Happy Thanksgiving! (Important Blog) (Patreon)

Happy Turkey Day everyone! Hope it has or will be a wonderful day for you guys. I sort of just wanted to make this post to thank everyone who was or has supported my art these last two years. I never imagined getting this far in the admittedly short time I've been apart of the portal. Seeing all the positive comments on my gallery and in the discord really makes my day!

I'm also thankful for the new friends I've made within this community. These friendships have gone beyond just liking people filled tums and it's great to have new faces to chat with on the daily :)

----------- Important/Serious Stuff -------------

And on a final note, I just wanted to make a statement while I'm here, mostly in relation to my current backlog. Simply put,  It's pretty damn long at the moment. 

Here are the current projects I have on my to-do list: Cerberus Comic, Priestess Animation, Ann/Kawakami Animation, Juniper/Fennel Comic, Midna Sequence, Witch Mercy/Dva Animation (Halloween).  This comes to about 6 pretty large projects. 

Additionally, I have another feature length animation I really want to get to do someday if this backlog ever sees an opening. Ideally having it come out sometime in Q3/4 of next year. I also want to try to assemble a small team to help fill out some parts I'm bad/incapable of doing myself like backgrounds and voice acting. I already have the script written out, it'll just be a matter of having the time to commit to it. 

Now with that all being said, I'm not too stressed out about having the backlog necessarily, I enjoy the prospects of all these projects. I just feel as though I am physically incapable of truly eliminating this backlog with my current workflow. 

I could be finishing these projects faster, but I feel like they wouldn't be at the level of quality I want them to be. I believe I've said this before, but just in case I'll reiterate: I don't ever want to stagnate in quality or feel like my work has become stale. I truly want to continue to improve as an artist and keep raising the bar for myself. I want to be able to keep spending time studying and practicing my art on a mechanical level. This is part of the reason why instead of just pumping out one shot vore pinups of poll winners, I always end up giving them full rendered comics/sequences. I wouldn't feel like I've improved or innovated if I stuck to smaller scale art. As a consequence, however, I now stand toe-to-toe with this huge backlog. 

Reading back on this wall of text, I guess I just want to help people understand that my low quantity of posts isn't because I'm lazy or I hate doing this, it's the opposite. I am passionate about my work, and I just want to make sure every piece I do gets the time and attention it deserves. Unfortunately, a lot of my projects usually go beyond the one month production time due to their scale. And it makes me feel terrible when I can't present a finished product every month despite being on a monthly billing cycle.

It's been almost a year since I've launched this Patreon and there have definitely been a lot of changes/iterations the patron rewards have gone through. It's only now that I've come to the realization that the main issue is the core structure of the rewards system. When making changes or deciding on rewards, I often referenced artists who utilized simpler art styles or did the aforementioned pinups. Which in turn, was a huge mistake.

These types of monthly reward systems just aren't compatible with my workflow or goals as an artist/animator. I like working on larger projects and being able to express my ideas without feeling the need to cut content or rush certain aspects because I'm on a monthly crunch. Doing smaller projects just really isn't for me. (just look at my gallery lol).

My ideal goal for the future of this Patreon is to move away from the monthly poll/reward system and instead focus on garnering support and funding for individual larger projects. (like my animations :D)

Now I don't want to immediately start making executive decisions/changes. I again would like to hear from you guys on the what you think! Thanks to anyone who took the time to read through all of this. -VL :)