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PLEASE READ - Addressing My Failings
8 years ago
General
Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all enjoyed the uploads I've put up. I apologize that I've looked to be so inactive because of that. This has brought to light, along with a kindness from my sweet vixen and close friends, that I've been poisoning myself with some of my habits.
From the lack of sales to the general attitude of some of my clients it's apparent that I've been doing some really upsetting and off-putting things regarding my job for some time now. So I need to clarify the problems and work towards correcting them. To start with - the lack of regular uploads. This is because I'm easily distracted and quite notoriously forgetful. However, that's no excuse so I'll redouble my efforts to prevent it from happening. Next is the speed of my progress both on regular commissions as well as work in streams. People have been expressing a distressing amount of impatience with how slow I've been. This particular one is a long standing issue that needs immediate and decisive measures to correct. As of now I've been able to at least provide sketches to those on my backlog (those that have given me the information needed to do so) so now it's only a matter of time until I have them all completed.
From there we come to the issue of transparency. Some people have expressed that I've been in a sort of communications blackout and that it seems I've disappeared from being active. This, I can assure you, isn't the case. I've been quite busy with both work as well as maintaining the home. In both cases I'm under performing. I'm trying, but trying won't due anymore. It's always a concern when an artist doesn't communicate or seems to have vanished so I'm taking action to fix that problem already. I'll have an update with this one this week.
Next there's the issue with my customer service. I've been told by a worrying number of people that I come off as insulting, intimidating, or outright rude. This one's a failure on my part and is completely unintentional. I don't have too much to say on it other than I'm looking into some coaching to solve the problem. If you ever feel that I've been hostile or abrasive please let me know so that I can correct those actions.
With these problems together it's been utterly disastrous to my income and if I don't take immediate measures to resolve these issues I'm looking at career death. As much as I'd appreciate the break from doing art it's the only means I have to make ends meet. So I must, without delay, take whatever steps are needed to recover from the mostly self-inflicted damage to my reputation.
Unfortunately, other than what I've listed above, I'm unsure if this is the extent of my problems. So I'm asking for you, my treasured watchers, to enlighten me on whatever elements are dragging me down. At this point I'm willing to do almost anything to fix this and return to good graces in the community.
For now I'm going to discontinue streaming for the foreseeable future since they're drawing in very little business. This means that commissions from here on out are open for any type. I'll only be taking in a few slots at a time to keep them manageable and keep whittling down that damn backlog. So rest assured that if you're currently waiting for art from me that you'll have it sooner rather than later. I'm also looking into adding in some new products to sale and new projects to pique everyone's interest. Hell, if I had the time I'd love to learn how to do full animations. Sadly, that'll have to wait until I have more free time though.
So in order to reach my goals and to preserve my career I'm asking, hell I'm begging, for input from all of you as to how to make amends for my transgressions. Comment below and I'll do my best to respond to each post and take all suggestions into consideration
Thank you all greatly for your time
-Nate
From the lack of sales to the general attitude of some of my clients it's apparent that I've been doing some really upsetting and off-putting things regarding my job for some time now. So I need to clarify the problems and work towards correcting them. To start with - the lack of regular uploads. This is because I'm easily distracted and quite notoriously forgetful. However, that's no excuse so I'll redouble my efforts to prevent it from happening. Next is the speed of my progress both on regular commissions as well as work in streams. People have been expressing a distressing amount of impatience with how slow I've been. This particular one is a long standing issue that needs immediate and decisive measures to correct. As of now I've been able to at least provide sketches to those on my backlog (those that have given me the information needed to do so) so now it's only a matter of time until I have them all completed.
From there we come to the issue of transparency. Some people have expressed that I've been in a sort of communications blackout and that it seems I've disappeared from being active. This, I can assure you, isn't the case. I've been quite busy with both work as well as maintaining the home. In both cases I'm under performing. I'm trying, but trying won't due anymore. It's always a concern when an artist doesn't communicate or seems to have vanished so I'm taking action to fix that problem already. I'll have an update with this one this week.
Next there's the issue with my customer service. I've been told by a worrying number of people that I come off as insulting, intimidating, or outright rude. This one's a failure on my part and is completely unintentional. I don't have too much to say on it other than I'm looking into some coaching to solve the problem. If you ever feel that I've been hostile or abrasive please let me know so that I can correct those actions.
With these problems together it's been utterly disastrous to my income and if I don't take immediate measures to resolve these issues I'm looking at career death. As much as I'd appreciate the break from doing art it's the only means I have to make ends meet. So I must, without delay, take whatever steps are needed to recover from the mostly self-inflicted damage to my reputation.
Unfortunately, other than what I've listed above, I'm unsure if this is the extent of my problems. So I'm asking for you, my treasured watchers, to enlighten me on whatever elements are dragging me down. At this point I'm willing to do almost anything to fix this and return to good graces in the community.
For now I'm going to discontinue streaming for the foreseeable future since they're drawing in very little business. This means that commissions from here on out are open for any type. I'll only be taking in a few slots at a time to keep them manageable and keep whittling down that damn backlog. So rest assured that if you're currently waiting for art from me that you'll have it sooner rather than later. I'm also looking into adding in some new products to sale and new projects to pique everyone's interest. Hell, if I had the time I'd love to learn how to do full animations. Sadly, that'll have to wait until I have more free time though.
So in order to reach my goals and to preserve my career I'm asking, hell I'm begging, for input from all of you as to how to make amends for my transgressions. Comment below and I'll do my best to respond to each post and take all suggestions into consideration
Thank you all greatly for your time
-Nate
I will say that my customer service and the way I handle my commissions continues to be well recieved, there's no gurantee I could help, but if in some way I could, you're welcome to poke me or what have you! I imagine you'll rock this and get it all sorted soon though! Good luck Nate!
Glad to see you posting again and I hope that this is this last time you have to make something like this.
One thing I did notice is that when a client contacts you in some off way, like say using the wrong messenger or not including heights in reference material, you tend to air it in such a way that may make the client feel victimized or uncomfortable, like writing a journal or announcement promptly as opposed to individually informing the client.
This part is personal opinion, but I think streaming on Tigerdile handicapped your streams. The site looks old and weird, the stream itself isn't immediately visible on your page, and the notification system is beyond unreliable. I have only ever received a stream notification in my email once from Tigerdile, having followed 3 channels, whereas Picarto and Twitch reliably email me at never-more-than 15 minutes from the stream going live, and sometimes within seconds of start.
I know that things are gonna brighten for ya dude, and I can't wait to throw more money at you.
picarto is a very large platform, with tons of people on it everyday. most people have a picarto account so i think you should probably switch to picarto for your streams. plus, alot of people who browse picarto find artists they either recognize or artists that they think are quite well. so publicity and popularity of the platform between many communities is a big benifit of picarto :)
so my recommendation is perhaps you should give picarto.tv a shot for when you stream, nate ^^
I haven't commissioned you, I've been wanting to but I'm forgetful sometimes and it ends up not happening.
Anyways, to the real part of the comment, I didn't know you were have problems, or thought you were just simply taking a break or just doing a lot of work and doing mass uploads from time to time. Either way, to come out like this and confront the problems you have been having is a good move on you!
Shows your responsibility, the commitment, and the passion you put behind your artwork and care that you want to change for the better for your customers and watchers. It's a great start, and I do hope it only gets better from here on out!
Here's a long time watcher rooting for you Nate! You take care ^^
You have very nice artwork, and it's great to see you wanting to improve! But even improving all that you've listed is not going to help you unless you cut back your prices some, so that you can offer your artwork to a much larger clientele. Maybe you'll be able to offer such high prices again some day, but as you've essentially hit rock bottom- you have to start from the bottom again.
i dunno, it works with me and i think it could work with you when you talk to your clients
some people can be intimidated by talented artists (this is usually out of respect or they dont want to act like a fool in front of someone they view as a idol), so showing them that you are calm or happy can put them at ease. ^^
i hope this helps, and i hope things get better for you
Of course, it's your icon, you can do as you wish, but you want something to attract folks as it may be the first hint of you they see when they see your art.
You've got a huge following, and if you aren't seeing as many people in stream or responding to sales it's probably one of a few things - lack of exposure and buzz, unfavorable pricing, or lack of availability. While your prices are high I wouldn't say they're beyond what folks should expect to pay for professional-grade work. Availability may or may not be an issue - when you run streams or open for work you usually have a good number of slots, but I don't actively count them. So I think the issue is probably the lack of buzz.
If Fox's and my experiences have taught us anything, it's that creative businesses live or die on exposure. When I'm not posting regularly or running an ad, I usually see a cooler reception to the sales I run and cancelled pledges on my Patreon. Even my regulars sometimes drop me for a month or two - if I'm not making an effort to be present in their lives, it's easier for them to decide that money is better spent elsewhere.
I hope all this works out; you and Vixie deserve all the success!
Looks like the last two points apply here a LOT. Also, it really doesn't take that much longer to upload each commission separately instead of putting 3-4-5 of them in a single picture (resized to a smaller size) and uploading that.
I'm not as bad as I make myself out to be. I'm just incredibly self critical and I'm always looking for ways to improve or correct issues that pop up.
Every person that commissions from me gets a full res copy of the image. I've already been made aware that people would like to see larger versions but I'm by no means obligated to do so. This seems more like nitpicking and less like constructive criticism, which is my intent with this journal. If you do have something to point out to help me improve then by all means feel free to let me know. I'm a pretty laid back guy ^.^
1.) is this weird "dickishness" about talking to you. When you're on mic, you're genuinely funny and enjoyable to be in chat with, I really like it. Talking to you via text, for some reason, you come off more coldly and unfriendly. Like on mic I can ask for a change and you'll gently be like "Oh IDK if I can do that at this stage, sorry :/" and sound understanding, but over text it'll be like "*sighs and rubs forehead* I can't do that, no."
Small thing that kinda makes or breaks the experience
2.) Someone above mentioned price, but I'm kinda yes/no about it. I don't think the price is too high, but I think the end product is a bit off. Not like the art style or anything, but the sketch almost looks incomplete. IDK how to describe it WHATSOEVER but the sketches I tend to get, the lines are semi-translucent so it makes coloring them impossible/incredibly difficult because the color shows up through the lines. I get they are 'sketches', but even doing a sloppier lining (multi strokes etc) with a solid pen vs whatever tool you use now (I have no clue what you use tbh o.o) would be more appreciated?
IDK if anybody would agree with me on this but whatevs
THOSE are my two cents. I do love your art, think it's fantastic and I would hit you up for art if summer wasn't my "I don't work or get money" time of the year
I really DO HOPE that more people start coming back to you.
OH PS Maybe having more agreeable stream times. You tend to stream rather late to that knocks out most of Europe and other parts of the world there that would be willing to art with you. It might be best if you can find a way to stream earlier in the day (like start 10-12 your time so you can catch the widest breadth of audience you can) to maximize who can/will go to your stream
For the part on my stream times that's a complicated thing to work out. Since I live in North America I tend to sell mostly to that audience. If I were to move the stream times I'd run into the same problem in the other direction. No matter when I do it someone gets left out.