Happy Anniversary! (Patreon)

Hello patrons!! I hope y'all had some wonderful dog days of summer! <3

tl;dr: Y'all are fantastic!! I've had my Patreon for a year now, and I've achieved most of my original goals with it. I've kicked off year two by setting up a discord channel for us to convene in. Moving into the year, I also aim to bump up my comic output from 2 to 3 pages per month, get back into fully rendered illustrations starting at the rate of once per month, and make good on my promise to do sketches for my $10 patrons.

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As you may or may not know, September marks the one year anniversary for my Patreon page!! What started off as a handful of friends sending their support my way & a couple of monthly illustrations has blown up into a lovely community of people, a comic with (what feels like) a ton of momentum, and something I can actually sustain myself on! I'm honored, and as genuinely grateful as I can be, that you've all helped me facilitate my growth and career as an artist. And that being said, I think I owe y'all a little more in return.

My original goals for this were to allow me to experiment with styles, strengthen my skills as an artist, encourage me to set aside time to draw for myself, and maybe (just maybe) crack open a comic. I don't want to pat myself on the back too much, but I'm totally killin' it. So lets talk about where I can go from here.

Some of the best experiences I've had while using Patreon has been meeting and getting to know all of you!! However, as absolutely lovely as it's been to watch this community grow, it still feels like there hasn't been a centralized place for us too all convene, chat, pass around ideas, etc. So, I went ahead and took advantage of Patreon's integration with Discord and set up a server! They've made it remarkably easy to set up different channels and roles that correspond to your Patreon tiers, which would make posting WIP's, high-res files, etc. waaaaay easier on me. Additionally, it allows for a much-needed suggestion box!!

That is my most initial & easily achievable goal for this month, but I also want to really hone in on getting the gears in this Patreon turning as smoothly as possible, and giving you all the content you deserve. For the comic, I now feel measurably more comfortable with the entire process, and I've found I can take a page from thumbnailing to completion in about 2 days. This makes me confident that I can bump up my monthly amount of pages from 2 to 3! I've also had more than a few pin-up and illustration ideas that I've been dying to get out, and with commissions being as steady as they are and Patreon covering a good chunk of my bills, I can comfortably set aside the time to create them without it being a financial detriment!

I've also had "bonus sketches for patrons" listed as a reward in my $10+ tier for a good few months, but I've yet to actually start up production on them. I've been fretting far too much exactly how the process would work, and consequently putting it off. Like I did when I started Patreon, I think it might be best to just wing it and figure out the exact details of the process later on. All I know is that the Discord server will be integral in communicating with my $10+ patrons about it!!

Thank you so much for helping me get this far!! Here's to another good year! ❤️