Important - please read (Patreon)

I've been thinking about doing this for some time, and now that the new term is a week old and all my problems, all the stress and all my time constraints are back (and have doubled) I know this is the time to do it. 

I need to power down Patreon. Again. Even more than before. 

Maybe you've seen it coming. I haven't been posting much - I've tried to, but you must have seen that this past year has been very thin on the ground art-wise. I simply have nothing in the way of new avatars or linearts or anything like that. The bimonthly raffle scares me ahead of time whenever it comes up. And in the future, school and family will take up even more of my time than they already have in the past year, so this step is necessary. 

I'm not even quite sure how I want to do this. In my current state of mind, I have considered deleting my account, just to make sure that nobody goes on donating for nothing because they missed this message (and I know there is a considerable number of patrons who don't follow the messages). 

But then again, I know how many of you stayed on after I powered down last year, and kept pledging although they got not that much in return (for which I'll be eternally grateful). 

What won't change: I'll keep the bottom two tiers ($1 and $3). I will also continue to post, and I'm quite sure that experience won't be changed much. You're more to me than social media followers. You are a true support group, in every sense of the word, and with so much more than money - which is why I don't feel quite as frightened about this step as I did a year ago. I'll interact as much as I always have, and I'm really looking forward to that.
The Patreon bonuses for my Etsy shop will also stay for the $3 tier. There will still be exclusive previews, and hopefully livestreams, and info on sales and such sooner than on my other social media channels. 

So I suppose, all in all, your Patreon experience won't change much from recent months (apart from the raffle), except for the certainly that things are (probably) not going to get much different in the near future. 

What will change: The raffle will need to go, I'm afraid. At least for now, until my life becomes easier again. but since I have no idea if and when that will happen, I'm calling it off indefinitely.
The freebies will stay, but I'll just upload them as I have time and feel they're worth it. 

The next raffle will be a sort of THANK YOU SO MUCH raffle, with more stuff just this once. Please give me some time to follow through with the winnings. There'll be original art in there, and more prints. 

The future of this Patreon is really up in the air. I fully and totally expect you to adjust your pledges downwards, so by all means do! I'll be glad about everyone who stays, and I'll be grateful for everyone's past support if they decide to leave. <3 I will send out notes to everyone too, just to make sure people have read this announcement, so if you get a note from me again later today, you know why. 

There will be an original art sale soon, with a couple of really high-profile pieces that I've hung on to (Oath of Feanor is one of them, and several more). You will of course be notified first! 

THANK YOU. For everything. So much. <3