May Report

Hello and happy June everyone! Thank you so much for your support and love this past month! I have a LOT to cover so I’ll try to brief, but it's real important that I mention at the top--

⚠️I am implementing Pricing/Tier Changes this month! ⚠️

I did my best to explain them at the end of this report⤵️ so I highly recommend you check that out if nothing else! If you have any questions about the changes PLEASE let me know as well! 🩷

Here’s what we set out to do...
✅International Shipping for Physical Comics
✅CYOA Part 18 Update
✅Weekly Updates
✅Satyr x Swordsman Comic Pages 5-8
4️⃣/4️⃣🎉 And we got them all done! 🥃 Let’s get into the report! 📊 

✅International Shipping for Physical Comics is a GO!🚦

This was a bit of a multi-step process, but we got it done. It started with getting new copies of Libby & Holly Ch1-3 professionally printed, and they look great! 

Next I had to change up the bellybands to something more neutral, since they are not printed on my Laserjet anymore. I hope to still print some of my own projects on a smaller scale in the future, but wowee I love the feel of the professionally printed ones.

Kitt🐰 and I wanted to have something new in the store to commemorate the international shipping launch, so we made a cute lil Peach Vanity sticker. This is one of my personal favorite drawings of the Peaches Zine, and it’s only gently nsfw. ;)

It’s a nice pastel palette sort of thing and conveniently matches my weekly planner, which made taking product photos a bit easier, although I still struggle with them.
If you haven’t gotten a copy of the Peaches Zine yet, you’re in luck because we’ve put the two together in a bundle!

Onto art stuff:
May started off with a BONG🔔 in the  ✅CYOA Part 18 Update!

 I talked more CYOA process than usual this month about how how you as the “player” are essentially giving the characters’ consent through voting for a choice, which I think is especially helpful when exploring themes like tentacles.

I showed a little bit more process than usual in this because I needed to design a character in the form of the Bell Being, who is named Carab. They needed to be a bit more expressive than eldritch horror because I wanted that consent to work both ways from a narrative perspective.

My thinking was to do something between a spiral nautilus and a mer-person, which was a sulky genderfluid(pun intended) mer-person in a shell bonnet. 😘 Which is kind of glamorous I feel.

Also it kind of sets up a little bit of a different dynamic than 1. Walk into a room and 2. Sex happens.

I mean look at this poor creature, they clearly need some tlc💗 I’m going to have fun drawing the size difference as this scenario continues.

✅Weekly Updates– These are really working for me, I like the structure, I like the rhythm, so I might not list it as a goal anymore, but I’ma use it as an opportunity to talk about the behind the scenes stuff this month.

Yeah, my Daisy obsession is still ongoing. The 1970s vibes have developed quite a bit as well. A lot of the increase in finished Daisy pieces came from revisiting I started a month ago.

Mostly I think I only showed them to gold patrons because they were pretty sketchy, but the ideas matured over time. Here’s some more cropped down before/afters:

I honestly didn't know how much this one would progress. The sketch was kinda unremarkable.

But again that 70's influence came to the rescue 🌼I think of this one as taking place in that college apartment that hasn’t been updated in 50+ years, or maybe your grandma’s kitchen.

Can you tell I'm having fun with the crops this month? 😁
There are several unresolved sketch pages that will probably see more love before they become quality enough to put in a Daisies Zine in the future!

This month I was also using my sketchbook time to refine how to draw the Faun character (who I think I’m gonna call Pucca) and the swordsman, Hero.

I  think it helped because once I got past the roughs, finishing the ✅Page 5-8 of Satyr x Swordsman went pretty smoothly!

I was painfully indecisive about these four pages because i wanted a kind of back and forth flirtiness without it feeling coercive. This is the kind of thing that I think way too hard about.

But I think the fact that it’s difficult is probably a really good thing because it means I’m learning something when I’m doing it. 

It’s a longer set up than in many of my other stories and even Pucca gets impatient with all these protestations (she secretly likes it)

The upcoming pages that I’ve roughed and will share next week -- I’m pretty excited!

Patreon Pricing + Tier Changes.

First let me say THANK YOU for your feedback and insights as to what you value most in terms of access. You’re all so generous with your feedback and support, it’s overwhelming 💖

Part of the reason I want to make changes to the patreon is to reflect the growth and value that’s accumulated here over time as well as to help fuel how I’d like for my work to grow in the future.

⚠️ I'll probably make a follow-up post addressing any questions that come up before I actually make the tier changes, but for now, here’s what I’ve arrived at:

$2.50 Basic Subscriber➡️$4 Early Access📎- All about early access to my new work!

$5 Gold Subscriber➡️ $8 Department Access✒️ In-depth access to my process, voting/suggestion and hi res art access!

$15 New Tier - $15 Archive Access🗃️🥃 Complete access to my comics, source files, etc. and maybe some far reaching looks into what’s on the distant horizon.

The biggest issue I identified with the pricing of my patreon is under-valuing the comics library because access here is inconsistent with how I price my digital comics elsewhere.

Department Access Subscribers(formerly Gold) will have access to a different comic from the library on a rotating monthly basis. There’ll always be a new old thing to read each month, and if you stick around for a year you’ll get to see everything in time. 

Archive Access will get you access to the full comics library! 

I’ll collect the old comics into collections that can be purchased individually that include all the process posts as well so you can keep those things in your library permanently if you want.

When I polled gold patrons recently and in the past about the dropbox rewards, most of you care more about hi res files than source files, and there’s often been confusion over how access to files works, so in future:

🖋️Department Access will get you one folder with ALL the high res art for the year.

🗃️Archive Access will get you one folder with all the source files, timelapse things and animation WIPs (I want to do more of this) for the year.

I think this will make it more convenient to see all the work that’s been done and reflect the increase price as well.♥️

I know many of you are gonna be wondering how the price changing process actually works, here's some info on that ⤵️

Here’s How Tier Pricing Changes Work:

Next week I’ll implement the pricing changes, this starts a 31 day period to notify members. During this period:

• Renewals are billed at the old price

• New members pay the updated price

• You’ll receive an email notifying you of the pricing change and when it will affect you in billing.

Monthly Members: Price updates take effect one renewal cycle after the change

• For example, if your tier price changes on September 3 and your renewal is on September 5, you will still pay the old price on September 5, as it falls within the 31-day Price Lock Period. Your next renewal on October 5 will reflect the updated price

Annual memberships: Updates depend on your renewal date relative to the price lock period

• For example, if you change your tier price on September 3 and your annual membership renewal date is October 1, your renewal will remain at the old price because it falls within the 31-day Price Lock Period

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Wowee that feels like a lot of stuff, I just want to make sure I'm being as communicative as possible about the process. Thank you for reading through to the end, here are my goals for June, y'all🩷🌼

June Goals

⏹️CYOA Part 19 Update
⏹️Weekly Updates
⏹️Satyr x Swordsman Comic Pages 9-12
⏹️Patreon Pricing Restructure Process Complete

Thank you for all your support and feedback over the past month, it’s been invaluable. 💕I hope I did an okay job of expressing the changes to the patreon and please let me know if you have any questions. I do want to hear and make clarifications if I’ve left anything out.

🩷Winton