Projects and Goals for 2014

Projects and Goals for 2014 Yesterday was my birthday, so that was my official start  to 2014, and this year I have three big things I'm working  to accomplish. :) The Magician's Cat, both ebook AND a print edition A support campaign to continue art on Stolen Child Tarot A second collected art book of my demons, The Lost Key to Infernal Spirits of the New World Read on for details on each!

Artwork for Magician's Cat is a whisker away from complete!   I should be done by mid March and have the ebook formatted  and available (FREE!) for all by early April!  Also after a little  research with a printer here in Austin, and due to popular  demand, I'm going to try to put out a PRINT edition! I will be Kickstarting that in late April, and the campaign will  offer opportunities to grab some of the original art from the  book as well as other goodies! In the spirit of the original  project, copies of the print edition will also go to Central  Texas SPCA for fundraising!

For those following the Monster Project... I have a confession to make...  they aren't monsters.  They're demons. And I have too many of them. I can't even begin to list all the places they arrive from or how  many just wander in.  It starts with one or two and the next  thing you know your place is packed.  I'm not a hoarder --  I prefer the term 'rescuer'.  Anyway, the neighbors are complaining, so I've made the hard decision  to start adopting them out.  In fact, I'm going to start this Friday, March 7th. Adoption fees I hope will cover my other art book project, The Lost Key to Infernal Spirits of the New World, a book of 72 portraits of my favorite of these homeless horrors. Friday a special email bulletin will go out to those interested in adoption. You've been warned.

The Future of The Stolen Child Tarot Good News!  In the next couple of months, I will be launching  a Patreon campaign devoted 100% to the completion of The Stolen Child Tarot. What is Patreon? It's a project site allowing creators to connect with people who  want to be a patron of their work.  It's goal is to assist creators with  long term funding for larger/longer creative endeavors -- you can check out their site here, but in short I would be setting goals  of completing one or more of the remaining 50 cards per month and asking those interested to pledge $1-$2 a month in exchange for behind the scenes news, sneak peeks of progress and whatever other goodies I can come up with. I truly want to continue Stolen Child at the level of quality  I've put in so far and I feel that the Patreon campaign is a  great option to support such a large endeavor.  I hope you'll check it out when I bring it live and consider supporting the deck! :)

And last but not least, I'm running a Spring sale on some of my  acrylic pieces in my etsy shop!

Monica's Etsy Shop

Last Blast! Win Original Art from The Stolen Child Tarot!

Wanna win some art? Back The Stolen Child Tarot at any level and be entered in a drawing for a piece of original art from the deck! 

Check out the latest project update on the campaign for details!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774786282/stolen-child-tarot-complete-the-78-card-deck

Lovely Review for The Stolen Child Tarot

Morrigann just published this glowing and detailed article for the Stolen Child Tarot's Major Arcana edition.  I have to go to my closet and blush for a while...

http://www.le-chaudron-de-morrigann.com/the-stolen-child-tarot-de-monica-knighton-a79228983#

Oh yeah, and there's still 5 days left in the campaign on Kickstarter to complete the deck - if the universe wants to throw it a Hail Mary pass:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774786282/stolen-child-tarot-complete-the-78-card-deck

2 of Oak Pencils - Welcome to Tasmania!

The Stolen Child Tarot is on Kickstarter now thru March 15th!

2 of Flames pencils

Quickie peek at the pencils for Two of Flames...  If you want to see this deck completed, please support my Kickstarter.  It ends March 14th!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774786282/stolen-child-tarot-complete-the-78-card-deck

Page of Brine, with pencil and ink process

Only 2 weeks left on the Kickstarter for Stolen Child Tarot and it's at 23% funding.  That's a big gap to close.  If you want to see this deck come to fruition, please consider pledging or sharing the campaign!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774786282/stolen-child-tarot-complete-the-78-card-deck

Queen of Zephyrs

Here's the new painting for The Queen of Zephyrs!
If you've dropped by this post from Aeclectic Tarot, welcome!  You may or may not know I'm currently running a Kickstarter campaign to try to expand Stolen Child to a 78 card deck.

Aeclectic Tarot feels that the forum has been abused in the past by people promoting Kickstarter or IndieGoGo art campaigns, and has banned posting links or other information about them.  I totally understand them protecting the forum, but I would also like to mention that I've run two successful campaigns that included completion and delivery of all rewards within the schedules I outlined.  I'm sorry if other people mismanaged projects or left people hanging -- but it wasn't me! :)

Anyway, when I have new art, I'll point people here.  I would love it if you would share the campaign with your tarot friends -- it won't happen unless the campaign reaches it's funding goal by March 16th.

I'm a self employed artist.  I used to work full time in animal welfare non-profit and I've been job hunting since 2010.  Chasing commissions, selling online or at art shows and odd jobs is what has kept me going, along with my rainy day savings from the days of employment and selling personal possessions.  I bring this up because when I say I don't have the resources to do this in my spare time, it's the plain reality of the situation.

If you've enjoyed my work or are intrigued by what you've seen of the Major Arcana, please consider supporting or sharing the new campaign to complete the deck:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774786282/stolen-child-tarot-complete-the-78-card-deck

Thanks so much!
Monica

Stolen Child Tarot's 2 of Zephyrs

Finished up the painting for the 2 of Zephyrs!  If you haven't checked out my Kickstarter campaign to complete the Stolen Child Tarot into a 78 card deck, please do!  We're at 12% funding and we need to hit our goal by March 16th to make this happen!

Goin' batty for a good cause!

Just wanted to share some happy news!  I made some larger prints of The Lovers available to a fundraising campaign to help rehabilitate fruit bats struck by the recent heat wave in Australia.  Probably the most heart breaking thing about this event is the number of pups it wiped out or left with heat stroke.

You can check out the campaign here: (Warning, video contains footage of heat stroke deaths as well as sweet baby bats in rehab.)

http://www.indiegogo.com/bats-in-need

I just saw the totals from the effort, and the contribution of The Lovers prints raised $280!  

 This would not have been possible without Kickstarter supporters making the art for The Stolen Child Tarot happen!  What a great chain reaction!

It's official!  I just launched the Kickstarter campaign to expand The Stolen Child Tarot into a complete 78 card tarot!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774786282/stolen-child-tarot-complete-the-78-card-deck

Please, if you've enjoyed the Major Arcana work, help me share this campaign and get the word out!

Hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!!!

It's Coming! Let's Complete the Stolen Child Tarot!

I am gearing up to launch a BIG Kickstarter campaign on Feb 14th in the hopes of expanding The Stolen Child Tarot to a complete 78 card deck -- and I need your help!

I want to make this my project for 2013, but doing 50 + paintings and covering printing/shipping etc is a lot of work and expense.  That means that even with tight and careful budgeting, this will be the largest funding goal I've campaigned for on Kickstarter -- and I need everyone's help to make this happen!

Which is why I'm trying to get the word out early and before the launch!
Why early? Let me explain...
**This is super important and could potentially make or break the project!**   See, the first campaign for the Major Arcana of Stolen Child didn't reach it's goal.  As an introvert, my meek and polite attempts at PR and advertising kind of suck, and by the time a lot of people learned about Kickstarter and the campaign, well, oops...  Too late!

However, when I reran the campaign, so many people were ready and waiting, that it jumped out of the gate at the launch!  Why is this important?  Because it made the project meet Kickstarter's hot and popular criteria, which led to them featuring it on various Kickstarter pages, which led to a boost of about 20% of BRAND NEW SUPPORTERS!  These were people who had never heard of it and weren't connected to my circles. To meet the funding goal for a project this size, getting that kind of boost again could make or break the campaign!

My hope is that we can create enough pre-campaign buzz to get that boost again -- will you help?  If you can, won't you share the news with your friends, tarot groups, forums, and let them know that Feb 14th is the big day?

If you're a fan of The Stolen Child Tarot, on Feb 14th, won't you be my Valentine and pledge or support the project?  If you know you want to pledge, can I ask you to do it as soon as you can after the launch to increase our chances of being featured on Kickstarter?

I will post updates and launch links here, as well as on Facebook, Etsy, tarot forums, etc.  You can also get updates by signing up for my art newsletter in that upper left hand box!

More pencils for Stolen Child Tarot

I'm still hoping to expand The Stolen Child into a full tarot deck.  In the meantime, I thought I'd share a couple pencils of minor arcana cards in the works.

It's Happening! Stolen Child is funded and still going!

So a double woot woot to everyone supporting it because apparently the second time's the charm!  My project on Kickstarter, The Stolen Child Tarot reached and surpassed funding!  Between working on the last bit of the art I've been hopping around the interwebs tooting it's horn and writing more Thank You notes than Jimmy Fallon.  (Mine aren't as funny, sorry, but they're still very heartfelt...)
I'm still working on the last few cards and the designs for the card backs and end plates, but wanted to post some more pics up here!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774786282/stolen-child-tarot-a-limited-edition-major-arcana

New Stolen Child Art and Campaign!!

I've relaunched the Kickstarter campaign!  This time, we're gonna do this!!!

Please check it out and help spread the word!  url:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774786282/stolen-child-tarot-a-limited-edition-major-arcana

Stolen Child Tarot/Kickstarter conclusion

So my Kickstarter campaign to try to get the Stolen Child Tarot off the ground unfortunately did not succeed.  I met a lot of great folks and truly appreciate all the help and enthusiasm of everyone who supported the project.  Due to my current financial situation, I'm not able to continue with the project at this time, but hopefully in the future I'll be able to come back to it.  If you would like to be added to a list to receive news about it, please drop me a line.

Thanks so much,
Monica

The Hermit

Emperor/Empress

Best comment for these came from Talzhemir Mrr on facebook:

♥ It was customary in those days for small children to be raised by large bears. This greatly decreased the workload of mothers of large families but on the days before fostering bears came to visit, everyone had to catch fish and gather blueberries. ♥

Preliminary images for upcoming project