None of my commission forms found here have ever closed: https://www.furaffinity.net/commissions/eclipsis/

(Note: With the Planet Passing Paws Animated YCH, Alef is very, very busy and may take a while to get to the animated portion)

You are welcome to apply at any time! My queue is fairly long at the moment but I'm working to get it cut down. It might take about a month or so to get to things.

If you are new to commissioning me, I consider the above commissions a gateway to my more customized and detailed stuff. If I find you pleasant and easy to work with, you may be invited to my hourly rate, customized commissions or something new I am considering along the lines of "Pay What You Want" commissions.

Let me know if you have any issues filling out the forms or questions!

If you enjoyed the recent Nu'Nyxia post that had an accompanying story blurb to go with it to really immerse yourself in my setting, there are more to come!

The ones to come are written by myself but I feel I do a serviceable job get the feeling across!

It is my hope that for every DrakonST commission I get on a monthly basis in the foreseeable future, I'll post a story to go with it.

Also, with my Patreon, nearly every personal picture I do for myself is accompanied by a story blurb as well. These pictures are on early access but one of first ones I started doing stories for is just about ready to be released publicly 14 months after its original post.

Most of what I have done are with my sona's in world waifus, starting with a batch known as the "Waifu Tour" which featured horizontal format pictures to serve as a computer desktop backgrounds.

These story blurbs include:
~Yvonnita
~Ga'Yunn
~Nu'Nyxia
~Winnonah
~Is'tahs
~Veevautia
~Espvautia
~Vapvautia
~Stehfennie

Along with new characters not yet publicly released, which would be
~Soh'yala the Foxcicle
~Oakley the Whimsicott/Vivillon
~Nautalyssa "Nautalie" the Floatzel/Ninetales

THE Story
In addition to these story blurbs, I have been writing what I've been referring to as THE story for my setting, where if you were just getting started experiencing the setting, this would be what you'd read.

I'm undecided if this will be early access Patreon things with the art that goes with the chapters or if they will go up publicly straight away. If there is a strong response to the story blurb writings, I may be more inclined to make them public immediately.

Currently the Story is on Chapter 4 and chapters have been averaging about 10,000 words each.

It started with the meeting of Clypse and Volvautia and her rescuing him from his shitty, sheltered life in a tiny town for a new life in the big city where he gets to encounter the divine up close for the first time. My cast is large but we have seen a fair number of them already in some way, including: Juliyah, Reya, Nesha, Winnonah, Anniki, Autumn, Nayomi, Lolanda, Rhideya, Feye, Ivoria, Zenythia and more.

Definitely leave a comment here on your thoughts for this or any of the writing in general!

New Paypal Business Account
A small notice to mostly just a few people, but I have a new Paypal Business account aside from the usual one I have used.

Reason being is that it will make it much easier for me to separate commission transactions from gifts/donations. Under the old account, it would be difficult to differentiate if I got audited. Paypal technically files its own tax form to the government based on what comes in to my old Paypal. I've ignored that amount because I know what my records actually say. But that is asking for trouble if they do decide to crack down on that difference.

Technically I don't make a lot of money to warrant getting audited, I wouldn't be surprised if something caused that to change under the whole "Department of Government Efficiency" thing to make sure the U.S. Government is getting its fair share of tax money from me. Better safe than sorry.

The other benefit is that the account will have its own Debit Card which will allow me to legally differentiate business related transactions like software, equipment, or even commissions/Patreon pledges for art (I put that last bit under "Advertising" come tax time).

If historic commissioners see an Invoice from a different email address, don't be alarmed as it should be the new one.

LLC Formation
The Paypal thing is happening because in regards to my building, I set in motion the process to put my Real Estate under an LLC; Going to cost me a pretty penny to do but should be helpful in several ways.

The big thing is that if something happens at my building and I get sued, they can ONLY seize my building and not come after my personal assets (my personal assets are worth substantially more than my building believe it or not).

The other is that with the LLC, it will have its own banks account. Similar to the Business Paypal account, it will make it much easier to prove Real Estate transactions if I get audited.

The attorney I talked to I asked if I should put my freelance work under an LLC as well but she said it really isn't necessary for the nature of my work and how much I make.


So there is that small update!

~Eclipsis

Here is a follow up on things that happened after the ER visit.

So right after the visit, I had to work my newspaper job (Hellday) Tuesday/Wednesday. Still the living hell, mentally demoralizing thing I can't get out of. By the end of Wednesday I had lost much of my function and motivation in life. I knew I needed time off badly.

Thursday comes around and my toe infection is getting even worse that I called the foot clinic and they prescribed me some new antibiotics that I would have to wait until later in the day to pick up along with changing my home treatment methods. The night before I struggled to fall asleep because of the pain.

Like I mentioned in the monthly summary, I now work the first 2 1/2 hours of the bookstore most days of the week. The bookstore work itself has gotten so bad that it is comparable to "Hellday". Well then my mom calls in sick and I was stuck working the entire day by myself.

I was feeling a lot of the same symptoms I was experiencing Tuesday by the end of the day. It was just reassuring that it wasn't a heart problem.

By the time I got home, I was just completely mentally and emotionally destroyed.

I often mention its been two years since my last day off. What I don't often mention is that THAT day off was not taken by choice. It was when I hit what I refer to as "catastrophic burnout." I don't just lose motivation and drive, but I practically lose my will to live. It was not a suicide phase, but it was definitely where I just didn't care to do anything or function in society.

Between Wednesday and Thursday, I had hit that again, almost exactly 2 years to the date.

Several people tried reaching out to me Thursday evening, but I was angry, toxic, and just completely unreasonable to talk to. I went to bed hoping for July 4 I'd finally have something I could recover with.

Then, like, a miracle happen.

That night, I happened to have a dream that took place in my Clippyverse Pokemon setting. Which is a very rare sort of dream I have maybe once every 1-3 months. It was very vivid in that I was with Volvautia (the wife in the setting) and we were searching for land in the country to build a house, a big mansion, and I would have a reason to drive my Corvette Stingray back and fourth to the city. The places we were looking was comparable to the Northwest Oregon coast overlooking the ocean above cliffs.

So I woke up Friday morning, completely inspired with creativity that the first thing I did was write 1,200 words to a new short story inspired by the dream. It included a lot of sentimental thoughts to things I had been experiencing this week and even a nod to a childhood experience growing up IRL.

After that, I felt inspired thinking about the future of home ownership and like I had something to work towards again (even if in the very distant future).

Continuing, I redesigned my schedule to accommodate days off on certain days and an overall reduced work load.

Then throughout the day I worked on all sorts of projects/commission that friends had laid out to me to help me out when I was feeling down or troubled (these were already presented to me well before this week happened).

By the end of the day, I felt like a renewed person and got everything back mentally.

I'm still planning on working less from the wake up call over the whole thing this week. We'll see where it takes me.

Thank you everyone for reading and for those that reached out to me over this week!

~Eclipsis

Yesterday as I was going through my day, I continued to have discomfort in my chest that I mentioned in my monthly summary post. But I was also having trouble with my hands. They were feeling faint, sometimes numb. At one point I struggled to pick up a drinking glass.

I called my primary doctor and they said for anything that you are feeling in the chest, you need to go to the hospital emergency room.

I was not willing to do that because I don't have the money for such a thing.

I went on to work the bookstore in the morning and when I was in the 2nd hour, I was starting to feel disoriented and at one point felt super hot. I mentioned these symptoms to friends and they urged to me to go to the ER as these were symptoms of a heart attack.

When I was sitting there being checked in, my body and especially hands were trembling; I felt really weak and light headed.

The hospital did a large number of tests including blood work, head scan, and torso scan. After several hours they came back to me and told me I was perfectly fine. There was really nothing wrong with me other than pointing out I had some fatty tissue in the brain, but that was for a genetic reason and not a lifestyle.

They said the symptoms I was experiencing were manifested from the extreme stress and anxiety in my life, possibly made worse because of my bipolar.

So yah, I literally worked my health into the ground.

Thankfully there is nothing wrong with me, but it was a wake up call that I need to change my life around.

I'll let you all know what I figure out. But working less will be at the top of the list.

~Eclipsis

If you'd like to stay up to date with my posts, you can follow me on BlueSky!

https://bsky.app/profile/eclipsisst.....os.bsky.social

On Bluesky I post motivational messages every Sunday along with samples of my 3D modeling work. BlueSky also has teasers to full render and Patreon exclusive alt sets if you are curious what happens there~

Naturally, my Patreon has everything including the newest of the new on early access (sketch commissions are 1 month early access; regular commissions 2 months; personal art 1 year+). You can get there below:

https://www.patreon.com/c/EclipsisStudios

~Eclipsis

For those who don't know, my posts are schedule to automatically post with PostyBirb so I'm not really keeping tabs on when they go up. Wasn't until someone DM's me elsewhere to let me know they were failing did I realize I needed to stop them.

Today was a big day being a combination of Lopunny Day and  foxfencer's bday where several people commissioned me to make gifts for him (some overlap between the two themes). It was gonna be one of my largest posting days I'd ever done.

I'll have them rescheduled. A bummer FA had to blunder today. xD

But at least it isn't a malicious DDoS, right?

~Eclipsis

Just a short journal to see if there would be much interest in me having some Pals from Palworld in my selection of twice a month adoptables. (the auctions go up roughly the 1st and 3rd weeks)

I'm unable to play Palworld or any video game these days, so I don't know the state of the interest in it, at least with my audience.

These would with high confidence be designed differently from my own, whom all carry a Native American/tribal theme to them.

Comments for or against are strongly encouraged!

~Eclipsis

I will be opening slots for sketch commissions!

You can find the application form and information here:
https://forms.gle/mGMqpwTpya6hDFRx9

Thank you for your interest!

Letting you all know I have updated my user profile to include all currently available YCH forms.

When new YCHs are available, it will be updated. If one of these YCHs is taken out of service, I will simply remove it from the listing.

~Eclipsis

It's honestly a bit intimidating as its been over 10 years since I opened commissions to the general public in any capacity.

I will be opening a limited number of slots of the "Chest Squish YCH" at a starting flat rate of $100.

You can find the application form and information here: https://forms.gle/5z32tJ4ggd7juhnn8

The form will be open for a few days, unless I get absolutely overwhelmed with responses; I may close sooner.

Depending on how this goes will affect the openings of future YCHs such at "Towering Toes", "Squat Loom" (my personal favorite), and "Butt Loom".

Thank you for your interest!

If you are interested, I have a Bluesky account I post to regularly!

You can find that at: https://bsky.app/profile/eclipsisst.....os.bsky.social

After ending my top tier benefits of my Patreon, I’ve spent more time focusing on commissions and a few personal projects. Now I suddenly have more artwork to post than my current posting schedule can handle. I have 27 new pictures waiting for their first post. Way too much for my traditional 1 picture per day average.

And the crazy thing about those 27 pictures? A large number them are colored references or fully rendered images which for the longest time was unheard of. In past months of this year I struggled to have two full rendered pictures each week.

Most of the new pics go to Patreon first on early access, but I always post 1 to 1. So for every Patreon post that goes up, a comparable early access Patreon picture gets posted here.

So look forward to even more art than I’ve historically done over the past several months!

~Eclipsis

For those who follow my Minecraft mod, you know the custom mobs are the most iconic, important part of it.

In my studies for updating to 1.20 from 1.15, I finally arrived at custom mobs, and it was a bit unsettling to see what I found in the changes; they may paint a grim future for my modification.

Mojang implements an entirely new system for mob animation

The tutorial I followed on custom entities heavily references Camels, which apparently reinvent how mobs are animated. It is so drastically different that I had a moment of panic realizing all the work I've done prior would be completely incompatible with this new style.

But then I checked the code for other mobs, starting with wolves (which all of my work started from) and found it was mostly unchanged and still looked how I remembered it. I checked Zombies, Horses, and Ender Dragon and found them still following the old logic. So for 1.20 at least, I should be fine.

It is unsettling if they decided to take their work on camels and implement it on everything in the future. It's really my doomsday scenario I dreaded all these years they might do. And ironically, the new style of code is very similar to what I was thinking they might do; I just didn't think it was possible.

If this new style of handling mobs and their animations becomes the only way, it will force me to have to rebuild all my models from scratch and create new coding for all animations. And worst of all, not all animations my current mod has would be possible. Namely the last news ones I added: jumping, falling, and turning. These would be impossible under the new system.

I'll be brutally honest. I told myself if something like this happens, I would legit quit modding, or at least quit for newer versions of Minecraft.

So permanently quitting will be on the table.

My guess on what will actually happen

Now in my opinion, how likely is it to become the only way mobs are animated? I have doubts. There are some quirks with wolves for example I don't see how it could work in the new system, and definitely not the Ender Dragon. I feel like those options will leave it open to original styles of animation.

There is another instance where a big implementation change happened but there was a backdoor that left a way around it.

Back in 1.8, how blocks and items were rendered in the game was changed from Java coding to JSONs files (basically crude text files). In 1.7, I had all sorts of custom modeled and animated blocks which were completely incomparable with the new JSON style. I thought they were sunk. But then I discovered a loophole. The Enchantment Table still utilized a custom model and animation outside of JSON files. So messing around with that, I got around the JSON dilemma.

The new mob animation coding they are implementing strongly reminds me of JSON files in how they are structured. This comparison gives me hope there will continue to be a loophole around it. It will just be a matter of finding the instance of something that doesn't use the new system.

A good change with newer Minecraft

In at least some good news about changes they made, I am happy to see attack animation coding is properly implemented in the game now. Now I no longer have to use my clumsy, custom written logic that had to use weird tricks to work. Their animation coding looks almost exactly the same as to what I have written in 1.15 so it should be an almost seamless conversion.

My mod did have a great implementation of attack animations back in the day but I didn't really call it iconic as several of mods did it too. And mine was based on Mutant Creatures originally.

The real magic of my mod was the Idle and Movement animations. Its almost a seamless transition between walking, running, falling/jumping, and turning that made them feel incredibly organic. And I had almost perfect logic to transition them from those movement/idle animations to attack animations and back. At one point, I was even attempting to code animations for characters moving backwards and sideways but I had huge issues with the understanding of the math to make it work and shelved that feature.

From what I can see, the new style Minecraft is implementing makes the seamless transition impossible and makes falling/jumping/turning impossible. I do see there is a distinction between walking and running in the new system though so that would still be around.

Why the change?

Now why is Mojang making these changes to mob animation? It's very obvious why.

It is very, very, incredibly easy to work with.

Basically anyone can do it. If you can do Blender, you can easily do it with a certain software intended for Minecraft modeling. (blockbench I think its called). It opens up mobs and animation to so many people.

Now the stuff I do? To do what I do you have to have a STRONG understanding of Trigonometry and College Algebra to do. And you have to be an Artist too. That is such a narrow skill set for a person to have.

Knowing this, I can't be mad them for making the change. It's absolutely a move intended to help with accessibility.

So there is an update on where I am with things. I'll hope for the future that loophole is possible so I can keep doing what I do. >w>

~Eclipsis/Spikybum Jolteon

I have resumed work on my Pokemon themed Minecraft modification, PokemonMD/Kindred Legacy. It’s still under the old Forge platform but I still eventually intend to migrate over to NeoForge once it is more established.

Over the course of several weeks, I decided to take some basic Java learning classes geared towards Minecraft modders. It helped me better grasps some of the newer things modern Minecraft utilize compared to 10 years ago when I started and last took an actual classroom class in programming.

Then the very day I finished the last web class, I get a message of a reply on my request for help on a problem that made me stop modding in the first place months later. The solution helped fix my problem. Now I feel even more encouraged to continue.

(if you are technically inclined, the problem involved Java Lambda and Streams, concepts I have trouble grasping which got in the way of me deducing the actual Minecraft related problem)

Mod work competes with my time learning 3D modeling so progress is still expected to be slow.

Just know it is on the table for my to do list every week.

~Eclipsis

I figured I'd leave the few people highly interested in my Minecraft modification, Kindred Legacy/PokemonMD, a notice that I am suspending work on the modification again temporarily. This time for reasons beyond my control.

There is a bit of chaos in the Minecraft modding community that has lead to a fracture in Forge, the platform I've used for over 10 years. Now there is a new version of it called NeoForge and many devs already have their eyes set on switching to this platform.

You can look up the reasons why if you'd like but for those who don't want the lengthy specifics, think of it as comparable to Bluesky starting up in response to stuff happening on Twitter. Basically the same concept by a lot of the original dev team just working on a new platform that functions similar to the original.

I'm planning on switching my dev work to NeoForge once it gets more established. But in the mean time, I will paws work and focus on other things. (such as 3D modeling and a potential collaborative project with someone)

~Eclipsis

I think a lot of you here might not know the scope of the quality I put into the Patreon exclusive alts I do and I've been thinking of taking the teaser images I usually reserve to Twitter and posting them here with a link to the actual Patreon page.

I don't do many exclusive alts so we would probably be talking about 4 or so per month. Not a terrible lot of spam.

The teasers are almost always a NSFW version if it has such alt (and they often do). Also, the main picture usually doesn't get posted for about a year after it goes up on Patreon (this is because I post on a 1 to 1 basis; I post a picture each time I make one of similar quality [have done this for years])

A good example is at the time of this post with my FurAffinity banner. Those are all the Patreon exclusive alt versions of those pictures. When those pictures DO come up for public posting, you are gonna see a different version of them.

What do you think? Would you like to see those teaser samples here or would that just frustrate you seeing that in your inbox about 4 times a month?

~Eclipsis

Hello y'all! I figure I'd quickly drop that I have a Bluesky account now and hope to start rolling out content starting in November. You can find it at:

https://bsky.app/profile/eclipsisst.....os.bsky.social

Was very pleased to learn that updating Postybirb+ gives support for posting there.

Hello y’all!

I figured I will make a formal announcement on some things going on with me.

Price increase

As I’ve hinted to, I intended on making a price increase to my rates sometime this year and I will give that an official date of November 1 going from $30/hr to $35/hr across all mediums/styles. This will only apply to new commissions started on or after this date.

One thing I want to be very clear about is that this isn’t some arbitrary increase out of need because of inflation or because of the substantial expenses I’ve had in my personal life (such as $7,200 for a new HVAC system and $10,000 for roof repair work).

This is because I think I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve developed myself as an artist to earn it. Down below I’ll explain the final piece I’m developing for myself to earn this.

I want to stress that I charge an hourly rates. Meaning if a commissioner needs me to stay at or under a certain amount, just let me know and I’ll try and meet that goal. Or they can give me a cutoff price for the picture. Many details and effects that take time can really be skipped or ignored; they are none essential.

With that in mind, you could technically see little to no change in price with commissions after this increase.

Patreon tier prices will remain as is.

New Technique

I’ve started a new technique for myself, which I know will especially address one of the most sluggish parts of the art process: flat coloring.

Up until this point I use vectors for doing 95% of the flat colors. This is a slow process because Photoshop isn’t the most friendly for using vectors; it’s cumbersome. Vectors were my choice because my art is lineless and I need crisp, smooth edges to everything with pinpoint accuracy.

I want to move away from using predominantly vectors and manually drawing them freehand. This will involve training myself to use slower, steady strokes. Which in the art world, isn’t a big deal. Most artists already do this. I myself just never trained myself to do it.

One of the other benefits of free handing coloring will affect my ability to do impressionism: using strokes to imply objects or effects without needing to draw every little detail in its entirety. This is especially important for macro art to do in a timely manner. Impressionism is the cornerstone to Bob Ross’ style that makes it so powerfully effective in doing a lot in a very short amount of time.

Scheduling

The scheduling change is more behind the scenes and won’t be very visible, but I will be changing how I handle my scheduling. I have a very sophisticated Excel sheet that is designed to tell me what sort of work I work on for a particular day and for how long.

This is why you can show up to my stream and see me work on a picture for 30 minutes and then suddenly stop in the middle of doing something. That time segment is done.

Because I no longer have heavy investments of time in my real estate, I have a more predictable schedule. With my core work days namely Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday and sometimes Saturday (now that the bookstore has started furloughing me) they’ll be broken up into three parts:
1) Warmup & new/difficult projects (around 11 a.m.-3 p.m.)
2) Administrative & personal projects; includes social media engagement (around 3-6 p.m.)
3) Core work time; high likelihood of streaming (7 p.m.-midnight)

The biggest effect the schedule change is intended to be psychological. If you are curious about what is inspiring some of these scheduling changes, you can check out this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S7w0wDSiyw

It is part of my process for developing “systems” compared to “goals”. The part that showed how “goals” can be a form of discouragement is what I want to address.

Streaming

Once I started streaming more often, I realized this is a very powerful process in helping me stay on task and get work done. You should be seeing this more often and could be on any day of the week except for Tuesday (because of Hellday 1st block).

I have a feeling that once I’ve started streaming a lot, I may look into including other things in my stream such as having videos playing on the side. Could be gaming Let’s Plays from the people I know and like or could include shows and movies.

Pokemon Card Opening Streams

Many people I know like holding Pokemon card opening streams and it’s something I want to do at some point. I basically have not opened Pokemon cards for about 10 years now. Which is kind of a big deal considering my extensive card collection from back in the day has a market value well into 5 figures.

I’d like to try and have little mini-games with this process and involve my cast members in it. When I am most serious about these streams, I’ll make announcements of when I’ll do them!

Thank you for reading through this if you did!

~Eclipsis

For those most close to me know that this last Tuesday/Wednesday (Hellday/Newspaper job) was an absolute cluster fuck of shit going wrong. From being yelled at by my boss, yelled at by a customer over a phone call I really shouldn't have taken, fuck ups from several people in the office that added extra work, leaving the office at 3 a.m. and returning by 11 a.m., and then an end of day 1 1/2 extra work, I was completely defeated by the end of the day. Honestly, if I wasn't in the complicated situation of my boss being the co-signer on my mortgage for my building, I would have 100% quit right there, no question.

Then to top it all off, I got home to find the turn on button on my desktop monitor was broken and won't turn on anymore. After about 13 years of service or so it finally went kaput. I'm pretty sure I've had this thing since the very first desktop I ever built back around 2009-2010.

I have a new one ordered but even with Amazon prime it won't be here until next Wednesday. I was surprised to learn my credit card had points of something I could use on Amazon and that it cut the cost in half. (I didn't know points was a thing for Amazon) The power of paying for everything on a credit card and paying it off each month!

In the mean time I have set up my old laptop and hooked up and installed my scanner. That is about the most essential thing I needed my Desktop for.

Bless this old laptop, I can hear its tired fans spinning from the other side of the house on its Windows 7 OS, with specs too low to handle Windows 10.

Fun fact, this old laptop I still have around because this was the device I did all audio recording from my Pokemon Y in Amie so I could have sounds for my Minecraft modification. I keep it with the intent of still doing recording so that sounds could be consistent.

Artwork won't be too interrupted as I can do all essential work on my laptop. But I can't stream in the mean time.

Hope you all are doing well! I know I'm feeling better today after a good night's rest.

~Eclipsis

Hiya ya'll!

I want to improve my ability to do digital art and I want to look into getting a graphics tablet with a screen.

As you should know, I spent over 10 years as a dedicated traditional artist where I always drew directly on the picture. Today, basically all sketches, including ones that are digitally colored, are still done pencil on paper because I have better hand/eye coordination seeing my hand on the picture.

I would really like to see how much doing digital art on a screen could help me.

Do you have recommendations for a graphics tablet with a built in screen I could draw on? Do you have any comments or concerns I should be aware of in looking for one?

~Eclipsis

I've noticed that my weekly doodles get a surprising number of favorites despite their unpolished quality.

Seems people really like them! Is there anything in particular people like about them?

The weekly doodles, unlike the beginning of month ones, are completely done for myself. They are ideas authentic to my interests and what excite me (which is why some characters reoccur frequently).

I'm sure I'm not the only one whose done this but I went to nuke my Favorites notifications but then ended up nuking EVERYTHING including comments. Now I have to try and find all the at least 9 comments I know people left me of the last several days. x-x

If you don't hear a reply from me, that would probably be why as I do try to respond to most comments. @.@!

~Eclipsis

The thing I strive for most is to develop interesting characters for people to experience and immerse themselves in their imagination. My cast come in so many different shapes, forms and personalities. It's easy to find someone you like!

I definitely encourage people to pick their favorites to think about and not worry about them ALL.

Do you have any favorites you want to know more about?

And if you'd like, feel free to ask your question like you are asking the character a question and I'll try and reply as if they are replying to you! (just let me know you as asking them a question)

Remember you can find the full list of the cast off to the side of my gallery: https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/eclipsis/ Some are under the Misc folder because of FA's folder number limit.

This month my Patreon is also holding the theme of asking characters a question and I illustrate their responses. If you'd like to be a part of that, consider supporting at https://www.patreon.com/EclipsisStudios ! $30 tier already has the form out to send in and $10 tier will have it go up soon.

~Eclipsis

I hope you all are doing well!

I was surprised to learn that yesterday, March 20 marked the anniversary of the earliest documented start to my daily uploads every single day starting a year ago. Quite the accomplishment! Right?

But today I am making the decision to end my daily uploads. Instead, art will be posted as it is finished.

My Art is Different Than a Year Ago
The reason I am doing this is that daily uploads no longer reflect the sort of artist I am today compared to a year ago. A year ago I emphasized excellence of idea, showing great characters doing fun things in neat environments.

Today I am an artist that focuses on excellence of quality. The quality of my pictures is much better today than a year ago, and to do so requires more time per picture.

Patreon voted pictures a year ago took about 6-8 hours each to complete on average. Today Patreon pictures take 12-16 hours each to finish.

Complicating Commissions
Due to how long it takes to do polished and finished pictures, I have utilized traditional sketch commissions to meet the daily upload. These generally take 1-1.75 hours to complete each one. This is time that could have been used on finishing fully rendered pictures.

This has complicated my commission process because I’ve had to spend more time doing sketches than doing fully rendered commissions. At the start of the month I told one commissioner their spot had finally come up and asked to review what they wanted. The commissioner forgot what they wanted and told me they had to go back -7 months- of history to find it. It’s 20 days into the month and I still haven’t started it because of how I’ve been spending my art time.

It took me 7 months to get to their commission, and it’s not because my queue is longer today than a year ago. In fact, my queue is probably 2 people longer than a year ago. What the problem is, is that I’m finishing 1-3 finished commissions per month; and one of those pictures is a contractual requirement towards someone to do each month. I could be going by a whole month and make zero progress on my main line commission queues.

Less Time for Art
Also, art is no longer a full time job for me. My building takes a large portion of time I used to dedicate to art. I thought this time would eventually decline as progress is made on the building but it has shown the time will not decline. It will remain a time sink for me in the months to come.

Just because I am going to be posting fewer pictures doesn’t mean I’m doing less art as a whole compared to the rest of the month. It will just be allocated in different ways.

I figured this announcement was important because some people have told me they would be alarmed if I stopped daily uploads; like something happened to me. I am fine! Nothing is happening to me!

~Eclipsis