I'm Pausing my Patreon on January 7th (Patreon)

Hey guys, don't freak out! I'll be pausing my patreon subscription system indefinitely until a given time in the future. Don't worry about me, I won't be going anywhere, I'll still be active on my discord server and will still be reachable on all my socials.

The reason for this sudden pause even though Rowdy Rascals JUST launched seems really awkward but it's not born out of burnout. I'm pausing the subscription for a couple of reasons

1) Rowdy Rascals' identity is not set in stone yet.

The biggest issue with Rowdy Rascals or "RR" (will be used as an abbreviation for Rowdy Rascals moving forward) is that it was made up almost too quickly out of nothing. I had to come up with RR super quickly after burning out from Little Lads and doing commissions to stay afloat. There wasn't enough time to sit down and really think through where RR is headed in the future. Sure, I have the plot for the first episode ready for the main cast of RR but I'd like to create a compelling story for Renee, Robbie, and Helen, as well! And as of right now, I still dunno what they're gonna do in the first episode.

Not to mention, RR started as a silly idea of a bunch of little anti-heroes supervillains that always have their evil plans foiled because they're inept villains. But it evolved to become a dark humor story featuring multiple characters even outside of the main RR casts. And recently I've been thinking about making each Rascals have their own genre of storytelling (Rudy: Sci-Fi, Zeke: Supernatural/Horror, Luke&Levi: Mafia/Crime/Thriller, Alex: Fantasy) and I know it's silly but I think it'd be cool that all their stories are happening without the others knowing about it.

All in all, Rowdy Rascals needs some time in the oven. LET THEM COOK! But one thing for certain, whichever way Rowdy Rascals go in the future, I want them to remain as mostly a dark humor series.

2) My boothing experience

If you've been active in my discord server, you'll notice how much I've been talking about helping out a friend do convention boothing. And for the longest time, I don't see it as a profitable venture unless you're an OMEGA famous artist or has godlike art skills. But recently, at the most recent ACG event that I was boothing at, I saw something that opened my eyes. (You can scroll up in the discord server main chat channel and see a video I posted of my latest merch purchase at the event). 

The artist had created a truly awesome interactive merchandise that evokes a strong emotion and made me pull out my wallet so fast I didn't even ask them how much the merch was. (granted it was fairly priced but even if it was priced higher, I still would've bought it without missing a beat just because I didn't wanna miss out on getting this merch cause of the novelty of it.) This made me realize that there is more to boothing than just having a pretty artstyle or have the same kind of merch offering as other boothers but with a different fandom skin put on it. Not to mention, creating these sort of novelty merch use a different kind of creative energy that is VERY fulfilling to brainstorm.

3) Fulfilling my obligations as a Patreon content creator is DRAINING

Yeah, I know, it's a JOB. Nothing about any job is all sunshine and rainbows. And I'm not complaining, I do LOVE this job. You guys are the reason I'm not penny poor. But Idk if it's just me or if this happens to other Patreon-based content creators; I have an exceedingly strong sense of the value of things. I have never thought for once that what I'm providing to you guys, is ever enough for the amount that you are pledging to me. For about $10 a month, you could subscribe to Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime and get an infinite array of shows to watch. Or you could read a minimum of 4 exclusive comic pages and sometimes watch me livestream myself drawing them. As a consumer myself, I find it hard to grasp the value that I'm providing is equal to other things you could get for the same amount of money.

Even worse, having to ALWAYS make content weekly to fulfill the rewards for each subscription tier is a LOT OF PRESSURE. If I miss out on sending out a weekly subscription reward, I feel like I've failed to provide the value that you came to me for. (which is valid, of course.) And this time constrained pressure of delivering weekly forces me to do artwork that sometimes I'm not happy with just because I have to post something that week. (It's what led me to burn out on Little Lads in the first place)

Now we come back here to me talking about what's gonna happen now. I'll pause the subscription indefinitely on January 7th which means you guys won't be charged starting then on. But that also means I will lose my main source of income. Don't fret, I have an emergency saving that'll probably last me for almost a year if I'm being really conservative with my spending. I'll go back to doing commissions as my main source of income for the next few months but I'll have to raise my art commission rates. (Ya'll keep telling me that I'm undercharging and giving me crazy amount of tips to compensate for it.) (The commission is only open to people on my discord so do join them!) The art commission rate will increase after the current commission queue is finished. And during these time, I'll be making my merch to sell at ACG events as my secondary source of income and once I'm ready to start Rowdy Rascals comics again, I'll open up this patreon account again.

Finally, I've set up a ko-fi account for anyone that still wanna support me even though I won't be providing any reward there.

https://ko-fi.com/ottykun 

You guys are just too kind and I can never thank you enough for all that you've done for me. 

Without you, this otty is just potty.