Pool + Questions/Feedback (wall of text)

All I really have to say, good that you removed the cutting in line, it should be reserved for patrons that are backing you for longer and or add some % to the price if you want your char done asap. If you do it for patrons, then not for a tier but something like, hey you have been a patron for half a year (or more), you can skip queue once. Tho you would also have to be a certain level of patron for that much time (lets say, 5 dollar and up i guess?). Now, the sketches and PSD files are a great idea to post, would love to see those and I personally really like sketches too. It also lets us see what is to come in the future and what you are working on. Lastly like few others said, a poll for us patrons where you would put a few chars you want to draw yourself and we would vote for one (monthly or so would be really nice if people care about it)

I dont really notice anything off about it, since she has a big belly and its being squished against the side of the pool Anyway, I got a bunch of commissions requests from patrons lately and I thought everyone was trying to take advantage of the queue skip, but everyone is saying they didnt actually know about it or care about it I was stressing that I have so many people waiting and having to deal with patreon priority would make things even worse, so I just removed that and Ill probably just make it an outside service later, like adding +10% to the price, similar to what you do with private commissions My problem with different uploads for different tiers is the higher tiers also get all the content from lower tiers, which means if I were to post sketches for $1 tier, everyone in the $5 tier would now be getting double the posts, and this would get into the point you make of being spammed with notifications, which Im very careful about avoiding Ive also noticed a bunch of artists dont actually post anything to patreon, and just send patrons a private message at the start of the month (after payouts) with the content they are owed, but I dont like that approach at all, it feels very impersonal I like that I post stuff here and talk about the pic a bit, people comment and we have a quick chat/discussion, makes it more like a relationship with the patrons rather than just sending them a bunch of art every month without any interactivity As for your last idea, it wouldnt work for a lot of reasons, but mostly neither me being interested in drawing anything but female characters, nor people wanting to see anything else Im known to complain about how I dont feel like doing backgrounds and I wish I could just draw the character because thats what I enjoy, the only reason I even do backgrounds to begin with is that they are essential for building up a scene and setting a mood, rather than just having a sexy girl posing in the void So yeah, that sounds incredibly boring to me

Soranamae

I think Ill try doing a poll for my fan arts, see if people like it, and if the feedback is positive I can make it a monthly thing Physical prints Id rather leave to people, like if you want to print your commission you have the full original file so you can do it on your own, as Ive had several people do before

Soranamae

Ive noticed sometimes you comment on multiple pics at once since you cant check every time I post, so by the time you come here Ive already posted 2 or 3 pics More sketches is definitely happening, everyone likes the idea myself included PSD is just like you say, only artists will make use of it since "normal" people have no interest in seeing that kind of thing, which makes the work not seem worth it The poll thing could work since I have a list of character I wanna draw and having people decide might be cool (need to learn how to do polls here though :P) Maybe Ill try doing one early next month and see if people like it

Soranamae

(Edit:I just realized I wrote a book. Sorry!) On the picture overall, I like it! Though I feel like the front of the abdomen is a bit off. It's hard to say, kinda like the stomach should be a tad more "up" than as much to the side, but it may be the angle and I'm just misinterpreting it. As for everything else: Considering your internet, I feel that you *could* post PSDs, but with your schedule, it would probably get very messy (I think I saw you say this somewhere up there) with multiple tiers posting, not to mention you'd be spending more time uploading than doing other things. I suppose a question to ask yourself is whether or not you're content with your current output of posts. By this, I mean, do you feel like you post too much, too little, or maybe just right? Do you feel like posting more stuff more often would throw you off kilter? Of course, new experiences will always come with its trials, but I don't think you should discard your current output either. If you feel like you want to provide more, then you may want to consider a different format of post output. Personally, I feel what you have going right now is pretty comfortable, as a viewer. You don't blow up my email like crazy (like an artist I follow right now that I shan't name), and it's always a pleasure to see whatcha put up on the day. If you want to post more often, you could drop some sketches of stuff you're working on at the moment, which could also serve to adding to your patreon tiers, as sorta step by step. And speaking of tiers, if you wanna keep it light in terms of upload, you could always provide low-res sketches of your work (like mentioned above) as you go, which could be at a slightly higher tier than the $5. One artist has his art divvied up to have sketches/light coloring only at $1, while full-color and all that is at $5. Another provides sketches at $1 tier of stuff he's working on. Another artist provides step-by-steps and sfw images at $3, but does their payouts in "terms" twice a month. Another puts out polls to certain tiers to allow their patrons to vote on a character to get drawn that month. Now, does providing step-by-steps or sketches actually help with more supporters? I can't say, but you may want to consider updating the $1 tier so that it can serve as a "demo" tier, as it were. Let the patrons that are new dip their toes into your art. As it is now, they don't get any thing for being a patron but good feelings that they're providing you with a can of Arizona tea every month. Now what that thing should be? I couldn't tell you! It really goes in line with how you want to post, which I covered up above. Now, with the line cut. I never even realized paying for the higher tier let you cut in line, or maybe I just read your thing wrong. I agree with what others said above; patrons that have been here for you longer may deserve to get treated with some special case of getting a commish faster. However, this is something too that needs to remain in balance because those that have not been commissioning/financially supporting you could get shafted if they're brand new to your roster of patreon supporters. Perhaps maybe one time every so many months would allow a person to cut in line, but I also believe that it should not be the case where someone can constantly get in front. It's a scale that could become hard to balance if you choose to allow the line skip. Another thing that could factor into allowing a line skip is if you have a repeat customer that you work well with, because you know they'll make good on their payment, but this should still be subject to what I said above. I dunno, this paragraph was a bit of a ramble so I apologize for that. A funsical idea for a higher patron tier could be that once a month, you try to draw something that you normally wouldn't draw by itself, or something that is outside your comfort zone. As an example, maybe you decide to draw a vase of flowers, or maybe a half-eaten piece of cake on a dining table, or a magical scene of a fairy sitting on a leaf, or maybe even rain dropping onto a puddle and causing ripples. These are all things that you may include in a drawing of a female that you draw every day, but maybe just drawings of the item by itself. Heck, maybe even draw a background without a character in it, or provide a background from a previous picture minus the character. It could be anything! Could be your little laboratory of art tests.

Dillon

One popular thing that many Patreon artists use is the ability to suggest characters or poses for you to draw, and/or voting on a list of potential images. IE: make a 10$ tier that can suggest characters for you to draw. Each month you take any suggestions you like and put up a poll where your patrons can vote for the character you will draw. Also, have you considered physical prints for higher tier rewards? I admit I don't know how much of an incentive this would be, or how hard it would be to do, but I know a couple of artists here on Patreon that do that.

DM_5

Aaaaah yes, more of the super sexy chub' kitty ! <3 Mhmmm, that simwsuit really fit her delicious curves, eheh. ;) Gotta love the thighs too, unfff :3 Again, hurray for sexy Ayeda ! ^^ On my side, i don't care much of early access, because with my irl, sometimes it takes me days before checking patreon posts lol Tho i'm not against it ofc, it's alwyas a "bonus" (but for example, i wouldn't change tier "just" for that). I'm all in for sharing sketch in a tier. I've enjoyed the few you already give us before, and that's interesting to see sketches before full pic. As for PSD, i don't really check them. Imo, it's more for fellow artists/people who want to know more about your layers, etc...Not for me, but that could be interesting to put that on a special tiers (dunno maybe with your brushes, or artistic tools i don't understand xD). I know you already have lot of com' ongoing....but what about a patreon monthly poll to vote for a picture ? With conditions ofc ; not exclusive (you would also released the pic on your others medias), YOU choose the characters to vote (i remember you wanted to do some fanart, so maybe putting here characters you like/want to draw in a vote) and obviously not a "complex" picture (jsut to be sure it doesn't take you a month to draw one lol).

Anios Selindar

I feel the same way about early access but a lot of times I have an unpopular opinion about things so I wanted to check anyway And yes, thats exactly the kind of internet I have... I cant do anything else while uploading, if I am playing FFXIV and I try to upload a drawing, it disconnects me from the game, thats how bad it is A lot of people have been suggesting that "loyalty" system for commissions now... But the more I think about it the more I feel like just scrapping that queue skip altogether And discounts are even worse, since they basically work like: "If you pledge $15 over time, Ill take $15 off your next commission" Its terrible for both sides, since the artist isnt getting any money from the pledge, and the commissioner is also not getting any discount That is exactly why I want to avoid doing any perks that directly relate to commissions

Soranamae

Well you do have the right to any and all benefits I have up here, lol sadly I dont think Ill ever have anything worth THAT much

Soranamae

I like the idea of showing sketches of upcoming works, I'd love to have glimpses of the things that I'm looking forward to. I've never really understood the point of the early access system for artworks when the artist is already on a schedule, once the first early access artwork is posted(or one held back depending on how you handle the new schedules initialisation) then it's exactly the same as before, some people are just out of step with the rest. Of course, I don't have a problem with that system, I just don't understand why people would desire it. I don't particularly have an opinion on the .PSD files as I have no use for them, but if your internet is anything like my blistering 0.6 upload speed then I'd be inclined to not want them as uploading on that sort of speed criples your ability to do anything else with the network. Lastly, I definitely agree with the change to the queue skip, an extra $5 is tiny compared to the rest of the commision price. I used to patron another artist who had a system where they had price discounts on their commisions for people who had been a patron for x amount of months, you could potentially implement a similar system for the queue skip rather than(or along with) an outright price increase to give an additional bonus to people who have been pledged long-term at a slightly lower price, I.e. 3 months at $5 = 1 month at $15). Edit: After typing this last paragraph out and hitting enter, I realised that Sören said the exact same thing in significantly fewer words, lol.

Alerelus

I see your point about the early access, it would make a big difference if I posted like twice a month but since I post so often, yeah not much point to it I usually get basically no feedback on the process pics actually, which is why I do so few of them... I figured people just didnt care that much (Ive never seen people asking for more of them for example), but if you say so, I guess Ill try doing them more often One thing with PSDs and creating new tiers of content that bothers me is, since I already upload so often, having even MORE uploads for different tiers, I think it would become really messy and its something I wanna avoid, but your idea of doing an "end of month" thing solves that problem, so I might take that approach As for the commission skip, yes thats the problem, I hate the idea of associating commissions with patreon (especially the way some people do mega expensive tiers with "free monthly commisson" as reward, which is so pointless and benefits no one), so maybe I should completely scratch the idea and just make it an outside service, in the same way people usually charge extra for private commissions... "Want to skip queue? Add 10% to the price", something like that It seems everyone is in favor of the "early look into whats coming" sketches idea so Ill definitely start doing those, then for the rest like PSD files Ill have to think about the simplest way to handle it Thanks for the in depth thoughts/message

Soranamae

First of all, I highly value the fact, that you don't want to rely on "paywalls" and this other stuff like many other people on this platform. I think a pure "early access" (as in releasing your content earlier for patrons) doesn't really fit your release pattern since 3 or 6 days aren't that long. Overall I kinda ignore this "feature" when it is available, but that is probably just my own opinion. In my opinion, the sketch/PSD reward would be most fitting for you. The sketches are the more interesting approach to some kind of "early access" since it would allow us the see what is coming in the future and show us more of your workflow (those process images are really popular). They would also fit in your current $5 tier. A $7 tier would be fine too, but be careful not to make it too complex. The PSDs would fit in a new tier at around $10 I guess. For me, PSDs are on the same level as high-rez images, but there are definitely people who are more interested in those (the same people who want tutorials etc.). From my experience with other patreon sites, PSDs should be in their own tier/be in a higher tier. To decrease the uploading hassle, you could have a monthly poll to let those from the new tier choose the PSDs from the last month or so. Also, I don't really like the commission priority as a simple pledge tier, because this works like a simple price-increase (or a new price for priority works). Some kind of loyalty system (3 months of patreon pledges = priority) could work, but that would be much work on your side. Edit: I would gladly wait for my commission, if I could save up the money.

I actually like that idea, kinda like a loyalty bonus... Ill think about it

Soranamae

Hm yeah I think Im definitely gonna do the sketches and early post thing, since there is no drawback to those For the PSD Ill have to think about it, also because I do some pretty major edits after merging all the layers, like color tweaks/adding blur, etc, so what youll see in the psd is actually not what the finished drawing looks like And yeah this is the last summer pic for this year, maybe next year you can get one for Maja too... I wonder what kind of bikini she would wear

Soranamae

ALL OF THE ABOVE!

A few extra tiers are a good idea and for the commision priority if it is possible maybe give it a time people need to be a patreon at this tier to get it or restrict it maybe to one every year or somting like this.

I like the idea of posting sketches and/or PSD files, and more process images. I think tutorials would be great as well, I'd be interested to know more about your process. Early sketches and early access could be great too, I really enjoy greyscale style pics like your sketches. Ayeda is very cute as well of course. You're really spoiling us with these summery beach pics. And thank you for the requests of course, I have no requests for today.

LucBot

Yeah its a bit ridiculous, I totally miscalculated that :| there are more people who pledged for the queue skip and it made me feel bad for everyone who has been waiting for so long Also video is completely out of question, first because Im shy and dont like talking (lol), but more importantly like I said my internet is garbage so it would take me hours to upload a video (would probably have to leave it uploading over night or something) The best I could do is pics with text commentary where I try to explain what Im doing in each step

Soranamae

I originally joined the 5 dollar tier cause i saw that and was gonna cut in line. But thought better to wait a month or two cause i figured that would be seriously unfair xD. So i would say yes to maybe bumping that perk up a notch or two. As for the other bonuses possibly adding a step by step drawing/comintary over a recording of your art process might be a draw.