~THE LAST WEEK~

This last week has been a gaggle of unfortunate financial things.

As many of you know who watch my Pictario streams, I have been offering severely discounted commissions to help pay for an unexpected Emergency Room bill that I acquired, brought on by sudden extremely painful blood clots that had to be removed via surgery. During my stream on March 8th, all of my commissions I had been working on for the past 7 hours, as well as another 6 hours that I did off-stream, became corrupted and lost. I still do not know what caused it: overwritten files, no previous versions available, etc. Thank you to everyone for your support and IT help during those last 2 hours: they can recount my devastation and resulting sickness. I am still torn about letting you commissioners down and losing the artwork I created for you.

Last week Monday, I was awarded my 2019 bonus for my engineering career. However, given that I am one of the newest members of the team, and thus not performing as well as the others who have been there for 20 years, my bonus was the equivalent of 5% of my annual salary...which I was only awarded 20% of due to lackluster caused by improper training and lack of management (I have had 6 managers over the last 10 months), and lack of resources to learn. That is a 1.25% annual salary bonus. I would have gotten more use out of a "Jelly of the Month Club" membership. I am in the hunt for a new career since January given these issues, but as of yet have not even been awarded an interview. I am hoping for a breakthrough soon for both my mental and physical health.

Yesterday, March 9th, I returned to work, where today I was required to drive around the Twin Cities to visit sites acquiring new optic fibers to discuss plans with construction vendors. At my 11 am visit, I believe my wallet had fallen from my coat pocket in the parking garage, where after searching in a panic in my work and personal vehicles, backpacks and bags, and even driving all the home and back to search, found it in the garage...missing $120 in cash and what I presume to be compromised and scanned credit cards, both personal and company ones that I will need to replace. The company ones will be replaced with funds directly from my paycheck.

I hate bothering people. I hate having to go back on my promises and consider myself a liar or hypocrite like the family that I grew up with. I want to be able to support myself, and others, will what I can provide. But I have to make changes.

~ STREAMING COMMISSIONS UPDATE ~

Due to the issues above, I will be reworking the current commission queue. Each commission has been taking me 2-3hrs each, where I expect each to be half that long, due to my drawing process and focusing too much on details. For $15 each, this is well below minimum wage. I would be somewhat alright with this process if I had the time: but for the next month and perhaps more my work will be assigning larger projects, many of which require me to complete both day and night shifts (such as tonight and last night, as I type this from a dusty IT room an hour away from home). The opening of the commissions was a way for me to pay for the ER bills, I want to thank everyone for their support and donations for me during these times, no matter how big or small.

I will be limiting each sketch commissions from this point to a 1-hour limit each. The results will be more equivalent to a clean sketch, rather than line art, which was my previous goal in mind. Unfortunately, I made the mistake and extended myself too far in my time of need, and I am sincerely sorry for letting you down. For reference, the new commission will look similar to this style: https://imgur.com/a/hvRAUui

>If you are not satisfied with this style of work and wish for a refund, I completely understand and I will refund you whatever amount you desire.
>If you are not interested in the art, and would like to use the money you have sent as a donation instead, it will still be going to my ER bill, to which I am both humbled and extremely grateful for everyone's generosity thus far, and anymore that people wish to contribute.
>If you are okay with this type of commission, I will continue to work on them as quickly and efficiently as possible, given my limited amount of free time.

I will be reaching out to everyone who has a commission with this information as well, but I do not have the contact information for a few folks who acquired slots over the stream and did not include a username or contact in the Paypal information. Please reach out to me if I do not reach you first. You may reach me at any of these locations:

Furaffinity: Mietere
Twitter: SkollNRag
Telegram: RaggyRoo
Discord: Mietere#9405

I do not have any slots for commissions available at this time given the time constraints and large queue I must complete as a priority. However, if you would still like to still donate, please reach out to me and I can send you Paypal information (I would post publicly, but I have seen accounts suspended by it before). If things turn for the better, we may see what slots the future may hold, but at this time there are no plans,

~ LOOKING AHEAD FOR THE YEAR ~

My plans for this upcoming year for the art side of my life, outside of commissions of course, was to start offering merchandise both online and a dealer or artist booth at upcoming conventions. I have been designing and organizing products such as Body Pillows, Mousepads, coaster and magnet sets, prints, stickers, and more. I have been getting positive feedback with the products thus far and was excited to start opening tables to meet you all in person. With the current viral epidemic, those in-person sales will be on hold until further notice. I am certain things will improve, but for my own health and others (due to my shoddy immune system, given the recent surgery and sickness), I am putting it on hold. I am planning on offering previews and discounted pre-orders on products in the upcoming months, and I am very excited to be able to share them with you.

I will be delivering more into Blender and exploring what it has to offer, as I have been enjoying the higher quality results and animations that have resulted from a better engine, and the positive reception from them. I may be offering commissions for these in time, but at this time I still do not create the models and have to give credit to people far smarter than me to lend their advice and time for helping me climb the Blender learning cliff with their exceptional kindness.

If you have any other comments or questions, please let me know so I can share it. Thank you for all of your support through this. I am doing my best to improve and make you folks proud.

~Mietere