FA+
Shop
Bad News - Important, please read if you are waiting on art.
11 years ago
I don't really even know what to say anymore, I'm kind of in shock. I had written a big explanation here about what's going on in my personal life and where my health and finances are at right now because I feel you all deserve as much transparency as possible, but I've deleted it because I don't want people to think I'm making excuses or trying to garner sympathy. You've all been patient enough with me already, much more so than I could ever ask for. I'm trying to maintain what little bit of professionalism I have left. I don't want people to feel sorry for me, and I don't want anyone to feel like they can't contact me for fear of affecting my health. Please, if you have any questions, any concerns at all, please do contact me. I will answer you, I haven't forgotten anyone, and I won't avoid or ignore anyone who contacts me regarding late commission work or trades. I never have, and I never will. I will always respond to every message I get. You can reach me via email at excess-0[at]hotmail.com
What I will say is that I've been working my ass off to get these commissions done, and done to at least the standard you paid for, before Christmas. But I have more bad news.
Last night, really late, my hard drive died. I haven't even had it that long, I'm pretty sure it's less than 2 years old. There was no warning, nothing, it just locked up and started clicking and wouldn't even boot into bios so I shut it off immediately.
The rest of my computer is fine, my tablet is fine, everything else, at least for now, is fine. But the hard drive with nearly every single commission file on it is dead. I tried to save the files, but had no time, and couldn't risk damaging the files permanently by trying to troubleshoot the drive any longer. It's making that awful clicking sound, and running it like that for any length of time at this point would very likely destroy the files on the drive. I can't afford to risk losing those files completely if I haven't already. As it stands, I should hopefully be able to recover the files with a data recovery service, but it will cost anywhere from $350-1000. I'll be able to get an exact quote once I can take it in and have it assessed. The place is out of town, but I'll call in a favour and get a ride as soon as I can. When I know more, I'll make another journal to keep everyone posted. I have no idea where or how I will get the money. I've already sold or pawned anything I had that had any decent resale value a long time ago. I do not have a credit card, and can't get one because I am in the process of applying for ODSP(Ontario Disability Support Payments.) Without a fully functional arm, a functional brain, and a functional computer, I have no real ability to make money anymore. I'm a very resourceful person and I've managed to tough out a lot of things over the last 6 years or so, but I'm not a miracle worker. I'm lucky to still have a home to live in, and I'm very grateful that I'm not on the streets right now. I've had some pretty close calls.
In order to get back to work again, I have to replace my hard drive at the very least, and get an external hard drive to serve as a vault for all my working files because I can't afford to have this happen again. It's something I've been meaning to do for ages, but money has been so tight since my arm stopped working and my computer is pretty new, so I didn't make it as much of a priority as I should have. I was honestly more worried about my tablet, because it's more than 5 years old, but I definitely haven't had the money to upgrade that. I've never had a hard drive die so quickly before. I feel really stupid for not taking more precautions, regardless of my financial situation, I should have done better. Needless to say, the last few years have been a profound learning experience for me.
Replacing the hard drive so I can get back to work, and getting an external to back up files, will cost $150. With Christmas coming up, I might be able to pull some strings with the family and make that happen. Fingers crossed, again, I'll keep everyone updated.
In the meantime, I'll work on the traditional sketches I had set aside while I was working on the really big digital projects. I can always plug my scanner in to someone else's computer, or scan them at the library and get them sent to the people waiting for them. I don't have many left to finish at this point, the biggest hold up is just the big digital commissions I've been working on, and the slow work pace because my wrist is starting to really degrade again from everything I've been doing with it, and my mental health is degrading from a combination of stress triggers both professional and personal. I just don't have many resources left, and I'm really sorry, but I'm doing the best I can.
I'm sorry, everyone, for all of this.
I want good news for you.
I want to come on to this site and post a journal that says "Everything is going great, all the owed work is done! I'm healthy, happy, excited about the future and I have fun comics and stuff to share with you!" ...but I don't have that news to share. I'm seriously considering not doing commissions anymore in spite of it being my only real source of income, because it feels like life is trying to tell me that I'm not made for this, and I'm just too stubborn to take the hint.
As always, I love you all. Thank you for being so patient with me. I'll keep you posted. <3
-Excess
What I will say is that I've been working my ass off to get these commissions done, and done to at least the standard you paid for, before Christmas. But I have more bad news.
Last night, really late, my hard drive died. I haven't even had it that long, I'm pretty sure it's less than 2 years old. There was no warning, nothing, it just locked up and started clicking and wouldn't even boot into bios so I shut it off immediately.
The rest of my computer is fine, my tablet is fine, everything else, at least for now, is fine. But the hard drive with nearly every single commission file on it is dead. I tried to save the files, but had no time, and couldn't risk damaging the files permanently by trying to troubleshoot the drive any longer. It's making that awful clicking sound, and running it like that for any length of time at this point would very likely destroy the files on the drive. I can't afford to risk losing those files completely if I haven't already. As it stands, I should hopefully be able to recover the files with a data recovery service, but it will cost anywhere from $350-1000. I'll be able to get an exact quote once I can take it in and have it assessed. The place is out of town, but I'll call in a favour and get a ride as soon as I can. When I know more, I'll make another journal to keep everyone posted. I have no idea where or how I will get the money. I've already sold or pawned anything I had that had any decent resale value a long time ago. I do not have a credit card, and can't get one because I am in the process of applying for ODSP(Ontario Disability Support Payments.) Without a fully functional arm, a functional brain, and a functional computer, I have no real ability to make money anymore. I'm a very resourceful person and I've managed to tough out a lot of things over the last 6 years or so, but I'm not a miracle worker. I'm lucky to still have a home to live in, and I'm very grateful that I'm not on the streets right now. I've had some pretty close calls.
In order to get back to work again, I have to replace my hard drive at the very least, and get an external hard drive to serve as a vault for all my working files because I can't afford to have this happen again. It's something I've been meaning to do for ages, but money has been so tight since my arm stopped working and my computer is pretty new, so I didn't make it as much of a priority as I should have. I was honestly more worried about my tablet, because it's more than 5 years old, but I definitely haven't had the money to upgrade that. I've never had a hard drive die so quickly before. I feel really stupid for not taking more precautions, regardless of my financial situation, I should have done better. Needless to say, the last few years have been a profound learning experience for me.
Replacing the hard drive so I can get back to work, and getting an external to back up files, will cost $150. With Christmas coming up, I might be able to pull some strings with the family and make that happen. Fingers crossed, again, I'll keep everyone updated.
In the meantime, I'll work on the traditional sketches I had set aside while I was working on the really big digital projects. I can always plug my scanner in to someone else's computer, or scan them at the library and get them sent to the people waiting for them. I don't have many left to finish at this point, the biggest hold up is just the big digital commissions I've been working on, and the slow work pace because my wrist is starting to really degrade again from everything I've been doing with it, and my mental health is degrading from a combination of stress triggers both professional and personal. I just don't have many resources left, and I'm really sorry, but I'm doing the best I can.
I'm sorry, everyone, for all of this.
I want good news for you.
I want to come on to this site and post a journal that says "Everything is going great, all the owed work is done! I'm healthy, happy, excited about the future and I have fun comics and stuff to share with you!" ...but I don't have that news to share. I'm seriously considering not doing commissions anymore in spite of it being my only real source of income, because it feels like life is trying to tell me that I'm not made for this, and I'm just too stubborn to take the hint.
As always, I love you all. Thank you for being so patient with me. I'll keep you posted. <3
-Excess
Commissions are Closed while I catch up on my current Queue.
Standard Queue:
1. Mark - Large Sleeve Tattoo Design - 4/4 PAID - Painting/Finishing.
2.
barrakoda - Tank Girl Inspired trad. piece - PAID - Sketching
Standard Queue:
1. Mark - Large Sleeve Tattoo Design - 4/4 PAID - Painting/Finishing.
2.
barrakoda - Tank Girl Inspired trad. piece - PAID - Sketching
Also; I need to email you about our trade since I've actually managed to make some progress but I have a show in 4 days and am ready to die now.
Feel better yo~
I had the illustration for our trade NEARLY finished. I set it aside so I could crunch down on paid work, but now it's sitting on my dead hard drive, literally less than 2 hours from being a finished image. I had 3 images on there that were like that. Three whole big illustrations that were just a few hours from completion, I would have had them all done by today. I'm like... weeping into my open palms, at this point.
If I can recover the file for the illustration, I'll finish it for you. But depending on how long that takes, I might end up making you a whole new one in the meantime. If I do that, I'll make sure it's a totally different idea so that you don't end up with just a duplicate image. Ahaha
I've got plenty of cool ideas for that character, so honestly, I won't suffer if I need to draw her again. ;D
Please, take allllll the time you need on the trade. I've been so late with everything I've been working on, the last thing I'm going to do right now is rush anyone. Ahaha
Thank yooou~ I hope the show goes well for you, and that you don't lose too much sleep during prep. :U Just sleep for 3 whole days after it's over.
I have to echo the cloud storage idea. I was skeptical of it at first, but now a lot of my friends swear by it.
Don't put it off! Learn from my mistakes and back up your stuff, then change out the hard drive asap. Don't wait any longer than you absolutely have to!
Reminds me switch old drives with new ones and backup my stuff sometime soon .. o.o
I think the disks should still be intact, but I'll know for sure once I have it assessed by the data recovery company. I'm hoping I can get the data back without it costing a fortune, but I guess I'll have to wait and see. Fingers crossed!
Honestly, the biggest worry with data recovery is just the cost of it. My brother and I already tried to get any information off of the drive that we could, but there's no chance in hell, and every time we fire it up again, there's a chance we could be causing more damage. I'm going out this weekend to have it looked at and get a quote, from there... Depending on what it is going to cost, I can either beg my family to help me out, get set up with a new hard drive in my computer and do some sort of fundraiser to cover the cost of data recovery once I'm able to make art again... or just do all of the lost commissions over from scratch and then pay for the data recovery on the old drive with money from in-stream commissions or something, once the old queue is complete and I'm ready to go back to work again.
Life is hard, man. x_x