What happened and Upcoming changes (Patreon)

Hello everyone! Hope you are doing well!

So, I will start with the bad thing.

Some already guessed. But for the ones who don't know, my Patreon rewards from the entire month of September have been stolen and posted on a piracy platform.

I can't believe that happened literally in the first month, with only 12 patrons at this time.

Well... I calmed down about it now. I was so furious that I couldn't even enjoy my weekend or even feel proud of my last Rathalos Illustration, which I really worked hard on to please the ones who are really willing to support me. Don't get me wrong, I loved working on it!

I feel there are some peoples in the community that don't know what is going on behind the scenes of artist’s work. I feel that is the reason why it's hard for most artists to be really recognized in society.

The achievement of being a really good artist in every domain (Drawing, sculpting, 3D modelling, etc.) takes years to master and it's not an easy path. It needs motivation, determination and the will to study, get inspired, get to know, show your artwork and so on. Everyone has different paths in their lives and some have their own difficulties and this is fine!

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So... Well, I think I will tell my behind the scenes to, maybe, try to raise awareness in people.

I'm Drakaar, I'm a creature artist who is living in Québec, Canada. My native language is French. I was really fascinated by arts and video games since my childhood. When I grew up and eventually went through my school years, I wanted to work in video games.

I started to take visual art classes in a college (We call them Cégep here), but I didn't even finish the year because I was having way too many things were happening at the same time and I was really depressed by family issues at the time. College wasn't fun at all, even if I was in arts classes…

So, I eventually had the basic classes to prepare for university. Nothing to see there, because I literally hated it and most of the teachers seem to suck at their jobs.

After this, I took a year off because I was always tired. I didn't realize that I was suffering from depression at the time. I took 3D modelling classes. The college really sucked, but I had fun in the projects I was doing. I had this diploma which I know will be absolutely useless in this domain because everything is about skills.

I was determined, I was doing artwork for my portfolio and postulating for video games jobs. I was postulating in the four corners of this world. I literary received no feedback. Went to conventions to meet people and get opportunities to meet guys that worked for big studios, like someone who did some VFX for Game of throne. Didn't had feedback since then...

I then took a part-time job at a Wall-Mart and I suffered for one year and a half there. I was doing portfolio stuff at the same time too. But then.. I received a meeting for a studio interview. I was so primed! I did the interview and then they gave me a ''test'' to obtain the job.

The test was literally a job task… nothing else.

I took an extreme two weeks crunch to do this ''test''. It's one of the most stressing experiences I've had in my entire life. Then I sent the stuff to them. And you know what? I received nothing more from them. I tried to contact them. Nothing ! They just ghosted me. I was feeling exploited. And that is how the jammed shaking bottle exploded.

The followup burnout lasted two years.

I found another part-time job. I was tolerating it, working only few hours a week. I was also taking math class at home and searching for other possible career path.

Then Covid came.

I was stuck at home like the rest of the world. But that's where I realized how tired I was... In the first week of quarantine, I was only sleeping. I continued some art projects and didn't want to see anyone… So quarantine was good for me. Then, I finally asked for help with my depression… I was thinking of suicide. The only thing keeping me alive was making my 3D character.

After a while, I decided to get back to school in programming. I was trying to hold on life, I guess. I was not really enjoying it. I was unable to follow and my teachers literally didn’t know how to teach lol.

It was since February 2021, that I started to show some of my art in Fur Affinity. And this is where I instantly saw how many people like what I do! I decided to start doing commissions this summer and people wanted to pay for my art!

I decided not to go back to college this September. Instead, I made a Patreon. I don't have much money to live for now, but I can see the potential of making a living by people subscribing to support what I do, because they simply enjoy what I do! It will take me a while to be comfortable financially, but I'm really enjoying what I do now. I'm coming out of depression now! My Patreon is growing and I can't be thankful enough to everyone who spends some money just commenting and sharing my art!

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This is my behind the scenes. For the ones who steals Patreon content, not just from me, but from any creator and/or upload, it’s on some shady websites.

I'm not mad at you. But you need to know this:

-These kinds of websites simply make money from stole content from creators that are just

literally trying to live.

-You are not screwing up some multi-billionaire company. You are screwing up someone who is alone and just trying to make a living with their creations. This person has done nothing to deserve this.

-You may potentially make this person unable to publish any more content or their lives way harder.

-''But I don't have the money to support you anyway.'' Many of my arts will be available to the public. As well, there is so much from other artists that publish publicly to satisfy you.

-This will not help you to be appreciated from pretty much anyone in the community. Even if it's your little secret. If you get caught then... Yeah...

I hope you are now a bit more conscious of the consequences of stealing from Patreon.

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I'm still looking for solutions to prevent my arts from being stolen. But, for now on, I will send rewards through private messages using a link. The link will be available for people who subscribed during the month. For the ones who just subscribed, you will receive the link as soon as I can send it.

Sorry for the really long post, but I feel it was necessary.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this.

Thank you to everyone who is legitimate!

Love you, guys! <3