September Update (Patreon)

Good news first:  there are awesome, honest people who really do support my artwork, and I fucking love you guys.  You give me hope that I can make art a livable profession, and you’re the reason I’m giving this a shot in the first place.  I’m so thankful...I’ve said it dozens of times already, but I really, really am.  (If you haven’t heard about the recent developments in my life, check out this post)

Now for the bad news: some fucking assholes took all the high-res pinups off my Patreon and uploaded them to the free imageboard sites.  

Basically, my Patreon is just a tip jar for people who enjoy my work.  I don’t (and won’t ever) have exclusive, Patreon-only content, because I want everyone to be able to enjoy the art that I work on, not just the people who pay for it.  Literally the only content that I kept just for Patrons were these extra high-res versions of the pinups I was most proud of, as my way of saying, “Thanks for the support.”  

Some people have been scamming the content off my Patreon for quite awhile already.  They pledge the necessary amount ($15), download everything, then immediately cancel their pledge.  I only know about it because I get an email telling me I got a new pledge -- then as soon as I visit my page, I see that it’s gone.  It bums me out, but there isn’t anything I can do about it.  Of course, now they’ve gone one step further and not only scammed the content, but uploaded it elsewhere.  At least that saves other assholes the trouble of stealing it themselves and getting my hopes up for nothing with 5-minute pledges.

Since they’ve already been reposted everywhere anyway, I made all the pinups I have posted here available to everyone, Patron or not.  Sorry to everyone who was kind and honest enough to actually pledge the $15 and also not repost.  I’m not trying to punish you, or throw a fit -- I’m just being realistic about things.  No point in guarding something that’s already been stolen.

There’s only going to be one “reward” from now on (other than the discount on commissions), whether you pledge $1 or $1000 -- a .zip file with all the month’s artwork in it.  I’ll message everyone whose pledge gets processed with a link to the .zip.  Nothing exclusive, nothing fancy, just a convenient way to have all the artwork I’ve done in one place.  Maybe not having rewards will lose me some Patrons, but if you’re only pledging because you want bonus stuff, you’re missing the point.

I’ve seen some people say that Patreon is a big scam, and that artists and other content creators are greedy, entitled assholes for asking for money.  They feel justified for taking content, they feel entitled to it.  To those people, I respectfully say: “Get your head out of your ass.”  All the content you see, whether it’s “free” or not, whether it’s well done or not, was made by someone.  Somebody took time and energy from their limited lifespan to create that song, that piece of art, that story, that movie.  Whether you think they succeeded or not is besides the point -- it still cost them something.  So if they want to be repaid for their effort, how is that greedy?  To me, the real assholes are the ones who think it’s perfectly natural to get something for nothing, who think “give and take” means “you give, and I take.”

It’s as simple as this -- if you think my time, energy, creativity and experience is worth something, pledge your support.  If you enjoy what I have to give and you want to make sure I keep making more, pledge your support.  Don’t pledge if you’re looking for extra special rewards, or to be treated differently than everyone else.  Donate because you care, and you want to see more of the stuff you like.

Thanks again...love ya, everybody.