FA+
Shop
Reflecting on 2018 and planning for 2019
7 years ago
So, long journals are one of those things I try to avoid because you know. Privacy and whatnot, but! I am drafting this as a sort of guide to some changes I’m going to be making to improve on maintaining healthy work practices.
As some may or may not know, the winter months (ranging from about mid October to mid January) tend to be the lower months for my productivity and output, I’m not 100% sure what it is, but I do have an inkling. I’m involved with a lot of family related activity once we hit that holiday trifecta, and family requires energy that my very introverted self has little to spare for, on top of which SADS is a thing I’ve always suffered from when it starts to get into the shorter days and longer nights. I will be endeavoring to invest in one of those fancy lights this year, but also cutting back on what I offer to do for family (I somehow end up being chef and event planner every year and cutting back would be ideal even without the need to be artistically creative.) Those who have commissioned me during this time have doubtlessly noticed the sudden and lengthy dip in delivery times, for that I apologize. I’m still figuring all this small business owner my-own-boss stuff out, the learning curve can be brutal sometimes!
This brings me to the subject of commissions going forward. At the end of 2017 I suffered a pretty severe artblock that made me nearly give up art altogether, and it was really compounded by the fact that when I can’t deliver, I feel exceedingly bad, and then get stuck in this guilt cycle of inactivity-- it’s pretty gnarly. The theme you’ll find prevalent in this journal is learning. I tried some very different methods for commission work last year and - overall - the way I structured them worked relatively well for me, I do better when I have more freedom over the things I offer and it allows me to grow more in a direction I want to be going. The happier I am, the better the art I produce (go figure, right?) I produced more and tried new things, making it a success, but! There were still some hitches in that giddyup I need to work out.
Now, onto money. I don’t make enough of it. While my weekly specials method produced better art, when it comes down to the numbers and what I need to ideally make to not just keep my head above water, I did abysmally. Last year I just skirted by with the bare minimum, and if at any point I want to improve my situation, I need to do better than that, but there is a delicate balance there to maintain in order to avoid the scary and often times damning burnout. The conclusion I came to is that I need to have some sort of residual income I can count on, on a monthly basis, and I believe that means attempting patreon once again and trying to create designs that suit merch that can be sold elsewhere. The more streams of revenue, the more stable I’ll be, opening up a whole new world of possibilities to me (and you, by proxy.)
I’ve spent a while considering how to structure a patreon in a way that will be maintainable from month to month, regardless of the season, and striking a balance between give and get is always hard, but one of my ideas for higher tier incentives have been bases. I’ve seen it work wonderfully well for some artists and those will always be available. Particularly bases for my custom species, but with plans for more generalized bases down the line, providing that’s something of interest to people. That’s the biggest part of it, the remainder of their structuring is rather general, and I’ve been creeping a lot of artists patreons to get a feel for what makes their pledge tiers most enticing. Another fun idea is monthly sketch pages, with certain tiers having chances at, or full OC features in a series of laidback doodles. And another still is doing process tutorials on how I do certain things-- assuming the interest is there.
I’m also considering putting together a gumroad for base expansions (specifically with the Faer in mind, once again, but for other bases down the line also) and the bases themselves as an alternative for people to flat purchase.
It’s all very WIP right now, but I’m trying to gauge interest and see whether or not it’s worth putting together, so leave me some feedback:
Do you pledge to artist patreons already? If so what do you like and what do you dislike in the tiers & milestones.
Do you like more or less audience involvement on what the artist produces?
As some may or may not know, the winter months (ranging from about mid October to mid January) tend to be the lower months for my productivity and output, I’m not 100% sure what it is, but I do have an inkling. I’m involved with a lot of family related activity once we hit that holiday trifecta, and family requires energy that my very introverted self has little to spare for, on top of which SADS is a thing I’ve always suffered from when it starts to get into the shorter days and longer nights. I will be endeavoring to invest in one of those fancy lights this year, but also cutting back on what I offer to do for family (I somehow end up being chef and event planner every year and cutting back would be ideal even without the need to be artistically creative.) Those who have commissioned me during this time have doubtlessly noticed the sudden and lengthy dip in delivery times, for that I apologize. I’m still figuring all this small business owner my-own-boss stuff out, the learning curve can be brutal sometimes!
This brings me to the subject of commissions going forward. At the end of 2017 I suffered a pretty severe artblock that made me nearly give up art altogether, and it was really compounded by the fact that when I can’t deliver, I feel exceedingly bad, and then get stuck in this guilt cycle of inactivity-- it’s pretty gnarly. The theme you’ll find prevalent in this journal is learning. I tried some very different methods for commission work last year and - overall - the way I structured them worked relatively well for me, I do better when I have more freedom over the things I offer and it allows me to grow more in a direction I want to be going. The happier I am, the better the art I produce (go figure, right?) I produced more and tried new things, making it a success, but! There were still some hitches in that giddyup I need to work out.
Now, onto money. I don’t make enough of it. While my weekly specials method produced better art, when it comes down to the numbers and what I need to ideally make to not just keep my head above water, I did abysmally. Last year I just skirted by with the bare minimum, and if at any point I want to improve my situation, I need to do better than that, but there is a delicate balance there to maintain in order to avoid the scary and often times damning burnout. The conclusion I came to is that I need to have some sort of residual income I can count on, on a monthly basis, and I believe that means attempting patreon once again and trying to create designs that suit merch that can be sold elsewhere. The more streams of revenue, the more stable I’ll be, opening up a whole new world of possibilities to me (and you, by proxy.)
I’ve spent a while considering how to structure a patreon in a way that will be maintainable from month to month, regardless of the season, and striking a balance between give and get is always hard, but one of my ideas for higher tier incentives have been bases. I’ve seen it work wonderfully well for some artists and those will always be available. Particularly bases for my custom species, but with plans for more generalized bases down the line, providing that’s something of interest to people. That’s the biggest part of it, the remainder of their structuring is rather general, and I’ve been creeping a lot of artists patreons to get a feel for what makes their pledge tiers most enticing. Another fun idea is monthly sketch pages, with certain tiers having chances at, or full OC features in a series of laidback doodles. And another still is doing process tutorials on how I do certain things-- assuming the interest is there.
I’m also considering putting together a gumroad for base expansions (specifically with the Faer in mind, once again, but for other bases down the line also) and the bases themselves as an alternative for people to flat purchase.
It’s all very WIP right now, but I’m trying to gauge interest and see whether or not it’s worth putting together, so leave me some feedback:
Do you pledge to artist patreons already? If so what do you like and what do you dislike in the tiers & milestones.
Do you like more or less audience involvement on what the artist produces?
