDZ team for their input and all their hard work!! #GW2 #GuildWars2 https://t.co/m4uJR7jp08

[nonviable-hostage]

via natural language processing - Google News

[nicolecadet]

I can finally reveal the pieces I did in collaboration with writer Jasmine Daggs for the GW2 wintersday zine @GW2Collective. The team is amazing to work with. This was for the Heart of Thorns expansion  @GuildWars2

[gw2collective]

Concerning Charity Donations & Contributor Copies

Note from the organizers: Outside of our Patreon, donations, and commissions/prints from Tyrian Tarot that went directly to the artists who painted them, the Guild Wars 2 Artist Collective are unpaid for WDZ 2018/2017 and Tyrian Tarot.

Earlier today, there was a commentary that happened in our Discord community server for the Collective (Scriptum). It stemmed from the question of if GuildMag offered contributor copies in a general chat. Since then, it has moved to a post on their website addressing their stance, and several inquiries to me privately about the topic, addressing some misinformation that was put on that post.

In this response, I just want to straighten out their misconceptions of what we do, and cover how I feel about submissions to projects, fan or not, that generate a profit (anything that pulls in a positive net is a profit-bearing project, even if it is donated).

That said, first and foremost: I completely understand the position of being a volunteer producing fan content, despite their implication. I’ve dropped about 2,200 of these “volunteer” hours in the last 15 months on my three respective projects (and my team can spout numbers that rival part-time jobs), so I completely and utterly respect what the other collaborations do in that regard. I will freely admit that I’m attempting to change this in some ways for our next potential project (to make topics such as living and feeding our cats sustainable), but we by no means differ in our current stance.

In respect for their endeavor, please do check them out here (main website). Their works are definitely worth checking out, and I have nothing but respect for the effort they put in.

Second: My contributors and community are my priority. While I believe in giving to a good cause, and the Collective will have donated over $50,000 by the time January has come if all goes well, I put those who work and collaborate with me first. That means providing them with copies of their work, honest feedback with the moderation team to help them improve, and whatever opportunities I can pass to them. My hope is that all projects attempt to do as much as they can in similar capacities to further the creative community.

While this is ultimately up to the organizer (and for that organizer to communicate it with their contributors), it is generally seen to be a point of good will for organizers/moderators to provide their contributors with a copy of their work - to show off, to save, to cherish. Most consider it just part of traditional expenses to include, and not including it means you haven’t broken even. This, however, is just opinion.

For clarity, if the situation had been different and the contributors had voluntarily been offered a copy, but were given the option to donate it and that’s what all of them did, I -- and many of the others who have voiced opinions -- would feel very differently.

Third: The question that was posed in the server was if they offered contributor copies. The answer was no, and the response from the community was that it was considered in poor taste from an outsider’s standpoint. What was said I don’t consider as misinformation but a general creative community consensus. I greatly respect that they choose to maximize their profits to thus give back in a larger way; however, I also find it worrying that it seems to be the absolute rule over the option.

That said, the question about why they weren’t given copies was actually not a question that originally stemmed with me, but from a contributor of theirs many months ago. I’ve heard of the commentary a handful of times since. With that, I’m glad they chose to address their points and their stance so hopefully those with prior questions can find their answers. Information like that should be public, and I hope it helps someone out there make a judgement for themselves. I think it’s respectable, but I think it’s important to have that clarity (as it seems it wasn’t clear to the contributors, either).

Lastly: The Wintersday Zine 2018 supports Save the Children, Tyrian Tarot is donating $42,000 at the beginning of next month to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and we donated to Doctors Without Borders earlier this year, all while providing each contributor with the option to get a bundle for free so they could hold it in their hands.

>> You can find the 2018 Wintersday Zine, Journeys, here until Nov. 15th.

[gw2collective]

Will pins be available in the wintersdayzine store in mid-october as well? I sadly missed the oportunity from the 12th to the 15th to add them to my existing order.

Undetermined, sorry! It depends on quite a bit that happens between now and then. Best advice on that front is to just to watch our updates on the store, but it is unlikely that it’ll be sold without any of the main projects (Ie, WDZ 2018/extras of TT).