End of an Era (Patreon)

Hey folks.  I’ll begin with the TL;DR version, and then go into the long version. 

Starting on January 1st 2027, I will no longer be drawing illustration packs.  October, November, and December will be the last 3 months where I’m working on and posting new illustration sets as supporter rewards.

If you have an annual pledge that isn’t set to conclude before the year ends, you should contact me in December (or sooner, if you want) to receive a refund on your remaining annual pledge time.  For month-to-month pledgers, if you aren’t interested in sticking around for the new direction of the page, you should cancel your pledge in November or December, depending on when it’s due to renew.

In January 2027, I’ll be devoting my time and effort to game development. (tl;dr over)

It’s difficult to know where to begin explaining the reasons why it’s time to call it quits, and so before that, I wanted to sincerely thank everyone for the support you’ve provided over the past 8 years.  This isn’t a spontaneous decision; it’s something I’ve thought about for quite a while before coming to this conclusion.

As you know, my partner passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in July.  We talked all the time about our creative drives and goals, what we wanted to do and make if we had the means and the time to do so. He, as well as all of my close friends, knew and understood that drawing was a means for me to pay the bills while I tried to scrape together enough time to work on the projects I was passionate about.  He loved how alive and animated I’d become when I told him about my game projects and told me how excited he was for me to take the plunge and make working on games a full time commitment.  

But life kept getting in the way - unexpected expenses, rent increases, upheavals in the living situation, needing to move across the country, I could never seem to get to a place where it felt safe enough to make the switch. The plots and characters and settings and scripts I’d conceived and planned were inevitably filed away into an ever-growing folder of “maybe someday” ideas.  It’s incredibly painful knowing that he passed without being able to take one of those projects into his hands, completed, and experience something I poured all of myself into.  There was never enough time.

In the aftermath of his death, I took time away from patreon/subscribestar, and that distance gave me a clearer perspective into the relationship between myself and my illustration work.  Two months of absence is a blink of an eye when you’re mourning a person you’d planned on seeing every day for the rest of your life.  I also learned that two months of absence is too large a gap to be away when your output is the only thing someone cares about.  

This is the reality that anyone who produces something creative for a living is very familiar with - there are people who support the person behind the work through whatever they might be going through or whatever they’re interested in pursuing at the time,  and there are people for whom the relationship is strictly transactional - money for art, simple as that. If you aren’t making enough, or you aren’t making something they care about, they’re out.  This isn’t a moral or ethical distinction, both groups are entirely valid, but it is a real distinction.   This aspect of the job, where you’re desperately vying for people’s attention to keep yourself afloat and scrutinizing your ideas to pick the ones you hope will be enjoyed the most, even if it’s not an idea you’re interested in, can be emotionally challenging, though not everyone finds this to be an issue.  I can’t speak for how other artists feel, but for me personally, I became mired in an unhealthy relationship with my work over this.

If it’s the case that illustration isn’t what I want to be doing creatively, and it’s causing me stress and anxiety, the last motivation to continue is, logically, a financial one.  Rent and bills need to be paid, after all.

And, well, to put it very plainly, I make less than the minimum wage where I live, and I don’t have health (or any other) insurance. Given the complexity and detail of my work, illustrating also eats up significantly more time than “full time” hours.  I’m not fast enough for the finances to work out in my favor.  This isn’t an extraordinary circumstance to be in, either. There are artists in similar positions, and I can’t speak for them, but I have to imagine there’s some other aspect of the work that makes it worth it for them anyway.  Taking the time to reflect what the past few years have been like, I’ve concluded that I don’t have that.  The knowledge that I would actually have more time for game development while working full time at a “normal” job is something I’m not able to ignore anymore.

These reasons and more have informed my decision to make a change.

So, what’s next? 

For the next 3 months, illustrations as per usual. 

Sometime in December I will introduce a new “main” tier, cheaper than the current main tier, which will be a general support tier for my game development work.  I will be posting about what I’m working on, skills I’m actively developing, previews and snapshots, etc.  There will not be a regular/recurring “reward” schedule of any kind, you should only pledge to that tier if you’re interested in supporting me as I pursue what I want to be doing.

The other tiers will continue to exist for anyone who might want to contribute more, but there will no longer be monthly illustration rewards starting in 2027.

Beyond that, I’m not really interested in “pitching” or making a “strong case” to stick around, I understand that this will mean goodbye for most of you, so thank you again for your support.  I don’t know how many people will be interested in staying, but I have plans to keep afloat regardless of what the outcome is. 

Last thing: commissions.  I’ve received quite a few messages asking about commissions, and I have responded that I’m still working through my commission queue, and after that, I will open commissions again.  I still want to honor that response, and so despite my plans to pivot away from solely doing illustration work, I will open commissions for one final time once I’m done with my current batch.  My new rate isn’t finalized, but I’m looking at starting at $450 for a single character and $750 for 2 characters. 

If you’ve reached the end, thanks for reading.