Honestly, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Don't do it.
If you can't handle a rigorous schedule, obligations, and the stress of impending deadlines on top of commissions, you'll just cost yourself in the end.

^This.

$2k? No way. Patreon might do a little bit, maybe even a few hundred, but not nearly enough.

If you're unsure about a Patreon account giving you enough dosh or not, don't do it.

I've seen so many people shooting themselves on the foot by creating an account. They usually stop posting anything outside of their Patreon gallery, therefore nobody except the patrons can see their art, they don't get any exposure anymore and earn fuck all.
If you want to make extra $$$, why not. Just make sure to respect the schedules you set, but a Patreon won't give you enough to live off it.

This one is wise.

$2000?! That's like 4 times as much as I earn with a regular, full time job.

I am fine with artists using Patreon but once someone starts hiding behind it and neglecting their accounts elsewhere, then I stop supporting them.

Maybe do more YCHs? That way you'll probably get more money for your art over fixed prices and you don't fall into the pits that some above have mentioned about Patreon.

Just my thoughts btw but personally I'd avoid patreon. I find it concerning because I just wonder when everyone will remove all their artwork and hide behind patreon; if that happens, patreon just becomes a paywall. And that'd make just "falling over" by accident an artist you like harder, and it also reduces the audience for your artwork as well.

Me personally I've always favored something like a little button on a webpage which when clicked would send (say) $1 or $anyamount to an artist -- so long as a) the artist gets all the money and b) the website dosen't try to spam/track/malware/spy me in the process of using (they increasingly do these days; I've seen upwards of 20 trackers on websites before - x.x ). And it can be pressed any amount of times and those $ go straight to the artist. The critical point about it though would be no coercion.

Random thought here, probably no good but is it possible somehow to make prints of your artwork i.e. on paper into book form (rather than single pictures) and maybe sell those?

Sorry to hear btw that nobody is hiring you over there. Not sure but am I right in thinking the job situation in the US overall is still quite bad?

*hugs here's hoping you find work soon!


SP

I don't know if I have ever seen a Patreon reach $2000 a month for anything furry related yet. $400-$800 a month seems like a more realistic expectation. If you do start up a page there you have to remember you are basically going in business for yourself. That means you have to set and meet deadlines all on your own, you have to figure how much you can do while leaving leeway for things like vacation, sick, and personal time. You will also have to self advertise to continue growing your customer base. And you will have to figure out what prices for what rewards are really worth your time.

If you do start a patreon I have found things like YCHs, actual commission offers and reduced price commission offers, using the characters of donors in artist choice pics, and the ability to vote on the theme of certain pics or a monthly theme all seem to be popular options. You don't have to make things on Patreon exclusive either. Posting things elsewhere a few days to a week after posting them on Patreon seems to do just as well as making things Patreon exclusive.

Also, if you do start a Patreon page be on the look out for bots that just take up space. Try to get a response from people that do chose to be your patrons to make sure they real people.

My advice is pretty much with the majority of the group here. Don't do it. It's very unlikely you'll earn 2000 a month and even if you earn a little bit for side income, meeting the deadlines outside of work is going to be more stress and you don't wanna do that. I'd sooner say try hitting up local cons the fit your art style and sell prints there. You won't be able to live off cons either but it's way less stress and a lot more engaging.

While I am supporter of few artist's patreon, my 2 cents is that it's a no go

and if you think it's a mean to merely getting to do exactly what you want and having someone constantly monetarily support it
sad to say that not everyone can afford to do so despite there best intention, that is where incentives comes in to provide them justification

To consumers it's about incentives, but for artist it's really much about actively providing incentives within time constraints and meet expectation/promise
I will eat up a lots of your time and effort.
But even then, even the successful ones would hardly garner 2k per month

However, if you are looking for some extra cash, and doing more arting in the process
I am sure you have full backlog of those who are wanting to commission you

Supposing you are able to finish one colored piece a day/night, and doing it every other nights, say 2 out of 3 days, give you sometime off too
( based on how I see you work on stream, I am actually confident that you can actually crank out more work than that per night, but basically take this as very minimal baseline)
and a person is willing to pay 60 USD for such work

that could garner you 60x20 = 1200 USD per month, that's quite a bit of extra cash