Another update - a long one (Patreon)

Hey everyone!

I thought it was time for a quick little update again - but this won't be little nor quick after all... This one is a personal thing again, so if you are not interested or don't want to be triggered with some sad shit, please skip the  *** section *** below ♥

First, let me share the fresh and happy news I just got: all the paperwork is done for international shipping, so now I can send big boxes out from the EU, FINALLY, YEEY! All the founders' boxes and the piled-up print rewards of this year will go out for you in one big package next week ♥ I won’t use national post this time, I’ll rather pay extra and have proper tracking than be in the dark again - so I’ll contact you each with the tracking information as soon as I get it!

Most importantly, thank you so much for all the good wishes and your patience and understanding in this difficult time I'm having. I'm not talking about it a lot but some of you know that I struggle with mental health issues anyway so I am truly on a rollercoaster now. It meant more than I even ever thought to have you here knowing you have my back and here for me whenever I can come back. Truly, guys, I can't say thank you enough!

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In the first week, I thought I can jump back into drawing right away, but I had to realize that I have some kind of mental block that simply stops me from doing more than staring at the iPad screen. Mixing grief and the fear of losing your whole art career and commissions in a few weeks, is not a good one, don't try it at home(I'm not funny I know but I had to try).

Luckily, I started to feel better this week and got to work on a few things again and it felt so great to create again ♥

Now, some of you are curious to know what happened and I know it's absolutely a human thing to be, but I don't want to go into details for several reasons, including that this may be veeeery triggering for some of you.

All I can say is that I still can't really process it, it still feels like they are both there a phonecall away. I think it will be impossible to process the events of these past weeks until we finally learn what exactly happened - as investigations are still ongoing.

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Also, this week I had the first Patreon member leave the team in a spectacularly dramatic and personally hurtful way. I never thought something like this would happen here, but it did, so I decided to enforce the tier reward rules even more from now on. These rules apply to everyone, regardless of how much you paid me or how long we know each other. I love you all and I know a lot of you for years now, so I hope you guys know it's not about you, but let me clear up some things real quick so hopefully, future members will see this and know the drill too ♥

I was pretty flexible and tried to make everyone happy with the print rewards, but this taught me an ugly lesson. So from now, artcards are not exchangeable with older ones, and only people with 12+ months of membership time can request older print stuff (like previous artcards or stationery designs or stickers). A4 prints are still an open game, you can choose anything from any of my online galleries, but if you don't do it before the end of each quarter, I will randomly choose something from my new pieces for you. I won't print anything else for anyone except the current quarterly rewards. No-more custom PayPal purchases regarding prints - if you want more than what you get in your current tier, please visit my Etsy shop! Also, if you wish to have a commissioned piece(book art for example) printed and you talked to the person who commissioned said piece, you will need to show me the written permission of said commissioner - or I will need to talk to them directly so I can be sure you have the permission.

I need to enforce these rules more seriously to protect myself, my small business, and all other parties in this game. Letting someone have rewards that other Patreon members don't have is not a way to go and I will never let others gain unfair advantages against other paying members under the disguise of friendliness. Even if my best friend joined he would get the same as everyone else. Sometimes I will send an extra print for you or something else additional, but those are gifts for stuff like Christmas etc, or just a trinket to thank you for the long support.

Few more thoughts to close this topic once and for all:

I am trying to build a small career with my art so I can have a life that I like thus my mental health can stay at bay. I don't want to be an "influencer", I am an artist and I just want a healthy life and a platform where anyone can be anything regardless of what ugliness the real world throws at us.

We are EQUAL.

If you think your problems and pain are superior to others and you disregard other people's pain, this is not your place and I'm not your person. Everyone has their own battles and pain, but I talk to everyone equally, regardless of status, health, gender, or anything else, and I ask the same from everyone on my platform.

We are all human beings and that's it.

But this doesn't mean I won't protect myself or others if you are mean or manipulative.

My attitude will mirror the level of consideration you show towards me and others.

Thank you so much for reading this long-ass sad post everyone ♥ Some sweet sweet art-updates coming in the next posts soon, I hope you'll like them!