things (Patreon)

Hey guys. I've been going slightly crazy recently, in attempts to come up with a compromise where my Patreon is still up and running with content, patrons are entertained by the monthly activities, and I'm feeling paid for all the effort I put in.

Let me show you this, it's how we've been doing since relaunch.

December is gonna be around $125. 

That's a rough drop, it's mostly due to the several "big" patrons leaving or lowering their pledge because of their life situations. It's fine. No one owes you anything.

Now we've "regressed" to where we were ~15 months ago. At the same time, currency rates + inflation in my country made it so that I now need 30~40% more than I used to in early 2016. I used to need $300~400 a month, now it's $450~500 to pay for the very basics. I still can't spend on myself.

I'm communicating these numbers with you just to make you aware that Patreon goals that I set and achieved in past, namely, monthly fanarts, aren't paying for themselves anymore. I tried to talk about it before, probably I failed at explaining the core problem, or idek, several patrons got angry, some left. For a few months after that, I've been trying to find an alternative to overall removing the monthly fanarts. I've been trying to draw "smaller" and quicker, but it's neither effective, nor satisfactory. I'm still spending time and effort I could've actually put in something that pays off.

I continued doing the fanarts fearing that I'd disappoint even more of you if I stop. Right now, the most active patron section is $5, what hints at the fanarts being loved by you. I'm having anxiety as I'm writing it, and I'm not expecting everyone to stay or keep their pledge at the same tier, but.

General fanart is going for now. It's yet another compromise and an attempt to take some weight off my shoulders. We'll still have the Wakfu/GW2 fanarts rotating every other month, as I suspect that majority of you belongs to these fandoms, but, starting December, general won't be a thing anymore. So, just one suggestion box/poll per month. I hope you can understand. 

General fanart is now a $200 goal. So, if a wonder happens and new patrons come, it comes back too. I don't know guys. I'm emotionally worn out about Patreon for a long long time, there was a spark of hope when it was above $200 but it quickly dropped down. I'm regularly promoting it on my tumblr, DA and twitter, barely anyone new would join. And the old patrons sneak away. I've been doing my best to fight depression, to keep drawing despite the bad things that happened to me this autumn, still the patron/income decline is happening. I don't know how to stop it and drive back up. I can only do this much. *lays down and sighs*