October Update - Life, Work, and Patreon (Patreon)

This art is just a doodle for my buddy Skott, of his troodon character Ttoks! I was testing out some new brushes.

Life

September hit me like a truck!

Pretty much immediately after Skott left, Namiin and I had some personal issues knock the wind out of our sails. We fell out of our schedule and good eating habits, pulled away from friends and some hobbies (and spent too much time on other hobbies, whoops), and just... haven't been feeling well in general. Slumps like this remind me of how important it is to take care of myself, if only because this comparative trog through the mud where you're trying to get back on the wagon sucks, haha.

But it's also important because, the healthier I can be, the better equipped I am to do what I love - to draw and create, and share those things with all of you. It's just so much harder to do anything when you feel like crap.

But, I want to focus on positive things. Today we went out on our first walk on a while, and the weather is starting to change! I can't wait until we're walking every day again; our local cemetery should be beautiful when more leaves fall, and when the snow hits.

I've also been looking at art with a fresh eye. Revisiting the fundamentals, watching a lot of videos, listening to the words of artists I admire... It's really reigniting that passion. I've done some studies and taken notes, and while it's embarrassing to think about sharing that on Patreon, I'm going to try and push past those nerves and do exactly that! Maybe it'll be interesting for others, plus, I'm just happy that I finally committed to doing this, after saying I would for years and not actually doing anything. It just feels super good to be learning :)

Work

I'm starting to make headway on commissions. Things are still going slow, but I no longer feel aimless, or like I won't be able to succeed no matter what I do, so I'll take that as a success itself. I feel sure of myself, and way, way less scatterbrained, thanks to my medication.I am so happy I took the step to seek them out.

I think the studying that I've been doing will help a lot when I get to some of the pictures I have coming up, too!

To help Namiin and I get back on track with our queues and in general, we've started streaming on Picarto with Skott again! For now, you can watch us Monday and Friday afternoons.

Finances have been a bit stressful - and, admittedly, that's one of the reasons I've been moving slowly - so at least for the next few weeks, I'm going to take a couple of bust commissions to do in my streams. I learned from last year, though, when they completely overtook my workload, so I've got several things in place to stop that from happening again. They should be a boon, not a burden.

In that same direction, I'm going to pick up some of the print and merch ideas I started earlier this year. I've been very afraid to progress on them... I guess I've been afraid of failure? But I'm tired of letting that rule me.

Next step, finding a daily schedule again, so I can actually get all of these things done!

Patreon

This was the main reason I wanted to make a post, actually!

First off, since I only posted one thing in September, there won't be a monthly round-up PM. Instead, I'll roll that art over into October's round-up, since I'll be posting much more this month.

Second, since I wasn't able to really draw in September, I'm going to skip October's suggestion box. I got a lot of cool suggestionslast month, so I'm going to just go off of that, and hopefully make some cool stuff for all of you! If you want to tack onto last month's, you most certainly can.

That said... I've been kind of unhappy with my Patreon for a bit! Not any of you guys, of course <3 Just the structure, and especially my goals. I sat down this weekend and did a lot of problem-solving, and made good progress towards what I think will be a much better setup.

Here's a couple of things I've been working on:

• Breaking my $500 goal into two goals, one at $400, and one at $600.You get more stuff, and it'll be spread out better.
  
• Restructuring art rewards entirely - even without implementing them, I realized there were some flaws in their design. The new design is more expensive, but I believe it'll be much more satisfying for us both, as a result! I'll be able to offer more of them in the long run, with less hassle.
  
• I'm going to be switching to pay up-front soon. This will give me a little more security, so I'll be posting high res files to the feed right when they're available, rather than making you wait until the following month. I'll still be doing the monthly round-up posts, but I have a better plan for those, as well.

There's some other ideas I'm playing with, but I don't want to put the cart before the horse, haha. I'm super excited about this. As soon as they're more set in stone, I'll make another post about all the changes you can expect.

While I'm here, I also want to say thank you to everyone who's been supporting me over here all this time, especially through this recent stretch of quiet. You all seriously make a difference in Namiin and I's life!

That's all for now! I hope everyone is having a great October, so far ?