Late Posting - Switching up my schedule (Patreon)

For the past few months I've been behind on managing this Patreon campaign and now I'm later than I've ever been in terms of posting new art and rewards. What's weird to me is that the latest paintings have finished on schedule, but the posts about them have been late. Last month's painting was completed a week ago and I've yet to post the first work in progress for it. 

I've been thinking a lot about why my art and posting haven't been lining up and I wanted to share my thoughts.

The entire time I've been working on Angelarium I've been balancing between different responsibilities. Art, marketing, sales, customer service, shipping, etc. Patreon has been a core part of that since you guys have basically been paying my salary for the past 6-7 years. Patreon has set a regular pace for my release schedule and everything else has revolved around its cadence. For years, that has worked out excellently. But over time, it's become less and less effective. There have been fewer and fewer aspects of my business that operate on a monthly schedule and the difference in pace has tugged on them in uncomfortable ways.

Throughout 2021, I've actually been producing more paintings than any time in the past 5 years. But looking at my usual outlets, you wouldn't know it. Many of them are either locked up to be released as a set or wrapped up in commitments I've made as parts of collaborative projects.

The problem with my monthly release schedule is not that I'm unable to keep up with it, it's that it has not matched the pace I've been creating art. For instance, I've been toying with the idea of doing a tarot series, but I don't know how to schedule it. If I commit to one card per month, the project will drag too long. But if I commit to more than that, I run the risk of being over-committed when new opportunities or challenges arise.

In the past month, I had to move my shipping business out of the warehouse I was using for the past 2 years. Having to relocate a key part of my business while also committing to a large amount of art is not something I would have been able to accomplish. However, there are months this year where I finished 6-7 paintings in a single month.

I don't want to change much about how things are, and I don't need to change anything about the billing structure. I just want to relax some of the more arbitrary limitations I've put on myself. The only change I'm considering is dropping a commitment to complete a specific number of paintings on each calendar month. That means there might be months where I post multiple works in progress for big paintings, but don't finish anything. There might be months where I finish 10 smaller works. The end result will hopefully be a sharp increase in the amount of art getting posted here.

I want to try this new approach out starting right away. There is a set of 20 smaller works I intend to complete in the next 30 days. 5 of them are already in various stages of completion. I'll be posting those as they happen. 

I also have a work in progress for a new Archangel painting that I've been sitting on for about 4 months now. The plan was to hold off on working on the Archangels until I had a clear 6 months of open space in my schedule, but it's obvious that no such time will ever arrive. Instead, I'll post works in progress as they happen without committing to finishing them until they are ready to be completed.

If this plan sucks, I'll switch back. I just feel like I need to chase the muse where it is instead of digging in my heels and expecting it to come to me.

Lots of art incoming immediately.

As always, let me know what you think in the comments!

Much love,

-Pete