So now that my last batch of commissions are finished, I think it's time I addressed this: I will not be taking commissions anymore, at least not for a long time. I've had several people send in notes about it and I've told them all the same thing, that I've been mulling it over and considering, and in the end I am simply not at a point, and have not *been* at the point, where I can keep drawing for people on top of everything else.

I'll be completely honest, this last batch was my worst yet. They look good imo, I wouldn't have shown them to everyone if I thought they were sub-par, but my semester in Italy was simply too taxing and paintings took longer than I personally consider acceptable. It was fully my fault for not anticipating how grueling the courses would be. On Twitter and everywhere else I was putting up a front that it was just a dream, and it kind of was, I mean I got to live in Florence for 4 months. But it was also taxing, I hardly had any free time due to my courses, and near the end I actually had a breakdown.

Now that I'm back in the states I am fully committed to setting up my business. Everyone who knows me knows that fashion and dressmaking is my passion, art has always been just my way of unwinding and relaxing when I just got tired of messing with yards of fabric. I don't think it's fair to keep charging for something that my heart isn't completely in. I love painting, I want to improve, but it's never going to be as central to my life as my sewing, and I need to stop using art as a crutch to provide for myself.

Along with my poor time management, there was a lot of drama a couple months ago about Jailbird's commissions and how they had people waiting for years. Now I would never allow myself to get that bad, and I would never accept new commissions until my current batch was completed. But there were several posts about 'warning signs' when commissioning, about policies to look out for. I'm going to be honest, a lot of my policies when I took comms were to protect myself because I used to be taken advantage of on DA years ago. Not only that but I think most of my past commissioners will tell you I do my best to communicate, and whenever they're curious about how their painting is going, I'm always willing to send a WIP. But the incident with Jailbird and certain comments made just made me feel like I was still doing things wrong.

Ultimately I need to be honest with everyone and myself. I am not at a point where I can keep taking commissions. I am starting a business, I have never been adept at managing my time or schedule and I need to work on that, and even though I'm graduated now there's just too much I'm trying to do to realistically add commissions on top of the pile. I'm seriously grateful to everyone who's supported me and to all my clients who were more patient with me than I deserve, and I hope you all can understand. I will still be drawing and making personal sketches, but they will be at my own pace.