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UPDATE 22ND JANUARY 2024 - SECOND KICKSTARTER!


We're officially launching on the 30th January, and anyone at Vapnartak in York, I'll bring some sample prints you can have a closer look at,

You can sign up now here
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonhodgsonmaptiles2/jon-hodgson-backdrops-two-backdrops-boogaloo/



In these next 2 books you'll find 24 hand-painted landscapes professionally-printed and wiro bound into a practical book to use as backdrops for your photographs.

Each of the books we're kickstarting in this campaign have dual themes:
Ruins and Tunnels - which are broadly "fantasy" in character", but work for modern day settings too.
Sci-fi Ruins and Interiors - which are definitely "sci-fi" in character.

By popular demand we're also offering the two books from the first campaign in an A3 size. So that's:
Backdrops Book One A3 and Sci-fi Backdrops A3.

The content of these books will be very close to their original A4 counterparts. Most of the scenes in those books will work at a larger scale, but some will need some adjustment to make them work nicely when printed on a larger format. We will of course undertake that work should we fund, to ensure your A3 books are brilliant to use.

Please be aware, as we have said all along, these A3 books won't be cheap to ship, especially if you live outside the UK, but enough people have asked that we think it's worth doing!


------------------------------
[PREVIOUS POST FROM 2023]

"This campaign is to raise funds to print an A4 wire-bound book of my painted landscapes. The book is intended to be a tool for miniature painters who want high quality, thematic backdrops to use when photographing their miniatures and models.

Like a lot of folks, I grew tired of photographing my miniatures against a boring blue board. I tried using landscape photographs, but it made my miniatures and scenery look weirdly stylised and out of place. As an illustrator, with a lot of landscape paintings on hand, it was a natural step to print some paintings and use them as backdrops. And it worked!

I've made two collections of my paintings available as PDF files for home printing, but I am aware that it's not always easy, convenient, or even affordable to get these things printed out at home. Have you seen the price of ink cartridges lately?

In this book, you'll find 24 hand-painted landscapes professionally printed and wire bound into a practical book to use as backdrops for your photographs."

A game changer!

Do you want professional backdrops that you can use on a tabletop with no special gear to make your painted minis look extra great? Hecks yes you do. Coming Tuesday (5pm UK time) to Kickstarter, from Jon Hodgson of Handiwork Games in collaboration with...us, yay!

I am so pumped after being a massive fan of Jonny's work, as well as demanding he make this because I don't own a colour printer.

Over the weekend I will be taking a billion photos from the TWENTY FOUR (and more if the campaign goes well) different scenes from the book with a series of Bad Squiddo minis.... any you want to see?

It's going to be a really short one week KS so blink and you'll miss it, you can sign up here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonhodgsonmaptiles2/jon-hodgson-maps-backgrounds-book

I've been taking lots of photos today with it and I love it. Here's just a couple of them. All just taken with a phone camera as I wanted to show you don't need fancy gear to get nice photos of minis.

I'm looking forward to backing this. Is there any rough idea of the timescale for delivery yet ie. Is it months away or years?

 Annie wrote:


Over the weekend I will be taking a billion photos from the TWENTY FOUR (and more if the campaign goes well) different scenes from the book with a series of Bad Squiddo minis.... any you want to see?

It's going to be a really short one week KS so blink and you'll miss it, you can sign up here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonhodgsonmaptiles2/jon-hodgson-maps-backgrounds-book

I'd like to see how the darker backgrounds turn out in actual miniature photos, if you could arrange that.

Hi Annie,

This project looks very interesting; I've been thinking about getting some sort of background imagery for miniature photos, and a large book of landscapes is a great idea. Also, from the little I've seen so far, Hodgson's paintings look beautiful. I have a question and some suggestions.:

Question: How are you getting such great lighting in your example photos? I'm very much a novice with photographing miniatures, and I'm relying on my phone camera too, and I've struggled to get such clear and even lighting in my photos so far.

Suggestions:

- Higher-resolution images: If twitter is limiting the resolution of your photos, you could try uploading shots to your personal gallery here on Dakka instead, and linking to those in your posts here. A couple high-resolution images of Hodgson's work might help sell this project.

- Genres?: From the shots shown so far, I'm guessing the landscapes for this project were probably painted with fantasy settings in mind. That doesn't mean they can't also be used for sci-fi, but hopefully there will be a good variety in the (minimum?) 24 landscapes included with the book. Or maybe Mr. Hodgson would consider doing some sci-fi backgrounds as stretch goals, or (if this project does well,) as the focus of a future landscape book?

- Signed copies: I don't know how big this will get / how many books will be published, but if the number is manageable, would Mr. Hodgson consider signing them, or some of them? Perhaps as an early bird, tier, or stretch goal incentive?

- Method and medium: How is Mr. Hodgson painting these, by hand or digitally? If by hand, he might consider advertising that in his campaign description, as well as the medium he's using (I'm guessing watercolor?), as that carries a certain hand-made / old-world charm in our increasingly digital era. (Not that there's anything wrong with digital painting.) Now that A.I.-generated art is casting a shadow over the near future, hand- and human-made art should be celebrated.

- A larger book for bigger shots / armies: This book looks ideal for small groups of miniatures, which is very useful for people like me who paint a few minis at a time and focus on individuals and small squads. In the event that this is successful, Hodgson might consider doing an even larger book in the future for photos of armies.

- A YouTube video: Depending on how camera-shy Mr. Hodgson is, he might consider putting up a Youtube video showing his working process and some of the original paintings in his studio. He could also demonstrate how easy the book is to use with a sample group of minis.

- PEEG MIMIC! - You asked, that's the Bad Squiddo miniature I'd most like to see photographed with one of Hodgson's landscapes.

 Talking Banana wrote:
Hi Annie,

Question: How are you getting such great lighting in your example photos? I'm very much a novice with photographing miniatures, and I'm relying on my phone camera too, and I've struggled to get such clear and even lighting in my photos so far.

I usually use natural light, my set up has a window to one side, though I have a lamp I sometimes use from the other side. I wrote a guide a while back but I'm hoping to update it this week.

- Higher-resolution images: If twitter is limiting the resolution of your photos, you could try uploading shots to your personal gallery here on Dakka instead, and linking to those in your posts here. A couple high-resolution images of Hodgson's work might help sell this project.

Absolutely, tomorrows job! I was mostly taking them today, so I'll do more promo bits tomorrow. Also it is melty hot here.

- Genres?: From the shots shown so far, I'm guessing the landscapes for this project were probably painted with fantasy settings in mind. That doesn't mean they can't also be used for sci-fi, but hopefully there will be a good variety in the (minimum?) 24 landscapes included with the book. Or maybe Mr. Hodgson would consider doing some sci-fi backgrounds as stretch goals, or (if this project does well,) as the focus of a future landscape book?

sci fi, pulp, ww2 minis, photographed many today, already on it Potentially more backgrounds if there is enough interest! There aren't any specific sci fi ones in this book, though many work.

- Signed copies: I don't know how big this will get / how many books will be published, but if the number is manageable, would Mr. Hodgson consider signing them, or some of them? Perhaps as an early bird, tier, or stretch goal incentive?

That will be a pledge option

- Method and medium: How is Mr. Hodgson painting these, by hand or digitally? If by hand, he might consider advertising that in his campaign description, as well as the medium he's using (I'm guessing watercolor?), as that carries a certain hand-made / old-world charm in our increasingly digital era. (Not that there's anything wrong with digital painting.) Now that A.I.-generated art is casting a shadow over the near future, hand- and human-made art should be celebrated.

Digital painting, by hand. Good point!

- A larger book for bigger shots / armies: This book looks ideal for small groups of miniatures, which is very useful for people like me who paint a few minis at a time and focus on individuals and small squads. In the event that this is successful, Hodgson might consider doing an even larger book in the future for photos of armies.

This one is a tester to see how much demand there is, so who knows!

- A YouTube video: Depending on how camera-shy Mr. Hodgson is, he might consider putting up a Youtube video showing his working process and some of the original paintings in his studio. He could also demonstrate how easy the book is to use with a sample group of minis.

Already done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-sGGHSi-GQ

- PEEG MIMIC! - You asked, that's the Bad Squiddo miniature I'd most like to see photographed with one of Hodgson's landscapes.

Hecks yes!


----

Thanks for the feedback! I whacked threads up around the place last night to make sure they were up and could start getting a look at, but I'll be adding in more of the info. Also the page when it launches Tuesday has lots more on it too.

Woo!

I have been photographing all day and have sufficiently melted now.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tsagualsa wrote:


I'd like to see how the darker backgrounds turn out in actual miniature photos, if you could arrange that.

Will do!

Really like the look of this, it's one of those things that you wonder why it hasn't been done before.

Is there a Sci fi background?

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Is there a Sci fi background?

annie answered above

There aren't any specific sci fi ones in this book, though many work.

I've made a little video of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6NVRKp5v48&t=7s

and Mr Hodgson has made a better one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEkTkyxLjG8&t=2s

and here are some more of the photographs I've been taking. All the minis are Bad Squiddo Games

Cool project!

These are quite lovely. Posting to stay in the loop.

Nice idea, but was hoping for backgrounds that were a bit more grimdark.

 Drakheart wrote:
Nice idea, but was hoping for backgrounds that were a bit more grimdark.

From what I've seen, Hodgson's wilderness paintings, apparently some if not all inspired by his Scotland home, are lyrical and melancholic. They're beautiful, and if you want a mythic Lord of the Rings or Warhammer Fantasy Old World flavor, I don't think you could do better. (Although even for Warhammer, a larger book with more settings would be nice - Lustria, Mordor, the Chaos Wastes, Moria, the underworld of the Dwarven / Goblin / Skaven peoples, Manhattan . . .). These landscapes can work for Sci-Fi, but they clearly weren't painted with sci-fi in mind.

I see three challenges Hodgson will have to overcome:

1. The enormous number of people in the world who find Scotland's wild landscapes absolutely hideous.*

2. It's Tuesday morning and the campaign isn't up, making pledging impossible. (Let me guess: it's not Tuesday in Scotland yet? How dare they!)

3. The serious one: Variety is the spice of life.

If interest in this campaign is high, Hodgson could offer stretch goals that offer more landscape / genre variety, and / or he could turn this book into the first of a series of landscape books specific to different locales and genres.

But if interest is low and the campaign fails, I hope Hodgson won't just shelve this idea. In that case, instead of doing a line of titles, Hodgson could expand this one book with some more varied landscapes as an all-in-one deal to appeal more widely across genres and relaunch later. It's just a great idea that deserves to happen. In a sense, Hodgson could be inventing a new book genre, as I'm not certain books of painted landscapes specifically intended for use as miniature backgrounds have ever been done before.

Last thought: Hodgson could also consider the potential appeal of his book / future books to crafters of other kinds of miniatures. My niece is putting together a lovely non-gaming related miniature Japanese teahouse, for example, and I intend to pick up one of these books for her.

* At last count, I think there were approximately two people who felt this way.

Timely boop that it launches at 5pm (45 mins from posting!)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonhodgsonmaptiles2/jon-hodgson-maps-backgrounds-book

You know what? Forget everything I wrote above. There's only one thing Hodgson can do to send this campaign into overdrive: enlist his artist sons Rory and Ben to contribute a guest background of The Poo Cave!

We're live and it's moving like crazy!

http://kck.st/46sAuKq

Oh look a sneak peek of the next solo Bad Squiddo project

That's a damn fine ghoul, Annie. The baby skeleton's a nice touch, just on the right side of macabre without going full-on gross. (No partially eaten babies for me, but a completely eaten baby with just the skeleton left is fine. That makes total sense.)

I'm in for the book. Hopefully the campaign continues to succeed and Hodgson is spurred to consider expanding the line with other locales and genres.

That is a deeply disturbing miniature.

Capital job!

That is a lovely/horrible mini!

Pledged for the book, encouraged to see that it is already doing well.

Thanks for the Ghoul compliments! Lots more where they came from! All my GhoulMaster Paul Muller.

----

BIG NEWS!
http://kck.st/46sAuKq


So the Kickstarter has launched, funded, and is going absolutely wild. Because it wasn't either of our regular ventures, ie something a bit different, we really weren't sure how big or small this would go! There's loads of news, but instead of typing it all out myself, I'll copy Jon's words from the latest updates.

TO UPDATE THE UPDATE - WE UNLOCKED BOOK 2!

---

Hello!
Wow what amazing progress overnight! Welcome all you new backers!

So the photography tips are unlocked! These additional pages will contain tips for “proper” camera photography from a pro photographer, as well as some more down to earth tricks and tips for phone photography. I'm super excited for the completeness this brings to the book.

And indeed, with that, the first book is complete!



The big news is the reveal that at £7000 we will unlock a dedicated book of sci-fi backgrounds! It’ll start off at 24 backgrounds, just like the first book.



These backdrops will be painted by me, and have a similar feel to the first backdrops. I will be using a slightly different process, carefully incorporating some 3d modelling by my incredibly talented colleague Paul Bourne as the foundation for the paintings. But they will still be hand painted, and have "my style". I just won't be able to take reference from the local landscape, so some suitably futuristic 3d help will ensure the quality remains as high.

Here's a first sample of the kind of thing you can expect. This is still a work in progress, but it's almost done.



We'll have a variety of scenes beyond planet-scapes like this one - some industrial stuff, some post-apocalyptic stuff, and so on, all with the aim of sitting behind your minis and setting them off to good effect.
This new book, if unlocked, will be available in several different ways:

• A new pledge level just for the scifi book (for people who hate moody hills and glens)
• A new pledge level for a signed sci-fi book
• A new pledge level for both books
• A new pledge level for both books, signed
• A new pledge level for the sci-fi book with commercial license
• A new pledge level for the both books with commercial license

You’ll also be able to add it as an Add On if you just want additional copies of either book.
Can we make it?

It’s a bit of a hike to £7000, but of course we don’t want to go on fire making two books instead of one!

And that’s where your shares of this campaign come in. We’re going to really need to help spread the word, especially the chance of sci-fi backdrops becoming a genuine possibility.

We can do a certain amount of sharing all over the net, and as you’re no doubt aware, Annie has been doing amazing work reaching all corners of the interweb. But nothing is as effective as real word of mouth recommendations from real backers. (I mean, Annie is a real backer, but you understand what I’m saying here). Your help will be absolutely invaluable if we’re to reach that magic £7000 and leap into making two books rather than one. So please do give the campaign a share on social media, forums and anywhere folsk who might like this book hang out.

A title change

Sharp-eyed folks will shortly notice that the image at the top of the campaign will feature the first book without the big word “MAPS” on it. As mentioned in the campaign page, when I first started this project, my assumption was that most folks would be coming from my little battle maps Patreon, and it made sense to confirm that link. That isn’t at all where we’ve ended up, and the “Maps” word is just a point of confusion now, as Annie has wisely and gently pointed out only four or five thousand times in the last 24 hours. And so it’s gone! We can do that. Hooray for organic product development!



Commercial license

Things are moving really fast right now, but it is still my plan to share a draft of the commercial license this week if humanly possible. Some folks have asked for a bit of detail on how it works, and if they’re a professional photographer, will their clients also need a license?

The license will allow you, the license holder, to make new photographic works, incorporating my backdrops. You will own those new photographic works and be able to sell them as you wish. So your clients will not need an additional license. In summary: only the person making the photos needs a license.

I very much see the commercial license as a courtesy, and a way to make it clear who owns what, and clarify what you can do with a minimum of fuss and confusion. It’ll be written in plain English, and it’s hopefully a nice affordable price, rather than some massive gouge, or a subscription that you’re forever paying.

Hope that helps!

Right! Onwards!
Thank you once again for all your amazing support.
Jon (and Annie)"

These look great! I'm in for both books!

Still waiting on that photo with the Peeg Mimic, Annie!

Oh the Sci fi book Temps me!

Backed for the sci fi. Looks like a great product, and really caught a wave there Nice work.

Talking Banana wrote:Still waiting on that photo with the Peeg Mimic, Annie!

I have not forgotten! I'm going to photograph it with a tester piece from... THE SCI FI BOOK

MarkNorfolk wrote:These look great! I'm in for both books!

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Oh the Sci fi book Temps me!

Flinty wrote:Backed for the sci fi. Looks like a great product, and really caught a wave there Nice work.

Hooray, thank you!

Sci fi book now gonna be 32 pages as well, neato!

Is there a particular reason that "Signed" and "Commercial License" appear to be mutually exclusive? I don't see any option that allows me to have a signed book and a commercial license at the same time.

Nobody's asked for that yet?

it certainly looks like he keeps adding new pledge levels as there are far more options than there were at the start

so worth messaging him (it might be he'll say just pick the commercial licence option then add an extra X for sigbed books as well too)

You can add the commercial licence as an add on the next step after pledging, ks gives you the option. So if you go for signed, then add a licence, and you're sorted

 Annie wrote:

Talking Banana wrote:Still waiting on that photo with the Peeg Mimic, Annie!

I have not forgotten! I'm going to photograph it with a tester piece from... THE SCI FI BOOK