The Future of this Patreon (Patreon)

Hello everyone, this sure has been a year.

As you all have certainly noticed, I've had this Patreon paused for the majority of the year. I did this because I couldn't keep up with the heavy demand of the Patreon Sketches. There just came a point where I had so much of a backlog that I'd never get a set done before having to except more, which lead to debilitating wait-times. I also couldn't keep up with the workload of making both Patreon Sketches and main-line commissions at the same time. So I kept the account paused to catch up on them. Now it's November, I finished all of the sketches in October, and now I'm sure you're all curious as to when I'll reopen. I said in a previous post that I'll reopen next year but I want to establish now that there will be some changes for when I get back.

Now, Patreon Sketches are a bit of a concern. Before I continue, I just want to let you all know that I'm incredibly thankful to all of you who ever pledged and asked for Patreon sketches. I don't mean to guilt trip you or make it seem as if you were all torturing me. It was my fault for underestimating people's interest in my art. When I started doing them, I only had a couple of Patrons so it was easy to manage. But as my Patreon grew and grew, the workload became intense and started to interfere with production on my main commissions. At some point, I created a new $15 tier for Patreon Sketches called Sketch Pages (the ones with 5 drawings in one pic). I thought, because of the high price, there wouldn't be as many people pledging at that tier. But in actuality, Sketch pages became the most popular tier and everyone wanted them. The big problem was that they were also the most time-consuming pieces to draw, and they played a large part in why it took so long to complete the last batch.

I was debating with myself for the last couple of months on whether or not I should limit the number of patrons for certain tiers. At the most extreme, I considered limiting them to 2 for monochrome sketches, 5 for color sketches, and 3 for sketch pages. I've decided against this, luckily, and instead decided on raising the prices for the different tiers. Now, if you're someone who has seen the Gerkk commission info page, I should inform you that that page is currently out of date and will have its prices updated soon. I mention this because it's relevant to this topic. On my comm page, it says that Mono Sketches are $5, Color Sketches are $10, and Sketch Pages are $25. These prices aren't the current prices I'm using for these tiers. The current prices, as well as the prices that I'll be using when I reopen my Patreon are as follows:

• Mono Sketch = $10
• Color Sketch = $20
• Sketch Page = $45

Now some of you might feel like these prices are a bit high and that's sort of the point. I need to have less people requesting for drawings while still being able to make a decent profit off my art. And now that my regular commissions are always closed, the discount meant to incentivize people to pledge is kind of unnecessary. Most people who pledge, only pledge for a month anyway so I don't imagine much will change. Apologies to people who pledged with the expectation of getting pics at a super small price.

I'm sorry if this sounds like terrible news to everyone. I've thought about this a lot and this seems like the best choice for me and everyone. I considered doing Patreon exclusive art but I don't really want to pay-wall my content. So please, if you're not interested in these prices, cancel now. It won't hurt my feelings at all, I know this is a lot to take. Thank you for your support through the many months of this Patreon.