Announcement Regarding Fanart Vote Picture Exclusivity (Patreon)

Hi all! I want to talk a little about something that's been weighing on my mind and my plan to address it. 

Thanks to your support we've been able to churn out a bunch of fanart votes in what still feels like such a short time. It's a lot of fun and something I don't plan on stopping anytime soon, however I do want to make a slight change.
With the amount of now-exclusive pictures attached to the Patreon, from the outside it's looking more like a glorified “paid picture set” rather than a page about supporting the artist. This is reflected in the amount of people I see join up only to leave again quickly, selecting “I only intended to pledge for a limited time” as their multiple-choice 'leaving survey' option. I didn't really intend for this page to end up just being a fancy storefront (though admittedly I will be using it that way for Escapades issues, but that's a different matter :p ).

Speaking of which, I've noticed – and you've probably seen this yourself too – that when other artists talk about setting up a Patreon, the first thing they say is “don't worry, I won't lock pictures away behind an exclusive paywall”. It's a bit of a shame that I had to do the opposite, but at the time of launching this page I was scared that I wouldn't be able to pay my bills otherwise. Considering the general attitude (that I even agree with) that not locking stuff away is the best, most moral way to run a Patreon, sometimes I worry that perhaps even some of you guys may resent that I kind of forced your hand with regards to signing up.

Now that it's been a good few months, we've hit some milestone figures and I'm now on the path to clearing the overdraft and credit card debts that built up during the months where I was still below the “bills all paid” milestone, I think it's an appropriate time to loosen up a little with the following change:

In June I intend to post December's vote results (Korra/Elizabeth/Mummies) to DeviantArt. They'll be posted at a lower resolution and have a Patreon watermark on, plus I will stagger out the posts so that there's still a nice gap (Jan's pics in July, Feb in Aug, etc). I think this gets us all the best of both worlds: Patrons still get the superior version of content months before the public, and my fans who can't afford to support me financially don't get left out in the cold. Ideally, it means that my supporters here on Patreon will be here because you really *want* to be, not because there was just no other way to see my pictures.

I wanted to let you know about this now so that it doesn't come as a surprise next month. If this will affect your patronage, I understand and hope you still continue to be a fan over at DeviantArt!