See, that's a tricky one. The first thing that comes to mind is, when messaging the people who's character you want to draw, is to limit it to people you know that won't make a stink if you ever decided to not go through with it. Judging from the rest of the journal though, it sounds like even if they didn't mind you cancelling the art, you'd still feel somewhat bad about it yourself (pardon me if I'm wrong here).
The only other downside to that is that the pool of people that even fit that category is probably incredibly small, and I can already hear the complaints from people who don't fit that category.

You're right about the first point, but I can't message people I "know won't make a stink" because I've never talked to them before, so I won't know if they'll make a stink until after I already semi-commit to drawing for them. And you're also right about me feeling bad if I just never end up doing it.

If I'm being honest, I don't think there's any surefire way to do art that will satisfy all the things you've mentioned. Something's gotta give somewhere.

I treated art like a job for years and it really wore me out and I started to hate drawing. Drawing more for yourself will really be good. Do what is best for you , and draw what you wanna draw!

This is a tricky one. My words might not be the best, but i'm trying. It sounds like you're on the brink of burning out, but just doing it for the fun, not the wealth. I don't blame you on that. I mean, getting tons of ideas and comms are fun, but you have to debate your time on other stuff you've never done back then. And for being anti-social, a lot of artists are like that. They think because where they are, they don't really like to talk to other people to break their mojo per se. All you have to do is just branch out is all. I know you don't like to talk to new people and such, but when I got hated, I starting finding other people to talk to. Nowadays I talk to those around me and there was ever trouble, they'd all help out. Fund related and whatnot or just to hang out mostly. I don't care about the money in the world myself too. I'm always here to just talk and hangout and whatnot. I'm just bored for the meantime is all. I don't really want free art or anything since I just don't care much about it. I just care about talking usually or just being by myself works as well.

I'm excited to hear that you're not giving up art all together even if your priorities have shifted. I've been a huge fan for years.

I mean the character binder sounds like an awesome idea. Maybe prune it? If this is turning into your recreation, maybe axe characters that just flat out don't appeal to you? That might help thin the huge list here and motivate you to go through it. And/or change it so the options of solo or things not including your characters are just flat out off the table.

Or maybe fresh start? Just dump the entire Binder and start over from scratch (maybe keep the few that you're super interested in) perhaps starting over would also give you an idea of how many people are still interested in this system as opposed to characters that have have been in there for who knows how long? Just spit-balling the idea that maybe not using the binder system for so long has sort of given you a mental block toward it? I don't know how you operate, I'm just speaking from personal experience. So, new look tweaked options, fresh start

I also feel like you make a good point that reaching out to the owner of the character is important. I wonder if not only should one upload their character into this form but also list like several ways to contact them in order to verify authenticity.

The list might also need a disclaimer about how if you reach out to someone it doesn't mean that you're drawing, it just means that you need clarification. Just be clear to everyone that they shouldn't expect anything even if you reach out.

I don't think it's unreasonable for you to only want to draw things including your own characters, with limited time on your hands it's best to draw what motivates you considering you're fortunate enough not to need the money.

Congrats on that by the way, it's cool to hear that you're successful and living your best life =)

Sorry for rattling off a book here. I hope you get it figured out, I need to get on that list too lol.

I don't really know a solution to the proof of that someone owns the character aside from the honour system, but there's always a person that'd ruin any good-faith endeavour for everyone else.

I know how you feel, Ive done a lot of art, personally never got amazing at it but I always hated being pressured by taking comissions but it was always fun to draw other people's characters.

I'm cool with most funkadelic stuff and my characters are funkadelic themselves. If you find you're so inclined to draw something with my characters, I'd be welcoming

Asking for dialogue about a piece of art you're potentially interested in making shouldn't be misinterpreted as commitment to making that piece of art a reality. Especially if it's not for money!

I'm sure some folks feel an entitlement to your art as often happens with artist/viewer parasocial relationships but the thing is you just don't owe anyone anything unless the paid you money for it. It's rad that you post your stuff here for us all to enjoy, and it's rad that you offer the opportunity to draw other's characters for fun. But it shouldn't feel like an obligation and nobody should pressure you to feel that.

If it makes more sense to only draw your friends characters to avoid weird interactions I think that's perfectly understandable and maybe a good route. It's ok to play favorites with who you spend your free time and creative energy on. That's just good boundaries

The character binder is a good idea, but I can understand all the reservations you have about it in conjunction with your own anxieties about time constraints and antisocial factors.

One thing I can think of: when someone submits a character to the binder, you can have a confirmation window explicitly detailing that any contact from you is NOT a guarantee of artwork and could just be for verification of ownership and possible brainstorming. That will alleviate the burden of possible misinterpretation of being featured in art if you contact someone; if they get disappointed or raise their expectations, then it's on them for not reading/understanding what they've gotten into.

Another possibility: Outsource the social aspect. If you have a friend you trust who IS social and good at talking to people, you can create a channel in discord that's only accessible by people with a certain role, and in that channel they can post references and contribute to discussions on ideas and stuff. The person you trust can vet those interested by confirming their identities (through FA profile editing, IE: posting a secret passphrase on their main bio given by the person vetting for confirmation). They can also make sure the interested person knows what to expect and that being in the channel is not a guarantee of art (and is just participation in the system), as well as just getting a feel for the person in general. If they check out, you can give them the role to that channel. Of course, this is assuming you have a friend willing to do it for you.

You could also host raffles of sorts. That way you can set the rules beforehand, like what you're in the mood to draw and what kind of characters you're after, and interested parties can submit their characters. Low risk of misinterpretation here, and easier to start conversation with the winners/those chosen while minimizing disappointment.

Just some ideas, maybe hopefully can spark your own brain juices, or inspire discourse toward a workable solution.

Ultimately, it's impossible to perfectly please everyone. There are going to be some that are disappointed. There are going to be those that just want to burn you or burn others by using you. That's just kind of the nature of our species, and the best thing you can really do is trying better to improve yourself to deal with it if/when it happens.

It's a tricky group of problems to be sure.

As to the first problem, I think about all you can do is make it clear that it be characters that they own, and perhaps request a link in your form to where they keep stuff involving their character to see if it feels... normal. Just a peek around someone's gallery is sometimes enough to weed out the worst of the character thieves... and perhaps for an added bit of security, request they include a bit of information in it so you know it's theirs. Beyond that, it really is just the honor system... and there's always going to be some that will take advantage of that... so perhaps just 'go with your gut' might be the best suggestion.

As to the second, perhaps making it clear that you're just brainstorming/spitballing ideas, and may or may not do a drawing involving their character would be helpful. Setting clear expectations up front can be helpful for a lot of things, and on your end, it really need only be a boilerplate thing you tack onto the beginning of communication. While it still may create an expectation in some, at that point, it's just unreasonable behavior on their part... which may help relieve your worries somewhat even if they do get antsy.

Another option could be to request critters that might be okay with litearlly anything, to reduce the worry about connected fetishes and so on. Even if you included a section for "but I really like X", so you could see who might be more interested in a particular topic, you'd have a bit more leeway on related things. Maybe that'd ease concerns a bit on your end? Certainly, there's plenty of people out there who enjoy giving artists full artistic freedom on works. I know I do.

TL;DR: I guess asking a little more of those that would like to contribute to your pool of characters to draw might be helpful for both big issues: to prove characters are theirs (via even something as simple as a profile update), and to make sure people are open to what you want to draw via stating that it's pretty much anything goes. It might limit the pool a bit, but it probably will limit your worries too.

You do you, that's the most important part. If you don't need art as a means of supporting yourself anymore then draw whenever you feel like drawing - and if you find a character you may want to draw with your character, then ask the owner if they'd be interested in a *potential* drawing, explaining that it's a 50/50 that it'll happen. Normal people will be excited just because you like their character - and if something comes out of it, then it's just a bonus.

But these are just my thoughts ;3

Congrats on the job, hopefully it also is enjoyable on top of paying.

As for the problems posed specifically; no idea. It's been years, so much can have changed, but using the characters of people you *know* seemed to work. Could just keep with that?

This is a fairly difficult situation. The best I can see is to keep with the binder idea and as you said message the people to verify it's their character and so forth. The only thing to prevent that expectation mentioned would be to include in your question that it's a possible query and that art is still not guarantee in the same fashion you say on your website it's not guaranteed. Your website also specifies that if you're not 100% about the kink not to put it down. You have these barriers already in place but I do understand the fear that those won't hold. Not much I help I suppose but I think you've answered your own question in a roundabout way.

Hey man do what you feel is right for you. I'd rather have happy Ralek than miserable Ralek that drew a fox pon or a snep. Do what makes you feel right.

honestly just posting as a hobby and having the option to open comms in bad times without the risk of burnout from doing it as a job is definitely a good option i'm glad you're taking.

goodluck with finding the work life balance, it's good to see you're taking steps to do so.

There is an artist on derpibooru named T72B. He only takes requests. And he will make that absurdly clear to you the second you pitch him an idea, the plan being that by making it clear he also frees himself from any commitment that would come from accepting money.

My idea would be to scrap the character binder and simply make a journal saying you're taking requests, then telling people in the description to leave a comment and that their idea might be chosen. This is what appelnetken did a while ago.

It's not an ideal solution by any means but the contentious point of the binder being possibly exploited by bad actors is simply too great to ignore, plus the awkward moment of asking someone for their character and them getting the feeling that they're going to get something for free.

This might actually work, but I'd like It to be somewhat private instead of a journal. Likely another site where you can authenticate with Twitter or something (so I know you're real) and you can submit requests there.

I think your site will do given it has a login system, though you'd have to add Twitter login. Can it send emails?

NGL i discovered you quite recently, which is a shame cause I reaaaaaally do like the stuff you make. made me want to ask for a commission in the future if there ever was a chance for it. keep drawing what you draw and makes you happy and the people that like it will always find you one way or the other.

As for a good way to fix the issue with the binder, you can keep an open journal with people wanting to have their characters posted. It's hard to steal someone's character in FA since people that recognize the user always alert about the theft and it would also give you a good common ground to not be pressured about it, since above all it is something you simply like doing. As long as it is fun for you, thats what matters!

I can't really offer any solutions because unfortunately... There's not really any.
Almost any solution I could give you is a compromise in some way, and would likely leave someone unhappy with the possible outcome.

If you want a little bit of flavour with your pieces though, you're free to have a peek at some of my critters. I'm always more than happy to let artist play and experiment with what's mine, especially as I've almost no limits to what kinks I can enjoy. And I like to think of myself as pretty friendly, so if you're ever unsure I'm happy to have you in my DMs to discuss stuff. ^~^

Haha. Go figure, I finally get around to submitting a character to the binder, and then I catch this on my FA feed after going a couple days without checking it. Now that's timing. lol

I can see why you're having trouble with this. Perhaps ironically, when I was adding Luna to the binder, I was actually a little concerned I was adding in too much detail in the notes as compared to some of the publicly visible characters. I actually tried to cut it down because I didn't want to be annoyingly verbose.

I about wound up dropping a novel here in the comments full of half-baked ideas from my half-asleep brain. Might come back and post them later (hopefully in a more concise and easily digestible manner) once I've had a chance to review them when I'm more clear-headed. In the meantime, I'll simply wish you the best of luck in finding a satisfactory solution.

Best approach is to take the whole and divide it into chunks, then go after each little problem individually until you've got the whole solution. Not gunna lie, it's going to be clunky at first, but every new update has some bugs to fix, right?

1. You don't want to have the obligation of charging money. Easy enough, the solution is to not charge. But, you know, you've already solved that one. At the same time, it's a good thing to have any easy problem or two. Boost morale and all that jazz. =w= (That being said, if you like the side stash for pocket change, a tip jar never hurts)

2. You need a way to verify characters/owners. That part is certainly tricky. One of the hardest things about having publicly viewable characters is that anyone could have gotten them from anywhere. But, that can also be its own safety feature if used correctly. Amass enough art of a character under your username and it becomes that much harder for thieves to hide the fact that it isn't their own. If you were to ask me, a decent security prerequisite could be that applicants need to have at least a small gallery of the character beneath their own username, and with proper sourcing if the artpiece wasn't made by them. This does pose a new problem that it limits all applicants to those with the money to spend on art or the skill to make it themselves, as well as having a public gallery somewhere. But, by the same token, with the growing prevalence of base packs, it really wouldn't be that hard for just about anyone with spare time and a small chunk of change to create a little bit of artwork on their own. That's where some of my characters started, after all. For starting points, at the very least, you could do worse for verifications.

3. You need to be sure the idea you have in mind will be well received. I'd love to say it's as simple as good communication, but I buy enough YCH's and commissions to know that language barriers are the bane of us all, artist and commissioner alike. Some of us are skilled and talented enough to take the initiative to pick-up secondary languages, but even that can only go so far. Effective communication will always remain crucial, but I have the most luck and best results when I manage to find the artists that break down the artistic process into steps and approvals. Discuss the concept. Make a simple sketch. Get it approved. Add some color. Get it approved. Add detail. Get it approved. Add the finishing touches. Get it approved. At each approval step, you offer the other party a chance to have errors fixed, as well as visually convey the concept as you understand it. In your case, the other party would be able to get a pretty good idea of what's really going on at the very first sketch, and you'll have only invested the smallest amount of effort at the point if they decide they don't like it. At which point, if you like it, you can keep it aside and present it to a different party later. If that party likes it, it's just a matter of swapping the old character(s) for the new one(s) and re-entering the approval process. Else, if you're not fond of the initially rejected sketch, scrap it and move on. Simple as that. Granted, the effort and personal investment into even a simple sketch varies widely from person to person. My idea of a sketch is the raw scratches that vaguely resemble a pose or scene. My wife's idea of a sketch is a fully refined lineart(like what you would expect to find in a children's coloring book). Some artists consider a sketch to pertain at least basic coloring. So this part is a little more subjective to how you operate the artistic process. As we say in the mechanic's world, "this kit may require additional modifications".

4. You need a guilt-free way to tell people that you may not draw their idea, even if you approached them and have gotten deep into discussion. That may be the most difficult part, as you can't simply do raffles or a set number of slots of which you may choose any or none from. Well, I mean, you could, but then you lead into the problem of feeling the obligation to choose at least one, even if you don't like any of them. You'd risk the chance of running into too many of those and then deciding that you just don't want to draw anymore, and that's not a fun way to quit any scene. But sometimes the most complicated problems have the simplest solutions. Take requests as you are most comfortable with taking them, and just be plain and up-front with the fact that you may not draw anything even if you've gone deep into discussion. If they accept it; perfect! You've absolved yourself of fault. If they don't accept it; that's their fault. It's a requirement, and no one should try to pidgeon-hole you for free art. If they accept it and then later go back on it; fuck 'em. Those kinds of people are not the ones you should be trying to satisfy. Your comfort, mentality, and quality are not commodities to be bartered.

I just realized that I'm about a week late with this after having written everything... but I'm already here and it can't hurt. Hope you find a little bit of help in my suggestions. ^w^