Commissions and Projects Update (Patreon)

Edit: I realize this post made it seem like I'm taking time off in May. I'm not taking off! I'll still be posting every day and working on stuff. Just not taking commissions. :>

I've had a lot of folks asking about May commissions so I wanted to give everyone an update.

This has been such a weird time for everyone because of the Coronavirus and that's been impacting my business as well. I was concerned I wouldn't have enough work for April, so I overbooked myself. This meant I had almost no time to work on other projects, including the usual Patreon stuff I promised like the comic. And in turn, this made it difficult to focus on doing non-art-related things when I should've been taking a break too.

I still have a full week of April commissions that I need to finish up next week, so I'll be taking care of those. Normally I'd be booking comms for May this weekend, but I still have those from April to finish up and I already know I want to take at least one more full week to work on other projects. So it's looking like May comms are going to be pushed back to June probably.

Something I've been working towards for a while now is to have enough passive income (such as Patreon) to support myself so I can continue to work on the projects I'm most interested in. It's a weird balancing act because in order to grow that income, I need to spend time on things, but I don't actually see the results of those projects for months down the road, and in the meantime still have to pay my bills. And obviously the virus just made that even more difficult.

I'm still trying to figure out how much time I should spend on commissions and how much time I can put aside for projects like the comic (and the other half-dozen ideas I have which could help support me).

There's no particularly good time to take a risk like this, so I might as well do it now when I need the mental boost of my own projects. I'm going to skip taking commissions for May (other than what I currently owe) and just see what I can get done the rest of the month for myself. April was pretty rough for me artistically, so focusing on my own stuff instead will help a lot.

When I do open for comms, I'm also going to start a form system like a lot of other artists use. I like the direct contact with fans via email, but I think using a form will help fix some problems I've had managing volume and information. Since I'll likely be taking fewer commissions each month too, I think it'll help a lot in managing the requests.

If you were hoping to get a commission for May, please consider saving up for June instead! That would definitely help me out a lot, especially with how things are going right now.

Thanks!