IMPORTANT - Change of Plans (Patreon)

EDIT 1/30/24:
It looks like my doctor's office are absolute angels, and willing to provide me with 3 more months of trial pills so I don't have to rush and worry about being hired by March (although I'm still trying, just worried about being turned down due to that family trip at the end of Feb). 

This has taken a lot of stress off my mind, since some jobs will not offer you coverage until after 60 days or so of working, but now as long as I get health coverage by May I'll be able to stay on my same medication (hopefully... unless insurance doesn't want to cover it for some reason but thats... a hurdle when we get there :') we love american healthcare wooo....)

But we are eagerly awaiting responses from 5-6 applications this week! 🙏

As for Patreon- it looks like you guys mostly want me to leave it open, you stinky devils 😭💕

I appreciate those wanting to support me financially, and I hope you never EVER feel obligated to do so! I know before the plans changed, I was going to leave Legacy tiers in place so those patrons would always have full access to content at the same price... well since we kind of have to re-write all the tiers as "donation only", I'll definitely write in as well that these new tiers will remain legacy/full-access when the eventual switch back to full-time art, or at least regular content production is back again <3

So for now: All tiers will be replaced/re-written to clearly state they are DONATIONS! I'll publicly release these on Feb 1st, and after this point, whatever content I happen to post, whenever I post it... is what you get! I will not be guaranteeing regular content (ie: some months you might see nothing, or 1 post), although I imagine I will still be posting things since I still have plenty of work to do 😂

Thank you again for being so kind and encouraging me to pursue my art! 🥰

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ORIGINAL POST 1/26/24:

TLDR (SUMMARY) AT THE BOTTOM <3

Hello everyone!  
I do come today with a bit of good and bad news, as I found out something slightly unexpected recently. I'm very fortunate that ever since graduating uni and doing my freelance work full-time, my parents have allowed me to stay on their health insurance. At first we weren't sure if I would be cutoff at the beginning of this year, or after I turn 26 in June. I finally got some time to visit and talk with them again, and they told me that I am currently not covered by insurance :')

So due to this I need to make the hard choice of applying for a local full-time position. I've thought on and off about taking at least part time somewhere due to the fact that some months are harder than others, and I'm really not saving at all with my current rate. Student loans are looming over my head and only gaining interest, so quite honestly this decision is overdue... its just been hard for me to accept and make that jump.

Of course I'm sad, I love working from home full time (who doesn't) but I'm also excited for the positives: stable income, health insurance, and getting more activity again since I struggle to make myself do it 😅  

And most importantly to me- the fact that I can focus on finishing the backlog in my queue without worrying about adding to it ♥

I'm trying to find something before the end of March since I need to be covered before my medication runs out. But until then I'll be working away as much as possible! Thankfully I've just completed one of the more difficult pieces on the backlog, so that's positive. There's a lot more to go, but hopefully this is at least proof that I'm making progress as I can <3

The bad news here is, of course I will have less time for art overall, and I won't be accepting any new work for... a good while. I might have to take on a few more sketches to cover the gap until I start working, but after this it will be a bit. I'm not sure how long, but at least a few months if I had to guess. Definitely planning to come back to full time when I get my feet on the ground better, but in the meantime I would like to ask what to do:

Due to this change, I feel like trying to keep Patreon up would be a bit overwhelming to say the least. My initial reaction is to just set an alarm for myself to keep it on pause every month until I have time again. Alternatively I can just delay the release of new tiers, and leave it active with the understanding that it would mostly serve as a donation page, and content will be few and far between. But I still have guilt over people giving me money with a lack of content....? So let me know how you guys feel in the poll below!

Ko-fi memberships will definitely be closed on the other hand, as most of my subscriptions are here anyways.

Again- this is not the end of course! Only a temporary solution for me to pay off debts and save money. It's also likely I'll still be posting things like personal or fanart to my socials, as I do have a goal of growth on my page 🙏 And maybe I can do more raffles too! 🥰

If I don't get a lot of feedback on this, my default plan is to keep Patreon on pause until I figure out what my schedule looks like. (At least until the end of March or April). After then I may revisit the choice to open again <3

TLDR:

• I am looking for a new full-time job to cover my lack of insurance

------Pros: I can comfortably live (yay) and I can finish the queue in my free time while not adding to it <3

------Cons: No more commissions or other work until I am caught up (Could be months), new tier plan for Patreon needs to be put on hold for now

• Patreon page will either be kept on pause indefinitely (until I feel l am ready to produce content again) 
• OR 

Patreon will be left open with the clear understanding that it is acting as a DONATION page and content will not be guaranteed

EDIT: It looks like there is also an option to "Unpublish" my page on Patreon, here are the exact terms:
Members will not be able to access your creator page and member billing will be suspended. If you are using commerce, any customers who have bought items from your shop will keep access to their purchases, but your shop and products will otherwise no longer be visible. We'll keep your creator page content and member information, including pledges, for when you decide to launch your page at a later date. If your waitlist was on before your page was published, it will turn back on again.

I may decide to do this if the response to keeping it on manual pause is negative <3