Looking for your input on the future of this Patreon (Patreon)
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Hi! I apologize, but I need to have a conversation here, especially with people who are subscribed to receive tokens. I need to know what you think.
Running this Patreon is a lot more difficult than expected for many reasons, including the fact that drawing custom art primarily absolutely kills motivation and passion for art. I have heard feedback that my custom art is much less interesting to look at than pictures I am actually passionate about. Do you agree that the quality of the art is lower? And if so, would you be more interested in looking at my drawings if I shifted away from custom art to do pieces that I want, primarily?
The big obstacle to this change is the fear that so many people would leave that Patreon would become unable to sustain itself, and I would have to abandon art to get a job somewhere else. I assume that most people in the $30 tier and above would unpledge if custom art was removed for good from Patreon rewards. I can only ask you, all of you: Would you unpledge or severely reduce your pledge if custom art was removed as a Patreon reward?
The way I picture it, I could have commissions open when I'm able, so everyone could still get custom art, but at a pace that lets me focus on other things when needed. I would do a lot more comics like the Tsuna one last month and the Kuroshinki 'Rampage' comic that I have been uploading page by page lately. I would do a lot more art of my Evolly characters, and a lot more art of anime and game characters, with poses and scenarios more interesting than what people usually ask for in custom art. I assume that my productivity would greatly increase, too.
Patreon's effect on my emotional state is a lot more severe than I dared to expect. Nowadays, I am practically unable to draw anything at all, I end up spending all day staring at my tablet, unable to draw anything because of intense anxiety, and because this is making me hate what used to be my passion. I spend the vast majority of my time not relaxing, not having fun, not working, not talking to people.... just procrastinating, paralyzed. And when I do manage to draw, the quality is honestly sub-par, even by my own low standards.
I put the token work on pause for October because of it, and I drew my own projects with a lot more intensity and efficiency and pleasure than anything else I drew in years. What I posted since October started is what you can expect if I make this my new normal. If you cannot see works in progress, I posted about 25 pages of the 'Rampage' comic during that time, on top of what everyone can see. I also wrote a great deal of content for my Evolly stories, to the point that the entire book is now practically finished, bar editing. I could largely increase my artistic and writing output, if custom art was reduced. I also welcome suggestions of stuff you'd like to see if there's any, like, more polls to let people choose canon characters to include in drawings, or posting a bunch of my sketches and letting people vote on which sketch(es) to line and color, etc.
*No matter what*, the already-delivered tokens would be honored, and you'd be getting custom art for months and months. No matter what, I'm just talking about a gradual change, nobody would ever become unable to spend a token they paid for!
Please let me know your insight, and most importantly if you'd unpledge in that scenario, as it is really the only deciding factor left for me. I need to know if it'd be a wise move or if it'd make me go bankrupt xD