MAY PATREON UPDATES

“Is she dead...?”

“She hasn’t posted an update in a while...”

Well hello there! Bet you thought I was dead because I hadn’t posted an update in a while. Alas, I was just unravelling the mystery of what they call a “va-ca-tion”. Now that I’m back and totally not dealing with crippling jet lag, things should get back into motion quickly - starting with sending off the Patreon rewards for April later on this afternoon.

While frolicking away, I also did some soul searching and decided that it’s time to redesign my approach to Patreon and the monthly rewards. Over the time I’ve been running this campaign and community, it’s been eye-opening to see people’s take on things - often in ways that I didn’t quite expect. I’m hoping the upcoming changes will make a lot more sense, be more efficient and give people more of what they came here for in the first place. So here, stick these updates down your gullet:

UPCOMING CHANGES

Monthly piece(s)

Starting May 2019, there won’t be a single “Monthly Patreon Piece” anymore. Instead, I will aim to produce several sketches and smaller illustrations per month based on a general theme (rather than a specific character). 

What I’m hoping to achieve with this change comprises of several things:

• To bring you more varied content every month
• To give you more say in what I could draw next within the voted on theme
• To make more of these pieces Patreon exclusives for supporters
• To allow me to experiment and try new techniques and approaches
• To make the art process a more interactive experience for Learner Patreon supporters (by offering insights and tips on what worked on each piece)
• To relieve the pressure to complete a full-fledged color piece by the end of the month by instead creating only as many pieces as I can, depending on time availability

Reward changes

Because of the above change, many of the rewards - such as the wallpaper sets, the step by step process, PSD files and the polls - will also have to experience some changes.

While I’ve yet to fine tune some of these, here’s a brief outline of what to expect:

• The poll will no longer cover single characters. Instead, most polls will consist of a general selection of themes, genres or options that I can them go on to draw multiple pieces from. Once the voting has closed, you’ll be able to give me suggestions for illustrations on the winning theme in Discord.
• Because of the new “open sketchbook” approach, rewards focusing on a single piece (such as wallpapers or step by steps) will not be a regular reward anymore. Instead, I will include these as I see fit depending on the work produced every month.
• New rewards, such as access to exclusive Patreon content, breakdowns of each month’s learned techniques or how-to videos and streams will be introduced.

More information on that in a post to follow later.

Commissions

As I’m fast approaching the end of my current commission batch, I am very pleased to announce that I will be reopening new slots in June! I know a lot of you have been waiting for this and I really appreciate your patience and support throughout this time.

That said, I am also introducing some changes to the way I handle new batches in order to prevent (or at least try) getting overloaded again. While I’m also refining the details on this, some such changes will include:

• Assigning each commission a category (Simple, Medium, Complex) as to work on one of each at the same time
• Only taking a very limited number of “complex pieces” per batch (ie, those involving multiple characters or complicated backgrounds)
• Limiting the number of figures/characters per illustration depending on the category
• Implementing new terms and conditions to the process of working on a commission (ie, bumping slots, payment deadlines) as to not hinder my ability to continuously be working on a new project

I will also make a separate post on this later this week to further explain these changes. If you’re interested in a commission at this point, it might be a good idea to consider what you’d like so that I can take your order in June!

Final notes

I appreciate this is a long way down to read through, so if you got here I commend you. You’re a hero. No, really, you are. I talk a lot.

I hope all of the above makes sense in some capacity, but please do let me know your thoughts, feedback and additional suggestions. Ultimately, what I want is to give you more for your support, and to that end your say is invaluable.

Once again, thank you for being here!

Ony