Something Wicked This Way Comes... (Patreon)

Happy September, y'all.

I hope you're ready because Autumn is upon us. You may have noticed some changes to the decor of the patreon, as well as the discord. Yes, I am one of those people. I love this time of year so I can't help it. All that said, let's get into the nitty gritty of these announcements, before the monsters get us...

Alright, well, first of all, if your thing isn't Spooky Season exactly, or maybe it is and you think it's way too early for that--have no fear, because September's menu is only slightly Spooky Adjacent. First let's talk polls. As you all know, I've been pretty consistently putting up at least one poll per month, sometimes two if possible. Now, I'm a little behind, because in case you hadn't heard, I was incredibly sick this past week when I was meant to get the majority of my poll work done. But I'm back on the horse and I don't anticipate Robert, Zoro and Iwai taking too long to come to our doorstep.

But it definitely has brought to mind that perhaps the way I am doing the polls is not optimal for managing a schedule, and since this is my primary job I'd be doing myself a disservice to not give myself a shot at a normal schedule.

What's New With Polls?

Going forward, polls will be at the beginning of the month, even if there are outstanding projects on the go. Try and think of it this way: If I know ahead of time what I'll be drawing, who I'll be drawing, and how complicated a piece I'll be drawing, then it makes it a lot easier for me to schedule the proper time to get things like pre-exiting projects done so I can get to work.

It also means (and I'm hopeful this is true) that I can possibly do more work. I'd really like to continue trying to do twitter/bluesky specials, like the Iwai piece I'll be currently working on. So I'd like to do a regular poll like we usually do, wherein there are three winners, along with a poll that will only have one winner for the purposes of being seen by everyone but chosen by my patrons. Does that sound fair? I know it's mixing things up a bit. And I don't want you to think I won't do surprise polls now and then--but this way, if I do a poll midway through the month, that's a good sign because it means I've got time and work to spare. So let's do our best together to see if this project works, so we can collaborate on some killer stuff, yeah?

The other thing I wanted to mention was that I'm making a change to how suggestions and polls work overall. This first part will be specific to those who can make poll suggestions (matchbox tiers and up). Beforehand, I allotted quite a lot of time to make suggestions. But I find sometimes what happens is people suggest things because they just want to use their ability to suggest (absolutely fair btw, that is your perk and you can absolutely do that if you want). But sometimes that can bloat the polls and we end up with a lot of empty polls. So I want to shorten the window it takes to make suggestions, and give a scheduled time I'll be taking those suggestions. That way you can have a think on it, and then suggest--and if you see someone else has suggested what you want, you can even abstain if you like. Polls will have a minimum of 4 choices to vote from, and if for whatever reason this new system leads to less than 4 suggestions being picked, I will fill the other spots myself.

The polls will also have a smaller window of voting time. I'll make sure to notify people when the polls will go up of course. But suggestion windows would likely be 5 hour intervals, and polls will be 24 hour windows. Again, this is so that I can actually figure out what I'm doing, because I can't stress enough how difficult it can be to scramble to do a picture once a poll is done.

So what polls CAN we expect then?

Well, as I mentioned before, September will be an "easing in" to Spooky season. For our 3 tier poll competition, we will be doing a poll based on the characters from "All Saints Street", as they are monster and supernatural themed. Because of the small cast, the poll is already pre-made. The poll will be going up September 2nd at 6AM EST and will end September 3rd 6AM EST.

As for those eligible to suggest, your time will shine as well. The second poll, which will have only one victor and be intended for the rest of the world outside of the patron to see, will be a Villain themed poll. You will be able to cast your votes for which villain you'd love to see giant sized! No reformed villains please (unless it's a situation like--they turned good at the last minute before their death blah blah blah blah). I will be opening suggestions for the villain poll both on Patreon and discord September 4th at 12PM EST.

Other than that, things are going smoothly. I am a little behind on some of my work because that illness really hit me hard (harder than COVID actually, if that's any indication). But I'm actually pretty confident in my abilities to get back on the horse relatively quickly, and it's important to me that I start this schedule of polls-at-the-beginning-of-the-month ASAP, so that I am not forever trying to catch up with myself. I'd rather have a bit of a stack right now, so I can have a smaller stack later on. But that said, please be patient with me as I try and preserve my mental and physical well being, and work at a reasonable pace. Just know I will always deliver!

Other than that, thank you for being here. You mean the world to me. Please remember to drink water. Take care of yourself! Flu season is coming. A new COVID variant is here too so, y'know, be careful. And eat fruit. Lots of love.

xR♡

P.S: If you for whatever reason are unable to vote or suggest at the times those things happen, just get in touch with me ASAP and we will work something out.