Hey everyone! So 2018 is slowly starting to come to a close now and I just wanted to take this opportunity to make you aware that beginning in 2019 there are going to be some changes to the way I operate my Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.
AT THE MOMENT NOTHING IS SET IN STONE!!!! I JUST WANT TO GIVE YOU ALL A HEADS UP TO EXPECT SOME POTENTIAL CHANGES IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING SUPPORTING ME ON KO-FI OR PATREON
ALSO IF YOU DONT WANNA READ A WALL OF TEXT JUST SKIP TO THE TLDR AT THE BOTTOM OF BOTH SECTIONS
Ko-Fi Doodles
I thought i'd start with this one because this has proven over the course of the year to be very popular with you all. Once again, to everyone who has already bought me a coffee and gotten (or is waiting for) a doodle in return thankyou very very much! It really does mean a lot to me, you guys are super awesome and I really enjoy drawing your characters.
However....
As I mentioned before these doodles have proven to be very popular; so popular in fact that anyone who's checked out my Trello page will know that I currently have a backlog! This really took me by surprise as when I first started doing these I had no idea they would prove to be this popular (and believe me i'm not complaining; i'm really happy that you guys like this so much :-) ).
For this reason though i've concluded that i need to make some changes to the way I do these coffee doodles because unfortunately as much fun as it is drawing you all, I can't sustain it at this current level :-(. At one point I was getting so many coffee doodle requests that I was actually spending more time working on the doodles than doing any of my own artwork or reward/commissioned art.
I DO NOT WANT TO ADOPT A RAFFLE TICKET SYSTEM!!!!
I still want to try and keep this as 1 coffee = 1 picture, but i'm probably going to be changing what the picture type will be. At the moment doodles are random pictures of your character with a scenario decided by me which can contain up to 2 characters and are drawn and colored in no more than 1 hour. What i'm considering doing is changing this to a simple uncolored piece with no background and only 1 character (however i may add props and other minor things to enhance the scene.
THIS WILL NOT AFFECT UP TO DOODLE #73. THESE WILL STILL BE COMPLETED THE SAME WAY I'VE BEEN DOING NOW BUT FROM #74 ONWARDS I WILL BE ADOPTING A NEW METHOD.
TLDR
Thankyou all again for the coffees you're all awesome!!! :-D
Starting from doodle #74 I will possibly be changing the doodles from what they are now to a simple, uncolored image containing only 1 character and no background (but props may be added)
These changes ARE NOT YET set in stone and are just an idea I will be pondering over christmas.
Any changes (whatever I decide to go with) will only come into affect from doodle #74 onwards; anyone who's already waiting for a doodle up to number #73 will still have them completed using the method I've been using up to now.
Patreon/Den Supporters
I want to start off by saying thankyou to everyone who's both supported and continuing to support me on Patreon; even if you didn't stick around you're still awesome and i'm just as thankful for the support given :-D. Patreon was a very new thing for me to try and when I went into it I didn't really know what i was doing and I want to thank all of my previous and current supporters for being patient with me and bearing with the changes.
Over the course of the year I've learnt a lot about what my capabilities as an artist are and have always tried my hardest to deliver awesome pictures for you all, whether they be coffee doodles, patreon rewards, commissions and just personal pictures. However as you've probably noticed since about mid october i've been completely closed for commissions; this is because i've just been so busy with other stuff that i didn't feel I could take on any other work without giving people a very long wait; basically I knew i'd only have enough time to complete the raffle prize, a few coffee pics and maybe the occasional personal pic.
So what does this have to do with patreon?
Well my higher tier rewards mainly consist of discounts on commissions and early access to YCH slots; but obviously for that to work I have to actually be open for commissions and offering YCH slots. See the problem here? I don't think it's fair that you guys are spending all this money on rewards that you may not be able to take advantage of for a long time, so for this reason i'm going to revise all of my reward tiers over christmas, i'll still be giving discounts, but i want to make sure that everyone can still get some kind of reward even when i'm not able to take commissions.
One of the big changes i'm considering is to the raffle. At present all of my supporters are entered into 1 raffle for a chance to win a free full colored commission containing up to 4 character and a background. What's been suggested to me is to split this into smaller raffles with different prizes for each tier. To give you a rough idea this is one of the formats im considering (though it's not yet final and may change).
Supporter tier: Entry into a "supporter raffle" for a chance to win a free simple uncolored pic of their character in a random situation chosen by me (so basically a free Ko-Fi doodle)
Bronze/silver/gold tier: Entry into a "medium tier raffle" for a chance to win a free lineart commission containing up to 2 characters. However each tier will also carry a different "raffle ticket number" which will give you more chance of winning the more you pledge (Bronze = 1 ticket, Silver = 2 tickets, Gold = 3 tickets). So for example if you choose silver tier, your name will be written on 2 pieces of paper instead of 1 and placed into the tub, so there'll be more chance of you being picked. I may also tag on bonus features for higher tiers like the ability to add 1 more character or a background.
Platinum + Tier: Entry into a raffle for a chance to win a free full color commission containing up to 4 character and a background.
I'm also considering other ideas for rewards like allowing the higher tier supporters to have more influence over what I draw and being able to suggest things like possible YCH scenarios and other stuff.
TLDR
Thankyou to all of my current and past supporters it really means a lot to me :-D
I'm going to be revising my patreon rewards over christmas so expect changes if you are already pledging/considering pledging
One key change will be to the picture raffle, which will possibly involve splitting it up into smaller raffles with different prizes based on reward tier (see above for a full description of the possible format)
I'm also going to look at other possible rewards which don't involve discounts so that if i ever have to close for commissions for a long time people wont lose out.
I just want to finish by reiterating that at the moment NOTHING IS SET IN STONE! I just wanted to make you all aware that next year there will be some changes so that you don't get caught by surprise.
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