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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

Comments

Panel Break Comics

I honestly would consider lowering my pledge to a lower tier if you stopped doing the token exchange- however, I would still support you any way I could; the lowering of tiers would mainly be so I wouldn’t end up bankrupt myself. You do what you feel is best, and I’ll support it.

Kiss-Suki

I would consider lowering my pledge, something around 25~30$ tbh. I'm fine with not getting a custom art, but I'd love to be able to suggest characters for you to draw. Most of the time, I'm like "I'd like you to draw Luffy in a feet scenario", "I'd love you to draw Darren in a vore scenario", etc. Like, not exactly custom drawings but more like suggestions ? I like your suggestions though, like more polls for characters and sketches, that sounds nice !

Paul R

I'd still remain pledged to you (that would never change), but I have to be honest as you have asked for an honest answer. I would likely have to reduce my contribution a little if there were no custom art on offer. If you ever find youself in that state, please do talk to me I will try my best to help.

Anonymous

I will be pledged to you regardless, but without the custom art, my pledge might be reduced due to financial reasons. However if you think that most people will unpledge or reduce their amount they are pledging, then I might be able to give alternative solutions that might be able to help you in your position. Let me know if you need anything or need to talk about anything!

Paul R

You could adjust the token rules by saying something like "any custom picture must feature an Evolly character or a certain anime character from a list complied by you"?

Anonymous

Well, I think it will be better for us talk if you either dm me here or on Discord, if you have the time of course

SirMini

I will always remain pledged to you, even if I mostly stay in the $5 tier, and I would consider upgrading to a higher tier if financially able, even if you take away the tokens/custom art. I've been a fan of yours for several years. Your art was some of the first macro/micro art I've ever seen and served as my gateway into this community. As for art quality, I love almost all your work but you can tell which pieces you are passionate about because that love oozes onto the canvas. I think doing away with custom art and focusing on what you are truly passionate about is the right move. Still allowing suggestions of some variety and commissions now and then would be awesome. I would totally try to get a commission from you if able.

Nutmeg Zillo

Hey man! I had a much longer message typed out, and I kept trying to edit it so it wasn't confusing, but it was just too wordy and complicated, so all I really want to say is this: •As a friend, I've been worried about you and how long you were gonna be able to keep up with this kind of workload for a while now. I 1000% support you phasing out custom artwork, I can't imagine how stressful it's been for you... •To me, personal art always has a very strong, tangible sense of intentionality and passion behind it, whereas commissioned art always feels empty to me (unless I'm the one who commissioned it obviously, that's kinda the point lol). If I know an artist drew something because they wanted to, and they're sharing it because they like it, that AUTOMATICALLY makes me like it WAY more! All this is to say that I would LOVE the chance to see more personal art from you instead of just commissions! •Obviously I'll miss the opportunity to commission you myself (via tokens), but hey, that's how it goes, and again, I totally support it! That does mean, though, that unless you can come up with a different cool non-custom-art incentive for donors, I would reduce my pledge, yes. •Overall, I don't have answers. I don't have answers for you, all I have is my own perspective. It's probably tough to make the decision to stop the token system when you know it'll result in a drop in pledges, but dude, I really feel like there's no other way. It seems like it's really making you miserable, and I don't think it's worth it. I can't overstate this: even though it would be a shame for me as a "customer" to not be able to commission you, as a friend, I one hundred million percent support and encourage you to phase it out 💜

airbendingkwakwa

I really appreciate your input, thank you! Yea, as you said, it's a trade off, money vs happiness. But ey, commissions would still be available!

John Aka the Wolgan

Me and other people care about you and we don't want you feel like we forcing you to do everything we want, And for me I just want to keep seeing your art regardless I tier down or up and your emotional state is the first thing you have to do first until you feel better 👍

Paul R

How about limiting the number of people who can get custom pics to a set amount and say they can only have their drawings done at set times in the year? That way its spread out and you can allocate your time accordingly the way you want to. Or even say, no more full shaded pics automatically, slavestreams only and a full shaded one can only be done built up over time on a succession of slavestreams (whenever you want them).

gaggle

Removal of the tokens would certainly lean me towards downgrading my pledge. I've said before that a lot of your artwork doesn't reflect the kinds of themes and looks I'm personally into; I like a lot of it from a general level, but less so from my particular interests and kinks. So I don't have much incentive outside of the potential for custom art to stay on this tier. Without that, there's only the voting lists that the higher pledge tier has any effect on, that always have a dozen Japanese names I don't recognise. These are a sour point for me to participate in now due to the time my suggestion was unceremoniously wiped from the list with zero chance for me to present an alternative. While I understand why my suggestion was pulled, I've not participated in the voted pics since then, as my character preferences are otherwise likely to be too niche to bother thinning the voting pool with, or there will be no other characters I have any interest in. However, a big part of my pledge was also seeing your enthusiasm for the art you were producing and the community you were forging, which I'd barely spoken to you or anyone on the MH server before I got pulled into your taco truck back at the start. You had a superb energy and enthusiasm at that time, and I can only encourage and celebrate anything you need to do to return to that level of energy, enthusiasm and happiness that you displayed throughout your community in the early days. That's the main thing holding my pledge at bay right now. I hope you're doing well and will continue to do better with whatever changes you decide to make.

airbendingkwakwa

About the time your suggestion was pulled, I apologize. I want to promise that it will never happen again, but when there are 15+ suggestions, I have to trim a few, so there is always a chance of a few suggestions not making it in the poll sometimes, but it will neither happen often nor to you specifically :c But I will try my best to not let it happen to you in the future. Regarding my energy and enthusiasm, it is the main thing that Patreon killed for me, which sucks big time. I used to be constantly excited and overjoyed to draw and spend time with the community, but there have been so much drama, so many people looking to cause troubles, so much asked of me in both social and art terms, that I ended up losing all will to live, much less draw. This is an attempt by me at recapturing passion while trying not to hurt in any way the business model and what supporters expect. I do not intend to remove custom art entirely, mind you - more like, scale it back and make it more manageable. There will always be options for subscribers to get custom art ;w;

gaggle

The circumstances of my suggestion's removal were a little more awkward. I suggested Link shortly after he already won a poll, as I wasn't aware of the rule behind characters that had recently won. However that didn't get flagged by anyone until shortly AFTER the polls were posted, so I had no chance to correct or change my suggestion when it was removed. I certainly don't mind if my suggestion doesn't get chosen for the poll, I get there's a lot of them that pop up! Though I did suggest for the one following, but that was the one that sort of drove home just how niche my pool of appreciated characters was, and it just doesn't seem worth it for many. Mine was amongst the lower scorers, along with most of the other prompts I voted on too. And I don't feel comfortable suggesting the same thing each month just because it didn't win, that just feels cheap to me x3 It sucks to see so much passion drained from you since the patreon started. I really hope to see you return to strength in the near future once you've figured how to proceed!