A year of Achan's Lair 🎉 (Patreon)

Retrospective

October marks a year since I started this Patreon. It hasn't been easy by any means, running this has been way harder than I anticipated hehe, but I've found a lot of things that have made me feel that it's worth it and something I wanna keep on doing for as long as I can. I don't want to dwell too much on my personal life, but just before I started my "career" as a full time artist I was going through very hard times, barely eating and making ends meet.It still blows my mind how much my life's changed this past year. I put everything on the line, got a new tablet having faith that it would be the morale boost I needed. At first I was able to pay my bills, then pay my bills and eat well, then all of that and have room to actually spend a little on things for myself. And now I'm living comfortably, doing repairs on my home, supporting my loved ones and even treating myself now and then. I can't just tribute that to myself. I've worked hard, sure, but it wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for all of you. I try to be very vocal about my feelings and gratitude to everyone because I truly feel grateful. Not just with your financial support, but your words of encouragement and your constant presence and response to my art. I'm still not very used to that level of support since I've been drawing all my life to practically no audience heh. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Content moving forward

Having that said, I'd like to voice a few things I've got in my mind. My very first post around here speaks about this, in why I made this Patreon to begin with and what my goal was. Simply put, it was to be able to draw what I want and to live off my art. I've come very close to that goal! But I'm not quite there yet, as I still have to draw things that don't really inspire me sometimes, as a result of polls. I know this may seem greedy, but if I'm honest I wish I could only draw whatever I had in mind, like a lot of artists I've always looked up to and today I find myself being mutuals with! Cham22, Xipa, Ykun, etc. There's plenty of ideas and characters that I've been wanting to do for a while and I just simply haven't been able to find the time for, including my OCs which I thought no one liked that much! But to my pleasant surprise a lot of you guys seem to wanna see more of them, or even joined for them! Originally I was planning for this to be a test for next month only, but I prefer to be honest and just voice right off the bat that moving forward I won't do monthly polls/suggestion boxes. I don't plan on getting rid of them, but I'll keep them to either special occasions or for whenever I don't know what to draw. I know that it'll be better in the long run, as I'll be even more motivated to draw.

Commissions and requests

Regarding commissions or requests. I already voiced in a vague way how I feel about this. Please don't take this the wrong way, I don't mean to make you feel guilty but, If I do open requests, I do it more for you than for myself or the money. I REALLY appreciate just how much you wanna get a piece from me. I say this just so you know I do keep you in mind and not just toss the thoughts and feelings away. There's plenty of things I'm considering, like YCH's and things like that. I really can't stress enough how much I value your trust and support, so while I can't promise anything, do know I'd like to give things like YCHs a try and I'd mostly keep them on the community/discord. The Seraphim tier is still around, just unpublished but with two slots already taken. It MAY become available at one point with only one slot left. But proper commissions are something I really don't see myself doing anytime soon.

Afterword

I don't think I have any more serious business to talk about... So to finish this long ass post that maybe not many people will read, I just wanna thank you all again for sticking with me. A lot of people have stuck around, and a lot of new people have joined too! I appreciate all of you, but especially the people on my discord who chat everyday. You guys make my day, and I couldn't mean that any more than I already do. It truly makes me happy to see and feel that this has become a community. Either talking about your day, music, games, whatever you're geeking about, or sharing art. It truly is something I enjoy a lot. If you're not in there, I do recommend you join! It really is a nice community, everyone's very nice (or else). Even if just to lurk, we do have interesting and funny chats sometimes. Remember it's as easy as to linking your discord to your account here!Anyways. I hope I can keep on doing this for a long time, and hopefully you can and want to stick with me moving forward as well. I'm counting on you!-Achan, the evil critter