Sorry for the wait, everyone. Been a stressful few weeks but I'm back. Doing more color sketches for $150 per character, can be specific ideas or a wing-it, up to you.

I'll be taking requests until some time later tonight and then afterwards I'll do random picks same as last time. If you still have a request from last time I opened, that will be in the pool as well so you don't have to poke me again (though doing so to reiterate your interest is fine), feel free to PM me however you like

Examples over here:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/55946047/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/57441320/

Alright goobers, we're doin' another color sketch opening. Same rules as before: $150 per character, you can request a specific idea or you can let me wing-it instead if prefer.

I'll be taking requests until some time later tonight and then afterwards I'll do random picks same as last time. If you still have a request from last time I opened, that will be in the pool as well so you don't have to poke me again (though doing so to reiterate your interest is fine), feel free to PM me however you like

Examples are right here:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/57441320/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56956353/

Doing my first weekly opening for comms. This week I'll be taking on color sketches specifically so I can figure out a good work pace for all of this. These will be $150 each or $300 for a sequence or something with two characters. If you're interested you can PM me wherever is convenient.

The way I'll be doing this is I'll be taking slot requests until some time later tomorrow and after that I'll be selecting at random until I've taken up enough work for the week. Make sure your request comes with a basic idea of what you'd like as well as any relevant reference material. We can discuss ideas if need be or we can leave the comm as a wing-it if you'd prefer for me to just cook with it

Examples of color sketches look like this:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/57441320/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56956353/


EDIT: Closed up for now! Thank you everyone as always for the support ;w;

https://ko-fi.com/helixjack


Alright, biting the bullet on this one. The future of my financials are uncertain with everything going on and still trying to find a job. If you'd like to chip in, you can do so with the link above.

I want to stress very hard that I am in no financial danger right now, if there's others who are in more desperate situations I would suggest throwing something their way instead. But if you would like to support me regardless, the option is there

Genuinely, it made me tear up a bit seeing everyone's support. I still don't feel like I entirely deserve it, I've fucked up so much over the years and I've constantly flown by the seat of my pants with my structure due to me not being able to wrangle my ADHD. But I won't stop everyone if they want to show their support regardless. I'll be doing everything I can to find my footing in life again. I'm also looking at getting my ko-fi set up again for anyone who wants to throw tips my way, just know I don't need it all that badly right now. I will say something if I do though.

I have no idea what the future may bring. If there comes a time where we suddenly can't see eachother again for whatever reason, just know that I was happy to have spent this time with you. I love you all, and please be safe.

Hello everyone


It's ....been a difficult time for me recently. Well, it has been for everyone, but I digress. My mental health has been worse than it’s ever been. I’ve spent large stretches of time just lying in bed with my eyes closed due to being too mentally exhausted to process anything. Along with everything going on, I’ve had to check up on a lot of my own life things that have fallen by the wayside. I've also been working on credentials for job hunting since December.

After speaking to my therapist, my doctor, and close friends, I think I’ve put into perspective something that I’ve been struggling to accept for a while now. I’ve spent my whole life being the responsible person, everyone’s rock to lean on. It's all I really knew how to do, I had to help my family through poverty as well as help raise three little brothers and to this day I get asked to lend financial support to my family to help pay for basic things.

I carried these skills over to the job that I do now, doing commissions for everyone. I built a reputation as a reliable person that’s usually available to do work to some capacity or another. I even tried to be an emotional pillar for some because I don’t usually like keeping things strictly business with people. I like to be a part of the community that this is.

The problem is that trying to be this available for everyone all the time as well as still maintaining my relationship with my family has slowly worn me down over the years. It was something that I was barely able to keep up with but in light of everything that’s happened I’ve found myself completely falling apart under all the added pressure. Something had to change.

I’ve spent most of my career being swamped with work to one capacity or another. It never reached the levels of bad that it was when I first started, but I’ve consistently been on the backfoot with keeping up with it all. Some people have aired concerns about how I never seem to be open even though I consistently post new work, and I have no real excuse for it. I almost exclusively sustain myself with people who actively come to me with comm requests and I oftentimes find it difficult to say no. It was something that wasn’t going to be sustainable forever. Not just in regards to the workload but the toll on my mental health as well.

All of this is to say that I’m trying to reevaluate my life, starting with announcing that I won’t be taking any spur-of-the-moment comms anymore and I’ll be trying to only do announced openings through socials and my update server. I will get sparks of inspiration still, but I’ll be trying to limit them as much as possible. From now on I’d request that people not come to me with the intent to commission me for something unless I have those openings available.

Talking ideas is fine, just please don’t expect it to translate into a finished piece any time soon, nor would it be advisable to ask me when I’ll be open next, because most of the time I don’t usually know. I have to find a new sustainable pace for myself first to be able to answer that question.

I want to be able to finally get my list paired down to a comfortable place, so I can get owed work out to people more consistently and not feel like I’m constantly sitting on a financial crisis waiting to happen.

After that, I’m going to be moving forward with finding a job so I can diversify my skills and lighten the load on my creative ability for making my income. This will likely mean my output will slow down a bit as well, but I think it's something that’s needed to happen for a while now. I’ve been doing this for over a decade and I’m feeling the fatigue as much as I still very much enjoy my job.

In conclusion: I love you all. I’ve kept up with this for as long as I have partly because I’ve always struggled with managing myself effectively, but it's also because I enjoy being with all of you and being one of the commission artist pillars in this niche little community of our’s. I still want to be a part of it, but I need to change some things about myself for that to continue to be sustainable.



TLDR: I’m tired and need to take better care of myself right now. I’m going to be limiting comms to strictly when I open them in socials, FA and on my update server

I'm in the mood for some honse drawing this weekend but I'm gonna ease up on the stress of comms so share me your pons (or characters you wanna see be pons) and I might draw them (squeakiness is usually guaranteed)

I made an update server on disco for those interested! It's just something for people who've wanted more direct pings on comm availability and the like, I also just want to have more means of communication available.

https://discord.gg/Cum2HrQK2v

Yeah twitter seems to be blowing up again so I'm trying to get a new main social platform out there for people who want it:

https://bsky.app/profile/helixjack.bsky.social

I've had more than one person assume I stopped drawing entirely because I mostly post on twitter these days. Which.....yeah that's not a great decision on my part anymore. I'll be uploading batches of art here and there in the coming days to make up for it.

Oh yeah I forgot to promote over here as well, you can find all the info over here:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/55478461/

oookay I have a need. I'll be doing this as my holiday indulgence today then I'll be back to normal comms tomorrow. If you'd like a lil' cookie version of your OC I'll be doing these for $90 each. They can just be designs, TFs, and other shenanigans. PM if interested :o


Examples: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/54961583/

Still open if anyone is interested:

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10693904

Alright everyone, rent's gonna need paying soon so I wanna get started on this early. I'll be taking wing-its for the month of October at $80 a piece, multiple parts are allowed. I'll be finishing off what I have left first before starting these, PM if interested

Examples over here:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/53064826/


I'll also be doing coloring of existing sketches if anyone is interested in those as well. I'll be doing them for $250 a piece minus the cost of the initial sketch. So $170 on average. Examples over here:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46267076/

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46267060/

I hate to do this but rent time is coming up and I'm a bit short. I'll be adding a few wing-its to the roster just to top off for the month. If you're interested you can PM me where convenient, these will be done for $80 each (I've decided this will be the set price for now)

I'll also open up to doing any previous sketches and wing-its in full color for the price of a normal pic minus the sketch cost (so $180 on average)

Examples of the wing-it style:
https://twitter.com/ShinyHelix/stat.....136764418?s=20

If you don't already.

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/shinyhelix

The only reason I do this here is because it has a really garbage rate limit all of a sudden and I've already hit the damn thing. But yes, go here if you want more regular posts from me, I'll try to post here more often as well.

I'll be adding wing-its on top of my recent need for paying bills (mind these will take a few weeks while I get older work finished up). I'll be doing these for $70 each, I'll also be doing color jobs for past sketches for a total of $250 each minus the cost of the initial sketch

Examples of wing-its:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49048046/

And examples of full color pics:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/48666156/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46693574/

I got some good work done already and I'm in the mood for some pony TFs this morning. So I'm gonna open up to a few if people fancy. OCs and canon characters welcome, $120 each, PM with info if interested


Examples in the link:

https://twitter.com/ShinyHelix/stat.....169747457?s=20

It's the weekend and I'm in the mood to do some wing-its. They'll be $60 each. PM me the info if interested. Subject is of my choosing, subjects will likely involve any manner of strange things I do so you gotta be ready for more or less anything.

I'll only be doing about four of these so don't expect this to be open for tootoo long

Examples of doodles:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49048046/

Today's a chill and doodle whatever day I think. Send me refs, might doodle them in a probably shiny and terrible situation, gotta be okay with anything, no guarantees, you know the drill.

I decided to transition into doing these on a paid basis now after the initial batch went farther than I intended; I would like to continue but I also can't take up my whole work week doing these unpaid. If you're interested in getting a toon-based Tf, either just as your character in the style or as anything else more specific feel free to PM me with the usual info.

Examples:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50101387/

I'm in the mood to do some toony/inkblot themed TFs but my comm sheet is booked as it is, so I'll be doing some randomly picked TFs if you wanna post refs. These will be toony TFs of all kinds, likely pretty heavy ones involving changing species or being big and round and such, usually with the application of ink. Just keep in mind that I can only do so many so don't get your hopes up just in-case.

So yeah, twitter's on the slip n' slide to it's doom so I'm making contingencies in-case it comes to that. I'll still be posting art here (I'll probably try to do that more going forward) but in terms of socials I may end up moving to tumblr and just dealing with it's very DA-like censoring system. So if you'd like to follow me there as well for if shit his the fan you can do so over here:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/shinyhelix

I'm in the mood to do some more pokemon TFs this weekend so I'm opening up to some. Sketchos look like this:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/43655828/

I'm looking to largely do feral forms, you can also get an end result panel for $40 extra if you'd like. PM with the usual info if interested

https://twitter.com/ShinyHelix/stat.....895641603?s=20

Something like this, PM if interested :o