Small notice that I'm much more active over on Twitter~ I post WIPs and personal scribbles that don't get posted here on FA if you're into seeing more casual work from me!

My NSFW account : https://twitter.com/CoffeeSmutt

My Recently revived SFW account: https://twitter.com/CoffeeHolicMutt

I realize I've been much more vocal about this over on my twitter than here so I'll just post a recap!

It's taken a few months to organize and get done but I've just accomplished something I've been wanting for a very long time. Getting myself sterilized.
I had laparoscopic surgery to remove both my fallopian tubes.

it all went off without a hitch and I blasted through the post-op recovery haha. I'm still probably on a bit of the hospital meds so I'm feeling pretty alright right now minus pangs from the gas they inflated my abdomen with. I'll be taking it slow for the next couple days and seeing how I feel. I've got my prescription filled for my pain meds so depending on if I need to take them I may be K.O'd for a few days but I'm not expecting to be.

If I'm down and out a little more than expected I'll extend the opening for my quote form but I'll keep you all posted! Primarily on my >Twitter<



Since I'm going to be reopening my quote form in the next day or so, I figured I'd put out a journal about all the things I've changed since my last opening!

---

Price increase

---

Multiple factors have gone into the decision to slightly raise the prices for my existing Shaded Sketch tier.
-Over the course of my last few openings, my sketches have had increasingly more work put into them. They now start at $60 USD for a bust and $80 USD for a full body.
-I've decided on a small discount for additional characters in the sketch tier! Instead of 100% base price for adding another character, it is now 80%


Full color tier removed

---

With my last queue, I found that having full color commissions mixed in with the likes of sketches and flat color substantially increased the wait times for those on the queue below those full color pieces
-Because of this I've decided to remove the full color tier option from the general commission form
-Instead, I'll hold separate auction-styled openings for full color/full render commissions when the queue is empty so I can devote my full time and attention to them without holding my queue up


New tier! 'Doodle'

---

I realize that people loved my sketch tier because it was a lot of bang for your buck! And while I'd love to keep offering them at their original price range, it's just not sustainable for me to do so. So I've added the doodle tier!
-These doodles aren't fully colored but have a similar line rendering as sketches and are vaguely shaded/greyscale
-Backgrounds aren't available to be added to these images
-I've cooked up this tier to still have something available for people on a tighter budget who just want some art of their characters!


Flat color is now Cell-Shading

---

To be honest, I've always struggled with flat color images and as time has gone on, I've really stretched the line thin as to what can be considered flat color, always trying to work in whatever shading I could. So I've decided to completely forgo flat color and turn this tier into cell shading!
-It comes with an understandable bump in price. Busts now begin at $70 USD and $100 USD for full body
-For the most recent example I made for this tier check Here


I'm looking forward to working with you all again and seeing what ideas you bring me!

Hey everyone! I'm opening my quotes up to fill a couple more limited slots because we've racked up a fair amount of bills all of a sudden here.

My Jeep needed to go into the shop for brake pads and a failed cable that's costing us about 740 and it's looking like surgery is unavoidable for Brooklyn's knee. Which is gunna be anywhere from 2,500 to 3,800+ according to our vet. After the 500 for her xrays and the anti-inflammatory meds she was put on for the past 2 weeks


---So Quotes are open for a little bit!---
>>> Submit one here <<<

I might not be putting everyone on the queue who submits one but anyone who isn't picked will have the option to be put on the waitlist! This is a sort of emergency opening so I'm not going to be picking a lot of big projects that are going to seriously lengthen the queue.

If you don't want to right now or can't commission, tips and donations are always appreciated! https://paypal.me/CoffeeMutt
And if you can't tip, a signal boost is equally appreciated!



Wow! Thanks to everyone who put in a quote, invoices have all been sent out!
If anyone was looking to submit a quote but missed out feel free to contact me about a place on the waitlist!
I'm going to be updating my queue in the meantime!

Opening quotes a day early!
I'll be leaving it open for a little but will only be taking limited slots. Anyone who isn't accepted for this round of commissions will have the option to be put on the new waitlist for the next opening!

I look forward to reading through all your quote submissions!

>>> Submit a commission form <<<

On top of opening commissions soon I'm gunna participate in artfight this year!

I'll be doing revenges and maybe some attacks/ friendly fire on my off days so I'm going to be slow with it but I'm just here to have some fun lol.

https://artfight.net/~coffee-mutt

Just a heads up everyone! I'll be reopening commissions on the fourth and I've made some changes!

-I've updated my prices to account for increases in PayPal fees and better price my time spent working on each piece

- I'm no longer going to function on an 'always open' first come first serve schedule and will be taking limited slots that I'll handpick from submitted quotes

- Those who don't have their commission picked for the opening period will have the option to be put on the waitlist!

- I've started up a Trello! It's my first time using it and I'm really new to it so bear with me on this one! The Trello will have active commissions as well as the waitlist

Thanks for being patient as I've gotten through the big pieces on my queue! I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys bring to me!

Hey all! Just a little reminder that I have a twitter where I post a lot of sketches and other stuff that doesn't make it here to FA

There's also a bunch of picks of my snake and dogs if yall like pet pics too lmao

>>>>>>> Follow me here <<<<<<<

Hey Y'all! Just a notice that I'm closing down my commissions for a little bit. The queue is big and every single one is full color so it's gunna take me a little time to get through them all! Hahaha

I'll open back up once I'm mostly through my queue. Stay tuned!

Hey y'all! Hope you're surviving 2021 so far.

Just a little boost/reminder that I've got Twitters to follow and a Redbubble shop that's waking up from the dead.

You can give my main Twitter account a follow: HERE

and my NSFW Twitter: HERE

I post a number of things that won't make it here to FA so you're missin out on some art pieces by not followin ;D

You can also grab merch over on my Redbubble . Shirts, stickers and prints all to come, plus more!

Thanks for stoppin by!

The little vacay was definitely needed and was super nice! Feeling refreshed and ready to get back to it !

Hey all! Taking a few days off commission work this week cause my hubs is taking a long weekend so we can have some more time to spend together.
I'll be back on the ball on monday!

Not gunna be working on commissions today on account of my birthday c:

I recently made an 18+ Twitter account for extra lewd doodles and whatnot.

Lydia runs it so.. I dunno what you can expect from her. Pretty sure I made a big mistake putting her in charge of it.

https://twitter.com/CoffeeSmutt


(jokes aside, I'm running the account as an in-character thing so follow if you want twitter exclusive NSFW doodles and OC shenanigans!)

Sorry for the inactivity for a bit here. For starters I've been working almost exclusively on the recent YCH I ran just to get it done but had a bit of a hold up for about a week and some change.

Was just that time of year where everything goes to shit I guess.

So started out with my husband taking his car in for service expecting a bit of a bill but not a big one. Found out later that afternoon that it was gonna be 3k to fix a cracked radiator and some other shit so, a pretty big chunk of change but could have dealt with it. Then literally that same afternoon, SOMEHOW, this box truck that was dropping off appliances to a building lot across the street snags itself on power lines, rips a pole down then somehow rips OUR lines, box and all, off the side of our house yet somehow everything was still live despite a surge. Rest of the afternoon is spent with the fire department, the power company, trying to file a home insurance claim. 600$ electrician bill to replace everything that got trashed but thankfully seemed like the surge didn't wreck anything else. Next day a claims adjuster comes out bright and early, takes photos, the usual, and just dips to update the claim.

Same day we start noticing something weird going on with the water. Hot water running out of cold taps, sputtering. So thinking okay great, guess the surge did jack something up, probably the thermostat in the hot water tank. Don't chalk it up as an immediate issue and just jot down a note to call a plumber or something in the next day or two.

Get an email the next day that we didn't meet our deductible so even though it totally wasn't our fault, we gotta pay the 600$ to the electrician. Fine, whatever. Rude but whatever. My husband gets home that evening and all of a sudden goes "we have no water". Was working fine just that morning. Cue confusion and going out to inspect what was wrong.

Our well pump fried itself. So now we need a well company. Manage to get one to come out the next day. Confirm that the thing's totally shot and it'd be 1800$ JUST to replace the pump and on top of that, they couldn't even manage to get cracking on that until later in the week. Husband decides that's not gonna fly, rightfully so, even the neighbors said that was pricey, so he and a workmate whos done pumps before decide to try and fix it themselves. Couple days without a working well, backfeeding water from the neighbor's into our place and... nothin. New pump isn't working. not building enough pressure so still have to call back out a well company. Different one this time.

Basically prolonged the inevitable. The new pump wasn't powerful enough for our water table or something and we NEEDED the same type of pump we had had. Which, unfortunately, was still 1000$. Took all day but everything was pulled and replaced. Pump, drop pipe, foot valve, the works, all brand new but the guy still kept it around 1800$ for us by tossing in some freebies here and there with things he already had on his truck. And. At least meant we didn't have to have a whole new well drilled.

So at least now everything's back and working and hopefully there's nothing else planning to suddenly fuck up cause I don't think my frazzled little head could take it C:

Slots for Sketch commissions are officially open!

You can find the ad for them >>> here <<<

Slots are limited and will be closing when all are filled. They'll reopen once the batch is completed.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone and especially to ME!

As it turned out. I was cut loose early from the month's notice I gave my job because they found someone new so guess what that means!
(Hint: It's in the title)

I'm still going to be starting slow with just the sketches but I'll gradually be adding more to my roster over time so keep an eye out for announcements!

Also if you want to see more shenanigans and a bunch of doodles that don't get posted here to FA, follow my Twitter !

As I've said recently, I'm going to be reopening commissions relatively soon here so I've been trying to figure out what to offer right out of the gate. I'm going to keep things a bit limited for the time being while I still have a month remaining at my job so I'm going to be talking limited slots for specific things as to not create a huge backlog.

But!

I wanted to gauge interest in a particular style of work that I've always liked but have really been enjoying lately. I wanted to see whether or not you guys would be interested in getting pieces done in this style and see about what price you'd be comfortable paying.

For lack of a better word right now I'll call them sketches just due to the rough and scratchy line style
Examples: (oldest to newest)
> https://www.furaffinity.net/view/25862400/ (lacked any real shading but still linework example)
> https://www.furaffinity.net/view/31868008/
> https://www.furaffinity.net/view/34072374/
> https://www.furaffinity.net/view/34132369/
> https://www.furaffinity.net/view/34604780/

I'm thinking of charging $50 for full body and $35 for a headshot/bust
This includes them being colored with a bit of shading (or greyscale if you feel like it) a prop or two if you feel like it or a very slightly implied background.
They won't have fully rendered backgrounds and the linework obviously has more of a pencil sketch feel (which honestly I like!) as opposed to being completely clean lines.

So leave a comment about what you think! Whether or not this is a style you'd be interested in and whether or not the asking prices seem reasonable to you all. I obviously still need to reasonably charge for what it's worth but I'm not trying to clean out your wallets. I'll be reading and responding later as now I have to head back to the barn. Thanks for taking the time to read!

This is going to be a bit of a rant and a lot of me pouring out a lot of shit but bear with me here.

For those who don't want to read all the way through. TLDR: I'm finally nearing a position where I'm able to quit my job and leave my manipulative and crazy boss behind to go back to pursuing art.

So onto the story.

I've recently resolved to quit my job.

It's been a long time coming honestly. For at least the last few months, but if I'm being honest it's been a downward spiral for at least half a year. The situation really just started to show its colors soon after Annie got sick and the most recent new girl ghosted after only a month of working. And really? I can't blame her. I've been at this barn, I've been working for these people, for about two and a half years and my job has become something I never would have agreed to had it been this at first.

But first I need to go into more nuanced things about my boss because they factor into all of this too. My boss always seemed EXTREMELY nice. She was always giving me little gifts, always doing things she really didn't have to do, I didn't really ASK her too, and I didn't really NEED her to. But that was fine, right? I figured she was just being nice. I found myself willing to do whatever extra thing she wanted me to do even if I didn't really want to because I felt I owed her.

To cut a very long build-up short. I came to the conclusion after about a year that she was manipulating me. And that realization came about in the most chance way possible. After the first girl (that I'll call Jess) left to pursue another job, they started looking for someone to take her place as I didn't want to work any more days. I was only supposed to be part time, I liked my schedule as is. So in came Mary (name changed for the story). Jess trained Mary for the most part as, like I said, I was the part timer and it was Jess's position Mary was going to be taking over. Me and Mary never really crossed paths during the week except for a small chunk of time Monday mornings where I'd come in for my maintenence days. She was an older woman, very carefree and friendly and I never really saw anything wrong with her.

But Elizabeth apparently did. She would come to me and talk about Mary and how she wasn't sure about her and didn't like how she did this or that and I always took it with a grain of salt. At least I thought I did. I never thought BAD of Mary but with only Elizabeth's input to go off of, I admittedly never really knew what to think. And one day Elizabeth outright asks me what I thought of Mary. And in all fairness, I answered honestly. "I don't really know" I said. "I don't talk to her much so I don't really know what to make of her." Nothing wrong with that answer, right? Well apparently it set off some flag for Elizabeth because she goes "Well if YOU'RE saying that, that really bothers me." like?? From what I'd seen myself so far, Mary was approachable, good with the horses, knew what she was doing with them. She was a trainer for god's sake. But that wasn't enough to really form an opinion on someone.

Another instance came when Elizabeth came out to me very upset one morning. Curious and of course a bit concerned, I ask what's wrong and Elizabeth starts in with a line that looking back on it now, should have been all I really needed to hear. "I really hope you're on my side with this." It was about how Mary wore makeup to work. A stupid issue looking back on it and I should have known but I really can't describe how it was this woman had managed to pull the wool over my eyes. After everything I'd been through prior to even working for her. How I KNEW what to watch out for. She still managed to do it.

So after a few months of Mary working there she approaches me very tentatively one day asking if she could ask me something. I say of course and Mary starts by asking if Elizabeth has ever treated me a certain way. Ever yelled at me, ever sworn up and down that I was lying despite telling the absolute truth, ever made my shift inconvenient for me because it was MY job anyway. I was taken aback. No. Never. Mary wound up telling me it'd been going on for a while and that she'd been scared to ask me because of how close me and Elizabeth seemed. In turn I told her about how I honestly just distanced myself because of all the things Elizabeth would say and I didn't want to take one side without knowing the other but it was so hard to figure out with such limited time to talk.

We started to quietly compare notes those Mondays we'd cross paths. Elizabeth had been treating her horribly and the final nail in the coffin came during an entire week Elizabeth and her husband were away. They'd asked me to stay overnight at the barn all week to watch their dog for them. I was staying in the groom's quarters so all week, me and Mary talked unhindered and I heard the difference in how Elizabeth treated us with my own ears. We were talking one morning while Mary was wrapping up her morning shift and she got a call from Elizabeth. Now, Mary always put her calls on speakerphone because it was easier for her to hear. Mary picks up the phone and greets Elizabeth with a good morning and I hear on the other end of the line Elizabeth immediately start in on Mary. "Hey. Did you do this? Did you do that? How was this? Are you going to to this?" Extremely curt to the point of being rude, all the while Mary is answering kindly and finally, the call ends.

Mary rolls her eyes, looks at me and I can just shake my head. "See?" she says. And not even a minute later, my phone starts to ring. We both look at each other with what can only be a 'you can't be serious' expression and I pull my phone out. It's Elizabeth. Mary stays quiet as I answer and put MY phone on speaker and greet Elizabeth with my typical peppy 'Hey Elizabeth'.

"Hi sweetheart, how are things."

Two completely different tones of voice. My call wraps up far more pleasantly than Mary's and we can't help but feel like Elizabeth has been playing both ends against the middle the whole time. It was like the curtain had finally been pulled back and I could think for myself again. This is where the downward spiral really started.

After that week, Mary and I had gotten very close and Elizabeth seemed to take notice. She started to get VERY insecure. If she saw me and Mary talking, she'd grill us about what it was over. She'd make an issue that "well she (meaning Mary) is supposed to be working". And she even went so far as to have some neurotic episode on the phone with me when I was OFF the clock because she was just so worried when she saw me and Mary standing around in the barn 'talking'. When in reality Mary had just been repeating something to herself out loud that Elizabeth had just told her over the phone while I was sweeping and Elizabeth had walked out to see that.

By that point, I had found some of my teeth again. I didn't let Elizabeth get away with accusing me of "talking about her". I didn't let her get away with saying she WASN'T accusing me. That phone conversation ended and I was left feeling like I'd finally put my line in the sand. That I was done putting up with her neurotic tendencies. It was nothing new for her to call me in the off hours to complain about something. Maybe now it would stop. But it only got worse after that. And I went back to putting up with it. Placating her ridiculousness all while flipping off the phone because it was just easier than putting my foot down again. But at least now I knew. I saw right through all her bullshit. I just couldn't do anything about it.

Mary left the barn a few months after that. She got offered an incredible position through a friend to become a real estate saleswoman and she took it. We still keep in touch.

With Mary now leaving/gone, Elizabeth turned to me pleading for more help while they looked for someone to fill her position. She hated to rely on me so much and it wouldn't be forever but they just needed help. I obliged. This was around September last year this began. Mary left, Annie got sick, and it took a month to find someone 'acceptable' to take on the second position in the barn. This girl was Kelly (name changed). Young, quiet, and seemingly willing to do all the work. Elizabeth primarily trained her with just a few things coming from me. My workload went back down to a reasonable amount for a week or two before Elizabeth approached me. "Oh if you could just take over doing this for a bit while Kelly gets the basic chores down". That being cleaning the barn..

One thing to note about my boss(s) is their OCD level of cleanliness and the inefficiency about how they go about cleaning. A completely spotless barn is easy to maintain when you're just paying somebody to do it. You're not allowed to get all the dust off everything by simply using a duster. You have to literally wash every surface with a soapy wet rag. Quite literally that sort of stuff.

Regardless, I begrudgingly obliged. I'd done it before, what was the big deal about a week or two, at most three, of doing it? It'd be extra money. Things were as fine as they could be for the following months up till December. Annie was getting sicker and sicker. Elizabeth was getting crazier and crazier. Numerous times a week I'd have to placate her. Deal with being grilled on how to do my job, whether or not I'm doing my job right, and just generally being pushed closer and closer to snapping. During this time I was dealing with my own issues. Seasonal depression had hit me bad this year likely due to everything going on and I was struggling to even be a functioning human being. Elizabeth occasionally acted like she cared, but I knew she didn't. For every word of minimal support thrown my way, a million more would spill out of her mouth about how everything was so hard for HER right now. For every stupid little 'remedy' she recommended I try, it wasn't to genuinely see me better. It was because "We need our Beck back." It's always been about what I can do for her and whether or not I'm able to. Never about my actual well being.

Trimming the fat on more repetitive shit like this. We reach January of this year. Annie is put down. Not even able to get up anymore they FINALLY make the decision that should have been made months ago. But I'm never listened to. Regardless, I'm there when it happens. I'm there comforting Elizabeth as she breaks down. Annie passes away staring at me and Elizabeth and her husband are ushered to their house by the vet. I stay. I stay and I help the vet and her team move her body out of the stall she couldn't even leave before dying. I clean the shit and piss that pours out of her and gets dragged across the barn like a snail trail and I lie to Elizabeth when she asks if it was a dignified process moving and burying a 1200 lb animal because she's so detached from reality that she wouldn't be able to handle it. I do this all out of the absolute kindness of my heart. But no good deed goes unpunished.

In the aftermath of this, they decide they are no longer going to search for someone else to fill the other position in the barn. There WAS supposed to be a man being hired but after back and forth with that, broken promises to me over scheduling and my workload and honestly ridiculous and borderline racist shit from Elizabeth about how she just doesn't like men taking care of her horses, especially Hispanic men, they decided I'm going to be the only one working for them now.

My job, that I started as 3 days a week. Monday, Wednseday, and Saturday. Has become 6 days a week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. My reasonable workload has become absolutely irrational. They have heaped nearly everything on to me and Elizabeth balks at me when I dare to be upset about it. Claiming she would NEVER take advantage of anyone and this job is "give and take" all while holding me to a standard she doesn't even hold herself to.

I'm expected to muck a pasture that's gone two days without being cleaned because "There are only two horses now. We can let it go a day in between picking the poop up." while conveniently having the day it's supposed to be picked up land on a morning I'M working. Expect me to still maintain the same hours and stay on time with this increased work amount. Not PAY me for the time I run OVER because of the extra work THEY make me do because it's "give and take".

I'm over it. I needed this job before when we were looking to buy a house but I don't need it anymore. I've spent the last months desperately searching for something to jump to. ANYTHING worthwhile to get me out of there but there's just nothing. $13 an hour, now $14 because they oh so graciously decided to raise me a dollar to try and convince me to stick with this hellish workload, under the table is hard to contend with for any on the books job around here. I'd be taking a big loss in pay while still having to spend money on gas traveling back and forth from some $9-$10 an hour job if I was lucky. And my Jeep has a hell of a drinking problem. So. I'm turning back to the work that I put on hold in order to take this job in the first place. I'm going back to art.

I'm biding my time for the moment as we pay down some debts before I make a break for it. With that extra money not being spent every week/month we can more than comfortably sacrifice the consistency of my paycheck, which has been the only redeeming quality about this job that has long since lost its charm. I still can't really believe it all looking back on it. There's so many more little things I could say. Instances of Elizabeth being an honestly TERRIBLE human being. But she's not worth my energy any more. I'm not giving her any more of it than I have to before I can cut ties from her for good.

Thank you to anyone who read all this. It's really not often I spill the tea about things happening to me on such a personal level but I needed this release. I just needed other people to know and to understand because I'm still trying to understand how I let it get to this point in the first place. There were SO many flags but I just stayed because I felt trapped there. Like I'd be taking an incredible financial loss if I up and quit. Like I'd be dooming myself and Al to struggle financially for the sake of my own HEALTH but that's just not true and I've finally realized it. I'm going to miss the horses and their dog dearly but those are the only things I'm going to miss from this place. It's not their fault Elizabeth is so horrible to them and to me.

I'm so looking forward to reclaiming peace in my life. and I'm looking forward to all the cool new characters and ideas you guys might have for me.

Tell me how literally a day after I have a new schedule set they come at me saying they're not gunna hire the guy they literally said was starting Monday, was gunna shadow me, everything.

Only to turn around now have me being the only one working for them, fuck my schedule around again AFTER I'd already talked over and agreed to a new one that I WANTED and now I'm stuck working full day shifts again because they NEED me to do them.

At least they didn't touch my fuggin weekend that I finally got back to myself after like two years of never wanting to work it in the first place. End mini rant I guess. I'm so fuggin tired of this shit.

So like pre-Christmas up till now has been interesting. The other girl at work just didn't show up one morning. Totally ghosted so of course, my boss flips out and asks me if I can work more until they find a replacement.
"Working more" basically meant working every single night seven days a week. Thought it would be fine at first but it's been a hell of a drag. There's good news on the horizon though! They hired a new guy who'll take over the mornings and, to my surprise, Saturday. I'd tossed out a shot in the dark that once this was over, I wanted my Saturday back. I wasn't honestly expecting it to happen. On top of keeping the only evening shift schedule instead of running back and forth twice a day.

So starting next week I'll have a brand new schedule that hopefully won't change again

Wow, sure has felt like a long time since I've even really posted anything here and I'm not exactly sure who's even still paying attention anymore lol.

But it's like all of a sudden the disinterested rut that I've found myself in has gone away and now I'm just turning out piece after piece. No matter how complex or how simple. There's been a lot going on in my life but it's nice to finally feel like a bit of my old passions are finally coming back to me and I can just doodle away and not really care too much about what it's for.

I'm finally back to just making art cause I WANT to make it.

I'm also really buckling down on starting to use my Twitter more. I'll probably be posing a lot of stuff that won't quite make it here to my FA. Bunch of OC doodles and other pieces probably. If you're into that and also seeing a bunch of pictures of my dogs and stepchild grass puppies go follow me over there!

https://twitter.com/CoffeeholicMutt

Here's to becoming more active again!