GOAL REACHED! Which means...

I'm going full time freelance! 

"Wait, weren't you already?"

Many, but not all of you, will know that when I started this adventure almost 3 years ago, I did so with a backup plan while holding onto a part time job in London. This job has helped me pay the bills while Patreon grew slowly but steadily, but it also meant that for all this time I've been working 7 days a week with barely any breaks.

I've always been risk averse, so I kept telling myself that this was fine even though I knew I was completely burning out. And then you guys gave me the sign I needed- you helped me reach that goal I set up way back in 2017 to leave once my Patreon income would sustain me on its own.

I honestly cannot say thank you enough. You guys have made my world.

So where to now? 

Because of my 1-month notice period, I will officially be a full time artist from Sept 1.

My first big ambition is to seriously speed up my commission and reward queue with the aspiration of seeing the bottom of the list sometime at the end of the year. This will hopefully also mean new comm slots being opened faster and more frequently!

The next step is to actually take a day off every week to work on personal art. While I love drawing for you all, I've been seriously struggling with guilt every time I stop to draw something for myself. However, making this art fulfills me and teaches me so much and I hope that by giving myself a day, I can put what I learn back into your commissions.

I also would like to take a day every other week to do surprise sketches from the pictures you lovely people have posted in the discord. There's nothing I love more than dropping a little sketch someone wasn't expecting in their DMs!

On the side of that, I want to offer some new things too! I have recently been requesting samples from print and merchandise distributors to figure out how best to offer these items through the StarStickers reward shop (or as a mailed gift for patrons on certain tiers).

I've also been reconsidering making art blogs or tutorial videos again. This has been something I've wanted to do for a while, but simply didn't have time to do. If you have ideas for what you'd like to see, do say!

And finally... guilt-free rest. Oh, how I long for just a day when I can sit for 10 minutes without feeling like my commission queue is yanking my leash. (This is still a total fantasy, but aspirations are free)

Bonus: New Tier coming soon

There has been some demand for a new, higher tier that people can support harder with. And of course, while I am happy to have reached my goal, ultimately my next mission is to keep growing this Patreon so that I can keep doing bigger and better things!

So with that in mind, from tomorrow I will be opening a new tier: Extreme (50$ p/month)

The core reward for this tier will be 50 points on StarStickers a month, meaning you can get a lineart bust every 3 months if you so desire!

Additionally, I'm considering a physical mailed reward for this tier, which would include a surprise goodie bag with exclusive prints, stickers, pins or original hand-drawn sketches. These rewards would change in each mailing, which would happen every 7-8 months.

And of course, this tier would include all non-point rewards for all other tiers (discord access, commissions, art sessions, etc)

Lastly, this tier will be limited to 10 available spaces, which will be first-come, first served. Once slots have been taken, you'll have to wait for someone to drop or change their pledge to access it.

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With all that having been said, I once again want to thank all of you for everything you've done for me. I am equal parts excited and nervous about this and I hope you'll stick with me (or join me, if you're one of my watchers!) on this new journey!

As always, my DMs here or on Discord are always open if you have any thoughts and questions. And of course, do leave me a comment- I love hearing from you all! <3