About donating Rewards toward more Arven art/personal work (Patreon)

Hello everyone! How are you all? I've been up to a lot recently, especially regarding Patreon. This page has exploded and I'm extremely grateful for all the support you guys are always willing to bring toward me and my craft <3

I love bringing you fresh new artworks every month, and to see everyone's enthusiastic reaction when they receive their piece is the highlight of my month! I also regularly receive many messages from Patrons praising my tight working schedule, and reminding me to take a break from time to time and maybe do some personal work. I'm truly grateful and I agree wholeheartedly that that's extremely important. The problem, unfortunately, is that I don't have enough time to do so.

If you've been around the Patreon a bit, you'll know that it's not unusual for me to work into the late hours of night, sometimes all the way until 3-4am. With a schedule this tight, it's hard to also cut away some time for myself. Some of you were even so kind as to request that your reward be used toward some self care from time to time, as opposed to drawing an artwork for you. I'm extremely flattered and grateful to you looking out for me <3 This is especially addressed to Ultra, who has donated his rewards multiple times toward me getting a free hour to rest, or getting something nice to eat, as well as Retro/BunBun, who has donated rewards in the past toward me resting a bit more. And many many more who offered to do the same. <3 Thank you.

I'm extremely grateful to you for looking out for me, you have helped me so much and I don't know where I'd be without you. And indeed, I'm writing this post by popular demand after quite a few Patrons have suggested / offered this solution before. There are so many things I want to do more of and explore, but sadly don't have much time for. And at the same time, I want to bring you guys much more diverse content, because I feel that what I do for you is not enough.

By opening this small section, I wanted to give the possibility for Patrons from the Azaroo Army ($20) onward, to donate their reward or part thereof, toward me working on more personal art, exploring new media, and bringing you more content.

TL;DR: Yes, if you wish to, you can choose to not request an artwork for a given month, and instead request that I do one of the activities listed below. Keep in mind:

-This is entirely optional. The reason I created this post is because many many people kept suggesting and offering to do this, but if this is of no interest to you, you can continue requesting your rewards as usual and I'll be super excited to draw for you! :D

- I usually work on rewards for a little over one hour every $20: it takes me one hour to complete the $20 sketches, 2 to 2,5 hours to finish the colored halfbodies ($40), 3 to 3,5 hours for the colored sketches ($60), 4 to 5 hours for the halfbodies with background ($80), and so on.

-You can choose to donate your entire reward for that month, or even a part of it, and I will still draw you the difference <3 Eg, suppose you are in the $80 tier and wish for me to use $20 worth of your reward in order to do some personal work. I would be working on personal art for one hour, and you would still receive an artwork valued $60 (eg the fullbody colored sketch). Next month, you will once again receive your usual $80 artwork, unless you choose to donate part of it again.

How it works!

1) Contact me! You can do so either via Patreon messages or on Discord, or in any of the posts where I collect rewards! Let me know how much of your reward you wish to donate, if any, and toward what purpose (see below)!

2) Whatever you end up choosing, I'll be happy to post the piece online once it's finished, and mention you and thank you personally for your kindness. I don't take this lightly, I seriously appreciate you going out of your way for me and I want it to be known <3

3) The artworks that I put out this way are more generic and don't usually involve specific characters, usually just regular generic animals, or characters from my stories etc, which you are welcome to suggest :)

What your donation can go towards <3 (you can choose one of these, or let me choose if preferred!)

-Painting. It's so relaxing and refreshing to me and I'd love to do more of it. I particularly love coffee art, or filling painting sketchbooks, or both. I have many new materials that I'd love to try, such as Liquitex inks, and gouache, that have been sitting in my drawer and I've never got the chance to use yet.

-Wood art, and exploring new materials. I love painting on wood, and in general, on things that aren't strictly paper. Same thing for canvas, which is another support I'd love to practice and use more of <3

-Practicing and studying. I feel that my artwork has been getting stiffer and stale lately. I'd love to do more behind the scenes exercises, sketches and studies on various subjects, such as anatomy, construction, composition, perspective, and more.

-Sculpting. Yes, I love to sculpt too. I purchased a block of clay (the one in the photo) about a year ago to hopefully use on some projects. It's still sealed.

-Animation. Similar to sculpting, it's another activity I love to do a lot of, that also requires so much time I don't have. I especially love creating music animatics, I have so many in my mind that I'd love to bring to life, but just don't have the time to.

-Fan art. Also something I'd love to do more of, that I rarely if ever get to do. I'm a big fan of Pokemon, Digimon, The Lion King (and other disney movies), Ghibli, Warrior Cats, Avatar, and countless more franchises. I'd love to draw some of the characters from time to time!

-Designing more merch. I'm always on the lookout for fun new things to offer at conventions and online. I love to design shirts, keychains, stickers, and even come up with more unique items that aren't really found anywhere else (such as the "Hello I am" badges depicted here)!

-New projects and comics. I've been having new ideas for possible new stories for ages now, but could never sit down and actually work on them. I have a possible new comic that I'd love to start developing before Africa ends (there's still time), ideas for more laid back one-off comics, maybe even including the Africa characters (such as spinoffs of certain characters hehe!), and there is always Azarian Stories, who I never want to abandon but which takes up so much time, that I barely have right now.

-Sleeping. That moment when I literally have to get paid to sleep am I right. Currently I run on 5ish hours a night, would love to extend it some more lol. 

-And much more. If you think there's a fun activity I could try, feel free to suggest it!

Whatever you choose to donate toward, I will put your name in my schedule (as I usually do when I work on rewards), and when your turn comes, I'll work on the activity you donated toward, for as many hours as you donated toward. I will then show the finished work online once it is done, and may post wips as well, thanking every single person who made that specific work possible.

Sorry for the long wall of text, and once again thank you for the amazing opportunity that you and every single Patron on here offers me. I wouldn't have made this post if there wasn't demand for it, and that alone is absolutely incredible and so so kind of you. Thank you for always having my back and looking out for me, I want to give back by bringing you and everyone, even more things to enjoy. <3