Simptember update post! ✨

Heya and happy official simptember y'all! ~✨

I've successfully managed to catch up on my entire working queue and now that I'm done with that, here's the promised update post for this month!

I actually have a bunch of things to talk about in this one this time, some more or less important depending on the tiers you're in, I'll be highlighting the important bits in bold again for easier reading 🙏

SO! First of all, Simptember voting polls are back and I've already dropped the first one, as in the previous years there won't be one singular voting poll for the month but a bunch with the results in return being experimental doodles of varying quality, I've decided to also keep the emoji representation because it's just very fun to me to see you guys which characters it could be 😏

As in the previous years, you're also more than welcome to drop me TONS of character suggestions for the polls right under this post, doesn't matter if it's characters I've already drawn or not, but since there will be alot of voting options, might as well have plenty of characters to choose from 😌

SECOND POINT! Commissions are also back on the menu, though I'll only do simple style and monochromatic ones for this month, to not overfill my schedule, also not sure yet how many I'll take but! If you're interested, the form is open again!  If you got any questions about the form, feel free to send me a DM anytime! It'll remain open for the next two days so no rush to submit, the usual rules apply and you can just send me a message if you want to delete your old submission, otherwise I'll just be selecting from all accumulated submissions! 🙏💕

These are pretty much the most important things work-wise for this month 🙏

Now for some other things, I've been wanting to adress. First would be something I already spoke about on discord. I've been receiving AI generated reference pictures on multiple occassions (not on accident) from several people now, and while I personally thought it was obvious that this is something I really don't appreciate, given my stance towards the entire topic, I'm fully enforcing an anti AI reference rule, from now on anyone sending me AI slop as reference material will be blacklisted permanently from anything art-related and will also lose their entire stack of bonus points. I don't support AI "art" and honest to god sending me a stick figure doodle, picrew screencaps or frankenstein'd reference all of this is better than feeding the stealing machine.

The other thing I've been meaning to adress is about my art in general, just something I've been thinking about alot now that I've been overall doing alot better mentally and physically again through the recent months and that's that I'd love to take more time with some art pieces again and dedicate more time to some full render pictures, not just that but also giving myself more time to just. Think about the direction for bigger illustrations, compile more references, do extra studies etc. and also just taking more breaks when needed when running into a block and needing to recharge my creative battery to ensure I'm happy with the final picture, since this is still the most important thing for me, I want to be happy and satisfied with my own art 🙏💕.

I've been doing it again alot in the recent months for some of the stuff I've been working on (like f.e. The Summer Ginnungagap!) and it's been doing wonders on my overall motivation and inspiration so it's something I've really been wanting to more often for bigger rendering projects!

Why am I telling you this? Because this would mean potentially longer waiting times between some pictures and maybe fewer doodles, also possible putting less stress on myself over deadlines and such. Basically what I want is when I say "I'd like to take more time with this picture and maybe let it rest for a few days", that you guys are okay with that even if it might possibly mean maybe waiting for a few extra days or week(s) at worst, but all of my best works (f.e. My Mipha Pinup), are a result from pretty much just giving myself the time I need for them until they're in a spot where I'm truly happy with them 🙏

this obviously only applies to full render pictures and doesn't mean I won't be doing simpler pictures or doodles anymore! 🙏 I just generally want to take more time for bigger projects again, now that I regularly can do these again without my health fucking me over that badly and make more art that I can be truly proud of again without it potentially having to suffer because I feel like I have to rush it out before the end of the month.

So what does this mean? Basically nothing really changes 🙈 I just want you guys to be aware (and hopefully okay with it!) that I might be saying that I want to take more time with something in the future if I feel like a picture needs it and then just be able to take my time. I've been generally more lax with my own personal deadlines, since my chronic illness sometimes makes keeping strict deadlines super unpredictable and straight up impossible, which is why I generally stopped setting myself hyperstrict ones and it's been doing wonders for myself mentally. But I also don't want you guys to feel scammed or anything like that, so I want to be open about this since I've already had a few occassions here when people did not read updates and then complained about me delaying posts or deadlines. But be assured, even if someone would leave during a month while I'd f.e. Delay the reward sketches to a few days into the next month, I'd simply either DM or mail you your sketch 🫡

.... kinda got really long with this but yeah basically I just want to give myself the time I need for some bigger projects (and also personal art) to ensure quality and also my own happiness with my art without pressure, even if it might potentially mean missing out deadlines, that's all really. 🙏💕

I'll also give you guys in the chocolate tier a quick heads up, I'll be posting the submission frame for the sketches this month in a different post AND they will be delayed for most likely a week into October because I will be on a special vacation for a week starting September 30th as an early gift/celebration for my upcoming big birthday this year so I will not be at home and also not drawing during that time period 🫡💕

I've been meaning to just also thank you guys for your patience again while I was really struggeling with the particular bad flare up not too long ago, really means alot to me and I hope all of you will have the most wonderful September in return 🫂💖

This should be all for now, hope I didn't forget anything, if I did absolutely don't be shy to just DM me , otherwise if I remember I'll be updating this post in case I forgot something important 🙏💕

As always, thank you guys so much for your support, if you have any questions or concerns please hit me up via DM and I'll get back at you as soon as I can! 🙌💕

I'm wishing you all an absolute BANGER SIMPTEMBER ✨