Update on the Raffle streams.

Hey everybody.  I wanted to take a moment to talk about the monthly raffle streams and some changes that are going to be made to it moving forward.

Since the first month it was held, it's been very popular.  Those Saturdays generally have almost double the amount of stream viewers, even if not all of them are Patreon subs.

The issue I've been coming across is that those streams have become popular to the point where people are subbing JUST to try and get something out of the raffles.  I've been doing what I can to dissuade people from doing that because it has the potential to lead to people feeling disappointed, which leads to me feeling disappointed in myself for failing the people who are kind and generous enough to help support me.

Honestly I was thinking about stopping doing the raffle stream because of this, but to be perfectly honest, I really like doing it.  I like the challenge of trying to slam through an idea that might not entirely be in my wheelhouse in a limited amount of time. Even though the images end up simpler than stuff I take longer on, or ideas that have time to work themselves out before I start drawing, these marathon drawing sessions help me get better and learn how to do what I do faster.  Stopping the raffles is at the time being out of the question.

So what do I do about the issue then?

Well, I think first off I need to set slightly shorter time limits on the pieces.  Originally pics were suppose to be between sixty and ninety minutes, but that quickly turned into 2 hours on some of them.  I've gotten them back down to 90 minutes, but I still only end up getting 6 pieces done in 12 hours (short breaks in between pics and a meal break in the middle).  I think limiting each picture to 60 minutes is going to be the first step in getting more done.  With intending on keep the same basic quality I've been trying for I believe that means that unless I'm just working really fast the "finished" result I'm looking for are lines/cleaned up sketches.  I really can't devote the time to coloring stuff on raffle stream days.  But again, this depends on complexity of idea.  I will always devote the full amount of time to a piece.

Secondly, and this is what I feel some people might have the most issue with, I feel I need to rework the limits on how often you can win a piece in the raffle.  Moving forward with future raffle streams, effective now, if you won a piece in the previous month's stream, you cannot win in the next months stream. For example, the 6 winners from May's stream cannot win a piece in June but can win one again in July.  I'm trying to spread things around a bit better and get as many things done for as many people as I can.

In regards to the suggestion thread: I will be pulling more from it as I can, and I will be working on things from it with similar timeframe/quality guide lines as the raffle stream images.

I want to thank all of you that have been sticking around month to month.  I'm still not at a point where I can leave my day job and draw full time, but I'm definitely way closer than where I was when I started.  With your help the debt I was in a few years ago is now almost non existent, and things are absolutely looking up in the way of my living situation and being able to have a dedicated workspace.

Thank you all.

-Rab