September Update - IMPORTANT Information Regarding Rewards & More (Patreon)

Hello all, and happy 1st of the month! As summer winds down into fall, and the seasons change again, it's time to talk about where things will go from here. 

First of all, if you're reading this, I want to say thank you - my Patreon has officially been active for nearly six months now. I wouldn't have in my wildest dreams been able to successfully set up something like this without your support. My patrons and customers are what makes it possible for me to do this as a living means of income, and I cannot possibly begin to describe how grateful I am.

If you're a patron (which you are, if you're reading this), and you've been in my Telegram group, then you're acutely aware that I have had some rough real-life issues going on lately, the biggest of all being a change in medication I am currently taking. It has left me in a brain fog that has been seriously hard to shake, and has made it difficult for me to stay as productive as I'd like to be. It's been difficult for me to find motivation some days. I am hoping, with some changes that have been implemented this last week, that this will calm down and I can finally start feeling like myself again. I apologize if I've left any messages unread or have taken a bit longer on owed artwork than usual, but I am confident things will improve sooner than later.

The last couple of months, behind the scenes, I have been working on a rather large comic commission for a strictly private paid piece, and it has truthfully drained me and set things back a bit for my other artwork. Although I am very grateful for the opportunity to work on such a large and intricate project, I believe I have bitten off more than I can chew, and taking it on has given me an idea of how much I can handle at once. Learning your own limits through experience is often the only way to do so. As we swing into the first week of September, I will be focusing all of my energy on completing this project so that I can dedicate my time to future projects along with more content for my patrons to enjoy.

As I feel being honest is the best policy, I must be completely transparent when I say that I have felt a bit burnt-out on artwork lately. This was something I had felt incredibly guilty over until a few nights ago when I sat down and looked through my gallery and realized I have released over five pages worth of content in the last seven months. That is a crazy amount of productivity for me. If you were a customer of mine any time before 2022, you know I used to be a rather slow-moving artist. For me, this was some incredibly positive evidence that my semi-new living situation has absolutely helped my mental state and I couldn't be prouder of myself for where I am at right now compared to where I was last year at this time. I could not do it without your support, and I want to again take a moment to thank you for that yet again. 

With all of that out of the way, I'd like to talk about some changes that I will be implementing both to my Patreon and to FA and my general commissions as of today. I feel as though they will greatly increase my productivity and help me to feel less overwhelmed in what I am doing, therefore helping me to find a more comfortable pace to create at, all while giving you guys something to look forward to every month.

CHANGES TO PATRON REWARDS

Effective immediately as of 9/1/22, my characters will no longer be free to add to rewards. Although this was a very difficult decision to make, as I know that you guys really enjoy getting to add them in (and I definitely love getting the opportunity to draw them with your own lovely OCs), I realized that it is just honestly not viable for me to realistically continue to do both time-wise and financially if I am to continue to push out content at a desirable rate and have rewards ready on-time by end of month.

Tier III and IV rewards are now single-character. If you would like to add one of my characters, it would be a $20 cost for Tier III and $30 for Tier IV. 

CHANGES TO FLASH FRIDAY/SAME-DAY SKETCHES

Since February of this year, I have offered 'Flash Friday' sketches nearly every Friday (and some weekdays!) over on FA. While this has been massively successful source of quick cash when needed, and definitely a fun opportunity for me to draw many wonderful characters for even more wonderful people, I can no longer deny the anxiety that finishing a piece of this quality within such a short timeframe has been giving me lately. I initially changed the same-day window to a 24-hour window, to give myself a little bit of leeway, but that has not helped as much as I'd have liked it. 

As a result of this, Flash Friday sketches are rebranding to Weekend Wing-Its! They will open each Friday morning, and will be completed over the course of the weekend and guaranteed finished by Sunday evening. This will allow me to work on them at a much more realistic and time-friendly pace while still giving my clients the chance to have some nice artwork for a quick turnaround time. Prices will also be changing as well - they will cost $45 for a single character, and $85 for two characters, with two characters as the maximum. Adding one of my characters will remove $10 from this, so the total (if you got a double, for example, with one of my OCs) would be $75. This will go into effect tomorrow, 9/2/22, when they open up.

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT POLLS 

Something I have wanted to do since I launched Patreon back in April is creating content that is exclusively for patron's eyes only. Let's talk about it!

Each month, on the first Friday of the month, I will host a poll with four characters that I would like to draw. These will likely be characters from franchises that you're familiar with, such as Disney or Dreamworks, and definitely all furry! My patrons will be able to vote on which exclusive they would like to see, and by the end of the month I will have a full flat-colored piece to show of that character! I thought this would be a fun way to bring me out of my comfort zone with drawing different characters from different genres of media, while still giving you guys some fun exclusive content just for you to enjoy. Be on the lookout for this in the poll tomorrow!

I am going to give this a test run for September to see if I enjoy doing it, and if I do, it will remain a permanent perk. 

In conclusion...

Next week, I will likely be a little quiet; I would like to focus my energy on completing this comic that has been in the works so that it can be done and I can bring my attention back to my patrons and regular clients. After that, things will proceed as-normal. In the meantime you are always welcome to reach out to me here or through Telegram if you need anything at all. The week after, I will be working on the quarterly piece, and that will be finished this-month. 

If you've managed to read this far, then I must again thank you, despite it being repetitive. I am so grateful to have the support of wonderful people like you who enjoy what I create, and I hope that this update brought some excitement on for what is to come from here. I look forward to fall with you guys!

Note: If you are not satisfied with the change in rewards that was declared today, please let me know immediately and I will refund you if you no longer wish to remain a supporter. No hard feelings necessary, I understand and will not hold it against you. I thank you for your patronage and tremendous support thus far ❤️