A happy 2022!
First, thank you so much for being part of Life to Legend, whether that’s by being a regular reader, a passerby, or one of the Facebook and/or Discord community members. Without you, Life to Legend wouldn’t be possible, to begin with! And I hope that for you next year will be a fruitful and happy one!
I know 2020 and 2021 have been tough ones for many people. When I look around me I see people die directly or indirectly from Corona, others I knew committed suicide out of depression, and many are consistently depressed and asked to check up on them if you don’t hear of them for a few days. Many people lost their livelihoods and/or pensions because they couldn’t open up their shops and others lost their jobs.
I hope that life was kind to you, and will be even more so in 2022. These times will come to an end! If you can: Try to find something positive, something you can enjoy more than usual or something you love that you can spend more time on. It is these small things that will help you push through! And our community may not focus on daily life, but if you ever need a place to go and just talk about what’s going on, or just chat about art or daily life, please feel more than welcome to do so at our Discord channel.
Being an artist in these times
It’s a strange world we live in, one we shouldn’t get used to. I hope you won’t, I try not to myself. And I think that in times like these, artists shine most. People dig into social media like never before. It’s better to have them marvel about a wonderful artwork than have them go down into some meaningless rabbit hole.
Artists make memes, charts, beautiful art, games, movies, series… Everything that shines a bit of light on these dark days full of social distancing. This alone makes the need for artists higher than ever before. But don’t forget that people now actively spend time on businesses and hobbies like they never did before, and in ways, they never did before. Writers pick up their pens and need artists to draw the book covers. D&D gamers play more than ever before and want their characters drawn. A lot of money is invested in playing games, money that then can be spent on making new games which these companies need artists for.
For artists, these are good times! If you have the opportunity, hone your skills and get out there! Share your unique style, or practice one typical for a company you’d want to be hired by. Build a website so you can be found and sell merch. By doing so, you will not only help yourself but also others who can then enjoy your art or anything it’s used for. No matter how shitty these times may be (and even when it’s not for you), it’s absolutely worth it to seize the opportunities that are right there in front of us! Just start and don’t stop, you will get there!
Highlights and timeline of LtL in 2021
As I said before: This year hasn’t been a very good one for me, for more reasons than mentioned before. But so it hasn’t for many other people, and I consider myself lucky with the healthcare we have here in the Netherlands. I know many people lost so much more than I did, and at least I can say I had plenty of time to build my skills and Life to Legend. LtL in fact is one of the biggest highlights of 2021, and I think that’s worth it pointing out! So here we go!
- December 2020 the idea of LtL was born from the old Wildlife and Creature design Facebook group.
- 9-1-2021 The website was finished and the first article was written!
- March 2021 was partially spent on building the Creature Design Prompt Generator with the help of Rian Holt.
- 1-4-2021 LtL was officially launched! Read more about the history and how LtL exactly came to be right here!
- 14-6-2021 a new project started with my friend Jade Jez who always supported me in my endaevours, including LtL. This endeavour is called Spudnik and Knofje. It’s not directly related to LtL but they are character designs that reflect both my and Jades life as artists and bloggers.
- 30-8-2021 the private LtL group has been abandoned because of FB related issues, and continued as a public group.
- 14-12-2021 The 50th article has been launched! And I’m proud to say that I didn’t miss a single week writing and posting articles as sceduled!
Most popular articles of 2021
Well, this is still a young site obviously, and it only has been live for 8 months, but I’d still like to highlight the top 10 most popular articles, so here we go!
- 1 – Immortal Jellyfish, phoenix of the ocean – This makes sense as it’s one of the oldest articles on LtL.
- 2 – 10+ teaching Youtube artists you don’t want to miss
- 3 – The Yowie and other cryptid humanoids
- 4 – What makes a good creature design
- 5 – 11 tips for creating your own creature design
- 6 – Drawing from imagination, why is it so hard?
- 7 – 8 Strange sea creatures you likely didn’t know exist
- 8 – Shape language basics in art
- 9 – Protection against art plagiarism and copyright infringements
- 10 – The unicorn, an ancient myth
Well, that about wraps it up, it was a productive year, especially when it comes to LtL and I’m looking forward to working on it even more! Soon there will be a character design prompt generator available as well as some freebies you can get in the Treasure Trove after signing up for the LtL newsletter. I hope I will see you in 2022 as well as LtL grows, and I hope you will join our community so we can see you grow too! You can do this on both Facebook and Discord.
Take care of yourself, and make 2022 your best year ever!
Signing out for the year