December Sketch Requests full & future changes (Patreon)

All 40 December Sketch request slots (30 streamed, 10 overflow) have been filled. This is the fastest that this has ever happened and it's been getting faster every month.  With only 40 slots available and over 100 patrons, the bigger my patreon gets, the worse the current system is for both me and my patrons. 

After thinking about it, starting in February I am going to change how sketch requests work by creating a new $25 pledge level specifically for sketch requests with a limited availability of 30, meaning that only 30 people can pledge to it at any given time. Higher tiers will still be allowed to make a request.

This will solve a couple issues with the current system:

• No reason for patrons to stay up at ungodly hours to send in a sketch request at midnight
• No risk of going over the slot availability
• I won't have to turn anyone away or make these announcements
• Less complicated rules for what kind of sketch you can get and what upgrades are available

Obviously this is bad news for anyone who doesn't want to pledge that high, and I completely understand if you no longer wish to support me if you were pledging just for a sketch.

As much as I'd like to give everyone a sketch every month, if I did that I'd easily be spending my entire month making sketch requests. It's not that I don't enjoy drawing sketch requests, but there is only one of me and there's only so much I can do in a month.

When I first started my Patreon I wanted to have more time to make original content that my patrons would have a say in, like Patrons Pick. But another thing was animations, which I actually have reached the goal for, but have had issues allocating time to make. Part of the problem is that I obviously have other work outside of Patreon, but also that managing, drawing and curating sketch requests now sucks up a whole week of work time every month.

I never thought that my Patreon would grow to the point where I'd have to do something like this. A year ago, sketch requests were so sparse that while I was streaming, slots would actually still be available and people could sometimes get a 2nd sketch. Now they disappear in hours. Hindsight is 20/20, but I didn't foresee the problems that would arise as my Patreon grew. Now that we're here, this is just something I have to do. I don't want to do it, but I also have to be realistic.

My hope is that by doing this I will be able to allocate more time to create animations and sketches that would make other pledge goals worth your investment. If not, I still hope you will enjoy my work outside of Patreon. The support that all of you have given me thus far is more than I could have ever imagined, and I appreciate every request I get as each has helped me grow a little bit and challenge me as an artist.

I suppose this is part of the growing pains of managing a Patreon, something I'm obviously still learning a lot about as I go. Ideally I wish I had some magical power to slow down time and make all of you happy, but I know I can't do that. 

So January will be the last month for a few the current system, which means that starting in February, the following changes will be made:

• $5 and $10 patron levels will no longer have access to sketch requests and be re-worked. If you have any ideas for what you think should be included in this tier to replace sketch requests, please feel free to share it in the comments below.
• The current $25 patron level of having access to source files will be lowered to $15 and have the sketch request reward removed.
• A new $25 patron level will be created with 30 slots that includes all the lower rewards + a sketch request.
• Higher tiers will remain unchanged, meaning that if you are a $50, $100 or $400 patron, you may still send in the requests allotted to you.

Thanks again for reading and understanding, and I hope this post has been clear.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.