Blog: Origin Story (Patreon)

As I stared down at the clouds below me I came to realize it had been a long time since I'd went on such a long flight yet for some reason, even though I spent the time just staring outside and didn't do much, I didn't find myself bored as I kept thinking about the things I wanted to share with you all during the trip.

This has been on my mind since my flight a week ago, and I thought now is probably the best time as any to try and find the right words for telling this story of mine.

This is probably something I haven't talked about before, and if I have, I probably just glossed over it during a Twitch stream. I often had questions like, have I been studying for an art degree before choosing to become a freelance artist? What inspired me to try becoming a freelance artist in the first place?

To give the full context of where and how it started, I have to go back several years ago when I had recently quit my work as a government office worker. It was a good-paying job, but at the same time, I wasn't very fond of the monotonous cycle of going to work, coming home, sleeping, and then repeating. That's putting things very mildly, and I probably have a lot more negative things to say about that line of work, so I'll move on. After quitting my office work, I decided to sell most of my belongings as well as my car, and after pooling all my savings together, I chose to go on an adventure abroad.

When I think about it now, I just wonder how reckless I'd been since back then I didn't have any concrete plans as to where I'd be visiting and for how long. I simply packed a few essentials and committed myself to an aimless journey experiencing different cultures as I went from country to country.

You might be asking, didn't you run into money problems on the way? In times like these, I'd find temporary jobs as a working holiday seasonal worker, grabbing whatever jobs I could to save funds that would go towards my next destination. At times I would be picking seasonal fruits for the local produce, at other times I would be packing health products into bottles. It was the life of a wanderer.

It was during one of these temporary jobs that I finally wanted to try out being a freelance artist. I still remember it as clearly as day, I was working temporarily as a tile layer at a warehouse where several other employees, including myself, were laying down tiles for a vast warehouse where the flooring was being replaced with these decorative tiles. It was hard difficult work and I recall how I would end up with so many sores around the knees because there was very limited safety equipment available for all the employees. When I think about it, maybe it really was a black company that was exploiting working holiday visa holders.

Anyways, it was 3 am. The air was pretty cold and I could see my breath every time I breathed as I got into my car with gloves on because the steering wheel felt like I was touching a bar of ice. Even with the gloves on, I could feel the chill seeping through my skin as I drove home tired and sleepy. I'd go home and have a hot shower and try my best to keep warm inside the blankets because the room I was renting didn't really have good heating. Every day was a repeat of that cycle and I was starting to wonder if there was any other way I could find work because jobs like these were taking a real toll on me. I think it was around that time when platforms like Patreon were starting to get popular, a friend of mine gifted me a drawing tablet and encouraged me to try becoming an artist.

At that point in time, it was several years since I last drew anything, and I'd long given up on pursuing art as a hobby. I was full of doubts and I vaguely remember turning down that friend's encouragement with logical arguments that I didn't have the skills to contend with artists on Patreon at that time. I turned down the encouragement but accepted the gift, and during one of my whims, I took it out and started to draw one day. I still remember the first piece I drew with that tablet was a fanart of Julianne Stingray from VA-11Hall-A. I had to look that up on Google because I forgot her name. You can find that very artwork on this post from years ago.   

https://www.patreon.com/posts/art-from-past-va-31377793?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

That was my first artwork as FoxyRain (Yup, this was my OG artist handle before I changed it to FoxyReine and later just Reine). I slowly cut ties with that tile company soon after that and actively sought out art commission opportunities. It was pretty rough, I didn't have a portfolio or anything, so finding clients meant I'd spend a lot of time surfing through to see if anyone was searching for artists to commission. I think the first places I had some luck finding clients was in MMO communities, especially ones like FFXIV where players spend so much dedication on their well-customized characters. It was the beginning chapter of my life as a freelance artist, I started out by drawing a lot of Original Characters mostly for FFXIV or WoW players.

I was traveling through Vietnam at the time and it was around this time when I received a notification from Patreon that they would be closing applications for Founders accounts and for whatever reason, I had a change of heart to try and become a Patreon artist. I still had very little confidence at the time but thanks to all the friends I made through commission works showering me with encouragement, I decided to go for it.

So that's pretty much how I started my first steps as a freelance artist and how I started Patreon. If you scroll all the way down to 2019, you can find the first artworks I started to draw for art commissions at the time. It's not a terribly exciting story, which is why I didn't really tell anyone about it before but it's a story with a lot of memories for me. I hope you guys enjoyed the story time, Next I'll be updating you guys with my blogs here during my visit to Korea.