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Need input regarding streams
Posted 2 months agoHe guys! :) If I could get a few minutes of your time, I’d like to have your input regarding the streams I’ve been doing.
TL;DR: streaming allows me to focus more on my work and get quite some things done effectively, so I'd like to keep doing it a bit.
However, low watching numbers mean I'm most of the time drawing alone, which is quite taxing on my energy.
Trying to find ways to increase those numbers as I'm tempted to stop streaming or stream less.
I used to have some viewers when I started streaming, but now it’s down to one or two persons with a few spikes to 4. I’m not even sure about those numbers: refreshing the stream page can reduce it and the stream is likely counting myself as one viewer (I keep it opened to make sure it’s streaming fine).
Still, most of the time there’s no interaction in the chat so streaming can become quite mentally taxing and exhausting for me as I need to focus on the art with 0 “distraction” on the side, and the environmental impact bothers me if there are no watchers.
I admit I have been thinking about stopping the streams and maybe resuming them when I’ll have a bigger audience, but here’s the catch: streaming allows me to be more productive! With less chances of procrastinating I tend to get more stuff done faster, so it’s been quite beneficial in that sense. But the downside is it's really exhausting when you're all alone.
I think most of us would agree that having a small group of regular folks is the ideal spot: it’s like hanging out with friends while drawing so it makes working more fun. Having only one person in the chat can get awkward (insecure and introverted me is worried about strange para-social interactions), while having way too many people means you can’t read everything and only interact with few while dealing with big amounts of potential trolls.
I’m trying to think what could be changed to make that happen and I discussed it with a friend, still I’d like to hear your input as well. :)
The reasons I can think of are:
- No definite streaming schedule: since my Xss art is not my full time job nor priority, I simply stream when I have the time and energy: so streaming dates and time varies depending on the weeks.
- Bad audio mixing: music too loud and voice too low. I’m trying to find the right mix, but more than once I’ve been warned my mic is too low.
- Voice modifier: won’t stream without it, but I can understand it might be off-putting for some people.
- Small audience: I do have an audience, but I’m clearly no popufur! XD
- Maybe I’m simply not a good entertainer while streaming.
- Only streaming the same YCH for the past two months.
- Might be streaming at a time when most of my audience is at work or sleeping.
- Others?
Thanks! :)
TL;DR: streaming allows me to focus more on my work and get quite some things done effectively, so I'd like to keep doing it a bit.
However, low watching numbers mean I'm most of the time drawing alone, which is quite taxing on my energy.
Trying to find ways to increase those numbers as I'm tempted to stop streaming or stream less.
I used to have some viewers when I started streaming, but now it’s down to one or two persons with a few spikes to 4. I’m not even sure about those numbers: refreshing the stream page can reduce it and the stream is likely counting myself as one viewer (I keep it opened to make sure it’s streaming fine).
Still, most of the time there’s no interaction in the chat so streaming can become quite mentally taxing and exhausting for me as I need to focus on the art with 0 “distraction” on the side, and the environmental impact bothers me if there are no watchers.
I admit I have been thinking about stopping the streams and maybe resuming them when I’ll have a bigger audience, but here’s the catch: streaming allows me to be more productive! With less chances of procrastinating I tend to get more stuff done faster, so it’s been quite beneficial in that sense. But the downside is it's really exhausting when you're all alone.
I think most of us would agree that having a small group of regular folks is the ideal spot: it’s like hanging out with friends while drawing so it makes working more fun. Having only one person in the chat can get awkward (insecure and introverted me is worried about strange para-social interactions), while having way too many people means you can’t read everything and only interact with few while dealing with big amounts of potential trolls.
I’m trying to think what could be changed to make that happen and I discussed it with a friend, still I’d like to hear your input as well. :)
The reasons I can think of are:
- No definite streaming schedule: since my Xss art is not my full time job nor priority, I simply stream when I have the time and energy: so streaming dates and time varies depending on the weeks.
- Bad audio mixing: music too loud and voice too low. I’m trying to find the right mix, but more than once I’ve been warned my mic is too low.
- Voice modifier: won’t stream without it, but I can understand it might be off-putting for some people.
- Small audience: I do have an audience, but I’m clearly no popufur! XD
- Maybe I’m simply not a good entertainer while streaming.
- Only streaming the same YCH for the past two months.
- Might be streaming at a time when most of my audience is at work or sleeping.
- Others?
Thanks! :)
Switching from Twitch to Picarto for streams.
Posted 3 months agoQuick message to inform you that if you follow me on Twitch, I'm likely gonna try to move back to Picarto for streams, despite some of the issues I had with it.
Here’s the link! https://picarto.tv/oXsso
Here’s the link! https://picarto.tv/oXsso
YCH/commissions closed!
Posted 3 months agoQuick note to say that I had to close the YCH/commission forms as I have enough slots to keep me busy for a couple of weeks, but I'll certainly re-open it at some point in the future! :)
Thanks a lot to everybody who reached out and showed interest!
Thanks a lot to everybody who reached out and showed interest!
To my clients (YCH/commission): quick update!
Posted 4 months agoHello everybody! :)
First of all, I want to thank everybody for your reaction to the YCH and those who expressed interest to get one or a commission! I was very hesitant in posting it, even thinking it might not interest much, and the reaction has been beyond my expectations!
I'll try to resume work on the next YCH this coming week-end, but I'm currently swamped not only with IRL stuff (my professional portfolio) that requires a dedicated set of hours per week, but also getting my new rig up and running: installing all the different programs and testing them to make sure all is working as intended is taking much longer than expected, so that will likely take a few more days. It's almost like moving to a new place, almost! ^^"
I hope to have all of this sorted out ASAP so I can return to completing the YCH soon! Worst case scenario, I should resume work on those some time next week.
Thanks everybody!
First of all, I want to thank everybody for your reaction to the YCH and those who expressed interest to get one or a commission! I was very hesitant in posting it, even thinking it might not interest much, and the reaction has been beyond my expectations!
I'll try to resume work on the next YCH this coming week-end, but I'm currently swamped not only with IRL stuff (my professional portfolio) that requires a dedicated set of hours per week, but also getting my new rig up and running: installing all the different programs and testing them to make sure all is working as intended is taking much longer than expected, so that will likely take a few more days. It's almost like moving to a new place, almost! ^^"
I hope to have all of this sorted out ASAP so I can return to completing the YCH soon! Worst case scenario, I should resume work on those some time next week.
Thanks everybody!
Summer commissions and YCH
Posted 4 months agoHi everybody! :)
Heads-up: I'll be opening a few commissions slots in a few days/weeks during the summer, and I'll also do some testing with YCH as I've never done those before!
As for prices I'll be doing like last year: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56790737/
Payment very likely through Artistree and base prices can vary depending on complexity, but you can also tell me your budget and idea and I'll see what I can do! (though for commissions, note that I likely won't accept projects below €70, sorry. :/).
I might use google forms to get more organized as well, we'll see...
If you have any questions feel free to ask! :)
Heads-up: I'll be opening a few commissions slots in a few days/weeks during the summer, and I'll also do some testing with YCH as I've never done those before!
As for prices I'll be doing like last year: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56790737/
Payment very likely through Artistree and base prices can vary depending on complexity, but you can also tell me your budget and idea and I'll see what I can do! (though for commissions, note that I likely won't accept projects below €70, sorry. :/).
I might use google forms to get more organized as well, we'll see...
If you have any questions feel free to ask! :)
2024 came and went...It wasn't super great...
Posted 10 months agoThe tradition wants me to wish you all a Happy New Year, so here’s Happy New Year to those of you wishing for one!
As for me I’ve been rewriting for countless of times a very long post about my current state of things. See, while 2024 seemed normal on the surface, I have to admit I haven’t felt great for a big chunk of it (and even before) and I feel 2025 and onward will only get worse and worse.
But for the sake of not trashing people’s mood and taking everybody along with me down mid-life crisis’/depression’s road, I won’t get into details. Maybe another time.
I’ll just put the pros of this year instead:
- I made a few new friendships, both online and IRL tied to my industry, which always helps with optimism and motivation in general.
- I went to a professional event and I’m planing on attending another one next year. I am not entirely sure if the illustration/concept art industry is really for me, and more about that in the cons, but it’s still nice to go out and meet with some people and big names from the industry. Gives you a little motivation boost, or opens your eyes about what you really want to do.
- I’ve improved a bit at art...I guess?
- I saved a tiny bit of money despite my crappy salary, so that’s still I win I guess.
- I’m enjoying some aspects of my current job and it’s something I’d like to pursue in the future.
- Beginning of 2024 will forever be marked with the discovery of Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. Those type of shows and art directions are not totally my cup of tea and they both have their own share of issues (here come the fanboys with the pitchforks!), in fact I even struggled quite a lot to get through the pilot of Hazbin Hotel. And yet they’ve become a firm favorite and a new IP I will follow with interest for quite some time I believe. I am extremely happy for Vivienne Medrano and what she has managed to accomplish as it is to some extent what I would like to do with my personal IPs as a creator.
- With Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss came in more singing obviously, as some songs have been a real earworm. So I can say I’ve improved a bit in that regard over the past year and I’ll keep taking singing classes. I might even say that if it weren’t for Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, I would have probably not bothered watching the movie Wicked, which ended up being a lot of fun!
That’s it for the pros.
As for the cons, well there’s really a lot. But I’ll keep it for another time.
Enjoy New Year’s Eve folks!
As for me I’ve been rewriting for countless of times a very long post about my current state of things. See, while 2024 seemed normal on the surface, I have to admit I haven’t felt great for a big chunk of it (and even before) and I feel 2025 and onward will only get worse and worse.
But for the sake of not trashing people’s mood and taking everybody along with me down mid-life crisis’/depression’s road, I won’t get into details. Maybe another time.
I’ll just put the pros of this year instead:
- I made a few new friendships, both online and IRL tied to my industry, which always helps with optimism and motivation in general.
- I went to a professional event and I’m planing on attending another one next year. I am not entirely sure if the illustration/concept art industry is really for me, and more about that in the cons, but it’s still nice to go out and meet with some people and big names from the industry. Gives you a little motivation boost, or opens your eyes about what you really want to do.
- I’ve improved a bit at art...I guess?
- I saved a tiny bit of money despite my crappy salary, so that’s still I win I guess.
- I’m enjoying some aspects of my current job and it’s something I’d like to pursue in the future.
- Beginning of 2024 will forever be marked with the discovery of Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. Those type of shows and art directions are not totally my cup of tea and they both have their own share of issues (here come the fanboys with the pitchforks!), in fact I even struggled quite a lot to get through the pilot of Hazbin Hotel. And yet they’ve become a firm favorite and a new IP I will follow with interest for quite some time I believe. I am extremely happy for Vivienne Medrano and what she has managed to accomplish as it is to some extent what I would like to do with my personal IPs as a creator.
- With Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss came in more singing obviously, as some songs have been a real earworm. So I can say I’ve improved a bit in that regard over the past year and I’ll keep taking singing classes. I might even say that if it weren’t for Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, I would have probably not bothered watching the movie Wicked, which ended up being a lot of fun!
That’s it for the pros.
As for the cons, well there’s really a lot. But I’ll keep it for another time.
Enjoy New Year’s Eve folks!
Patreon opened for 12 hours
Posted a year agoHi everybody,
Forgot to say it: I unpaused billing on my patreon for 12 hours, in case anyone wants to join and see the content that is online.
After 12 hours I'll pause billing again. Thanks!
https://www.patreon.com/c/oxsso
Forgot to say it: I unpaused billing on my patreon for 12 hours, in case anyone wants to join and see the content that is online.
After 12 hours I'll pause billing again. Thanks!
https://www.patreon.com/c/oxsso
Free colored sketh raffle on bluesky!
Posted a year agoHi everybody!
I've moved from twitter to bluesky and I'm doing a raffle there to win a full character colored sketch (SFW, though certain fetishes are obviously okay :) ).
https://bsky.app/profile/xssartist....../3l76cqfcyw22t
To participate:
Like, repost and follow on bluesky!
Post your OC or references on the bluesky post!
The raffle ends this Sunday at 11pm Central European time (Paris time)
I've moved from twitter to bluesky and I'm doing a raffle there to win a full character colored sketch (SFW, though certain fetishes are obviously okay :) ).
https://bsky.app/profile/xssartist....../3l76cqfcyw22t
To participate:
Like, repost and follow on bluesky!
Post your OC or references on the bluesky post!
The raffle ends this Sunday at 11pm Central European time (Paris time)
No minors feature
Posted a year agoHello everybody! :)
It should be obvious that my page is meant for adults since it is fetish oriented, and I suppose most of you who are reading this are adults. Nonetheless, I will be activating the « no minors » feature soon. It shouldn’t change anything on your end, but if you suddenly no longer can access my page…Well, you know why.
It should be obvious that my page is meant for adults since it is fetish oriented, and I suppose most of you who are reading this are adults. Nonetheless, I will be activating the « no minors » feature soon. It shouldn’t change anything on your end, but if you suddenly no longer can access my page…Well, you know why.
The future of this page and patreon (and Picarto!)
Posted a year agoHello everybody! Hope you are enjoying your summer! :)
By the way, since I completely forgot to post an update about it: the issue with Picarto was solved! They replied to my message (albeit a bit late so I had already ordered a new card) and they even refunded me a month. It's still an annoying bug, but I appreciate their seriousness. I'm still not returning to that platform as a streamer though. Do I recommend them however? It's hard to say...Be aware of what you are getting into with them!
Anyway, meanwhile here is a quick update and piece of info about what is to come around here.
I’ll be posting here the very beginning of two stories that I will be publishing first on my patreon. New chapters will be posted first on patreon, with older chapters getting released bit by bit here. By the way, I’ll probably pause billing on patreon for the month of August: while I’m gonna keep working on those stories I need a break to focus on some personal matters.
The first one is The Nomad Islands, aka Kylian’s Adventure: I think it’s time for me to reveal the title, after all I’m about to post the first pages here tonight! As expected The Nomad Island is your typical fantasy adventure/action story, heavily inspired by shows like Avatar the Last Airbender, mainly PG, equally VERY stupid and VERY traumatic as well, like the first FullMetal Alchemist anime (which, I am very sorry, I find superior to Brotherhood...oh dear, oh dear, what a way to start a conflict with my watchers!)
The second one is Precipice, a story that I came up with only a year ago. That one is...Odd to say the least. It really started as a non-furry scary/horror story and it evolved into being “Mike Flanagan’s like spooky-stuff meets Beastars (but even more queer) meets dystopian society shit meets SCP-like-spooky-stuff”...Don’t ask, I’m weird ^^”. It's definitely more adult and serious, and it features a bunch of new characters that I haven’t drawn yet, except for one that has only appeared on one patreon pic so far (here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56845992/), but I hope to be able to make some more free art of that cast at some point.
Those stories are not in comic format I’m afraid (appart for Kylian’s Adventure which had...4 pages in comic format at some point. Yup, I’m not proud of myself): just like Monster Crowd they are in written format which, for better or worse, is the only way I can stay productive enough with them while handling IRL duties.
Those are not novels: I do not know how to write, and I am no writer. I’ve tried it with Monster Crowd, I aimed too high it was a bad idea. Those stories are more like “fancy summaries”, written in present tense, and with the dialog written as in a script. I understand that taking such writing “liberties” will infuriate purists of the art, but at this point I just want to share some stories in a way or another.
On patreon you’ll find:
The prologue of The Nomad Islands/Kylian’s Adventure: 30 or so pages. I’ll post here the very beginning of that prologue.
Part of the “prologue” of Precipice, which ended up being so long that it has now become it’s own part: 3 chapters, almost 50 pages total. I’ll post the first chapter here in a few days.
And also the first chapter of Monster Crowd: 10 pages or so if I recall correctly...Monster Crowd is on pause right now for a variety of reasons (mainly me getting stuck with the plot and unfortunately IRL world issues) so I’ll probably just write a full summary of that story at some point those who are curious.
I understand this won’t be everybody’s cup of tea as it’s quite a departure from my typical work, but it seems I have reached my limit with fetish content once more.
So, regarding fetish content, future art, etc...
As I said on my previous journal I tried to make it work on patreon. Could have I done things differently? Of course. But the truth is, for these past few months, no matter what type of content and characters I would release, the numbers where not increasing and I was loosing patrons anyway. Bottom line: I was exhausting myself doing something that ultimately is not that appealing to me anymore, and working on commissions is more lucrative.
Will I come back to fetish art? As always with me, never say never, but right now I need to explore my creativity differently and I’ve been having a blast writing those stories. I don’t care how dreadful the writing is, how bad the stories are, how annoying and cringe worth the characters are: I’m just having fun, I’m going faster than if I had to draw them as comic, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep going at it for the time being.
IRL, I am currently quite busy with some things that demand all of my attention and time, so that’s what I’m doing. If things go well, they could lead to interesting things career-wise.
That means that unfortunately, I have to slow down a bit with commissions. I know I’ve been talking with some of you and I have some commissions lined up: I’d love to work on them, and I’m gonna try, but the priority needs to go to my IRL job and portfolio at the moment!
That will be all for now, so enjoy the very beginning of Kylian’s Adventure: posting all of that in the next hour or so, if all goes well! :)
By the way, since I completely forgot to post an update about it: the issue with Picarto was solved! They replied to my message (albeit a bit late so I had already ordered a new card) and they even refunded me a month. It's still an annoying bug, but I appreciate their seriousness. I'm still not returning to that platform as a streamer though. Do I recommend them however? It's hard to say...Be aware of what you are getting into with them!
Anyway, meanwhile here is a quick update and piece of info about what is to come around here.
I’ll be posting here the very beginning of two stories that I will be publishing first on my patreon. New chapters will be posted first on patreon, with older chapters getting released bit by bit here. By the way, I’ll probably pause billing on patreon for the month of August: while I’m gonna keep working on those stories I need a break to focus on some personal matters.
The first one is The Nomad Islands, aka Kylian’s Adventure: I think it’s time for me to reveal the title, after all I’m about to post the first pages here tonight! As expected The Nomad Island is your typical fantasy adventure/action story, heavily inspired by shows like Avatar the Last Airbender, mainly PG, equally VERY stupid and VERY traumatic as well, like the first FullMetal Alchemist anime (which, I am very sorry, I find superior to Brotherhood...oh dear, oh dear, what a way to start a conflict with my watchers!)
The second one is Precipice, a story that I came up with only a year ago. That one is...Odd to say the least. It really started as a non-furry scary/horror story and it evolved into being “Mike Flanagan’s like spooky-stuff meets Beastars (but even more queer) meets dystopian society shit meets SCP-like-spooky-stuff”...Don’t ask, I’m weird ^^”. It's definitely more adult and serious, and it features a bunch of new characters that I haven’t drawn yet, except for one that has only appeared on one patreon pic so far (here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56845992/), but I hope to be able to make some more free art of that cast at some point.
Those stories are not in comic format I’m afraid (appart for Kylian’s Adventure which had...4 pages in comic format at some point. Yup, I’m not proud of myself): just like Monster Crowd they are in written format which, for better or worse, is the only way I can stay productive enough with them while handling IRL duties.
Those are not novels: I do not know how to write, and I am no writer. I’ve tried it with Monster Crowd, I aimed too high it was a bad idea. Those stories are more like “fancy summaries”, written in present tense, and with the dialog written as in a script. I understand that taking such writing “liberties” will infuriate purists of the art, but at this point I just want to share some stories in a way or another.
On patreon you’ll find:
The prologue of The Nomad Islands/Kylian’s Adventure: 30 or so pages. I’ll post here the very beginning of that prologue.
Part of the “prologue” of Precipice, which ended up being so long that it has now become it’s own part: 3 chapters, almost 50 pages total. I’ll post the first chapter here in a few days.
And also the first chapter of Monster Crowd: 10 pages or so if I recall correctly...Monster Crowd is on pause right now for a variety of reasons (mainly me getting stuck with the plot and unfortunately IRL world issues) so I’ll probably just write a full summary of that story at some point those who are curious.
I understand this won’t be everybody’s cup of tea as it’s quite a departure from my typical work, but it seems I have reached my limit with fetish content once more.
So, regarding fetish content, future art, etc...
As I said on my previous journal I tried to make it work on patreon. Could have I done things differently? Of course. But the truth is, for these past few months, no matter what type of content and characters I would release, the numbers where not increasing and I was loosing patrons anyway. Bottom line: I was exhausting myself doing something that ultimately is not that appealing to me anymore, and working on commissions is more lucrative.
Will I come back to fetish art? As always with me, never say never, but right now I need to explore my creativity differently and I’ve been having a blast writing those stories. I don’t care how dreadful the writing is, how bad the stories are, how annoying and cringe worth the characters are: I’m just having fun, I’m going faster than if I had to draw them as comic, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep going at it for the time being.
IRL, I am currently quite busy with some things that demand all of my attention and time, so that’s what I’m doing. If things go well, they could lead to interesting things career-wise.
That means that unfortunately, I have to slow down a bit with commissions. I know I’ve been talking with some of you and I have some commissions lined up: I’d love to work on them, and I’m gonna try, but the priority needs to go to my IRL job and portfolio at the moment!
That will be all for now, so enjoy the very beginning of Kylian’s Adventure: posting all of that in the next hour or so, if all goes well! :)
Stopping fetish art on patreon, switching to commissions
Posted a year agoHello everybody, the following message was posted on my patreon.
These are bad news that will displease many and I’ve been hesitating to post this. First of all I want to thank all of you who have been supporting me for so long, but after a lot of consideration I’ve decided to stop all type of fetish art on patreon for good and switch my focus to other type of content.
This ain’t like the previous hiatus/paused billings I’ve taken before where I was returning after a month or two. There might be an occasional fetish pic once or twice per year when inspiration kicks in and time allows for it, after all I do have some fetish ideas I’d love to draw at some point! Who knows, I might come back in X years (or earlier out of despair if I’m totally broke and nothing else worked), but the current plan is to stop for good.
I won’t be deleting any art posted here though, but I likely will delete the alts/€8 tier. If you’re still a patron, take this as the opportunity to get the art in here and then switch to the €1 tier for support or the €3 if you still want to see non-fetish content from time to time.
I’m unsure if I’ll release some other type of visual art here. I want to focus on stuff that fulfills me creatively and serves as a refuge every time I need to chill and relax, so mainly Kylian’s adventure, Monster Crowd, the Haunting Story, etc, in writing format...Regarding that last one, part of the prologue will be coming out this month, and I’ll likely pause billing on august so I can focus on personal matters then will unpause when a new chapter is ready.
The reason for me stopping is simple: it just doesn’t make any financial sense to continue, and no matter how much I try to fake it, fetish art really inspires me less and less as the years go by. Relying simply on inspiration to kick in to be motivated for a pic is a recipe for disaster. But again, when inspiration will kick in again, rest assure you'll be among the first ones to know! :)
My numbers have been plummeting no matter what I do for the past year. For every new patron that joins I loose one or two. This doesn’t happen on patreon only but as Xss as well: a complete stagnation in all of my socials no matter what I post. I’ve reached a glass ceiling and I’m no longer growing.
It could be easy to blame it on algorithms, my patreon getting pirated, and so on and so forth, but I’ve been present for so much time in the fandom that the Xss brand is like kryptonite for whatever reasons and people simply avoid me, so that’s on me.
I’ve tried for the past few months to make it work, released art with very favorite characters, including a scenario that was proposed by a patreon, a new personal OC, but I’ve never been able to recreate the success of the “Death+Puss and boots” pic. If I were making approximately €500 a month I’d likely keep going at it for a while, but at €100 for pics that hardly inspire me and take me 40 hours minimum to produce, I barely cover some monthly basic expenses.
So I need to put my energy elsewhere to pay bills: commissions pay more so I’ll stick to that instead and will soon give a try at some YCH, see how that works.
I’m also focusing most of my energy on my IRL portfolio and career to try and get professional and industry gigs before AI art replace us all. I won't lie that professional stuff has clearly been taking me most of my time and that's what I like the most at the moment.
So that’s it. To those of you who have been following this page from the beginning, thank you all again for the support and I hope you’ve enjoyed the fetish ride!
There's still more to come with the stories I have in mind, so if you're staying I hope you'll be enjoying those: it's like embarking on a new adventure, one that I'm more excited about in some way.
I don't want to end on a doom and gloomy note, so I feel like posting this little song that could fit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCTbmFrB4nA
These are bad news that will displease many and I’ve been hesitating to post this. First of all I want to thank all of you who have been supporting me for so long, but after a lot of consideration I’ve decided to stop all type of fetish art on patreon for good and switch my focus to other type of content.
This ain’t like the previous hiatus/paused billings I’ve taken before where I was returning after a month or two. There might be an occasional fetish pic once or twice per year when inspiration kicks in and time allows for it, after all I do have some fetish ideas I’d love to draw at some point! Who knows, I might come back in X years (or earlier out of despair if I’m totally broke and nothing else worked), but the current plan is to stop for good.
I won’t be deleting any art posted here though, but I likely will delete the alts/€8 tier. If you’re still a patron, take this as the opportunity to get the art in here and then switch to the €1 tier for support or the €3 if you still want to see non-fetish content from time to time.
I’m unsure if I’ll release some other type of visual art here. I want to focus on stuff that fulfills me creatively and serves as a refuge every time I need to chill and relax, so mainly Kylian’s adventure, Monster Crowd, the Haunting Story, etc, in writing format...Regarding that last one, part of the prologue will be coming out this month, and I’ll likely pause billing on august so I can focus on personal matters then will unpause when a new chapter is ready.
The reason for me stopping is simple: it just doesn’t make any financial sense to continue, and no matter how much I try to fake it, fetish art really inspires me less and less as the years go by. Relying simply on inspiration to kick in to be motivated for a pic is a recipe for disaster. But again, when inspiration will kick in again, rest assure you'll be among the first ones to know! :)
My numbers have been plummeting no matter what I do for the past year. For every new patron that joins I loose one or two. This doesn’t happen on patreon only but as Xss as well: a complete stagnation in all of my socials no matter what I post. I’ve reached a glass ceiling and I’m no longer growing.
It could be easy to blame it on algorithms, my patreon getting pirated, and so on and so forth, but I’ve been present for so much time in the fandom that the Xss brand is like kryptonite for whatever reasons and people simply avoid me, so that’s on me.
I’ve tried for the past few months to make it work, released art with very favorite characters, including a scenario that was proposed by a patreon, a new personal OC, but I’ve never been able to recreate the success of the “Death+Puss and boots” pic. If I were making approximately €500 a month I’d likely keep going at it for a while, but at €100 for pics that hardly inspire me and take me 40 hours minimum to produce, I barely cover some monthly basic expenses.
So I need to put my energy elsewhere to pay bills: commissions pay more so I’ll stick to that instead and will soon give a try at some YCH, see how that works.
I’m also focusing most of my energy on my IRL portfolio and career to try and get professional and industry gigs before AI art replace us all. I won't lie that professional stuff has clearly been taking me most of my time and that's what I like the most at the moment.
So that’s it. To those of you who have been following this page from the beginning, thank you all again for the support and I hope you’ve enjoyed the fetish ride!
There's still more to come with the stories I have in mind, so if you're staying I hope you'll be enjoying those: it's like embarking on a new adventure, one that I'm more excited about in some way.
I don't want to end on a doom and gloomy note, so I feel like posting this little song that could fit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCTbmFrB4nA
Bad news and beware of Picarto
Posted a year agoHi everybody,
Bad news and I'm making this public to warn you. I've posted this same message on my patreon and you can find a twitter post I made here, feel free to share it just in case: https://x.com/XssArtist/status/1803189832232964242
Basically Picarto doesn't allow you to cancel a premium membership once you take one. I know it could be a bug, a simple hiccup that will be solved in two days, but after checking online I'm not the only one. When other users are in the same situation, hear nothing back from Picarto, and when something as basic as a "unsubscribe" button can't be implemented, it looks less and less like a hiccup or a bug.
It's poor business practice at best, malice at worst. I feel betrayed since I trusted Picarto and have been using that platform for a year.
"But Xss, it's just 15 euros". Yeah, so? Imagine they change their TOS tomorrow and it becomes 20 or more. Just like when your subscription services raise their prices yearly. Now imagine you can't unsubscribe become of some legal loophole. :/
The reason I tried to cancel my Picarto premium membership is because the private streams are not being successful: basically no patrons showed up to them in the last two months. It could be because of time conflict for the patrons who selected that tier, but since no one contacted me with their schedule I figured people selected that tier for the alts.
I feel bad streaming when no one is watching: it's taxing on my computers, on online servers, it's quite a carbon footprint for nothing. I'm taking a break from fetish art next month anyway, and I'll figure out what to do with that tier since it is now a bit expensive for just some alts.
That's when I realized I couldn't cancel my membership.
Basically what happened is: I took a monthly subscription with my debit card, then due to a bug or simply malice Picarto shows the subscription on my account is going through my paypal, so it's impossible to cancel...Which is not the case since I never gave them my paypal info. What I suppose happened (I can't be certain) is that when I selected to pay for the membership on Picarto, I was taken to a paypal page where I paid with my debit card.
Now every month I am charged to Picarto's paypal directly from my bank account.
After checking online for some answers, I realized I am not the only one being affected by that: other users can't cancel their Picarto membership, even after contacting the help desk.
I obviously sent them a message, but I don't know when they'll answer, nor if they'll help: I'm certain I'll receive a bot answer telling me that "to unsubscribe with paypal do this this and this".
My only option for the time being has been to contact my bank and request them to block the payments, which is not ideal since who knows what the legal ramifications of all of this will be.
Needless to say I am not happy and I've lost a lot of trust in Picarto: those type of practices are very fishy and borderline fraudulent.
As a result I'll no longer be using their services until this is fully resolved, even for free streams, and I doubt I'll ever subscribe to their premium offer ever again. I might be a rash decision, but I'm not putting my trust on a platform that doesn't allow some users to easily unsubscribe and keep charging them.
Obviously if this is promptly solved without any issues I'll let you know ASAP, but in the time being be wary about Picarto and know what you're getting into if you take a subscription to do private streams.
That means that even if there's suddenly an interest for private streams, I'll have to find an alternative place to stream. I'm really sorry. :(
Bad news and I'm making this public to warn you. I've posted this same message on my patreon and you can find a twitter post I made here, feel free to share it just in case: https://x.com/XssArtist/status/1803189832232964242
Basically Picarto doesn't allow you to cancel a premium membership once you take one. I know it could be a bug, a simple hiccup that will be solved in two days, but after checking online I'm not the only one. When other users are in the same situation, hear nothing back from Picarto, and when something as basic as a "unsubscribe" button can't be implemented, it looks less and less like a hiccup or a bug.
It's poor business practice at best, malice at worst. I feel betrayed since I trusted Picarto and have been using that platform for a year.
"But Xss, it's just 15 euros". Yeah, so? Imagine they change their TOS tomorrow and it becomes 20 or more. Just like when your subscription services raise their prices yearly. Now imagine you can't unsubscribe become of some legal loophole. :/
The reason I tried to cancel my Picarto premium membership is because the private streams are not being successful: basically no patrons showed up to them in the last two months. It could be because of time conflict for the patrons who selected that tier, but since no one contacted me with their schedule I figured people selected that tier for the alts.
I feel bad streaming when no one is watching: it's taxing on my computers, on online servers, it's quite a carbon footprint for nothing. I'm taking a break from fetish art next month anyway, and I'll figure out what to do with that tier since it is now a bit expensive for just some alts.
That's when I realized I couldn't cancel my membership.
Basically what happened is: I took a monthly subscription with my debit card, then due to a bug or simply malice Picarto shows the subscription on my account is going through my paypal, so it's impossible to cancel...Which is not the case since I never gave them my paypal info. What I suppose happened (I can't be certain) is that when I selected to pay for the membership on Picarto, I was taken to a paypal page where I paid with my debit card.
Now every month I am charged to Picarto's paypal directly from my bank account.
After checking online for some answers, I realized I am not the only one being affected by that: other users can't cancel their Picarto membership, even after contacting the help desk.
I obviously sent them a message, but I don't know when they'll answer, nor if they'll help: I'm certain I'll receive a bot answer telling me that "to unsubscribe with paypal do this this and this".
My only option for the time being has been to contact my bank and request them to block the payments, which is not ideal since who knows what the legal ramifications of all of this will be.
Needless to say I am not happy and I've lost a lot of trust in Picarto: those type of practices are very fishy and borderline fraudulent.
As a result I'll no longer be using their services until this is fully resolved, even for free streams, and I doubt I'll ever subscribe to their premium offer ever again. I might be a rash decision, but I'm not putting my trust on a platform that doesn't allow some users to easily unsubscribe and keep charging them.
Obviously if this is promptly solved without any issues I'll let you know ASAP, but in the time being be wary about Picarto and know what you're getting into if you take a subscription to do private streams.
That means that even if there's suddenly an interest for private streams, I'll have to find an alternative place to stream. I'm really sorry. :(
Commissions opened: 3 slots for now!
Posted a year agoHi everybody! :)
I’m opening for summer commissions! More info here but the most important is this:
1- SFW only: no fetish themes of any kind.
2- 3 slots max and more if I manage to find time as I'm rather busy.
3- I’ll select the ideas that inspire me most, it won’t be based on first one first served.
4- Be patient if you’re selected: I’ll likely won’t start before several weeks.
If you’re interested, DM me with:
1- A brief and clear description of your idea.
2- References of your characters, environment, ambiance, mood, etc…
3- Your budget.
I’ll let this opened for a few days then will contact the people selected.
Thank you for your support! :)Opening commissions in a few days...
Posted a year ago
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Heads up everybody! :)
In the next few days, I’m gonna try and open up a few commissions slots for this summer!
I’m going for 3 slots maximum since I need to make time for patreon + IRL work and duties.
Don’t DM me right away: wait when I’ll post a journal saying I’m opened, but meanwhile please read the following rules so you’ll know what to expect.
1) Due to my burnout:
For the time being NO COMICS, NO NSFW NOR FETISH THEMES OF ANY KIND (including fetishes I do not normally draw).
Please do not DM me and try to convince me to change my mind: that’s rude, do NOT do it, you might get blocked...
I want to work on SFW art for a while and "pretty pictures", either fantasy oriented, or slice of life, emotional stuff, etc...And obviously no “touchy” subjects such as religion, politics, violence, etc…Also I'd rather avoid underage characters even if it’s SFW.
I’m keeping the bit of energy and inspiration I have towards fetish art (which is not much) for my patreon and also potential future YCH...I actually might try one of those at some point, so those who want a fetish picture it’s better if you wait for that: I’m much better at fetish art when I’m inspired! :)
Also I’ll let you know if I open fetish-oriented commissions, but chances are I’ll request a lot of creative freedom to avoid another burnout.
2) Payment likely through Artistree: https://artistree.io/ They accept most payment methods. If you really want paypal I can see if a friend can collect the money for me.
3) This won’t be based on “first one first served”: I’ll read all of your ideas and suggestions and at the end I’ll select the 3 commissions that will inspire me the most.
4) I’m not promising anything. You’ll be notified if your idea is selected, then I’ll notify you again when I’m ready to work on your commission (probably a few weeks or months later): only then I’ll ask for payment, not before.
Getting a slot doesn’t guarantee I’ll work on your commission, and if I have to cancel commissions due to IRL stuff you'll be informed: I won’t proceed to payment without being sure I can work on your commission right away.
3) After a lot of consideration, I’m changing the way I tackle prices and I’m also increasing them: I’m sorry, but inflation is affecting me as well.
I also won’t be offering budget commissions anymore like simple sketches or so: I’d rather work on a few bigger projects than a multitude of cheap ones as it ends up being very mentally taxing.
I’m also tossing the price sheet as it ended up complicating things for me. I felt like I gave clients a subway menu, and on my end between revisions, and one thing and another, I would end up working 50+ hours on a €100 commission: that leads to overwork, dissatisfaction, more burnout,
Instead, prices will be project based and will depend on general complexity, number of revisions, creative freedom, your own budget, etc…
But at least, to give you an estimation, complex pieces like these could range anywhere from 300€ to 600€ and even more (I know some of these are fetish, but it's simply to give you an idea based on complexity):
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/53230384/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44667204/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56628016/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50105681/
So if you’re interested, start thinking about what you’d like, gather references and think about your budget so you can have everything ready when I’ll open commissions! :)
Thank you!
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Reopening patreon tomorrow!
Posted a year ago
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(Oh gosh I found line emojis to use, they're so cute I mean look at this one for instance!!)
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(Dawwwrrffssoocute!!!)
Hello everybody ! :)
Let’s go to the point, so TL;DR first!
1- I’m very exited to be reopening my patreon tomorrow! :)
But very important: ALL rewards will be shared by patreon’s DMs only!!!
If you join or switch tiers, DM me on patreon right after to receive your reward!!! (due to time zone differences, it can take me up to 24 hours to reply).
I’m also considering more and more opening a private discord server simply to share rewards more easily that way.
2- New tier at around €10 for :
- Private streams of exclusive art. I’ll try to turn on my microphone from time to time to make it more casual and entertaining (still using a voice mod though!).
- Alts on some pieces (like socks, sweat, dirt...No smell though).
3- Depending on how things work, I’m thinking on opening a new super fan tier at around €15.
- Mainly for those who want to support me, but I’ll do private streams of me practicing art since it’s something I need to do on a weekly basis. (figure drawing, charac/environment design, how to do a good portfolio, learn some blender, etc.) So why not come and learn with me?
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Long version:
So I’ll be reopening my patreon tomorrow with the hopes of keeping it opened until I return to work. I do have some busy and important things planned for the summer, so we’ll see if I can make it work.
On some busy months I’ll simply do a sketch + flats instead of a detailed shading. I’m gonna try to push my line art skills so I can render like Gigren: that’s still good quality content without using super detailed shading.
Regarding future content, note that I’ll be doing less tickling and branching towards other forms of foot fetish content like rubbing, just characters relaxing but with their feet in evidence, or shoe loss before I forget about that recommendation! ^^"...
There are still a few characters and scenarios that were suggested by some patrons, so I’ll try to find some time to work on that at some point!
Kylian's adventure will be posted as a summary, as well as Monster Crowd: I'm sorry, but unfortunately I've realized I can't write to save my life.
I’m gonna see if I can make patreon more successful: €500 a month would start being a sweet spot so I can more easily make ends meet IRL while still working on side stuff.
In any case I’m not gonna try to make patreon my sole income for a bunch of different reasons, the main one being “don’t put all of your eggs in the same basket”: I have a few IRL projects I wish to dedicate time to, and it’s easy to loose everything on patreon...But that’s a talk for another day.
Rewards will still be shared by DMs ONLY, not only to avoid scrapping and pirating but also for another reason...Again, it’s a talk for another day! :)
I’ll try to remember to DM patrons once per week with the link, but if you join my patreon you need to DM me there to receive your reward depending on your tier. Hopefully this time around it’s clear enough, but even on previous months I would have people joining and not contacting me for days even if it was written everywhere that people need to DM me. :/
I am sorry about the trouble, but if you join and stay radio silent, I’ll presume you’re not a human but a scrapping bot pretending to be an user…
For that reason, a discord server might make things easier to centralize everything.
Regarding new tiers, I’m gonna try a new one at around €10 for:
- Access to private streams while working on exclusive art.
- Alts on some pics. I actually made alts of Puss and Death months ago but I didn’t create the tier back then because I knew I wouldn’t have the time to create alts for other content.
When possible I’ll try to keep doing exclusive pics that have a certain level of polishing, but that’s why on months that are tight it’ll be a sketch with flats, which will be much easier to finish and edit.
3- Depending on how things go I’ll do another tier at around €15 for the super fans! That one will really be for super support as it won’t offer much other than even more private streams where I work on polishing my skills.
I have several things I need to improve on a weekly basis, it could be interesting to share my practice! It can be a way of learning together! :)
And that’s it for now! So until next time! ^^
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Update about a bunch of stuff
Posted a year agoHi everyone! :)
Sooo...I wasn’t sure about posting this and have been re-writing this message over and over again for the past month or so...I still haven’t gotten better at wording myself properly when it comes to personal updates and stuff, but I wanted to keep everybody in the loop regarding my burnout, patreon content/personal project, future content, commissions, etc.
So, here we go. I'm a bit nervous and I hope parts of this message won't be taken badly. I feel like I'm whining all the time, and I don't deserve having you guys as an audience! Oh, here I am again complaining: let's go ahead with the update!
***
The burnout and my art.
I’ll keep it short and there's no easy way to say it: I don’t feel ready to return to tickling art, I'm sorry...
While I enjoy consuming that type of content, I no longer enjoy drawing it. Appart a small commission I've been working on, I haven’t really drawn any fetish art in months for my own pleasure and at no moment have I felt the need to return to it. I didn't crave coming back at it. I didn’t feel any empty void inside of me I needed to fill, inspiration hasn’t kicked back in...
I'm not saying "I'm never coming back to that", what I'm saying is right now there is no reason for me to come back to it: I'm not missing it, I don't want to draw it, etc...
I wonder if that’s what they call an art block, but I don’t think it is one because I keep drawing whether it’s for my job, for my personal portfolio or other projects, etc...I enjoy creating, but as far as tickling art goes I’m not missing that part. :/
HOWEVER, I think I might still be able to do other type of foot fetish art since I’ll be reducing any tickling until inspiration kicks back in. I can do more regular art and scenes, that fuel me creatively, while including feet shots here and there and play with other foot oriented fetishes: teasing, showing, maybe some teasing even...I’ll understand it’s not ideal for you, but better than anything. I tend to forget part of my audience might not care for the tickling and just want to see nice feet, which is easier to draw for me!
I should also point out that I am currently mentally struggling with my art skills for a variety of reasons.
Firstly I am extremely displeased with my current skill level as Xss: I find my art presents several issues with the fundamentals and is really subpar. I am sometimes ashamed by what I’m posting because I honestly think my art skills suck. :( I have many things I need to improve/fix (anatomy, poses, hands, line art, coloring, faces, perspective and interiors, etc...) and so little time to do it.
There's also another personal issue that is very likely fueling my insecurities regarding my art (both as Xss and IRL) as well as my burnout, but I prefer not to discuss it here.
That’s pretty much what I wanted to tell regarding the state of my art and my mental health at the moment.
***
Job, finances, patreon, etc.
The short answer is things are not going super well and the math is not working.
By math I mean I’m working a lot, with little to no holidays nor sick days, while making...Let's say "not a livable wage yet".
- My IRL part time contract job takes me a lot of time. I haven’t taken a proper break/holiday to just relax and do nothing in years. It’s becoming harder for me to concentrate for longer periods of time and I feel I’m procrastinating here and there as a result! -_-
- But I like that job and since it’s currently my main source of income I need to keep it.
- I don’t have enough time to work on patreon stuff, I’m pausing billing several months per year, and coupled with the fact I stopped creating fetish work my patreon revenues took a hit.
- I even have less time to work on personal projects such as Monster Crowd or Kylian’s Adventure, and those interest even less patrons.
- And public art for my galleries?...I haven’t done anything in almost a year. Not mentioning commissions. All in all it's pretty bad, I'll admit...
So I need to figure something out.
My IRL part time job will be over around April/May, then it’ll be the waiting game to know if my contract is renewed again in the future.
The available free time will leave me with three options:
Option 1- Work full time on my patreon for some months. Create new tiers and content, to see if I can lift it off the ground while working on Monster Crowd, Kylian’s Adventure and other projects. On the other hand I have to be careful not to put all of my eggs in the same basket: we recently had a sad reminding with Gumroad banning all NSFW content. The same could be happening with patreon: I have to make sure that it will contain more than simple fetish art, otherwise I could run into a similar issue.
Option 2- Focus on developing other sources of income with my IRL art, and if possible passive ones. I won’t lie that the future is pretty bleak, between the massive lay-offs in game studios and AI replacing most artist jobs. I’m not certain I want to continue on this field but there are a few things I can (and need to!) do to develop passive income with my art in the meantime. That would allow me to do stuff as Xss with more serenity, or simply to rest and take days off. I’ve recently been extremely sick and was unable to work for a few days: I need to have a passive income strategy set in place in case that happens again, so any sick days won’t affect my revenues.
Option 3 – Try to work on the patreon as Xss, and the extra jobs and passive incomes IRL. All of that without triggering another major burnout.
...Not sure if I’ll be able to juggle all of that and I think I might have to clause billing on my patreon once again for a month or two in the summer!
***
Speaking of patreon, Monster Crowd and Kylian’s Adventure...
I’m thinking about ideas of new content/tiers to be able to salvage what is possible. More about that when I’ll have something ready.
Other than that I haven’t been able to properly juggle between IRL duties and all of my Xss’s projects, so I’m not very proud of myself.
I still haven’t started working on the second chapter of Monster Crowd and I’ve only drawn 5 pages of Kylian’s Adventure over the past few years. On top of that, the first chapter of Monster Crowd received 0 reactions on patreon. While no news can be considered good news since it’s not bad news in theory, I think it’s safer to assume that either no one read it or it simply didn’t provoke much interest.
One obvious reason is I’ve never drawn the main characters before, except for a little sketch a long time ago. Unlike Kylian, the OC and universe of Monster Crown are unknown to my audience. So I need to find time to create some visual art for all of my stories, even the ones that will be written as novels instead of comic books: some of that is already in the works, but I need to find the time to properly work on it (hinting at new patreon tiers here...).
I also understand it was so poorly written some might have preferred not to deal with it: I struggle enough to write in my main language, writing in English makes everything even more difficult.
Regarding Kylian’s Adventure...Well, with everything I have to do I only have a few hours per year to work on it. I feel I said this exact same thing a year ago, and in a year I haven't done much.
So I need to change my priorities. I’ve switched to a novel for Monster Crowd and I’ll be changing the format of Kylian’s Adventure as well. I’ve always said that the thought of dying without releasing that story was haunting me, so at the risk of doing things backwards here is the plan: I started writing a very lengthy summary of ALL the story some years ago. It’s more than 180000 words so far, and it’s still not finished since I’m somewhere passed the midpoint.
I’m going to start polishing that summary and that’s what I’ll publish, first on patreon and then here. It won’t be a novel like Monster Crowd, the writing will be much rougher and straight to the point (a bit like a script), but you’ll know the main plot points of Kylian and his story.
And from there I’ll draw some concept art, work on some key scenes. Basically the long term goal is to create a Series Bible: the outline of the plot, the main story beats, along with concept art, and maybe some scenes will be more fleshed either in written or comic format.
And then see if word to mouth does the trick.
***
And finally, let’s talk about commissions.
I’ll mainly keep taking them through Artistree, but if I reopen them in the future a few, erm, changes will be required...
I know these will displease a lot of people and I’m sorry about that, but remember I’m not forcing anyone to commission me: if these rules are a deal breaker then no hard feelings, there are plenty of other awesome artists you can contact, many much better than me.
Note that these are not fully decided yet, so some things might change!
1- I’ll have to increase prices in general: that’s just the normal thing to do due to higher cost of living and inflation. Sorry! :(
2- No more “first one first served”: priority will be given to my mental health, so to the commissions that fulfill me mentally and creatively. That means I’ll unlikely prioritize fetish art. In fact, I might even refuse commissions and rather take the financial hit than jeopardize my mental health with work that would crush me morally.
3- For clients who really really really want fetish art, there will be two options.
Option 1: I’ll have to take into account the amount of stress, mental drain, etc, that the commission might cause me and that will be reflected on the price. I know it doesn’t sound fair since the price will greatly depend on how easy or hard I feel the job will be. But if a commissions is really going to drain me and increase my burnout, to the point I won’t be able to draw anything while I recharge, I’ll have to make up for that loss.
Option 2: (note that this option will be opened to non-fetish commissions as well) Since I work better when I’m really inspired, we can try by giving me full artistic freedom in exchange for a cheaper price. If you want to commission me, you tell me what are some drawings of mine that you liked, then I’ll have a look at your gallery and character(s) to see what you enjoy. And if I can come up with a fetish idea that won’t drain me I’ll let you know about it. If you agree on the idea, then we discuss a price and we proceed to payment : no refunds, no constant revisions and back and forth. You trust me with my skills and simply let me do what I do best, based on the previous work I’ve done.
If you’re uncertain, I can work on a very rough sketch first before payment so you’ll know in which direction the picture will go.
And since I’ve just mentioned I think I work better when fully inspired...If inspiration kicks in, I might do a fetish pic along with a YCH! I’ve never done YCHs those before, so it might be worth giving those a try! :)
And, I believe that’s all.
If you have any questions or comments, you can leave them below.
Thank you for reading, for your support and for putting up with me! :)Monster Crowd chapter 1 available on patreon
Posted 2 years agoHello everybody!
So that's it: my turn to give a try at writing...I'm no writer, English is not my mother tongue, this can only end up badly...But I'm foolish enough to try.
I've just published on my patreon the first chapter of Monster Crowd: note that it's not fetish oriented. It's the story I sent to Crazy-Wolf 10 years ago with plans to turn it into a graphic novel, with him doing the art. He liked the story enough and got on board with the idea. Unfortunately, our little project never came to fruition due to his passing.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/97567223?pr=true
If you decide to join, please send me a DM on patreon so I can send you the content.
Why am I writing this instead of drawing it? Well, simply because of time. Between all of my different projects, even if I somehow managed to make a living through my patreon and work full time on it, I would need a life-time to draw and share all the stories I have in mind. As terrible as my writing might be, at least it allows me to go faster, and I'm considering more and more switching to that type of medium for Kylian's Adventure as well...
I'm an extremely slow writer, but the plan for me is to release a chapter every few months first on patreon. Once I'll have a few chapters there, I'll make the first one public, and so on and so forth.
This is a story that I've kept in the back of my mind for more than 10 years. One that's been rather dear and important to me for several reasons, Crazy-Wolf being one of them. While it's easy for me to post a fetish picture for people to enjoy, this time around I'm terrified to share this content for many reasons:
1) It's written instead of being drawn.
2) It's not fetish oriented, so some might consider it "boring and off topic".
3) Some might sound its themes offensive.
4) I consider it so important to me that the fear of failure is greater. Like, for years and years you have that personal project you want to release, to the point of no longer being objective with it, so when you do release it...There's that risk people tell you "hey, this really sucks: it's like Plan 9 From Outer Space!..." :/
Anyway, I'll keep at it, very slowly at my pace, and hopefully I'll post the first chapter here later this year.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go an breath in a paper bag.
So that's it: my turn to give a try at writing...I'm no writer, English is not my mother tongue, this can only end up badly...But I'm foolish enough to try.
I've just published on my patreon the first chapter of Monster Crowd: note that it's not fetish oriented. It's the story I sent to Crazy-Wolf 10 years ago with plans to turn it into a graphic novel, with him doing the art. He liked the story enough and got on board with the idea. Unfortunately, our little project never came to fruition due to his passing.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/97567223?pr=true
If you decide to join, please send me a DM on patreon so I can send you the content.
Why am I writing this instead of drawing it? Well, simply because of time. Between all of my different projects, even if I somehow managed to make a living through my patreon and work full time on it, I would need a life-time to draw and share all the stories I have in mind. As terrible as my writing might be, at least it allows me to go faster, and I'm considering more and more switching to that type of medium for Kylian's Adventure as well...
I'm an extremely slow writer, but the plan for me is to release a chapter every few months first on patreon. Once I'll have a few chapters there, I'll make the first one public, and so on and so forth.
This is a story that I've kept in the back of my mind for more than 10 years. One that's been rather dear and important to me for several reasons, Crazy-Wolf being one of them. While it's easy for me to post a fetish picture for people to enjoy, this time around I'm terrified to share this content for many reasons:
1) It's written instead of being drawn.
2) It's not fetish oriented, so some might consider it "boring and off topic".
3) Some might sound its themes offensive.
4) I consider it so important to me that the fear of failure is greater. Like, for years and years you have that personal project you want to release, to the point of no longer being objective with it, so when you do release it...There's that risk people tell you "hey, this really sucks: it's like Plan 9 From Outer Space!..." :/
Anyway, I'll keep at it, very slowly at my pace, and hopefully I'll post the first chapter here later this year.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go an breath in a paper bag.
Pausing billing on patreon for December
Posted 2 years agoHi everyone!
Just to say that if you want to become a member do it now because I'll pause billing for one month at the start of December, and the way patreon is set no one can join while billing is paused.
Thanks!
https://www.patreon.com/oxsso
Just to say that if you want to become a member do it now because I'll pause billing for one month at the start of December, and the way patreon is set no one can join while billing is paused.
Thanks!
https://www.patreon.com/oxsso
Bluesky codes
Posted 2 years agoI still have a few invites/codes for Bluesky, anyone wants some?
Need your input on something important
Posted 2 years agoHello everybody,
I'm asking you for your opinion: a long time ago I pitched a story idea to the late Crazy-Wolf so we would turn it into a graphic novel. He liked the story and it became a project we worked on for a bit, hopping to finish it some day. Crazy-Wolf unfortunately passed away so it never saw the light of day.
However, I promised myself to release the story in a way or another to honor his memory, and recently started reworking on it. I was planning on releasing it first on patreon before slowly making it public here, but current world events are making me reconsider things and I'm thinking about shelving that story entirely.
I would appreciate if you could give me your input in this poll. https://www.patreon.com/posts/debat.....about-92295499
Thank you.
EDIT : Sorry, but I'm hiding comments that take a stance on the current world events as it could open a can full of worms, with people arguing in the comments.
I'm asking you for your opinion: a long time ago I pitched a story idea to the late Crazy-Wolf so we would turn it into a graphic novel. He liked the story and it became a project we worked on for a bit, hopping to finish it some day. Crazy-Wolf unfortunately passed away so it never saw the light of day.
However, I promised myself to release the story in a way or another to honor his memory, and recently started reworking on it. I was planning on releasing it first on patreon before slowly making it public here, but current world events are making me reconsider things and I'm thinking about shelving that story entirely.
I would appreciate if you could give me your input in this poll. https://www.patreon.com/posts/debat.....about-92295499
Thank you.
EDIT : Sorry, but I'm hiding comments that take a stance on the current world events as it could open a can full of worms, with people arguing in the comments.
Massive art burnout and fetish content hiatus
Posted 2 years agoHello,
I'm really sorry that I have to post this journal. It's a shame it has to come to this, specially since I haven't posted anything new and public for months, but I have reached a massive art burnout as explained here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/impor.....pdate-91361956
TL;DR: I've been trying to juggle between my professional art career and my patreon which, on top of being 100% different and not overlapping in any way, both demand a full time dedication to be successful.
I've been leaving all of my personal and cherished personal projects in the back burner as a result, and I'm resenting more and more my fetish content. As of right now, I simply absolutely hate my art style and any fetish art I create. It's even worse when I see other artists being 10 times more productive than me, with better quality artwork, in the exact same niche I am (like the awesome LadyDino for instance): I'm clearly lagging behind, and I don't think it's fair from me to continue proposing piss-poor fetish content that is ultimately damaging me on top of everything.
I don't want to do this anymore, specially when forced to do it (like on a patreon, where I have to come up with a new idea on a monthly basis).
It really sucks because meanwhile I'm trying to make ends meet with less than minimum wage while working 50+ hours a week, and the patreon + commissions can be a good way to stay afloat, but the damage to my mental wellbeing are too important to ignore.
I'm not asking for pity nor charity: I got myself into this situation because of my own choices and mistakes.
As a result, I need to completely rework my job and financial strategy.
I'll complete two last fetish pictures for November and December, and then I'll be returning to yet another fetish content undetermined hiatus, even on patreon, while focussing on personal projects. I will only produce new fetish content when inspired since that is when I produce my best work (like the trollangina comic). So please, be aware of that if you decide to subscribe to my patreon: you won't be getting any new fetish content before a while.
Regarding commissions, there's one started and that I'll finish when the time comes (aka available time + mental energy): I haven't charged the client for the very good reason I know I wouldn't be able to finish it anytime soon. I hope I'll be able to complete it early 2024.
As for future commissions, it's unlikely I'll take any new unless I'm given full creative freedom (including the idea and scenario) with no backseat driving whatsoever. I understand that sucks and it's unlikely anyone would commission me as a result, but once again my mental health is the most important.
Thank you for your understanding and I'm very sorry.
I'm really sorry that I have to post this journal. It's a shame it has to come to this, specially since I haven't posted anything new and public for months, but I have reached a massive art burnout as explained here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/impor.....pdate-91361956
TL;DR: I've been trying to juggle between my professional art career and my patreon which, on top of being 100% different and not overlapping in any way, both demand a full time dedication to be successful.
I've been leaving all of my personal and cherished personal projects in the back burner as a result, and I'm resenting more and more my fetish content. As of right now, I simply absolutely hate my art style and any fetish art I create. It's even worse when I see other artists being 10 times more productive than me, with better quality artwork, in the exact same niche I am (like the awesome LadyDino for instance): I'm clearly lagging behind, and I don't think it's fair from me to continue proposing piss-poor fetish content that is ultimately damaging me on top of everything.
I don't want to do this anymore, specially when forced to do it (like on a patreon, where I have to come up with a new idea on a monthly basis).
It really sucks because meanwhile I'm trying to make ends meet with less than minimum wage while working 50+ hours a week, and the patreon + commissions can be a good way to stay afloat, but the damage to my mental wellbeing are too important to ignore.
I'm not asking for pity nor charity: I got myself into this situation because of my own choices and mistakes.
As a result, I need to completely rework my job and financial strategy.
I'll complete two last fetish pictures for November and December, and then I'll be returning to yet another fetish content undetermined hiatus, even on patreon, while focussing on personal projects. I will only produce new fetish content when inspired since that is when I produce my best work (like the trollangina comic). So please, be aware of that if you decide to subscribe to my patreon: you won't be getting any new fetish content before a while.
Regarding commissions, there's one started and that I'll finish when the time comes (aka available time + mental energy): I haven't charged the client for the very good reason I know I wouldn't be able to finish it anytime soon. I hope I'll be able to complete it early 2024.
As for future commissions, it's unlikely I'll take any new unless I'm given full creative freedom (including the idea and scenario) with no backseat driving whatsoever. I understand that sucks and it's unlikely anyone would commission me as a result, but once again my mental health is the most important.
Thank you for your understanding and I'm very sorry.
I'm on bluesky...And have invite codes.
Posted 2 years agoYou can find me here: https://bsky.app/profile/xssartist.bsky.social
I also have two bluesky invite codes if anyone is interested!
I also have two bluesky invite codes if anyone is interested!
Patreon will resume in September
Posted 2 years agoHello everybody,
I thought I'll post a quick journal to point out that I've paused billing on my patreon over the summer. Unfortunately, that also means no new members can join, as some of you have noticed and pointed out: apparently there's no way to take a break on patreon without preventing people to join.
I'll be back in September, so people who are interested will be able to join then. Thank you for your support and happy summer you all! :)
I thought I'll post a quick journal to point out that I've paused billing on my patreon over the summer. Unfortunately, that also means no new members can join, as some of you have noticed and pointed out: apparently there's no way to take a break on patreon without preventing people to join.
I'll be back in September, so people who are interested will be able to join then. Thank you for your support and happy summer you all! :)
Long update about life + future of patreon/commissions
Posted 2 years ago(originally posted here on my patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/85592248 The post is now public but I'm copying it below).
Hi everybody!
I hope your summer is going smoothly, and that you’ll be able to enjoy some holidays, plus spend some great time with friends and family! :)
So, I want to update you once again about a couple of important things. I’ll be publishing this first on my patreon so you patrons will know before hand what is going on.
Warning: it’s long. The TL;DR basically is this: very busy summer so I paused billing, IRL job stuff, avoiding burnout, need to change my patreon model, and taking a break before resuming work and commissions.
Yup, you’ll have noticed there are some news that could be considered as “not very good”.
Firstly: without getting into details, I’m gonna have my hands full this summer while dealing with several IRL matters, hence why I paused the billing among other reasons. Nothing bad happening, it’s just I’m gonna be busy! I’m going to try and unpause it in August, but note there’s a chance I won’t resume billing before a couple of months while I take care of all of that IRL stuff.
Still, worst case scenario: I’ll just continue posting some WIPs and sneak-peeks, even if it’ll be at a slower pace, and whenever I’ll have a page ready I’ll post it, and unpause billing for one month.
Regarding my IRL art-related job.
I’ve had my hands quite full with it for the past last months, and overall it’s been a great experience. It’s not a studio job, but it’s allowing me to make a few contacts in the industry and, more importantly I’m having fun, learning and improving my skills, having a sense of fulfillment, and being happy to go to work (something that hasn’t happened in a long time).
Still, it could be better, there are some drawbacks. I mentioned on twitter that a few colleagues are quite anti-furries, quite queerphobic (by queer I mean “anyone not straight and cis”), and very vocal about both. You can’t really choose with whom you’re going to work, but more reasons for me to hide even more all of my Xss related stuff and my asexuality. I’m not saying I would get fired if they discovered it, but it’s likely they’ll try to push me towards resignation by creating a toxic work environment.
On the other hand there are a lot of other people I’m very happy to work with and to meet thanks to my job, so I’m trying to focus on that positive instead.
Also, it seems my contract has been renewed, so I guess I’m somewhat safe until AI art will take over all of our jobs. While nothing is future proof and the pay could always be better, it should cover most of my basic expenses if I keep a frugal lifestyle, and it’s still paying much more than commissions and patreon combined.
However, that’s taking a lot of my free time as well: I need to constantly polish my skills, and now I want to learn some Unreal Engine to include it into my workflow.
That is free time that I would normally reserve for just relaxing, but also for my art as Xss, which brings me to my next point. I promised some drawings (gifts and trades) to online friends that I’ll need to complete over the summer: that will keep me busy on top of all the IRL stuff happening.
Regarding commissions and patreon, those two have generally been going okay, and I have to say that Artistree is an amazing platform for commissions (really, give those guys lot of love: I wouldn’t be doing commissions if it wasn’t for them!), so thank you so much to all of you who commissioned me or are supporting me on patreon, it truly means a lot! :)
Also, expect a new tier with private streams to appear at some point...
It’s also good to know that if worse comes to worst, my gig as Xss is something I could keep doing as a freelancer if my IRL career doesn’t take off, or even as a side gig.
However, this is where the bad news start pouring in, and I’m a bit nervous about this...
I completely understand if what follows might anger some of you and you decide to stop supporting me on patreon, so don’t feel bad if you think you have to cancel your subscription: no hard feelings.
Firstly, as I’ve said, my free time is limited due to my job, and patreon is taking me an awful lot of time and energy since I’m a very slow artist, while bringing too little profit. As a result I need to evolve and change the type of content I’ll propose on patreon and work smarter instead of more.
Keep in mind creators roughly get half of what patrons pay. Yup, for a €10 pledge I get €5-€6 euros total in my pocket. Patrons are charged extra VAT that we creators don’t get. Then patreon takes roughly 22% or so in different platform fees. Over what remains, I have to pay taxes as well (also 22% approximately), hence the €5-6 I get at the end.
Yes, I know commissions are much more lucrative...But patreon is more personal and important as well in the long run.
I also have plateaued with my patreon as the last exclusive content (the starfox comic) didn’t do as good as I had hoped. Contrary to the two previous ones which almost doubled my income in just one day, this time around I barely made up for the patrons I lost during the previous month. It’s a bit of a shame considering the amount of time I invested in it, and I really thought this one would break the bank, but that’s the thing with a plateau: I don’t think trying to overcome it with sheer brute force will be a smart move, aka spending more and more hours to create even more fetish content to release.
Hence why I need to rethink my strategy.
And to make things worse, I’m sensing I’m getting close to a burnout! :( So I have to be extra careful not to get one! That also explains the pause in billing…
I feel I’ve drawn too much fetish artwork, again. That feeling I compare to stuffing myself with too much super-sugary chocolate cake is back...And it’s affecting my IRL art as well. Since fetish artwork doesn’t make me happy, I can’t work properly on super challenging IRL art since my batteries are low (note: my IRL art-style is quite different from my Xss stuff, and on a different league of its own).
Chasing the numbers on patreon while trying to create content that would cater to my followers is what put me in this situation and created this serious burnout, and drawing fetish content is slowly turning into a real chore.
That’s always been my problem with this type of art. I enjoy drawing it in reasonable amount, and when inspiration knocks in, I get motivated enough to draw something nice as a result. I could keep doing it more as a main source of income, and it brings money more easily than SFW artwork…
But it’s not what I ultimately want to do, it’s not the end goal for my art, it’s not what keeps me awake at night when I think about what I want to draw.
Ultimately, I feel like what Leafywolf said in one of her recent journal entries: I need a break. I have limited time and I want to draw other things.
And I still haven’t figured out how to reconcile what I want to draw with what you’ll like and pay for me to create.
So this is what I need to work on, this is the unresolved equation that I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the past: how can I keep creating some fetish content for you, while being able to work on my personal stuff?
...Aka, I need to work smart, not more.
Because this is a marathon, not a sprint.
And pausing billing on patreon for just one month might not be enough. I might need to pause billing for the entirety of the summer, not only because everything that’s happening IRL, but because I need to work on myself, replenish my batteries, and think of a plan.
Regarding commissions, I have a waiting list that’s starting to get long, with at least 5 people in it, and the more I think about it, the more I feel I won’t be able to work on them over this summer: at this moment, I simply don’t have the energy for all of it. I would rather spread those commissions over several months and get hit financially, rather than chase the money and get hit by an art burnout that would affect my IRL job as well.
So this is where I need to come clean with you guys, as my patrons, commission clients, watchers and fans. Pausing billing and taking a break before getting back at it will only be delaying the next potential burnout, it’ll only be “rince and repeat” without fixing the core problem.
I need to change the way I work, change my patreon model so it becomes more successful not only financially, but also emotionally and spiritually for me.
I’ll probably discuss that more in details with another patreon update for my patrons, but this is the temptative plan for the next few months, keeping in mind things could change that there might be a lot of trial & error!
1) Based on the last pool I did, creating a new tier with private streams where I work on my patreon stuff might be the best way to make some more bucks without pulling in extra hours of work.
2) Once the Starfox comic will be finished (it’ll be short, around 5 or so pages), I’ll be switching to some comics that will first be released on patreon and then published online, while keeping other things behind a paywall. Basically, all future comics will be made public, but patreon will always have the 4 or 5 most recent pages...Meaning that if I stop working on a comic for a while, those pages won’t be made public.
I don’t know if that will work since it’s a double edge-sword, but it’s worth a shot and I want some comics to ultimately be available for others to enjoy. The trollangina remake will be among those ones (starfox will remain on patreon however).
3) I think I’ll revert back to a few single pics from time to time, instead of full lengths comics: if an idea really motivates me, it might be better to quickly make a pic of it, while the inspiration is still there, rather than turning it into a comic that will bore me after a mere few weeks.
Regarding comics, I might try and do a few short “interactive” one literally with you guys (€5 tier): you give me a basic idea, I start with it, stop at a cliffhanger, ask you ideas of what will happen next, etc, and we create it all together. I think it could be fun...But maybe it’s a terrible idea!...I’ll have to test that to see how it works!
I also might work on a few SFW relaxing art, so I might ask you for some ideas of very relaxing ASMR-ish pics!
4) Let’s talk comics and how I’ll have to change the way I work on them. Right now, I’m going head first into the fetish side of things, right from the first page, to tease people and force them to join the patreon...It’s the best way for me to have a massive burnout again. I can’t simply draw fetish scenes after fetish scenes, rince and repeat, over and over again.
I need some story to breathe, put more life between those fetish scenes. But that would also mean that, for several months, there would be no fetish content posted, because I’m working on those SFW pages. That also mean that any fetish comic will be much longer and I’d be stuck with it for a long time, which can lead to even more massive burnouts unless I find a way to make it enjoyable.
5) Let’s talk about all the non-fetish stories I want to work on. I’ll post another update where I’ll go much more in detail about them, the stories, their scope, etc...
Meanwhile, the ideal solution is still to find a balance between non fetish art for those who like it, and fetish art for those who do. Maybe even create a few tiers for SFW art and comics only, leaving the current tier for all the fetish material as extra. That will force me to create a bit of fetish each month, but also a bit of personal SFW stuff so I can move with those projects.
Just to be clear, I also understand there’s a risk of those personal stories taking off and somehow becoming super-successful to the point they eat me alive: fandoms can be really toxic sometimes (“cough” Volton “couch”), and even my dream projects can lead to massive burnouts...
6) Regarding Kylian’s adventure (non fetish, SFW), I want to publish some first pages before the end of the year, once I’ll have reworked them. To me this is the most disheartening and infuriating thing: I started drawing those pages almost two years ago, and I haven’t published them at all! I don’t know what I’m waiting for...Perfection? Validation? I just don’t know...
7) Among all the other story ideas, I have another one that I want to work on: something very recent that popped in my mind this year, in just a matter of months. It’s a story I really like, that I’ve become really obsessed with, and that ended up becoming very dear to me. I really, reeaaally want to give this a try, and I could even add some fetish scenes here and there, as extra NSFW content since at its core it’s not a fetish story.
8) Finally, I think I’ll have to try try and juggle between all of those projects so I can avoid burnouts: a bit of a fetish comic, a bit of a non-fetish one, with a few breaks and paused billings here and there to replenish batteries.
So there it is. I’m not stopping fetish content, however it will come slower, little by little, so I can work on other personal projects for patreon, avoid burnouts, and because IRL job will take most of my time.
Expect another update soon on patreon about those personal projects I really want to work on, and thanks for your support! :)
Hi everybody!
I hope your summer is going smoothly, and that you’ll be able to enjoy some holidays, plus spend some great time with friends and family! :)
So, I want to update you once again about a couple of important things. I’ll be publishing this first on my patreon so you patrons will know before hand what is going on.
Warning: it’s long. The TL;DR basically is this: very busy summer so I paused billing, IRL job stuff, avoiding burnout, need to change my patreon model, and taking a break before resuming work and commissions.
Yup, you’ll have noticed there are some news that could be considered as “not very good”.
Firstly: without getting into details, I’m gonna have my hands full this summer while dealing with several IRL matters, hence why I paused the billing among other reasons. Nothing bad happening, it’s just I’m gonna be busy! I’m going to try and unpause it in August, but note there’s a chance I won’t resume billing before a couple of months while I take care of all of that IRL stuff.
Still, worst case scenario: I’ll just continue posting some WIPs and sneak-peeks, even if it’ll be at a slower pace, and whenever I’ll have a page ready I’ll post it, and unpause billing for one month.
Regarding my IRL art-related job.
I’ve had my hands quite full with it for the past last months, and overall it’s been a great experience. It’s not a studio job, but it’s allowing me to make a few contacts in the industry and, more importantly I’m having fun, learning and improving my skills, having a sense of fulfillment, and being happy to go to work (something that hasn’t happened in a long time).
Still, it could be better, there are some drawbacks. I mentioned on twitter that a few colleagues are quite anti-furries, quite queerphobic (by queer I mean “anyone not straight and cis”), and very vocal about both. You can’t really choose with whom you’re going to work, but more reasons for me to hide even more all of my Xss related stuff and my asexuality. I’m not saying I would get fired if they discovered it, but it’s likely they’ll try to push me towards resignation by creating a toxic work environment.
On the other hand there are a lot of other people I’m very happy to work with and to meet thanks to my job, so I’m trying to focus on that positive instead.
Also, it seems my contract has been renewed, so I guess I’m somewhat safe until AI art will take over all of our jobs. While nothing is future proof and the pay could always be better, it should cover most of my basic expenses if I keep a frugal lifestyle, and it’s still paying much more than commissions and patreon combined.
However, that’s taking a lot of my free time as well: I need to constantly polish my skills, and now I want to learn some Unreal Engine to include it into my workflow.
That is free time that I would normally reserve for just relaxing, but also for my art as Xss, which brings me to my next point. I promised some drawings (gifts and trades) to online friends that I’ll need to complete over the summer: that will keep me busy on top of all the IRL stuff happening.
Regarding commissions and patreon, those two have generally been going okay, and I have to say that Artistree is an amazing platform for commissions (really, give those guys lot of love: I wouldn’t be doing commissions if it wasn’t for them!), so thank you so much to all of you who commissioned me or are supporting me on patreon, it truly means a lot! :)
Also, expect a new tier with private streams to appear at some point...
It’s also good to know that if worse comes to worst, my gig as Xss is something I could keep doing as a freelancer if my IRL career doesn’t take off, or even as a side gig.
However, this is where the bad news start pouring in, and I’m a bit nervous about this...
I completely understand if what follows might anger some of you and you decide to stop supporting me on patreon, so don’t feel bad if you think you have to cancel your subscription: no hard feelings.
Firstly, as I’ve said, my free time is limited due to my job, and patreon is taking me an awful lot of time and energy since I’m a very slow artist, while bringing too little profit. As a result I need to evolve and change the type of content I’ll propose on patreon and work smarter instead of more.
Keep in mind creators roughly get half of what patrons pay. Yup, for a €10 pledge I get €5-€6 euros total in my pocket. Patrons are charged extra VAT that we creators don’t get. Then patreon takes roughly 22% or so in different platform fees. Over what remains, I have to pay taxes as well (also 22% approximately), hence the €5-6 I get at the end.
Yes, I know commissions are much more lucrative...But patreon is more personal and important as well in the long run.
I also have plateaued with my patreon as the last exclusive content (the starfox comic) didn’t do as good as I had hoped. Contrary to the two previous ones which almost doubled my income in just one day, this time around I barely made up for the patrons I lost during the previous month. It’s a bit of a shame considering the amount of time I invested in it, and I really thought this one would break the bank, but that’s the thing with a plateau: I don’t think trying to overcome it with sheer brute force will be a smart move, aka spending more and more hours to create even more fetish content to release.
Hence why I need to rethink my strategy.
And to make things worse, I’m sensing I’m getting close to a burnout! :( So I have to be extra careful not to get one! That also explains the pause in billing…
I feel I’ve drawn too much fetish artwork, again. That feeling I compare to stuffing myself with too much super-sugary chocolate cake is back...And it’s affecting my IRL art as well. Since fetish artwork doesn’t make me happy, I can’t work properly on super challenging IRL art since my batteries are low (note: my IRL art-style is quite different from my Xss stuff, and on a different league of its own).
Chasing the numbers on patreon while trying to create content that would cater to my followers is what put me in this situation and created this serious burnout, and drawing fetish content is slowly turning into a real chore.
That’s always been my problem with this type of art. I enjoy drawing it in reasonable amount, and when inspiration knocks in, I get motivated enough to draw something nice as a result. I could keep doing it more as a main source of income, and it brings money more easily than SFW artwork…
But it’s not what I ultimately want to do, it’s not the end goal for my art, it’s not what keeps me awake at night when I think about what I want to draw.
Ultimately, I feel like what Leafywolf said in one of her recent journal entries: I need a break. I have limited time and I want to draw other things.
And I still haven’t figured out how to reconcile what I want to draw with what you’ll like and pay for me to create.
So this is what I need to work on, this is the unresolved equation that I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the past: how can I keep creating some fetish content for you, while being able to work on my personal stuff?
...Aka, I need to work smart, not more.
Because this is a marathon, not a sprint.
And pausing billing on patreon for just one month might not be enough. I might need to pause billing for the entirety of the summer, not only because everything that’s happening IRL, but because I need to work on myself, replenish my batteries, and think of a plan.
Regarding commissions, I have a waiting list that’s starting to get long, with at least 5 people in it, and the more I think about it, the more I feel I won’t be able to work on them over this summer: at this moment, I simply don’t have the energy for all of it. I would rather spread those commissions over several months and get hit financially, rather than chase the money and get hit by an art burnout that would affect my IRL job as well.
So this is where I need to come clean with you guys, as my patrons, commission clients, watchers and fans. Pausing billing and taking a break before getting back at it will only be delaying the next potential burnout, it’ll only be “rince and repeat” without fixing the core problem.
I need to change the way I work, change my patreon model so it becomes more successful not only financially, but also emotionally and spiritually for me.
I’ll probably discuss that more in details with another patreon update for my patrons, but this is the temptative plan for the next few months, keeping in mind things could change that there might be a lot of trial & error!
1) Based on the last pool I did, creating a new tier with private streams where I work on my patreon stuff might be the best way to make some more bucks without pulling in extra hours of work.
2) Once the Starfox comic will be finished (it’ll be short, around 5 or so pages), I’ll be switching to some comics that will first be released on patreon and then published online, while keeping other things behind a paywall. Basically, all future comics will be made public, but patreon will always have the 4 or 5 most recent pages...Meaning that if I stop working on a comic for a while, those pages won’t be made public.
I don’t know if that will work since it’s a double edge-sword, but it’s worth a shot and I want some comics to ultimately be available for others to enjoy. The trollangina remake will be among those ones (starfox will remain on patreon however).
3) I think I’ll revert back to a few single pics from time to time, instead of full lengths comics: if an idea really motivates me, it might be better to quickly make a pic of it, while the inspiration is still there, rather than turning it into a comic that will bore me after a mere few weeks.
Regarding comics, I might try and do a few short “interactive” one literally with you guys (€5 tier): you give me a basic idea, I start with it, stop at a cliffhanger, ask you ideas of what will happen next, etc, and we create it all together. I think it could be fun...But maybe it’s a terrible idea!...I’ll have to test that to see how it works!
I also might work on a few SFW relaxing art, so I might ask you for some ideas of very relaxing ASMR-ish pics!
4) Let’s talk comics and how I’ll have to change the way I work on them. Right now, I’m going head first into the fetish side of things, right from the first page, to tease people and force them to join the patreon...It’s the best way for me to have a massive burnout again. I can’t simply draw fetish scenes after fetish scenes, rince and repeat, over and over again.
I need some story to breathe, put more life between those fetish scenes. But that would also mean that, for several months, there would be no fetish content posted, because I’m working on those SFW pages. That also mean that any fetish comic will be much longer and I’d be stuck with it for a long time, which can lead to even more massive burnouts unless I find a way to make it enjoyable.
5) Let’s talk about all the non-fetish stories I want to work on. I’ll post another update where I’ll go much more in detail about them, the stories, their scope, etc...
Meanwhile, the ideal solution is still to find a balance between non fetish art for those who like it, and fetish art for those who do. Maybe even create a few tiers for SFW art and comics only, leaving the current tier for all the fetish material as extra. That will force me to create a bit of fetish each month, but also a bit of personal SFW stuff so I can move with those projects.
Just to be clear, I also understand there’s a risk of those personal stories taking off and somehow becoming super-successful to the point they eat me alive: fandoms can be really toxic sometimes (“cough” Volton “couch”), and even my dream projects can lead to massive burnouts...
6) Regarding Kylian’s adventure (non fetish, SFW), I want to publish some first pages before the end of the year, once I’ll have reworked them. To me this is the most disheartening and infuriating thing: I started drawing those pages almost two years ago, and I haven’t published them at all! I don’t know what I’m waiting for...Perfection? Validation? I just don’t know...
7) Among all the other story ideas, I have another one that I want to work on: something very recent that popped in my mind this year, in just a matter of months. It’s a story I really like, that I’ve become really obsessed with, and that ended up becoming very dear to me. I really, reeaaally want to give this a try, and I could even add some fetish scenes here and there, as extra NSFW content since at its core it’s not a fetish story.
8) Finally, I think I’ll have to try try and juggle between all of those projects so I can avoid burnouts: a bit of a fetish comic, a bit of a non-fetish one, with a few breaks and paused billings here and there to replenish batteries.
So there it is. I’m not stopping fetish content, however it will come slower, little by little, so I can work on other personal projects for patreon, avoid burnouts, and because IRL job will take most of my time.
Expect another update soon on patreon about those personal projects I really want to work on, and thanks for your support! :)
New (and super short) public patreon poll...
Posted 2 years agoBasically, would you like me to do a "remake" of the trollangina challenge, or should I focus on something else?
https://www.patreon.com/posts/comic-poll-81605873
https://www.patreon.com/posts/comic-poll-81605873
