Update // Spring has (barely) sprung! (Patreon)

Oh March - blessed month of looming allergies and crippling clock changes - I would believe in your power to curing my seasonal affective disorder if only I wasn’t swaddled in blankets and wearing gloves as I type this update. I feel cheated out of my god-given right to complain about how unseasonably warm it is for this time of year.

Anyways, to spare my frostbitten fingers as well as your dwindling attention after the two behemoths I put out last month, I shall try to keep this update short and sweet.

Huh, dejavú. It’s almost like I’ve said this in every update for the last 6 years…

Personal updates

While I usually include the Diary of Ony Jones as the footnote, there are a few things here that will be relevant for what follows.

First, as I anticipated way back in October, I’ve been hired to work on a big NDA project with extremely tight deadlines. Without giving much away, I have to deliver something in the region of 20 pages of lineart by March 23rd, and then again by the end of May.

As you can imagine, this needs to be treated as a priority and so it’ll occupy the lion’s share of my time - particularly before that first deadline.

To top that off, I was finally contacted for a surgery that I’ve been on an 8 year waitlist for and of course the date for that is the 17th of March. While it’s technically a minor surgery, I’ve been told the recovery period could be anywhere between a week and a month.

Both of these things combined are adding a lot of pressure onto my already packed schedule, and although I am making efforts to balance it out and look after myself, it’s very likely that there will be additional delays with current rewards/comms. Your patience will be extremely appreciated at this time.

Rewards: Illustrated and Merchandise

The launch of the new system last month was a success! Barring a few minor bugs, it was all smooth sailing from point to point, so thank you so much for bearing with us throughout the process.

Given all the fanfare, we predictably had a lot of applications put in. Those who were successful will have been notified by now. Those who were not will have had their points restored to their account to try in a future opening (with added priority for having applied previously)

Because of the situations mentioned in the section above, please note that illustrated rewards will not be available in March. While I aim to open them back up by April, this will need to be reviewed at the end of this month based on how the NDA has gone, as well as my recovery.

To make up for that I have made some changes to the Merchandise rewards:

1- The cost of all print bundles has been decreased. This has changed as follows:

• A4 Bundle: 65 > 55 points
• A5 Bundle: 55 > 45points
• Bookmark Bundle: 55 > 45points
• Combo Bundle: 150 > 125 points
• Mega Bundle: 250 > 200 points
• Surprise Bundle: 150 > 125 points

2- New prints have been added! You can now get these prints via the shop:

3- A new Merchandise page has been added to the Patreon Guide. This features all available prints, which should hopefully make it a lot easier to browse, as well as update with new prints regularly.

You can find it here.

There’s also good news on the shipping front: international restrictions have now been lifted! After a few months of being unable to send parcels outside the UK due to issues with our mailing service, we are finally able to resume shipping. To do this, I’m going to enlist help to make sure that those who’ve been waiting a while to get their prints receive them asap so please bear with me a little longer.

General updates

And along with all the above, just a drive-by reminder of the usual routine stuff!

• New month, new art challenge! This month’s theme is “Spring Cleaning”, which gives you the opportunity to dust off that WIP that’s been screaming for your attention since days of pencils past and give it a good old, 2023 glow up. More details in the Discord!
• If you haven’t joined our Discord server, you absolutely should! A reminder that you can do this via patreon.com/settings/apps and connect your account to your discord handle, which should automatically add you in. If you can’t do this for any reason, feel free to DM me for a manual link instead.
• A reminder that the point reset on unpledged accounts will be reinstated in May. This means the following: any account that deleted their pledge from May onwards will have 6 months to repledge and keep their points. Any accounts that go unpledged longer than 6 months will be wiped clean. Additionally, any accounts that have been unpledged for longer than 6 months by May 1st will automatically be reset.

QUICK LINKS:

• Patreon Guide
• StarStickers Guide (please note you must be logged in to access this link)
• Workflow board (all booked rewards and current batch commissions)
• Commission list
• Mentorship calendar

—

And with that, and yet another failure to really keep it anywhere near short and sweet, I depart for the land of the 15 hour shift.

May the month be gentle with you and your sinuses!

Love and antihistamines,

Ony