State of Jackary - A Long Overdue Update and AMA

Hey everyone, I'm sorry for the dead month. I've been meaning to make this post for a while, but — you guessed it — I've been very busy.

But I have some big news about changes in my personal life, which will affect the future of my artwork, and by extension, my Patreon!

And don't worry — for those of you who love my artwork, it's not all doom and gloom! But I hope you'll take the time to read, despite this being a long post!

JACKARY'S GOT A NEW JOB

I've talked in the past about how my finances have been closing in on me for a while, and despite the amazing support from my fans and following, it just wasn't enough to cover the double-whammy of having a baby, and my wife quitting her job in order to take care of her. I needed to find a job, and fast.

Well, I've found one! And even better, it's actually a pretty cool job that I'm really excited about! I'm not quite ready to say who I'm working for — both for the sake of keeping my IRL business separate from my online life, and because I'm not sure the company wants to be publicly affiliated with a NSFW artist — but I will say that I'm officially working in the games industry! I'm NOT doing illustration for them (I'm in writing and marketing), but I'm quite excited!

AN EXPLANATION (AND AN APOLOGY) FOR OCTOBER

I began my job at the very end of September, and it quickly proved to be a demanding gig. I wanted to make sure I was appropriately focused in that crucial first month of employment, and there was also stuff I needed to take care of at home -- much of the month was spent fulfilling two months' worth of Print Club orders, as well as the metric shitload of orders I got from my 50% off sale last month, which left my workspace a complete disaster.

I eventually decided I needed to take October off from art, in order to acclimate to the new job, recalibrate in my personal life, and just take a breather.

I should have been more forthcoming with you guys about this, and for that, I apologize. The Archives posts dried up, I didn't run a monthly poll, and I had no artwork to post for the whole month. I kept wanting to post an update, but I just felt wiped out every day, and before I even blinked, I found myself at the end of the month.

I wanted to make this post before the month ended to apologize for my lack of activity and to set expectations for what the next few months will look like.

HERE'S THE CATCH... (OR, WHY THE PATREON MUST ENDURE)

The GOOD news is that I now officially make enough from my job to cover all of our bills. That is a huge relief! We're incredibly lucky to have a house and a mortgage, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't expensive as fuck. This job covers all of our mandatory payments, which is a big deal — that means I no longer have to resort to desperate art pushes to pay my bills each month, and can therefore focus on finishing the rest of my queue WITHOUT adding things to it that I can't keep up with.

But, here's the problem...

While my new job covers all of our bills, that's about all it covers. After taxes and bills, very little income remains for anything else, including food and essentials, which means I still HAVE to supplement my income, and will therefore keep my Patreon running.

I'm going to be honest — as much as I enjoy drawing, I would love to not have to do it. Although I would miss the income that Patreon brings, as well as my awesome supporters, it would reduce a lot of stress if I could just close the book on art and do it strictly as a hobby at my own pace, as much or as little as I choose. If the job paid enough for me to do that, I would. But the margins are tight, so I have to do what I must, until I can hopefully get a raise.

I wouldn't blame anybody who wants to unsubscribe at this point. That's totally justifiable and I appreciate your support nonetheless! But for those who DO want to stay, I cannot overstate my gratitude for your continued patronage.

WHAT THE FUTURE OF JACKARY ART LOOKS LIKE

Once November starts, I'll be drawing again. The #1 priority will be clearing out ALL remaining projects in my queue. Now that I have less time to draw, I don't imagine I'll be doing much drawing outside of queue projects for a while, since it'll take some time to get through those. This means I won't be having character/sketch polls (sorry), but I will try to fit polls in wherever I can, like voting on extra outfits or stuff like that.

• NSFW ART WILL CONTINUE WHILE MY QUEUE REMAINS - the remaining projects I have are all "traditional" jackary pieces, which means cute girls in cute outfits, along with no outfits at all. So if you're primarily here for sexy soft girls, well, that's not going away yet.

• I WILL LIKELY TRANSITION TO SFW ART ONCE MY QUEUE IS CLEARED - I will transition to being a SFW artist once my queue is completely cleared. Between getting this new job, having a new baby daughter in my life, and spending so many years drawing the same kind of content, the time is right.

Q: What can I expect from SFW Jackary art?

Good question! I would really like to get into more moody, atmospheric stuff as I've said before. I'll still be drawing girls while I have a Patreon audience, the pictures will just be focused more on vibes than sexualization, much like this Mythra drawing you guys liked a lot:

(NOTE: Once I transition to SFW art, I may still post unclothed alts to Patreon, so long as I still need to supplement my income)

Q: How much art will you draw each month for Patreon once your queue is cleared?

Once I no longer have a queue, I'd love to produce 2-3 drawings a month for Patreon, and I would heavily lean on user engagement (polls, suggestions) to determine who I draw to make things more exciting for you guys.

I see this being a reasonably realistic goal, as I finish drawings much faster when they're unburdened with the psychological pressure of being commissions. I could draw something similar to that Mythra in 1-2 evenings, rather than the immense amount of time it takes me to get through commissions. (can't explain it, wish I could).

Q: What About Print/Sticker Club?

Print/Sticker Club will continue as usual. I will use new artworks as the content, and if I don't produce enough new pictures, I will use older artworks that haven't been turned into prints/stickers (such as alternate outfits, etc).

I unfortunately have no new artworks to use for October Print/Sticker Club, so stickers will be existing drawings that haven't been turned into stickers yet, and prints will likely be outfit variants of popular drawings in my backlog.

AMA (ASK ME ANYTHING)

Okay! I think that's all I wanted to say! That was a huge post, and thank you so much if you've stayed with me up to this point. To conclude, I wanted to give you the opportunity to ask me anything!

Your questions can be in regard to my situation and what the future will look like, but they can also be about anything else at all, like my favorite type of bubblegum. I haven't done an AMA in a while, so I figure now is a time to do it, with these big changes coming up in my art, but you can also use it to ask me literally anything, so don't be shy!