Update (Patreon)

Hello my friends,

I'd like to give you an update on how things are going right now.

First, let's talk about the Pixiv situation. About a month and a half ago, Pixiv changed how they handle certain things.... specifically promotion and posting frequency.

Essentially, promoting your content is no longer really allowed, and posting more than once per day can result in your account being shadowbanned. Naturally, I fell right into that category and ended up getting shadowbanned.

I eventually managed to get the restriction lifted by basically nuking my entire account and starting over, only posting once per day. But at this point, the site is effectively dead for me, and for many other creators as well.

As a result, I've lost around 40 Patreon subscribers over the last month. To put that into perspective, take my worst month on Patreon and cut it in half, that's roughly the impact these changes had on me.

But honestly, I'm over it now. There's not much I can do to change it, and dwelling on it won't help.

When one door closes, another one opens! 🚪

Over the last few weeks, I was approached by someone on DeviantArt. My first reaction was to ignore it, because let's be honest... you get a lot of scam messages on there.

However, this person was persistent and reached out several times. Eventually, I decided to take a closer look, and it turned out to be an official member of the DeviantArt staff.

Fast forward a bit, and they presented me with the opportunity to officially work with DeviantArt as a creator. The program comes with a number of benefits, including promotional support, an account manager, and several other perks.

Last Friday, I had an actual Zoom meeting with them where they explained the program in detail and pitched the idea to me.

The main thing I took away from the meeting is that DeviantArt is actively trying to establish itself as an alternative to Patreon and is investing in creators to help make that happen.

We have another meeting scheduled for tomorrow to go over the agreement. Assuming everything goes well, I'll most likely begin this new journey with DeviantArt shortly afterward.

Once everything is finalized, I'll make an official announcement here and let you know exactly when it starts.

And lastly, a few weeks ago I started experimenting with what was essentially a beta version of a new AI. In many ways, it was already superior to the one I currently use. However, it was still very rough when it came to aesthetics, and at the time I decided not to switch over.

Fast forward to today: the beta phase is over, and the full version has officially been released. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time working with it, trying to adapt my style to the new AI.

It’s still not quite 100% where I want it to be, but I’m honestly very happy with the progress so far. On top of that, the community is growing rapidly, and several well-known creators in the AI space have started producing resources and tools for it.

Because of that, I think a complete switch is only a matter of time. In fact, I’ve already started integrating 2–3 illustrations created with the new AI into the After Hours releases.

That’s all for now!

Have a great rest of your day, and thank you all for your continued support.