Taking a Hiatus - Please Read!

Hey everyone. 

Feels like it was ages since I actually typed a blog up but this one's important. There's a tldr at the end if you're not interested in the fluff.

I'm going on an indefinite hiatus from being online.

I've been working since early 2022 almost non-stop, and slowly working my way through my very long and exhausting commission backlog from last November. I'm severely burnt out and very unhappy. I caught myself wondering what the point of drawing stuff was, and that terrified me. I need time alone to figure out what the hell I even want from my art career, along with what I want from my art itself. realistically I only have so many pieces of art in me during one lifetime, I want to draw stuff that means something to me and currently I feel unsatisfied and unfulfilled. 

Honestly the climate of the art community online is not good, and hasn't been for quite some time, the rise of ai content has done a number on my worth as an artist, I didn't think it did in the beginning but having reflected on it for a while.. I just don't feel valued anymore. I work very hard only for things to be treated as disposable just because it's posted on the internet. Or given nothing but a passing glance after hours of work. I'm sure this sentiment is shared by other artists lately. Not the sole reason for my hiatus but it's part of it for sure. 

I'm also physically and mentally exhausted from just being online, and discord servers are too much for me right now. I'm so absolutely tired of every aspect of it. I'm basically taking a massive risk since the internet will likely forget about me while I'm gone, due to the algorithm moving so fast, and I'll likely lose a lot of money by taking a break. I'm in need of my monthly paycheck but I'm unable to continue any further in order to pay myself. 

On my hiatus I'll be:

• Going on my honeymoon
• Tending to my garden
• Redecorating our house
• Going on hikes
• taking naps in my new hanging egg garden chair
• Experimenting with pyrography, and getting back to Posca pieces. 
• Going back to study my fundamentals for art. 
• Taking a class in backgrounds
• Deleting discord, twitter and Instagram apps from my phone
• Playing Path of Titans and Tears of the Kingdom
• Taking driving lessons

During this hiatus I will probably be uploading art here and there but I cannot promise it will be as frequent as it was, and it will probably be a lot of stuff I don't usually draw. I guess I'm just asking for a little faith in me while I recuperate. I'll share what I create when I can.

I can't afford to pause my Patreon or Datastream because it's all I have to keep me going, so I realize this is not ideal for all of you. You're welcome to leave and come back later if you want. For those that stay, please know you'll be literally keeping me and the buns alive, as this Patreon is my only source of income currently. I can't take commissions right now, I can't do art on a schedule until I'm better. But what I do publish going forward will be collected into one larger art pack when I have gathered enough of it. So it won't be monthly until I'm back to 100% again. I may pop back to offer single commission slots, or adopts when I'm able for it, but it'll probably only be if I really need to. 

The terabyte sketches will still go ahead as normal.

If any of my friends or clients need to contact me for whatever reason please email or text me as I won't see messages or DMs elsewhere. Otherwise I'll be gone for a while. Not sure how long.

TLDR: I'm leaving the internet for a while. I won't be contactable until I'm ready to be. Art won't be stopping fully but it will be slowed. As a patron you're welcome to leave, but much appreciated if you stay since I'll be popping back to post work, you'll get a large pack of whatever I get up to while I'm gone in a few months. 

In the discord, please listen to the mods, and try not to get stuck in a "good morning, goodnight " loop ..lol. 

If you'd like to support me please consider buying prints from my shop, retweeting my work, dropping some coins in my ko-fi or just sticking around here. Thanks so much, sorry I have to go, I hope you guys understand. 

Izzy -