Learn Hardcore German: Auch in Zukunft bleibt Zeichnen wichtig für mich, aber mein Traumberuf bleibt Künstlerin. - Drawing will also remain important for me in the future, but my dream job remains being an artist.

“Auch in Zukunft” is put at the beginning for emphasis (topic first: “As for the future…”). German main clauses must have the conjugated verb in second position (the famous V2 rule). So if you start with “Auch in Zukunft”, that whole phrase counts as position 1, and the verb bleibt must come next:

Auch in Zukunft
bleibt
Zeichnen wichtig für mich

You could also say, with a more neutral emphasis:

Zeichnen bleibt auch in Zukunft wichtig für mich.

Same meaning, slightly different focus.

Why is there no article in “in Zukunft” (why not “in der Zukunft”)?

Time expressions in German often drop the article when talking about time in a general sense:

in Zukunft = in (the) future, generally
in der Zukunft = in the future (more literal/specific, more formal or scientific)

In everyday language, “in Zukunft” is standard for “from now on / in future times”. An article is unnecessary because it’s understood as an abstract time period, not a specific, concrete future.

Why is the verb “bleibt” used instead of “ist”?

Bleiben means “to remain / to stay (as something)”.

ist wichtig = is important (simple statement of fact)
bleibt wichtig = stays important / remains important (it continues to be important)

So:

Auch in Zukunft bleibt Zeichnen wichtig für mich …
“Drawing will continue to be important to me in the future as well…”

and

… aber mein Traumberuf bleibt Künstlerin.
“… but my dream job remains (to be) artist.”

Using bleibt emphasizes continuity: it was already true, and it will keep being true.

Why is “Zeichnen” capitalized? Isn’t it just a verb?

The base verb is zeichnen = to draw.

Here, Zeichnen is capitalized because it is being used as a noun – this process is called nominalization:

zeichnen (verb) → das Zeichnen (the act of drawing)

In German, any infinitive can become a noun when you use it to talk about the activity itself:

lesen → (das) Lesen = reading
schwimmen → (das) Schwimmen = swimming
zeichnen → (das) Zeichnen = drawing

In the sentence, Zeichnen functions as the subject:

Zeichnen bleibt wichtig für mich.
“Drawing remains important to me.”

Why is the word order “bleibt Zeichnen wichtig” and not “Zeichnen bleibt wichtig”?

Both are possible; the difference is what comes first in the sentence.

German main clauses follow the verb-second rule (V2):

One element in position 1 (subject, adverbial, etc.)
The conjugated verb in position 2

In your sentence:

Auch in Zukunft (adverbial phrase)
bleibt (verb)
Zeichnen (subject)
wichtig für mich

If you start with the subject instead, you get:

Zeichnen bleibt auch in Zukunft wichtig für mich.

Here,

Zeichnen
bleibt

So the order “bleibt Zeichnen wichtig” comes from inversion after moving “Auch in Zukunft” to the front. The basic subject–verb order is still there; the verb is simply kept in second position as German requires.

Could I say “Zeichnen ist mir wichtig” instead of “Zeichnen bleibt wichtig für mich”? What’s the difference?

Yes, both are grammatical, but they differ in two main ways:

Grammar structure
- Zeichnen ist mir wichtig.
  - dative person: mir
  - adjective wichtig linked to the person via the dative
- Zeichnen ist wichtig für mich.
  - prepositional phrase: für mich (“for me”)
Both mean roughly “Drawing is important to me,” but “mir wichtig” is a bit more compact and idiomatic.
Meaning in your sentence
- bleibt wichtig conveys “remains / continues to be important”, with a future perspective (“Auch in Zukunft”).
- ist mir wichtig is more neutral: “is important to me (now / generally).”

If you want to stay close to the original sense of continuity, you could say:

Auch in Zukunft wird Zeichnen mir wichtig bleiben.
Auch in Zukunft bleibt Zeichnen mir wichtig.

But the original is very natural and clear.

Is “Traumberuf” one word in German, and what exactly does it mean?

Yes, “Traumberuf” is written as one compound noun in German.

Traum = dream
Beruf = profession, job

So Traumberuf = dream job / dream profession.

German loves compounds, so things like:

Traumhaus (dream house)
Traumpartner (dream partner)
Traumurlaub (dream holiday)

are also written as single words.

Why is it “Künstlerin” and not “Künstler”?

Künstler is the masculine form for “artist”, and Künstlerin is the feminine form.

The sentence says:

… aber mein Traumberuf bleibt Künstlerin.

So the speaker is presenting their dream job as “artist” in the feminine form – implying that the speaker identifies as female (or is talking about a female person’s dream job).

If the speaker is male: mein Traumberuf bleibt Künstler.
If the speaker is female: mein Traumberuf bleibt Künstlerin.

Why is there no article before “Künstlerin”? Why not “eine Künstlerin”?

After certain verbs like sein (to be), werden (to become), and bleiben (to remain), German often omits the indefinite article when talking about professions, roles, or statuses:

Ich bin Lehrer. (not ein Lehrer in most neutral contexts)
Sie wird Ärztin.
Er bleibt Student.

So:

mein Traumberuf bleibt Künstlerin.

literally: “my dream job remains artist,” meaning “my dream job is (to be) an artist”.

You can say “eine Künstlerin”:

Mein Traumberuf bleibt eine Künstlerin zu sein.

but that gets clumsy; the simple form without the article is the most natural here.

Is it okay that “mein Traumberuf” is masculine but “Künstlerin” is feminine? Don’t they have to agree?

They don’t have to agree in gender, only in case (here: nominative).

mein Traumberuf = subject (masculine, nominative)
Künstlerin = predicative noun after bleibt, also nominative, but feminine

Predicative nouns describe or identify the subject but don’t have to match its grammatical gender:

Mein Lieblingsfach ist Mathematik. (“Mathematik” is feminine; “Lieblingsfach” is neuter.)
Sein größtes Problem ist die Zeit. (“Problem” is neuter; “Zeit” is feminine.)

Here, mein Traumberuf is an abstract label (“my dream job”), and Künstlerin is the concrete role that fills that label. It’s completely correct that one is masculine and the other feminine.

How is the future expressed here? There is no “will” or future tense.

German very often uses the present tense to talk about the future, especially when there is a time expression that makes the meaning clear:

Morgen gehe ich ins Kino. = I’m going to the cinema tomorrow.
Nächste Woche fahre ich nach Berlin. = Next week I’m going to Berlin.

In your sentence:

Auch in Zukunft bleibt Zeichnen wichtig für mich …

The phrase “Auch in Zukunft” clearly signals a future timeframe, so the present tense (bleibt) is understood as future (“will remain”).

A more explicit future form would be:

Auch in Zukunft wird Zeichnen wichtig für mich bleiben.

Perfectly correct, but less natural in everyday speech; the original is more idiomatic.

Could I replace “bleibt” with a future construction like “wird … sein/bleiben”? What would change?

Yes, you could say:

Auch in Zukunft wird Zeichnen wichtig für mich sein.
Auch in Zukunft wird Zeichnen wichtig für mich bleiben.

Both are grammatically fine. Nuances:

wird … sein = “will be” (neutral future)
wird … bleiben = “will remain” (still emphasizes continuity, but in a more “explicit future” way)

The version with simple present + future adverbial:

Auch in Zukunft bleibt Zeichnen wichtig für mich …

is more natural and slightly smoother in style. German tends to use the simple present for the future unless there’s a need to stress the futurity strongly.

What does “aber” do in the sentence, and how does it affect word order?

Aber is a coordinating conjunction meaning “but”.

The sentence has two main clauses:

Auch in Zukunft bleibt Zeichnen wichtig für mich,
aber mein Traumberuf bleibt Künstlerin.

Aber simply links the two as equals and introduces a contrast: drawing stays important, but the dream job is still “artist”.

With coordinating conjunctions like und, oder, aber, denn, the word order of the clause that follows stays a normal main-clause order (verb in 2nd position):

aber mein Traumberuf bleibt Künstlerin.
position 1: mein Traumberuf
position 2: bleibt

So aber does not push the verb to the end, unlike subordinating conjunctions such as weil, dass, wenn, etc.