As it looks now I will re-open for commissions this coming Sunday at 11PM CEST (5PM EST and 7AM AEST on Monday). I will probably open another batch at a later time to allow different timezones a better chance.

More information will follow on how I'm going to process the requests. For now, all I can say is that I will be using an online form where people will only need to fill in their contact information and preferred commission type.

I've recorded the process of "Get the Goods" and will be uploading it in parts. Click here for Part 1! In other news, I recently passed my first-year anniversary here and reached 6k watchers and 30k pageviews in that time, which I'm super stoked about ^^. Love you guys!

Also, as per usual, my planning for the coming week.




Today:
- Freelance project
- Rough colors for Robbo's commission

Tomorrow:
- Freelance project
- Rough colors (continued, if needed)
- Brogon's commission

Thursday:
- Start on NecroDrone's commission
- Robbo's commission render (maybe stream)

Friday:
- Brogon's commission or freelance project
- Robbo's commission render (maybe stream)

Saturday:
- Freelance project
- Robbo's commisssion render (maybe stream)

Sunday:
- Random (whatever I feel like working on, maybe stream)

Since my family has traveled back home, it's time to get back to work!
Oh, and in case anyone missed the edit to my previous journal,
I now have a gallery on Weasyl as well.


Today:
- Brogon's commission
- Sketches for robbo's commission (maybe stream)

Tomorrow:
- Brogon's commission
- Anubis' commission and/or robbo's sketches
- Patreon Livestream

Friday:
- Brogon's commission
- Robbo's rough colors

Saturday:
- Brogon's commission
- Begin rendering Robbo's commission (probably stream)

Sunday:
- Random (commission/personal/stream, we'll see)

Due to the recent FA outage, I'm starting to build up galleries in other places as a back-up, and I'd like to provide my followers (and especially my commissioners) with other means to contact me. So, here is where you can find me:


Twitter: @ CaraidArt

FurryNetwork: https://beta.furrynetwork.com/caraid/

Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~caraid

FurAffinity Forums: Caraid

E-mail: caraidart[at]outlook.com



I will also be taking future commissions through online forms (SOON) and require that commissioners provide me with their e-mail address, so that I will always be able to continue doing business even if FA is down. I was planning on doing this either way, but the FA outage has certainly stressed the importance of being able to maintain contact outside of FA.

I'll be re-submitting the two pieces I lost. Truly sorry I lost all of your comments :(. I'm also down 60-70 watchers :c.

- Cara

Might as well make this a regular thing, no? ^^

Today
- Utunu's commission (STREAM)
- CMYK character designs (maybe)
- Start Thunderhoof's commission

Tomorrow
- Finish Thunderhoof's commission
- Finish Utunu's commission (if needed)
- CMYK character designs

Thursday
- Start Brogon's commission
- CMYK character designs
- Start Anubis' speedpainting

Friday
- Finalize & put up CMYK characters
- Household chores

Weekend
- Off due to family visit!

Here are my plans for the current week, so you have an idea of what to expect!

Today:
- Freelance work
- Ozawk's commission (STREAM)

Thursday:
- Freelance work (if necessary)
- Ozawk's commission (STREAM)
- Personal

Friday:
- Utunu's commission (STREAM)
- Finish Ozawk's commission (if needed)

Saturday:
- Utunu's commission (STREAM)
- Meet with "mentee"
- Patron-only stream (may move to Sunday)

Sunday:
- Random (personal/commissions/stream, depending on what I feel like doing)

To my lovely commissioners - I will be away this weekend so for a few days I cannot make any progress on your pieces.

That said, my aim is to finish the three commissions currently on my list within the next two weeks, as the large freelance project I am working on will be largely out of the way (starting tomorrow). I'll probably put up a new weekly planning next week so you can see what I aim to do and when (and possibly stream).

Thanks for reading!

Note to all my watchers that my adult work will soon be moved to an alternative account, caraid-R. If you're interested in adult work, doodles, alternative versions of illustrations (now and in the future) etc, please watch me there.

Clean work and tasteful nudity will stay here.

Thanks!

To my commissioners - sorry for disappearing off the radar a bit the past week(s), I've been working on a large freelance project that's been eating away at my time and I've been having trouble balancing it with commissions and personal work. So, for a bit of structure and transparency, here's a basic breakdown for the coming week so that you know what to expect :3.

Monday
x Sketches for utunu
x Swedish lessons
x Studies/personal
• Freelance work

Tuesday
x Freelance work
x Studies/personal
x Clean apartment

Wednesday
x Work on ozawk's piece
• Freelance work

Thursday
• Speedpainting for anubis2030
(possible Livestream)

Friday
• Work on utunu's piece
• Freelance work

Weekend
• Various / personal / Livestream?


Hope you're all having a good Sunday! ;3

- Cara

I announced this change to my Patrons earlier, and now decided to go through with it. My Patreon rewards have changed, with one additional option.

Click here to go to my Patreon page.



• For 2+ USD per month,
you will now gain early or exclusive access to my studies, random sketches and other personal work. The files will be larger than those in my public galleries and not all of them will be released! You may gain insight in what I'm working on and how I'm working on it, sneak previews of larger pieces etc.

• For 5+ USD per month,
you will have the above reward and gain access to a private Livestream session held once every two weeks, lasting at least two hours. In these streams I will draw, provide critique, answer questions or take random requests (for sketches) if no critique is asked for.

• For 7+ USD per month,,
you will get the above rewards and gain access to the PSD files of personal work once per month.

• For 100+ USD per month,,
I will provide one-on-one mentoring for two hours every month. Limited slots (currently taken, may open for more in the future).



Additionally, I have updated my milestones.

• If I reach 200+ USD per month,
I will give away one flat colored character drawing to one of my Patrons every month.

• If I reach 500+ USD per month,
(which would be rather amazeballs may I add), I will also give away one speedpainting to one of my Patrons every month.



I have made these changes to make Patreon more manageable for myself, and more accessible for you guys. I'm really not a fan of large exclusive content (and certainly not censoring), so I figured sketches and studies would be a perfect compromise since I rarely publish those anyway but I'm sure some would be interested in seeing them. The reason why I've decided against doing videos as a standard reward is because after having made the second one, I came to the realization that I'm really not a fan of the format, it interrupts my flow and the videos are quite cumbersome to make. I will probably still do process videos in the future, but without narration and not as exclusive content.

If any of you are bothered by me using Patreon or making journals about it, I do apologize. I am aware that the concept is not embraced by everyone, but I believe it to be a powerful supportive tool for me if well used. The extra bit of income covers the time I want to spend on studies and personal work, which will help me a lot in the long run.

Thanks very much for reading so far if you did <3

- Cara

I've published the (sped up) video of the owl study I did the other day! - https://youtu.be/5F-12WeUZW0

Also, I am in the process of changing my Patreon (link) a bit. Rather than it being primarily about the educational content, I am shifting towards making it more of a general support page (not losing the educational content, mind you) plus the added opportunity of getting a free commission each month, for which I will randomly select one of my patrons. I've set these up to be part of a milestone, where x amount per month means one or more free commissions are given away.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, and if perhaps you guys have suggestions as to what else I could do in terms of rewards, or if I should change anything :3.

- Cara

Just a head's up that I'll be gone for six days to visit my family back in the Netherlands. I'll be leaving on Wednesday and returning on Tuesday (2nd to 8th of March) in which time I'll be able to read comments and notes and probably reply, but I won't be able to work so commissions will be on hold for a little while until I return.

I expect to open for some sketch and/or stencil commissions soon (let me know if there's a preference!), which I will work on in between larger commissions, usually as a form of warm-up or creative variation.

Also I came to the realization that I recently passed the 4k watcher milestone - I don't care very much about specific numbers, but to think that I signed up less than a year ago and reached this many people in that time is pretty darn astounding. You guys are amazing and a big part of the reason why I love doing what I do, so thank you so much for your support and interest!

- Cara

I've just uploaded my first YouTube video! It is the coloring process of Rashna, courtesy of femtoampere who recorded me as I was streaming.

https://youtu.be/9l4weCNpxqo

I will be using this same channel for the Patreon-related videos :3

- Cara

After taking all of the suggestions and my own thoughts into consideration, I decided to launch a Patreon page. It is not quite as personable as I would have liked, but it is the easiest way for me to manage my supporters and the content I wish to share.

Please note: Any videos made for the Patreon will be publicly shared a month after the Patreon release, but without the narration. So the content is only partially exclusive - everyone gets to see my process, but for more in-depth information, PSD files, critiques and mentoring, please consider supporting me.

I may add more pledge tiers or remove some as time goes on depending on how things work out and how my schedule looks. Please bear with me as I figure this out and don't hesitate to ask questions or voice concerns, thanks!

- Cara
Link: http://www.patreon.com/caraid

As the title says, I'd like to hear your suggestions or thoughts about me doing mentoring or setting up a Patreon for educational videos or guides.

Current options I feel I have are;
- One "student" for free
- Multiple "students" for a certain price a week/month
- Patreon to finance narrated videos / guides

Let me know what you think!

Hey lovely folks!

With all the holiday craziness behind us, it's time to get crackin' on those commissions again! So, I am re-opening my commission queue to fill 10 slots total.
Please note - the queue is NOT for stencil headshots, I will occasionally open a separate list for them since I make them in between regular commissions.

If the commission type you're looking for is not listed in my information, feel free to send me a PM so we can discuss it.

Click here to view my commission queue (+info) and work status!

Thanks for looking <3.

-- Edit:

All the spots are taken, thanks!

About 10 days ago, after a most interesting road trip through the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, zeeraw and I arrived in Stockholm, where we intend to stay for about a year. With Christmas and some of the settling in business mostly out of the way, I'm finally starting to adjust a bit and getting ready to start working again. Trying to learn the language and so far it's going pretty well. Swedish is not as difficult as I anticipated :3.

The only downside to moving to this place is that I don't know anyone in the area. I'd like to find some people to hang out with, but there aren't many artist meetups in Stockholm and the few I've found are pretty much inactive. Would anyone who lives in and/or near Stockholm be interested in creating such a meetup? Or do you know of one that I'm not aware of? :3 You don't have to be an artist per say.

I hope you all had a great Christmas!

Just letting you all know that in the coming week I won't be very active - I'll try to get some work done (for my commissioners) but I don't know how much time I will have or when I will be online if at all. I will be in the process of moving countries.

Also, I will re-open my commission queue soon. There are still a few people on the waiting list currently (please check my status if you're interested), but I want to make sure that I can keep working continuously through the coming months, so I expect to re-open in a few weeks :3. Keep your eyes peeled for my journals if you'd like to grab a slot! You can find my commission info here, and my my commission TOS can be read here.

Thanks for reading and see you all soon!

Just a head's up for my commissioners and followers that I plan to be streaming for most of the day tomorrow. I've not gotten around to doing much work today due to, well, quite frankly exhaustion (lack of sleep) so I'm grabbing an early night so I can make up for today's lack of productivity. See you then hopefully! <3

On a different note, I'm really quite happy with the way the pangolin character came out and figuring out a good way to anthropomorphize such an unusual animal was very creatively satisfying. If any of you have any suggestions for rare or unusual anthro species that I could try my hands at next, fire away :3!

- Cara

There aren't enough flaccid penises in this fandom.

Also, I'll be streaming soon! <3

- Cara

I am currently open for 10 stencil headshot commissions for 25 USD each. These will be worked on in between regular commissions and/or as a warm-up.

To claim a spot on the list, please fill out this form. Slots are open so long as the form is still available :3.
If you are looking for examples, you can find them here and here.

Thanks for reading! <3

- Cara

Super excited! Is anyone else going?

First time I'm visiting Scotland too, very much looking forward to that :3.

So last month has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions, big decisions and sorting out my life. Among other things I broke up, moved away from where I lived and quit my dayjob to take on a new challenge, which is still a full time job but with a different company, a different style and environment and it is a short project so I will be "out of work" starting mid November. Which I am actually very excited about, because it means I can start focusing properly on commissions and taking on freelance illustration work again like I used to. All of this has kept me extremely busy as well as quite exhausted mentally for the past month and a half, so that is why I haven't been very active. I plan to get on a stream today if I can get around to it to finish up my commission for Utunu at least, and in the coming weeks I am hoping to make good progress on the rest of the artwork I owe people. I know a fair few of you wanted to do collaborations with me as well, I don't know if I will have time for that until November though.

In other news, Cara has changed. Quite drastically. In that she is no longer a doe. This is a decision that's been in the making for a while but I finally decided to go through with changing her species to one that is far more appropriate for me, namely a cat that is loosely based on a lynx. I still think deer are quite aesthetically pleasing, and I will certainly keep Cara's deer design as her alt form (no, she won't be a shapeshifter and I will not draw her as a deer again myself, but it'll still be her), but I am absolutely certain that cat Caraid suits me much better. I will hopefully get around to sketching out her new design soon.

So, for those of you who are on my commission waiting list, you can expect to receive a message from me about your commission before the end of this year or early next year. I am actually planning on doing just commissions full time for a while in the near future, but I will announce this here before I do.

I think that's everything. I hope you are all doing well and perhaps we will chat in a stream again soon <3.

I don't think I could've had a better first experience at a furry con. The people were amazing, the hotel was amazing, the drinks were great, I haven't been to a whole lot of events but the few I've seen were good, and the charity was great (not to mention the final amount collected for them)! The whole week was just one blur of awesome and I wish it could've lasted longer, though truth be told I don't know how much longer I could've gone on with the drinking and sleeping schedule xD. I'm exhausted!

Shout-out to my EF family, bearlyfeline, skiaskai, zeeraw, masada, tazara, fawnspots, hesitantcalamari, blondefoxy for making this week the most fun I've had in ages, and to femtoampere and ferolux for putting up with me ^^". Also to everyone else who managed to find me and said hi, you're all lovelies <3.

Going to try to adjust to reality again now :c

To those at EF who are looking to meet up and/or do arts, after the opening ceremony I will probably hang around at the artist's lounge for a while!

If you want to contact me you can probably find me on Skype as Caraid :3. Or just send me a note here, though I don't check my FA super often so you may have to wait a little while for an answer.

- Cara