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Posted 2 months agoHey guys! I hope everyone has had a good week so far~
I'm opening up a handful of portrait commissions to end September with. Long story short, we're having a tough time financially and the job market has been so difficult and lackluster for us. It's been very, very difficult finding any good jobs since we moved, and it's proving difficult to pay bills and gas. I'd love to draw some lovelies for some clients to help remedy our financial stress <3
I am taking sketch, colored sketch, and flat colored lineart portrait commissions!
-Sketch portraits are $12.50
-Sketch colored portraits are $31
-Lineart portraits are $25
-Lineart flat color portraits are $40
You can view more details about my price sheet and ToS @ https://iraph-studios.com/art ! Please DM me if you'd like a spot! Thank you <3
I'm opening up a handful of portrait commissions to end September with. Long story short, we're having a tough time financially and the job market has been so difficult and lackluster for us. It's been very, very difficult finding any good jobs since we moved, and it's proving difficult to pay bills and gas. I'd love to draw some lovelies for some clients to help remedy our financial stress <3
I am taking sketch, colored sketch, and flat colored lineart portrait commissions!
-Sketch portraits are $12.50
-Sketch colored portraits are $31
-Lineart portraits are $25
-Lineart flat color portraits are $40
You can view more details about my price sheet and ToS @ https://iraph-studios.com/art ! Please DM me if you'd like a spot! Thank you <3
New home! 2025 spring updates!
Posted 7 months agoHello everyone! As some of you are aware, this year has been crazy busy for me. Between finalizing my long divorce, getting my job's new schedule, getting a new schedule with my kiddo, and now moving into our new home, it's been a wild ride. My boyfriend and I have been working extremely hard so we could finally move forward and get a house. It's been a long, difficult challenge. We've both worked long hours, had countless sleepless nights, and many different obstacles to overcome. However, it's finally time to move onto our next chapter.
Starting May, we will officially have a real home. 🏡 We've worked all of March and April to make it happen and we got approved for a cute 3 bedroom house near the Olympic National rain forest up here in Washington, and we both couldn't be more excited. This is why my activity lately has been so spotty! We'll be starting the big move beginning of May, and there's a lot to move and transport between our storage units and our tiny apartment, but we're both extremely excited. My kiddo will have his own room, and we'll have our own office space to make commissions, streams, and my up coming comic page schedule a reality. I cannot express how excited I am.
Additionally, my art schedule will have a little more adjustments too. Come June 1st, I will have a few different schedule and activity changes:
🔸From June onward, I'll be streaming both on Sunday and Monday afternoons/evenings (scheduled times will vary a little)
🔸June 1st I will release the next comic page and will actively and finally develop my comic!
🔸With the new comic development alongside my commissions, I will be developing more merch for my store page!
🔸Commissions turn-around-time will be shorter and more consistent
I'm really excited to get started, but first we gotta get moved in! I'll likely be inconsistently mia between 5/27 to 6/10. I will still be here but my activity may fluctuate a bit! If you ever need to get ahold of me, please feel free to DM me! I cannot express how excited I am to get moved in and back on the drawing board! There are SO many things I want to do that I have been putting off FOR SO LONG because of life's difficulties. But I can confidently say that things are looking better. Thank you all for being here, for supporting me, and sticking around 💖
PS: Don't forget to join my Discord!
Starting May, we will officially have a real home. 🏡 We've worked all of March and April to make it happen and we got approved for a cute 3 bedroom house near the Olympic National rain forest up here in Washington, and we both couldn't be more excited. This is why my activity lately has been so spotty! We'll be starting the big move beginning of May, and there's a lot to move and transport between our storage units and our tiny apartment, but we're both extremely excited. My kiddo will have his own room, and we'll have our own office space to make commissions, streams, and my up coming comic page schedule a reality. I cannot express how excited I am.
Additionally, my art schedule will have a little more adjustments too. Come June 1st, I will have a few different schedule and activity changes:
🔸From June onward, I'll be streaming both on Sunday and Monday afternoons/evenings (scheduled times will vary a little)
🔸June 1st I will release the next comic page and will actively and finally develop my comic!
🔸With the new comic development alongside my commissions, I will be developing more merch for my store page!
🔸Commissions turn-around-time will be shorter and more consistent
I'm really excited to get started, but first we gotta get moved in! I'll likely be inconsistently mia between 5/27 to 6/10. I will still be here but my activity may fluctuate a bit! If you ever need to get ahold of me, please feel free to DM me! I cannot express how excited I am to get moved in and back on the drawing board! There are SO many things I want to do that I have been putting off FOR SO LONG because of life's difficulties. But I can confidently say that things are looking better. Thank you all for being here, for supporting me, and sticking around 💖
PS: Don't forget to join my Discord!
2025 Update!
Posted 8 months agoSorry I've been aloof the last two weeks! I've had a lot happen involving court and custody over my little one so I can have scheduled visitation. It's been a two year long venture, and the hardest part is over. I still have a few things happening involving it, but I'm able to refocus my effort into my art again!
With that said, I'm raising a donation campaign to hopefully upgrade my old 2018 iPad to a newer, affordable model, so I can continue to commit to more art projects, commissions, and streams! As some of you know, I've relied and committed to using it for most of my art needs, and it has been such a helpful transition! I've never been this comfortable with my art before, and having my iPad really helps!
Unfortunately because of its age, it has gradually shown a lot of new and problematic responses to my daily usage as an art medium, and has progressively shown more performance issues and periodic freezing while drawing. It's been extremely hard streaming artwork from it using the Apple Mirror feature; sometimes this makes it periodically and randomly freeze up for seconds, or using an art app will make it lag or freeze.
I'm raising money for a new iPad 10th gen 10.9" 128GB device, a much more affordable model compared to newly released models or the iPad Pro. The $380 total covers a new pencil, a new case, and of course the iPad device. All proceeds will go towards this new device! You can also view these products on my public Amazon wishlist. All donors will receive a commission discount on one of any future commissions at half of what the donation was!
Thank you for being a part of my community and supporting my artwork 💖
Donation Page: https://iraph-studios.com/blog.php?.....503040807_1873
With that said, I'm raising a donation campaign to hopefully upgrade my old 2018 iPad to a newer, affordable model, so I can continue to commit to more art projects, commissions, and streams! As some of you know, I've relied and committed to using it for most of my art needs, and it has been such a helpful transition! I've never been this comfortable with my art before, and having my iPad really helps!
Unfortunately because of its age, it has gradually shown a lot of new and problematic responses to my daily usage as an art medium, and has progressively shown more performance issues and periodic freezing while drawing. It's been extremely hard streaming artwork from it using the Apple Mirror feature; sometimes this makes it periodically and randomly freeze up for seconds, or using an art app will make it lag or freeze.
I'm raising money for a new iPad 10th gen 10.9" 128GB device, a much more affordable model compared to newly released models or the iPad Pro. The $380 total covers a new pencil, a new case, and of course the iPad device. All proceeds will go towards this new device! You can also view these products on my public Amazon wishlist. All donors will receive a commission discount on one of any future commissions at half of what the donation was!
Thank you for being a part of my community and supporting my artwork 💖
Donation Page: https://iraph-studios.com/blog.php?.....503040807_1873
Temporary Hiatus
Posted 9 months agoAs much as I don't want to, I have to temporarily take a hiatus for 14 days. Art and commission que is temporarily suspended until the end of the month.
For more info, check out my post on my Discord: https://discord.com/channels/431595.....62670294794303
For more info, check out my post on my Discord: https://discord.com/channels/431595.....62670294794303
Weekly stream tomorrow!
Posted 9 months agoDon't forget I will be streaming TOMORROW AT 6PM PACIFIC TIME! I'll be streaming all night! In my Discord server, please be sure to check out the Events at the top to keep up to date what events are happening in my community! Be sure to check the "Interested" button on the stream event so that you'll receive notifications and updates every time a stream happens!
I hope to see you in my small community, and I hope to see you in my stream tomorrow! 💖
I hope to see you in my small community, and I hope to see you in my stream tomorrow! 💖
2025 is here
Posted 10 months agoGood evening everyone! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and a good New Years! It's 2025 and I've been anxiously awaiting to implement some new changes for the new year!
As some of you know, 2022 and 2023 were extremely challenging for me. My ex wife and I separated after ten years, my best friend passed right before my birthday shortly before, I went through a really rough health crisis due to COVID at the time, and at the end of the year unfortunately lost my car shop business shortly there after unable to recover financially. 2023 was all about recovery and getting myself out of that deep hole financially and mentally, and I cannot express how hard the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 was for me.
The year 2024 was all about mental recovery, and grounding myself back into my routines and creating healthy habits, as well as rooting myself into a good job. 2024 was full ups and downs, but was a way more gradual and steady climb from what 2023 was. With the amazing support from my friend circle, my boyfriend, and my new connected relationships with my family, I was able to get through the year. It wasn't easy, and I'm still hard pressed for a lot of work. The end of 2024 was the hardest with the divorce trial being in late November, and my unfortunate grandmother's passing right before Christmas after her steady decline (She was 95 years old; we had a close relationship). The end of the year was difficult mentally, and while I still have plenty of work to do, I am hopeful and motivated.
What does this mean for 2025?
Well, to remain transparent, I have more work to do LOL I still have another divorce trial date in late February, and depending on what happens then might change a few things. However, I am steering my focus a bit to my art and commissions, as I've long awaited the opportunity to do so. Let me explain a little!
For the new year I'll be heavily focusing on a few key goals!
⭐ Focusing on artistic and creative improvements and habits
⭐ Forming more relationships and networking on social platforms
⭐ Developing my comic book pages starting at x2 pages a month
⭐ Improving my client relations and jump starting my commission que
⭐ Putting together new features, ideas, and activities for this Discord server to improve engagement and relations with my fanbase
⭐ Creating new habits and focusing more on routine and scheduling for my artwork, my time with my kiddo, and my employment status
These are ambitious and hopeful goals, but I aim to try and focus on each of these things for 2025. Up until now, since 2015, I have been constantly and repeatedly pushed back on my goals and dreams, routinely jumping over obstacles and through hoops for years just to get by and satisfy everyone else around me. I lacked the motivation and inspiration to continue my craft the way I wanted, and I selflessly and naively put all of my effort into other people while being put under enormous amounts of stress and social pressure. I'm hopeful and confident 2025 will be the start of a new chapter for me creatively.
So what does this mean for commissions?
So during the next three months I will be gradually steering more to my que and artistic schedule while maintaining a solid and steady relationship with my part time employer. I am fortunate enough to work just enough to pay my necessary bills and have just enough time and freedom to focus on other things. This is a crucial and very important part of my plan, as it is incredibly difficult to form such in today's economy. I have been striving and focusing very hard on this aspect of my life.
With this new strategy, I'll be focusing on improving workflow, commission turn around time, and relationships with my commissioners. It's incredibly important to me to maintain a connection and relationship with my followers, and I acknowledge I haven't been the best at it the last few years, and I aim to fix that with new solutions.
What about your comic?
It's no surprise or secret that I've been trying so hard to motivate myself to put my creative plans and story into a manga-style comic, however, I've been seriously lacking in this part of my life and career. I've strived and worked so hard up until awhile ago for my story The Glytheum State. It was originally a 2D platformer video game built for the PC, and there was some major success there for awhile since during and after highschool. Unfortunately the dream of creating a video game faded, and it was hard keeping a team together without any pay. Eventually this project changed into a world-building project for a future comic production, and here we are years later, a bit late to the party.
I acknowledge that I've dropped the ball on this and so many promises I made for it for so long, as I tried so desperately to balance this project with other things while under extreme pressure to accomplish other unrelated things for my ex partner, their family, and my own. I unfortunately lacked a lot of inspiration and motivation during all of this, and unfortunately left the ball rolling for my comic production.
For context, I've been developing and honing my story and characters since high school over 15 years ago (Some of the OGs here remember!), and I owe it to myself to continue it. I would be lying if I said I didn't disappoint myself... but I aim to fix that. It's such a huge and major important part of my life, and I strive to continue it for 2025. You'll see a lot more TGS content!
What about merch?
For 2025 I will be releasing a TON of new merch as the months go by, and my goal is to have a lot developed by mid to late summer 2025. From pins to shirts to sweaters, I aim to bring a lot of merch that involves my characters, story, and more unrelated cute, warm, and cozy things! I ahve a ton of surprises in mind to bring about I think a lot of people will enjoy. If you're interested in staying up to date, be sure to always periodically check my store front page @ https://iraph-studios.storenvy.com/
What about your art streams?
It's no secret I used to have art streams all the time, and I dearly miss them. I will be putting together a new schedule (It might change from time to time) that will be posted from here on out (Still getting a good idea where/how to post it). I will be featuring more streams for 2025, and I hope to have it become a large part of my work process and work flow. I honestly really miss having you guys in my streams!
In conclusion, the last few years have been hard, and I recognize that I have been absent too long. With that said, I cannot express the love and appreciation I have for the people that have stuck around in my life. My friend circle, what's left of my fanbase, my family, and my boyfriend have given me an insurmountable of love and support during my most crucial and difficult years, and I am eternally grateful. For those that have stuck round all this time, I thank you from the bottom of my hear, truly 💖 For those of you I have recently met and made new connections with, welcome to the club! 🤣
In closing, I love you all, thank you for being here, and I will see you very soon.
As some of you know, 2022 and 2023 were extremely challenging for me. My ex wife and I separated after ten years, my best friend passed right before my birthday shortly before, I went through a really rough health crisis due to COVID at the time, and at the end of the year unfortunately lost my car shop business shortly there after unable to recover financially. 2023 was all about recovery and getting myself out of that deep hole financially and mentally, and I cannot express how hard the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 was for me.
The year 2024 was all about mental recovery, and grounding myself back into my routines and creating healthy habits, as well as rooting myself into a good job. 2024 was full ups and downs, but was a way more gradual and steady climb from what 2023 was. With the amazing support from my friend circle, my boyfriend, and my new connected relationships with my family, I was able to get through the year. It wasn't easy, and I'm still hard pressed for a lot of work. The end of 2024 was the hardest with the divorce trial being in late November, and my unfortunate grandmother's passing right before Christmas after her steady decline (She was 95 years old; we had a close relationship). The end of the year was difficult mentally, and while I still have plenty of work to do, I am hopeful and motivated.
What does this mean for 2025?
Well, to remain transparent, I have more work to do LOL I still have another divorce trial date in late February, and depending on what happens then might change a few things. However, I am steering my focus a bit to my art and commissions, as I've long awaited the opportunity to do so. Let me explain a little!
For the new year I'll be heavily focusing on a few key goals!
⭐ Focusing on artistic and creative improvements and habits
⭐ Forming more relationships and networking on social platforms
⭐ Developing my comic book pages starting at x2 pages a month
⭐ Improving my client relations and jump starting my commission que
⭐ Putting together new features, ideas, and activities for this Discord server to improve engagement and relations with my fanbase
⭐ Creating new habits and focusing more on routine and scheduling for my artwork, my time with my kiddo, and my employment status
These are ambitious and hopeful goals, but I aim to try and focus on each of these things for 2025. Up until now, since 2015, I have been constantly and repeatedly pushed back on my goals and dreams, routinely jumping over obstacles and through hoops for years just to get by and satisfy everyone else around me. I lacked the motivation and inspiration to continue my craft the way I wanted, and I selflessly and naively put all of my effort into other people while being put under enormous amounts of stress and social pressure. I'm hopeful and confident 2025 will be the start of a new chapter for me creatively.
So what does this mean for commissions?
So during the next three months I will be gradually steering more to my que and artistic schedule while maintaining a solid and steady relationship with my part time employer. I am fortunate enough to work just enough to pay my necessary bills and have just enough time and freedom to focus on other things. This is a crucial and very important part of my plan, as it is incredibly difficult to form such in today's economy. I have been striving and focusing very hard on this aspect of my life.
With this new strategy, I'll be focusing on improving workflow, commission turn around time, and relationships with my commissioners. It's incredibly important to me to maintain a connection and relationship with my followers, and I acknowledge I haven't been the best at it the last few years, and I aim to fix that with new solutions.
What about your comic?
It's no surprise or secret that I've been trying so hard to motivate myself to put my creative plans and story into a manga-style comic, however, I've been seriously lacking in this part of my life and career. I've strived and worked so hard up until awhile ago for my story The Glytheum State. It was originally a 2D platformer video game built for the PC, and there was some major success there for awhile since during and after highschool. Unfortunately the dream of creating a video game faded, and it was hard keeping a team together without any pay. Eventually this project changed into a world-building project for a future comic production, and here we are years later, a bit late to the party.
I acknowledge that I've dropped the ball on this and so many promises I made for it for so long, as I tried so desperately to balance this project with other things while under extreme pressure to accomplish other unrelated things for my ex partner, their family, and my own. I unfortunately lacked a lot of inspiration and motivation during all of this, and unfortunately left the ball rolling for my comic production.
For context, I've been developing and honing my story and characters since high school over 15 years ago (Some of the OGs here remember!), and I owe it to myself to continue it. I would be lying if I said I didn't disappoint myself... but I aim to fix that. It's such a huge and major important part of my life, and I strive to continue it for 2025. You'll see a lot more TGS content!
What about merch?
For 2025 I will be releasing a TON of new merch as the months go by, and my goal is to have a lot developed by mid to late summer 2025. From pins to shirts to sweaters, I aim to bring a lot of merch that involves my characters, story, and more unrelated cute, warm, and cozy things! I ahve a ton of surprises in mind to bring about I think a lot of people will enjoy. If you're interested in staying up to date, be sure to always periodically check my store front page @ https://iraph-studios.storenvy.com/
What about your art streams?
It's no secret I used to have art streams all the time, and I dearly miss them. I will be putting together a new schedule (It might change from time to time) that will be posted from here on out (Still getting a good idea where/how to post it). I will be featuring more streams for 2025, and I hope to have it become a large part of my work process and work flow. I honestly really miss having you guys in my streams!
In conclusion, the last few years have been hard, and I recognize that I have been absent too long. With that said, I cannot express the love and appreciation I have for the people that have stuck around in my life. My friend circle, what's left of my fanbase, my family, and my boyfriend have given me an insurmountable of love and support during my most crucial and difficult years, and I am eternally grateful. For those that have stuck round all this time, I thank you from the bottom of my hear, truly 💖 For those of you I have recently met and made new connections with, welcome to the club! 🤣
In closing, I love you all, thank you for being here, and I will see you very soon.
HEY ARTISTS! Join my Discord!
Posted a year agoHey guys! DO YOU MAKE 🅰🆁🆃????
Join my Discord Server @ https://iraph-studios.com/discord.php and post your art!!! I'd love to get more artists to advertise and show off their SKILLSSSSSS!!! I'm creating new perks and incentives to keep showing off your work, so POST THOSE ART PIECES YALL! There's perks, level achievements, subscriber channels, raffles, art trades, VIP access, early art access, and more!
I hope to see some of you there <3 I'll definitely be using this as my main platform! So if you want to at least keep up on all things art related from me, check it out!
Join my Discord Server @ https://iraph-studios.com/discord.php and post your art!!! I'd love to get more artists to advertise and show off their SKILLSSSSSS!!! I'm creating new perks and incentives to keep showing off your work, so POST THOSE ART PIECES YALL! There's perks, level achievements, subscriber channels, raffles, art trades, VIP access, early art access, and more!
I hope to see some of you there <3 I'll definitely be using this as my main platform! So if you want to at least keep up on all things art related from me, check it out!
New Stream schedule!
Posted a year agoGood evening everyone! I'm really happy to announce I'll be committing to a NEW weekly stream schedule from here on out!
My schedule from now on follows (Pacific Time):
Sunday from 6pm to 10pm
Wednesday from 4pm to 8pm
Friday (every other) from 5pm to 10pm
Occasionally I will hold special event nights or GAME nights as well on these stream days!
So Im streaming TODAY and I am super excited to see you all!! I'll be streaming my commission que where I left off at the beginning of the year, and gonna nail out what's left! I know my amazing clients have been extremely patient with me, and I cannot express my gratitude enough as 2023 and beginning of this year have been the hardest in my life, but I wouldn't have gotten this far without you all and my closest supporters. Im super excited to get back to work for everyone 💖
If you haven't already please consider joining my Discord for announcements and exclusive content @ https://iraph-studios.com/discord.php ! I have SO many good things coming up!!! If you haven't already, PLEASE consider subscribing to my Patreon @ Patreon.com/Raphial to support me! Even my low dollar tiers help a ton!!! 🙏💖
If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns please don't hesitate to DM me!
My schedule from now on follows (Pacific Time):
Sunday from 6pm to 10pm
Wednesday from 4pm to 8pm
Friday (every other) from 5pm to 10pm
Occasionally I will hold special event nights or GAME nights as well on these stream days!
So Im streaming TODAY and I am super excited to see you all!! I'll be streaming my commission que where I left off at the beginning of the year, and gonna nail out what's left! I know my amazing clients have been extremely patient with me, and I cannot express my gratitude enough as 2023 and beginning of this year have been the hardest in my life, but I wouldn't have gotten this far without you all and my closest supporters. Im super excited to get back to work for everyone 💖
If you haven't already please consider joining my Discord for announcements and exclusive content @ https://iraph-studios.com/discord.php ! I have SO many good things coming up!!! If you haven't already, PLEASE consider subscribing to my Patreon @ Patreon.com/Raphial to support me! Even my low dollar tiers help a ton!!! 🙏💖
If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns please don't hesitate to DM me!
I'm back; wow what a year.
Posted 2 years agoHey everyone! It's been a long time since I last updated my profile, and as some of you are aware, I had disabled my profile entirely since last summer. I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have brought, but I had a lot of reasons why that I will explain in a moment.
To be frank, this year has been the hardest year of my life. In a short summary, I've had a handful of rough years since 2014, and the challenges and tribulations of my life have often times come in the form of waves, or tidal waves if anything. I'll have hard moments, then a break, then more challenges, and so on. I want to go back a little and give some context of things so everyone has a better understanding of things, and why I've been so dismally active in the online community over the years.
// For tl;dr & the summary, scroll to the bottom! //
Back in 2014 I had restart my life by moving from WA state to Utah with some friends and my, at the time, new partner. Without getting too much into it, it was a hard reset for the both of us, but we had good friends and good supporters to help keep me going, which I'm thankful for. There was a lot of stumble bumps along the way until 2017. We had moved a few times, my partner left unexpectedly a few times, I had switched jobs a few times, and things were often rocky. It was a hard journey, and my naivety being in my mid 20s didn't help either. Everything was a massive, giant learning curve for me, and many times I was very much alone to face those challenges, aside from the help from my contact with friends. I was facing a lot of confusing circumstances and situations that were forced onto me by my partner, and some experiences with bad roomates.
In 2016, my partner and I had a son, and while it was exciting, the months of pregnancy and afterwards only got harder. I had also started working roughly 50-60 hour weeks, and the work only got heavier once we had our little man. There was a lot of expenses, and I was completely on my own with it all, and the pressure from a *lot* of people in our families. It only got harder and harder for me from that point, and the difficulties and challenges never seemed to stop. For awhile my partner left with my son unexpectedly, and it only took a heavier toll on my mental health. Thankfully they came back at the tail end of 2016, but only for our slumlord to kick everyone out of the house we were living in because I refused to suddenly get rid of my german shepherd ESA (Which is illegal...). So we all were kicked out without much of a warning, and it was a huge stress on all of us.
Jan 2017 rolled around when we left, and with the help of friends, I was able to get my partner and my newborn son to their family up north, as we planned to head back to WA state. A lot transpired through this time, and long story short, our convoy of cars got stuck in a bad blizzard, and one of the cars had an irreparable breakdown. I had to stay behind to deal with handling the broken down car that had all of our belongings and cash in it, and I had them continue north. Unfortunately for me, like a domino effect of bad luck, I ended up getting stuck in Utah for 5 months homeless. It was during this time it felt like thing after thing after thing after thing just hit me again and again. No matter what I did, I faced extremely challenging odds, and while I ended up getting out of there early summer, I had to face a lot of difficulties. There were times I had to sleep outdoors in the cold, or in my car, or on bench seats so i could stretch. Luckily with the help of friends, donations, and my tax return finally coming in after months and month of playing cat n mouse with the IRS (First year claiming our son), I was able to get what I needed to leave.
From there, I moved back up to WA alone, and the place I had planned to stay in was sold underneath me before I got up north. So I ended up homeless again, and stayed with a friend for awhile. Started to get back on my feet, got a decent job, then bought my future shop's location. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see my partner or son very often, as the family they stayed with weren't keen on my presence. It took a huge, huge and heavy toll on my mental health for the absolute longest time for almost two years, and it was an extremely challenging situation for me.
Form there I shuffled between jobs, moved a few times, my partner and I got married, then was offered a place to stay later on with an old friend. Long story short, the friend's ex lover had suddenly left them, and they really wanted to fill that roomate spot (And had a crush on me). Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize how awful it would be, even trying to be responsible and not accept the constant invitations to move in even though I temporarily had no place to go. I knew I couldn't pay for awhile, but eventually I caved, moved in, and my partner soon after moved in with us. It was the biggest mistake. I had the plan to bring our kiddo with us, and start over... but it just never happened. Not only had I moved far, far up north from everything I was familiar with and my shop, but the apartment was expensive, and this person ended up being extremely manipulative with not only my friends and coworkers but my partner. Only wanted to get between us, even bragged about it. It was an extremely stressful situation... so much we later left.
I had started working for Amazon at the time making good money as a driver, but we had no place to go. Our plans had fallen through, so we stayed with a good friend up in Seattle for a few months. I'm extremely grateful to them... but then COVID happened right when we were to get our own apartment... not only did we have complications come up with the apartment, but then my Amazon job terminated all of the in-house delivery drivers, and pawned all of them off to contractors (Known as DSPs). It was like everything hit at once. Then right after I got extremely sick in Jan 2020 (Pretty sure I had COVID), but then COVID happened.
So we moved back down south and stayed in the loft area of my car shop. I had plans to turn the shop into a full business, and had a few clients, part time, beforehand. So I dedicated all of my time and resources into turning it into a full shop, and honestly it's what saved me during COVID and the lockdown. Businesses left and right either completely shut down, or had to lock down for months. My business being an essential business was able to stay open, and we barely scraped by. I worked my butt off, and we made it through. Along with the stimulus checks, we were doing well compared to a lot of others, though it was still a struggle.
We were planning to get a new place to stay from there, but like a case of extremely bad luck, nothing ever worked out. Lots of times the few places I could find that would work were rented out before I could get them, or fell through during the process. It didn't help I tried to streamline the process by myself, rushing things for us, and it only ever kept backfiring. While my partner did art commissions at the time, I had to work for 80-90% of our income, and during those COVID months until early 2022, it was hard. Extremely hard.
It wasn't until spring of 2022 that my business started to take off, and in the right direction. My clients were getting better and better, and my work was spreading more and more. I had created a good, solid reputation for myself. With the help of a few friends, and my hard work, it felt like we were finally seeing the rewards of our hard work. I had put together a plan to finish a handful of car projects we had while I worked with my clients to then later sell everything all at once to bidders, get a bunch of cash, then set a down payment for land. For awhile it seemed things were going well, even with a few hiccups along the way. We even had some homeless drug addicts squat in the commercial unit next to ours, and even with that hell hole next to us, I still did great for our situation.
Unfortunately late summer of 2022, when I had my biggest clients (I had a 69 Chevelle, a 68 Ford Futura, and a heavily built 75 El Camino), disaster had struck for me. Not only did I find out my partner was hiding a lot from me for a long time, but I got COVID from someone they brought by. I was out for nearly a month. Then beginning of August, I rushed myself to the hospital when I suddenly started going blind, and it was the beginning of a stroke. I was left to stay at the ER by myself, then transported to another hospital for more examinations and scans. After several days, it was concluded that I was clear to go home, and the stroke I had was extremely small. My vision had returned, but it was found that in combination of my chronic migraines and stress, COVID was the main contender.
When I was cleared to go home, unfortunately I ran out of 4G connection, and couldn't use the wifi inside. Not only that, but I had no money left as I had used everything I had in savings days before to pay all of my bills. I wasn't making any money being out for weeks and weeks. I tried calling around, but couldn't find a ride. Eventually my partner agreed to meet me a few miles away at a local Walmart, but I had to walk there to meet them; they didn't want to drive down the hill. That sucked. I about passed out on the way because 75% of the way there was up a 30-35% incline for almost 2 miles (S Meridian in Puyallup, WA hah). Thankfully I made it up the hill, then we went back to the shop.
From there things only got worse. Days after I returned, and days before my birthday, I found my best friend's body. They had suffered a heat stroke after passing out from their low blood sugar. I was extremely, extremely close with him and his family. I was able to summon the courage to make a speech for his funeral, and glad I did... and I still keep contact with his family. But it was extremely traumatizing on top of what I had already endured, and I felt more alone than I had ever felt in my life.
Then later, long story short after a lot of surprises, I had my partner leave. It was hard, and sometimes I caved to my emotional attachment.. but eventually we separated at the end of 2022. Hardest Christmas I've ever had. I had to fake my emotions and pretend nothing was wrong seeing my son, the family, etc. I had absolutely zero support, and often times had to step outside because I just would break down. I didn't want to cause a scene. It was hard. Over the next few months they had left with all their things.
// IN SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION //
After facing all of this, all of these challenges, I had to figure out what I was going to do with my car shop business. I had lost my biggest clients during all this, and I was having a hard time conducting business as usual. I was at my absolutely lowest point in my life. I struggled with alcohol and suicide, and if it had not been for my closest friends (You know who you are) I would have unalived myself. I was at the point several times honestly.. and a few times the people I came to for help just told me "Nah you won't do it just deal with it" and boy did it just destroy me mentally. But I'm glad I had my very small circle of friends at the time. Not many people cared about my situation, except a select few. I'm thankful and grateful to them.
From there I've had to restart my life, with divorce, losing my business, losing all of my money, losing half or more of my things, tools, equipment, cars, etc just to survive. Fortunately I was able to get therapy with the help of friends and networking and finding an extremely, extremely helpful therapist. I know him personally, and it's been a blessing tbh. Around this time I met my now-boyfriend. At first we were friends, took things slow, but things ended up just.. clicking together perfectly. Like putting puzzle pieces together, everything we started doing was just the right fit for me. It has single handedly been the best decision of my life up to this point. I don't know how I got as lucky as I did, and how supportive he is and how loving and caring he is... I don't know what I did to deserve it.
Since then I've been seeing my son again (I was unable to see him for a long time), been spending more time with him, been rising through good paying jobs (Just started my newest one this week), and been getting back on my feet. With the help of exceptional friends, my boyfriend, and amazing new family members, I for once in my life feel okay. I suffered so much anxiety (Still struggling with it..) and stress the last year and half.. but I'm doing better. I'm focusing more on myself, learning more about myself, and no longer letting the patterns of ill-will'd people control my ability or decision making.
Good things are coming. I've started hosting PNW events again, I've participated more in my local communities again, I've restarted my comic (More info to come) and have already released the first comic page. This is the first time in a decade my partner has supported my artwork, and it's the first time in yearrssss I've felt good about my art. So I'm slowly getting back into the art groove, and getting a schedule down. But more to come! You can support me and my comic by sub'ing to my Patreon at @ https://patreon.com/raphial or join my Discord @ https://iraph-studios.com/discord.php
It's been a year of learning and progress, from being nothing to becoming something again. I thank you all who supported me along the way, and who helped me get this far. I truly, truly am thankful for such good people in my life. <3
To be frank, this year has been the hardest year of my life. In a short summary, I've had a handful of rough years since 2014, and the challenges and tribulations of my life have often times come in the form of waves, or tidal waves if anything. I'll have hard moments, then a break, then more challenges, and so on. I want to go back a little and give some context of things so everyone has a better understanding of things, and why I've been so dismally active in the online community over the years.
// For tl;dr & the summary, scroll to the bottom! //
Back in 2014 I had restart my life by moving from WA state to Utah with some friends and my, at the time, new partner. Without getting too much into it, it was a hard reset for the both of us, but we had good friends and good supporters to help keep me going, which I'm thankful for. There was a lot of stumble bumps along the way until 2017. We had moved a few times, my partner left unexpectedly a few times, I had switched jobs a few times, and things were often rocky. It was a hard journey, and my naivety being in my mid 20s didn't help either. Everything was a massive, giant learning curve for me, and many times I was very much alone to face those challenges, aside from the help from my contact with friends. I was facing a lot of confusing circumstances and situations that were forced onto me by my partner, and some experiences with bad roomates.
In 2016, my partner and I had a son, and while it was exciting, the months of pregnancy and afterwards only got harder. I had also started working roughly 50-60 hour weeks, and the work only got heavier once we had our little man. There was a lot of expenses, and I was completely on my own with it all, and the pressure from a *lot* of people in our families. It only got harder and harder for me from that point, and the difficulties and challenges never seemed to stop. For awhile my partner left with my son unexpectedly, and it only took a heavier toll on my mental health. Thankfully they came back at the tail end of 2016, but only for our slumlord to kick everyone out of the house we were living in because I refused to suddenly get rid of my german shepherd ESA (Which is illegal...). So we all were kicked out without much of a warning, and it was a huge stress on all of us.
Jan 2017 rolled around when we left, and with the help of friends, I was able to get my partner and my newborn son to their family up north, as we planned to head back to WA state. A lot transpired through this time, and long story short, our convoy of cars got stuck in a bad blizzard, and one of the cars had an irreparable breakdown. I had to stay behind to deal with handling the broken down car that had all of our belongings and cash in it, and I had them continue north. Unfortunately for me, like a domino effect of bad luck, I ended up getting stuck in Utah for 5 months homeless. It was during this time it felt like thing after thing after thing after thing just hit me again and again. No matter what I did, I faced extremely challenging odds, and while I ended up getting out of there early summer, I had to face a lot of difficulties. There were times I had to sleep outdoors in the cold, or in my car, or on bench seats so i could stretch. Luckily with the help of friends, donations, and my tax return finally coming in after months and month of playing cat n mouse with the IRS (First year claiming our son), I was able to get what I needed to leave.
From there, I moved back up to WA alone, and the place I had planned to stay in was sold underneath me before I got up north. So I ended up homeless again, and stayed with a friend for awhile. Started to get back on my feet, got a decent job, then bought my future shop's location. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see my partner or son very often, as the family they stayed with weren't keen on my presence. It took a huge, huge and heavy toll on my mental health for the absolute longest time for almost two years, and it was an extremely challenging situation for me.
Form there I shuffled between jobs, moved a few times, my partner and I got married, then was offered a place to stay later on with an old friend. Long story short, the friend's ex lover had suddenly left them, and they really wanted to fill that roomate spot (And had a crush on me). Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize how awful it would be, even trying to be responsible and not accept the constant invitations to move in even though I temporarily had no place to go. I knew I couldn't pay for awhile, but eventually I caved, moved in, and my partner soon after moved in with us. It was the biggest mistake. I had the plan to bring our kiddo with us, and start over... but it just never happened. Not only had I moved far, far up north from everything I was familiar with and my shop, but the apartment was expensive, and this person ended up being extremely manipulative with not only my friends and coworkers but my partner. Only wanted to get between us, even bragged about it. It was an extremely stressful situation... so much we later left.
I had started working for Amazon at the time making good money as a driver, but we had no place to go. Our plans had fallen through, so we stayed with a good friend up in Seattle for a few months. I'm extremely grateful to them... but then COVID happened right when we were to get our own apartment... not only did we have complications come up with the apartment, but then my Amazon job terminated all of the in-house delivery drivers, and pawned all of them off to contractors (Known as DSPs). It was like everything hit at once. Then right after I got extremely sick in Jan 2020 (Pretty sure I had COVID), but then COVID happened.
So we moved back down south and stayed in the loft area of my car shop. I had plans to turn the shop into a full business, and had a few clients, part time, beforehand. So I dedicated all of my time and resources into turning it into a full shop, and honestly it's what saved me during COVID and the lockdown. Businesses left and right either completely shut down, or had to lock down for months. My business being an essential business was able to stay open, and we barely scraped by. I worked my butt off, and we made it through. Along with the stimulus checks, we were doing well compared to a lot of others, though it was still a struggle.
We were planning to get a new place to stay from there, but like a case of extremely bad luck, nothing ever worked out. Lots of times the few places I could find that would work were rented out before I could get them, or fell through during the process. It didn't help I tried to streamline the process by myself, rushing things for us, and it only ever kept backfiring. While my partner did art commissions at the time, I had to work for 80-90% of our income, and during those COVID months until early 2022, it was hard. Extremely hard.
It wasn't until spring of 2022 that my business started to take off, and in the right direction. My clients were getting better and better, and my work was spreading more and more. I had created a good, solid reputation for myself. With the help of a few friends, and my hard work, it felt like we were finally seeing the rewards of our hard work. I had put together a plan to finish a handful of car projects we had while I worked with my clients to then later sell everything all at once to bidders, get a bunch of cash, then set a down payment for land. For awhile it seemed things were going well, even with a few hiccups along the way. We even had some homeless drug addicts squat in the commercial unit next to ours, and even with that hell hole next to us, I still did great for our situation.
Unfortunately late summer of 2022, when I had my biggest clients (I had a 69 Chevelle, a 68 Ford Futura, and a heavily built 75 El Camino), disaster had struck for me. Not only did I find out my partner was hiding a lot from me for a long time, but I got COVID from someone they brought by. I was out for nearly a month. Then beginning of August, I rushed myself to the hospital when I suddenly started going blind, and it was the beginning of a stroke. I was left to stay at the ER by myself, then transported to another hospital for more examinations and scans. After several days, it was concluded that I was clear to go home, and the stroke I had was extremely small. My vision had returned, but it was found that in combination of my chronic migraines and stress, COVID was the main contender.
When I was cleared to go home, unfortunately I ran out of 4G connection, and couldn't use the wifi inside. Not only that, but I had no money left as I had used everything I had in savings days before to pay all of my bills. I wasn't making any money being out for weeks and weeks. I tried calling around, but couldn't find a ride. Eventually my partner agreed to meet me a few miles away at a local Walmart, but I had to walk there to meet them; they didn't want to drive down the hill. That sucked. I about passed out on the way because 75% of the way there was up a 30-35% incline for almost 2 miles (S Meridian in Puyallup, WA hah). Thankfully I made it up the hill, then we went back to the shop.
From there things only got worse. Days after I returned, and days before my birthday, I found my best friend's body. They had suffered a heat stroke after passing out from their low blood sugar. I was extremely, extremely close with him and his family. I was able to summon the courage to make a speech for his funeral, and glad I did... and I still keep contact with his family. But it was extremely traumatizing on top of what I had already endured, and I felt more alone than I had ever felt in my life.
Then later, long story short after a lot of surprises, I had my partner leave. It was hard, and sometimes I caved to my emotional attachment.. but eventually we separated at the end of 2022. Hardest Christmas I've ever had. I had to fake my emotions and pretend nothing was wrong seeing my son, the family, etc. I had absolutely zero support, and often times had to step outside because I just would break down. I didn't want to cause a scene. It was hard. Over the next few months they had left with all their things.
// IN SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION //
After facing all of this, all of these challenges, I had to figure out what I was going to do with my car shop business. I had lost my biggest clients during all this, and I was having a hard time conducting business as usual. I was at my absolutely lowest point in my life. I struggled with alcohol and suicide, and if it had not been for my closest friends (You know who you are) I would have unalived myself. I was at the point several times honestly.. and a few times the people I came to for help just told me "Nah you won't do it just deal with it" and boy did it just destroy me mentally. But I'm glad I had my very small circle of friends at the time. Not many people cared about my situation, except a select few. I'm thankful and grateful to them.
From there I've had to restart my life, with divorce, losing my business, losing all of my money, losing half or more of my things, tools, equipment, cars, etc just to survive. Fortunately I was able to get therapy with the help of friends and networking and finding an extremely, extremely helpful therapist. I know him personally, and it's been a blessing tbh. Around this time I met my now-boyfriend. At first we were friends, took things slow, but things ended up just.. clicking together perfectly. Like putting puzzle pieces together, everything we started doing was just the right fit for me. It has single handedly been the best decision of my life up to this point. I don't know how I got as lucky as I did, and how supportive he is and how loving and caring he is... I don't know what I did to deserve it.
Since then I've been seeing my son again (I was unable to see him for a long time), been spending more time with him, been rising through good paying jobs (Just started my newest one this week), and been getting back on my feet. With the help of exceptional friends, my boyfriend, and amazing new family members, I for once in my life feel okay. I suffered so much anxiety (Still struggling with it..) and stress the last year and half.. but I'm doing better. I'm focusing more on myself, learning more about myself, and no longer letting the patterns of ill-will'd people control my ability or decision making.
Good things are coming. I've started hosting PNW events again, I've participated more in my local communities again, I've restarted my comic (More info to come) and have already released the first comic page. This is the first time in a decade my partner has supported my artwork, and it's the first time in yearrssss I've felt good about my art. So I'm slowly getting back into the art groove, and getting a schedule down. But more to come! You can support me and my comic by sub'ing to my Patreon at @ https://patreon.com/raphial or join my Discord @ https://iraph-studios.com/discord.php
It's been a year of learning and progress, from being nothing to becoming something again. I thank you all who supported me along the way, and who helped me get this far. I truly, truly am thankful for such good people in my life. <3
2023 will be difficult........
Posted 3 years ago2023 will be hard for me. I'm faced with an enormous amount of difficulties soon ahead of me, including homelessness, divorce, and the loss of my business and workplace.
The things that have taken place in 2022 have honestly been the reason why I've been in and out, and absent from the community a lot.
Please consider donating to help, and sharing... anything helps.
https://iraph-studios.com/news.php?.....220230512_5012
The things that have taken place in 2022 have honestly been the reason why I've been in and out, and absent from the community a lot.
Please consider donating to help, and sharing... anything helps.
https://iraph-studios.com/news.php?.....220230512_5012
Our online shop is open!
Posted 4 years agoGot my Store up! I have a handful of pins, buttons, stickers, and more coming ❤ I'll be getting some tshirts and prints together soon too c: Help support my work and my family by purchasing some merch!
https://iraph-studios.storenvy.com/products
https://iraph-studios.storenvy.com/products
Someone stole or lost our rent check
Posted 4 years agoHey guys, my family and I really, really need some help. I don't normally do this, and I try to keep my personal life, well, personal, but this month has been very difficult. On top of this month being slow and difficult, I've been suddenly slapped with additional surprise bills that, long story short, I simply don't have enough to pay. There's been an on-going issue with our management team of our commercial property losing our rent checks/money-orders, and the one, single month I ever sent a money order, I'm being slapped with months later out of the blue. I don't know if I can make enough in time to keep our business afloat. I've raised most of what we need on my own, but still need about $600 by Oct 5th. Please consider donating... all the details are in the link below. Thank you <3
https://gofund.me/900a16cc
https://gofund.me/900a16cc
Get ready for our TGS project!
Posted 5 years agoiRaph Studios is back on track and starting the new year 2020 off with a kick!
We're revamping our Glytheum State project and preparing to release the first few comic pages of our project! We have a lot of world building, character development, concepts, and more to hash out, and are recruiting a small handful of people looking to join our team to help create our first publication! If our publication gets going pretty well, we will be looking back into game design like we did 9 years ago, and will be focusing a lot of our team on our 2D project!
For now we will be focusing on our first chapter of our comic, and will be posting up a LOT of up-coming exclusive art and content on our Patreon! We'll be posting all other art here, on my Twitter and our (Currently under construction until Friday) TGS website!
Will you still be streaming art?
Yes! You can catch ALL of my art streams on my Picarto page! I will be scheduling more frequent streams within the next week or two, and will hosting a lot of exclusive Patreon streams, and public fun streams! In these streams you will often times find me doing TGS-related art or sometimes random fun art to get the creative juice going! You're more than welcome to come, hang out, share with your friends, and join the fun! I sometimes host mic-open streams for questions, fundraisers, and raffle prizes!
Are there ways we can help?
Absolutely! As this project grows, we want to create a community behind it to include as many people as possible into this community-driven effort! When this project really kicks off, I want people to have some sort of relation to it, or familiarity of it! What better way to kickstart a big project than to have a growing community behind it be a part of it? Pretty soon there will be lots of incentives for our Patreon that can include your character and other content you create or have an idea for, into our project and world building! As for more personal ways you can help support my family and I, I have our regular Patreon, and our After Dark (NSFW) Patreon you can support depending on the content you like! Every dollar helps! With our Patreon accounts not only does it help support our financial health, but we also donate a small percentage of what we gain every month to other artists and hard working small businesses. So by helping us, we also help give back to others!
We are recruiting team members!
With this large goal in mind, we have a lot of grounds to cover! Social media management, Discord server management, concept art, comic illustration, story-building, scripting, and more! Then once we move onto Phase 2 with our Game Design, we will then definitely need the help ten-fold! If you'd like to help and volunteer your efforts to our project, you can apply for a position with our Volunteer page! We will be accepting applications for all kinds of positions! You can also join our Discord server as well and contact on of our staff!
Does this mean you're reopening commissions?
Unfortunately commissions are beyond my capabilities anymore with everything else I've focused on, and have worked for (Not even including starting our family). For me personally, as much as I absolutely adore and love my fans and commissioners, commissions became exhausting and draining. I personally have a lot of mental stress I constantly have to overcome, without commissions, to get art on paper (Which I've been working on!). To add commissions into the picture, deadlines, communication, management, etc it becomes too much for me to keep track of and handle. I currently own 2 small local businesses here in Washington state, and am now restarting our TGS project; with these two businesses, growing our little family, saving for a house, maintaining my car shop, work, managing our large local furry event group ( Puget Sound Furs ) etc, I get really busy really fast.
To close...
We will be releasing our TGS website VERY soon with a new Wiki page full of lore and world-building! Stay tuned for more info and future stream! <3
We're revamping our Glytheum State project and preparing to release the first few comic pages of our project! We have a lot of world building, character development, concepts, and more to hash out, and are recruiting a small handful of people looking to join our team to help create our first publication! If our publication gets going pretty well, we will be looking back into game design like we did 9 years ago, and will be focusing a lot of our team on our 2D project!
For now we will be focusing on our first chapter of our comic, and will be posting up a LOT of up-coming exclusive art and content on our Patreon! We'll be posting all other art here, on my Twitter and our (Currently under construction until Friday) TGS website!
Will you still be streaming art?
Yes! You can catch ALL of my art streams on my Picarto page! I will be scheduling more frequent streams within the next week or two, and will hosting a lot of exclusive Patreon streams, and public fun streams! In these streams you will often times find me doing TGS-related art or sometimes random fun art to get the creative juice going! You're more than welcome to come, hang out, share with your friends, and join the fun! I sometimes host mic-open streams for questions, fundraisers, and raffle prizes!
Are there ways we can help?
Absolutely! As this project grows, we want to create a community behind it to include as many people as possible into this community-driven effort! When this project really kicks off, I want people to have some sort of relation to it, or familiarity of it! What better way to kickstart a big project than to have a growing community behind it be a part of it? Pretty soon there will be lots of incentives for our Patreon that can include your character and other content you create or have an idea for, into our project and world building! As for more personal ways you can help support my family and I, I have our regular Patreon, and our After Dark (NSFW) Patreon you can support depending on the content you like! Every dollar helps! With our Patreon accounts not only does it help support our financial health, but we also donate a small percentage of what we gain every month to other artists and hard working small businesses. So by helping us, we also help give back to others!
We are recruiting team members!
With this large goal in mind, we have a lot of grounds to cover! Social media management, Discord server management, concept art, comic illustration, story-building, scripting, and more! Then once we move onto Phase 2 with our Game Design, we will then definitely need the help ten-fold! If you'd like to help and volunteer your efforts to our project, you can apply for a position with our Volunteer page! We will be accepting applications for all kinds of positions! You can also join our Discord server as well and contact on of our staff!
Does this mean you're reopening commissions?
Unfortunately commissions are beyond my capabilities anymore with everything else I've focused on, and have worked for (Not even including starting our family). For me personally, as much as I absolutely adore and love my fans and commissioners, commissions became exhausting and draining. I personally have a lot of mental stress I constantly have to overcome, without commissions, to get art on paper (Which I've been working on!). To add commissions into the picture, deadlines, communication, management, etc it becomes too much for me to keep track of and handle. I currently own 2 small local businesses here in Washington state, and am now restarting our TGS project; with these two businesses, growing our little family, saving for a house, maintaining my car shop, work, managing our large local furry event group ( Puget Sound Furs ) etc, I get really busy really fast.
To close...
We will be releasing our TGS website VERY soon with a new Wiki page full of lore and world-building! Stay tuned for more info and future stream! <3
Commissions and Life Updates
Posted 6 years agoHello everyone~ I hope that you all are doing well and that today has been a good day for you!
For anyone still following along with these journals, I give you many thanks, hugs, and love. I know I'm not near as active on here anymore as I used to be, and I promise I haven't forgotten about you all. To put a lot into perspective, to quickly understand, so much has chance, and faster than anticipated, in my life. Raising a family, working full time and working at my shop, on top of keeping up with everything and being the owner of a big furry event group... things have drastically changed, for sure.
For my art...
With all of these changes, and the repeatedly hiatus in my art over the last two years, I've decided to end my commission service indefinitely until further notice. It's been a wild, rewarding, crazy, fun journey since 2009 doing commissions, drawing art for others, and being part of the art community in a way that I could help make people's characters a little bit more of a reality. However, given my responsibilities, I just do not have time to commit anymore. I fought for the last few years to continue to provide my service even though it was very, very difficult for me, and I've come to the realization that it's become more stressful and heartbreaking than rewarding and consistent for my clients. Because of this, and after a lot of thought and debating, I've decided to stop giving empty promises I cannot fulfill. It's just near impossible for me to fit in time for commissions into my schedule anymore.
Now you may be wondering a few things after that extreme change there, and I'm here to also help answer some questions this may bring.
What does this mean for existing commission not yet completed?
Like any artist, it probably isn't any surprise that I still have a que of art to do. Some of that uncompleted, others not even started yet unfortunately. With the constant change of environment, moving, switching jobs for better pay, and raising a family, I just haven't gotten where I want with my que. For existing commissions, you may contact me personally for a refund and we will discuss your options available based on all the information for each commission. If you'd like to continue supporting me, please consider the amount as a donation, instead of a refund, as it will go a long way for my family and I, and will help take some stress off of us. But that's up to you to decide! <3
Will you still be making any art?
Yes! I will be getting back into my Patreon and will be getting help building my up-coming comic, The Glytheum State. You can follow its production and progress on my Patreon, as well as find exclusive art, at patreon.com/raphial ! Committing what little time I have for art to my comic and character development helps a LOT with my stress and anxiety. I'm hoping this will help me get back into a small pace back into doing art by creating more development for my story's universe. We may even resurrect our old 2D game project! Other than that, I will probably be periodically posting random art, practice art, concepts, and more here and on other platforms I support of my characters, or other things!
Will you stop streaming art?
While it has been awhile since I've last streamed, and after a few years of consistently streaming all the time, I will be getting back into art streaming very soon for my character development, concept arts, and more. I will also have a few exclusive VIP art streams for my Patreons here and there probably once or twice a month very soon. We are moving in the next few weeks, so this has been put on hold until we get settled in our new home.
Are there ways we can still support you?
Yes! Commissions are NOT the only way to help support and encourage artists! In my case, like many, I have TWO Patreons (One for my comic/characters and another for NSFW work) that you can commit to for a low donation per month, and you are more than welcome to donate at any time via my website @ iraph-studios.com ! Another way you can support me is by sharing my art and work around other platforms! Another way is when I start showing up to cons! Within the next year my wife ( :userbit-bite: ) and I will be attending other cons around the states with dealer tables and more, and you can catch us at popular cons such as Anthrocon, BLFC, ANW, and others across the country. Come by, say hello, and toss us some muns for some merch! Speaking of, we will be having some AWESOME merch available VERY soon for purchase for my TGS comic project and more!
In closing...
I'm very, very sorry, from the bottom of my heart, if I've disappointed anyone or inconvenienced anyone lately. Things have been just so crazy and everything's been changing so rapidly I just haven't had any time...time is my biggest enemy lately. I truly hope that you guys can forgive me; you all mean the world to me. It's been one hell of an awesome journey where I've learned a lot, met many amazing people, and have gain a lot of great experience both with my art and around others. I started in 2009, and it seems to almost be fitting to move on from it 10 years later onto bigger things. I couldn't have got this far without the help of you all~ I thank you all for your support, your love, and your enduring patience.
With that, I hope to see you guys soon in the next stream <3
~Raphial
For anyone still following along with these journals, I give you many thanks, hugs, and love. I know I'm not near as active on here anymore as I used to be, and I promise I haven't forgotten about you all. To put a lot into perspective, to quickly understand, so much has chance, and faster than anticipated, in my life. Raising a family, working full time and working at my shop, on top of keeping up with everything and being the owner of a big furry event group... things have drastically changed, for sure.
For my art...
With all of these changes, and the repeatedly hiatus in my art over the last two years, I've decided to end my commission service indefinitely until further notice. It's been a wild, rewarding, crazy, fun journey since 2009 doing commissions, drawing art for others, and being part of the art community in a way that I could help make people's characters a little bit more of a reality. However, given my responsibilities, I just do not have time to commit anymore. I fought for the last few years to continue to provide my service even though it was very, very difficult for me, and I've come to the realization that it's become more stressful and heartbreaking than rewarding and consistent for my clients. Because of this, and after a lot of thought and debating, I've decided to stop giving empty promises I cannot fulfill. It's just near impossible for me to fit in time for commissions into my schedule anymore.
Now you may be wondering a few things after that extreme change there, and I'm here to also help answer some questions this may bring.
What does this mean for existing commission not yet completed?
Like any artist, it probably isn't any surprise that I still have a que of art to do. Some of that uncompleted, others not even started yet unfortunately. With the constant change of environment, moving, switching jobs for better pay, and raising a family, I just haven't gotten where I want with my que. For existing commissions, you may contact me personally for a refund and we will discuss your options available based on all the information for each commission. If you'd like to continue supporting me, please consider the amount as a donation, instead of a refund, as it will go a long way for my family and I, and will help take some stress off of us. But that's up to you to decide! <3
Will you still be making any art?
Yes! I will be getting back into my Patreon and will be getting help building my up-coming comic, The Glytheum State. You can follow its production and progress on my Patreon, as well as find exclusive art, at patreon.com/raphial ! Committing what little time I have for art to my comic and character development helps a LOT with my stress and anxiety. I'm hoping this will help me get back into a small pace back into doing art by creating more development for my story's universe. We may even resurrect our old 2D game project! Other than that, I will probably be periodically posting random art, practice art, concepts, and more here and on other platforms I support of my characters, or other things!
Will you stop streaming art?
While it has been awhile since I've last streamed, and after a few years of consistently streaming all the time, I will be getting back into art streaming very soon for my character development, concept arts, and more. I will also have a few exclusive VIP art streams for my Patreons here and there probably once or twice a month very soon. We are moving in the next few weeks, so this has been put on hold until we get settled in our new home.
Are there ways we can still support you?
Yes! Commissions are NOT the only way to help support and encourage artists! In my case, like many, I have TWO Patreons (One for my comic/characters and another for NSFW work) that you can commit to for a low donation per month, and you are more than welcome to donate at any time via my website @ iraph-studios.com ! Another way you can support me is by sharing my art and work around other platforms! Another way is when I start showing up to cons! Within the next year my wife ( :userbit-bite: ) and I will be attending other cons around the states with dealer tables and more, and you can catch us at popular cons such as Anthrocon, BLFC, ANW, and others across the country. Come by, say hello, and toss us some muns for some merch! Speaking of, we will be having some AWESOME merch available VERY soon for purchase for my TGS comic project and more!
In closing...
I'm very, very sorry, from the bottom of my heart, if I've disappointed anyone or inconvenienced anyone lately. Things have been just so crazy and everything's been changing so rapidly I just haven't had any time...time is my biggest enemy lately. I truly hope that you guys can forgive me; you all mean the world to me. It's been one hell of an awesome journey where I've learned a lot, met many amazing people, and have gain a lot of great experience both with my art and around others. I started in 2009, and it seems to almost be fitting to move on from it 10 years later onto bigger things. I couldn't have got this far without the help of you all~ I thank you all for your support, your love, and your enduring patience.
With that, I hope to see you guys soon in the next stream <3
~Raphial
An apology to my followers
Posted 6 years agoI know lately I've been producing art in waves with pauses in between, and I apologize for not being consistent with my work like I should be. To be frank, my family and I have been through some really tough patches since the beginning of 2017. Some really, really hard times. We've seen breaks here and there, but it's been a struggle. Thankfully we are better than we were before, but there's so much still improve.
Because of that, my art consistency has been splotchy at best, and I sincerely, really do apologize for the wait times from the bottom of my heart. Many have been patient and gracious with me, while there have been few here and there that have been very upset with me. However, I am doing the best I can.
I have a lot of personal issues I don't air out dealing with my mental state, and it sometimes makes producing art very difficult. Depression and anxiety have become something more than just a little nagging bug in the back of my head, and it's becoming harder and harder to ignore day by day. I could share a lot of my life and its crazy stories, but in short, I've seen a -lot- in my life. Some good, and some bad.
But in my admission, I'm stubborn. These feelings I tend to brush off, sometimes joke about, and pretend aren't a problem. I lie to myself a lot, but what's worse is I lie to those I care about and friends alike.
In many cases, art and my passions are my "medication" that helps release some of these bad vibes and terrible thoughts; this is one major reason why I produce my artwork. Most of the time it's a release of some sort, especially drawing my childhood characters I've had since I was a little kid. Or sometimes I go to my car shop I own, and work on things there. That helps a lot too. I guess my point is that I'm trying to work out my issues, and my problems. To acknowledge them, and try to tackle them head on without affecting others. To be honest, I feel very alone, and most of the time, I deal with these things alone.
Last month I almost lost my emotional support companion, my lovely Sadie puppy~ When everything happened, it created a domino effect that almost made us lose our home and all of our things while I was in between jobs (I finally started my new job). We worked hard to get everything caught back up, and with the help of many, we got at least the important things caught up with.
This all boils down to the inconsistency of my work, and I do apologize. This is one reason I've been trying to focus on my own content and Patreon...so I can have more time to focus on what really helps release these pressures and feelings. I know I can be slow, and I apologize.
It's been a struggle, but I'm doing the best I can. Please be patient with me, as it's the extremely helpful in these difficult times. Love you all, and I hope you guys understand~
Because of that, my art consistency has been splotchy at best, and I sincerely, really do apologize for the wait times from the bottom of my heart. Many have been patient and gracious with me, while there have been few here and there that have been very upset with me. However, I am doing the best I can.
I have a lot of personal issues I don't air out dealing with my mental state, and it sometimes makes producing art very difficult. Depression and anxiety have become something more than just a little nagging bug in the back of my head, and it's becoming harder and harder to ignore day by day. I could share a lot of my life and its crazy stories, but in short, I've seen a -lot- in my life. Some good, and some bad.
But in my admission, I'm stubborn. These feelings I tend to brush off, sometimes joke about, and pretend aren't a problem. I lie to myself a lot, but what's worse is I lie to those I care about and friends alike.
In many cases, art and my passions are my "medication" that helps release some of these bad vibes and terrible thoughts; this is one major reason why I produce my artwork. Most of the time it's a release of some sort, especially drawing my childhood characters I've had since I was a little kid. Or sometimes I go to my car shop I own, and work on things there. That helps a lot too. I guess my point is that I'm trying to work out my issues, and my problems. To acknowledge them, and try to tackle them head on without affecting others. To be honest, I feel very alone, and most of the time, I deal with these things alone.
Last month I almost lost my emotional support companion, my lovely Sadie puppy~ When everything happened, it created a domino effect that almost made us lose our home and all of our things while I was in between jobs (I finally started my new job). We worked hard to get everything caught back up, and with the help of many, we got at least the important things caught up with.
This all boils down to the inconsistency of my work, and I do apologize. This is one reason I've been trying to focus on my own content and Patreon...so I can have more time to focus on what really helps release these pressures and feelings. I know I can be slow, and I apologize.
It's been a struggle, but I'm doing the best I can. Please be patient with me, as it's the extremely helpful in these difficult times. Love you all, and I hope you guys understand~
Listen to me on air!
Posted 6 years agoHey guys! Today at 2PM Pacific Time I will be hosted on EZBud's Sunday radio talk show! Get the deets @ http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9110624/ and listen for us!
I AM STREAMING FREE ART!!!
Posted 6 years agoI am streaming tonight's FREE ART raffle for my puppy's generous GoFundMe supporters! <3
More details on the raffle: https://www.patreon.com/posts/art-f.....aiser-25747650
More details on the GoFundMe for our puppy: https://www.gofundme.com/ny65h3-recovery-for-sadie
Stream located at https://picarto.tv/raphial <3 Hope to see you there!
More details on the raffle: https://www.patreon.com/posts/art-f.....aiser-25747650
More details on the GoFundMe for our puppy: https://www.gofundme.com/ny65h3-recovery-for-sadie
Stream located at https://picarto.tv/raphial <3 Hope to see you there!
Please help our puppy :(
Posted 6 years agoHey guys~ I don't normally post these sort of things, but my family and my puppy girl are in need of desperate help after a very fearful night recently.. Please consider donating and sharing, or at the very least, sharing <3 Every little ounce of help gives our puppy girl a chance to continue to stay healthy after this traumatic accident and helps us stay in our home. This month has been very hard on us...every dollar helps <3 Thank you c:
https://www.gofundme.com/ny65h3-recovery-for-sadie
https://www.gofundme.com/ny65h3-recovery-for-sadie
Merry Christmas!! Major Updates! Need your opinions!
Posted 7 years agoHope everyone had a good Christmas yesterday, I know I've been absent the last few weeks and I apologise. So much has happened and so much has changed just within one month. However I've missed you all greatly and it's been a battle not to toss aside all of my focus on my job to be with you guys get now and these past weeks. To be honest I greatly miss having commission and art opportunities full time. This new job is time expensive and patience consuming. It's hard getting any time back into anything else right now.
I'm debating leaving my job for a handful of reasons beyond what I've explained here, it just not the right job for me every time I think deep deep down about it. I just am not one for car sales. You have to dedicate soooo much time and effort to it to get even a handful of sales...and it's frustrating and isn't a happy experience at all.
So I'm debating going back to commissions full time and using my shop as a part time job. Recently I've had a lot of commission and shop repair requests under both of my company names...and I know if I set my mind to it, I could make a living between the two, especially with BitBite now working at Hot topic and the amazing support and help I've received from my Patreon (more about that soon, I know I'm a month behind).
I want your guys' opinions...what are your thoughts and suggestions? I want to be a good example for you guys, and I want to do what make sense, and not what kills me and my relationship with you all.
<3
I'm debating leaving my job for a handful of reasons beyond what I've explained here, it just not the right job for me every time I think deep deep down about it. I just am not one for car sales. You have to dedicate soooo much time and effort to it to get even a handful of sales...and it's frustrating and isn't a happy experience at all.
So I'm debating going back to commissions full time and using my shop as a part time job. Recently I've had a lot of commission and shop repair requests under both of my company names...and I know if I set my mind to it, I could make a living between the two, especially with BitBite now working at Hot topic and the amazing support and help I've received from my Patreon (more about that soon, I know I'm a month behind).
I want your guys' opinions...what are your thoughts and suggestions? I want to be a good example for you guys, and I want to do what make sense, and not what kills me and my relationship with you all.
<3
I am back from ANW con!
Posted 7 years agoGood morning guys! It's been a big weekend for the wife and I; we attended the AnthroNorthWest con as a break away from everything this year~ Last year was pretty fun, but this year had a lot more attendants! Well, after a fun break, I'm back~ This week is going to be a very busy week at the shop and between my two jobs and job transition, but I will try my hardest to squeeze in time for more art and streams! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact my man crashgable <3
I AM STREAMING!!!
Posted 7 years agoWhat's up guys! I'll be streaming for the rest of the day and tonight as well! Possibly long past midnight!
I'll be taking in-stream commissions all day today! PayPal and PayPal invoices only!
Please feel free to commission me in the stream using my price sheet @ http://iraph-studios.com/services with a max of $50 per person! You can commission me for any NSFW or SFW! Just note that the stream IS NSFW!
Come on by, and hang out with us! Stream is @ https://picarto.tv/raphial
I'll be taking in-stream commissions all day today! PayPal and PayPal invoices only!
Please feel free to commission me in the stream using my price sheet @ http://iraph-studios.com/services with a max of $50 per person! You can commission me for any NSFW or SFW! Just note that the stream IS NSFW!
Come on by, and hang out with us! Stream is @ https://picarto.tv/raphial
Commission steam today!
Posted 7 years agoJust a reminder, today around 5PM Pacific Time I will be streaming commissions where you can request a commission below $50 to be drawn in-stream! Refer to http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8934140/ for details c:
COMMISSION STREAM THIS WEDNESDAY
Posted 7 years agoWhat's up guys! I'll be streaming commission requests Wednesday afternoon and finishing up my last que!
I'll be taking in-stream commissions all afternoon and evening until late night! PayPal and PayPal invoices only!
Please feel free to commission me in the stream using my price sheet @ http://iraph-studios.com/services with a max of $50 per person! You can commission me for any NSFW or SFW! Just note that the stream IS NSFW!
Stream is @ https://picarto.tv/raphial
I'll be taking in-stream commissions all afternoon and evening until late night! PayPal and PayPal invoices only!
Please feel free to commission me in the stream using my price sheet @ http://iraph-studios.com/services with a max of $50 per person! You can commission me for any NSFW or SFW! Just note that the stream IS NSFW!
Stream is @ https://picarto.tv/raphial
Looking for a Communications Manager!
Posted 7 years agoWith art and commissions becoming a lot more consistent again after a long break during the summer (Journal here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8855873 ) and shuffling between owning my classic car business and my new job, I've come to terms that I need a manager to help lighten the load with communications between clients and myself about art, invoices, commission details, and finances.
This is technically a voluntary position, but will be provided with pay if everything pans out pretty smoothly~ Overall, I really need someone I can trust, someone who is reasonably dedicated, and someone who can put out the effort. This could be considered a part time job.
Positions involves the following:
1) Must be 18+ years of age.
2) Able to handle clients in a respectable, reasonable fashion (Treated as customer service)
3) Requires Telegram Desktop and Discord; you'll need to be a member of our servers on both platforms
4) Able to handle high-paced communications and workload (Though for now, I don't think anything will be high paced)
5) Able to be dedicated to at least part time hours, at least afternoon/evening hours, but day/afternoon hours preferred.
6) Must have a clean record among peers and the fandom; this means you shouldn't have anything unwanted, or illegal, pop up during the course of this job. Your reputation and attitude can effect clients and my art in a negative way if there is a lack of self control and tolerance (Just be a gud boi <3 ).
7) Able to handle finances and numbers; you'll be the center of contact between myself and client, so you might need to handle numbers, finances, etc.
8) A good attitude; a healthy attitude and positive effort is of the utmost importance with any job reflecting the communications between customers, clients, and anyone else.
9) Pay will be low for awhile, until things pick up. You are paid for help as it comes, and [legally] in a voluntary position. The first 30 days are a probation period, but afterward, pay reflects on the amount of incoming commissions, Patreon payout, and client reviews.
This isn't actual employment, to clarify. This is a voluntary position with possible pay to help the workload. However, your position will help tremendously, and will not go overlooked or unrewarded, I promise. You'll have access to sensitive documentation and more, as this will be treated as a serious position.
If you are interested, you can note me or PM me over Telegram @ Raphial or contact me via our Discord server (found in my profile info).
<3
This is technically a voluntary position, but will be provided with pay if everything pans out pretty smoothly~ Overall, I really need someone I can trust, someone who is reasonably dedicated, and someone who can put out the effort. This could be considered a part time job.
Positions involves the following:
1) Must be 18+ years of age.
2) Able to handle clients in a respectable, reasonable fashion (Treated as customer service)
3) Requires Telegram Desktop and Discord; you'll need to be a member of our servers on both platforms
4) Able to handle high-paced communications and workload (Though for now, I don't think anything will be high paced)
5) Able to be dedicated to at least part time hours, at least afternoon/evening hours, but day/afternoon hours preferred.
6) Must have a clean record among peers and the fandom; this means you shouldn't have anything unwanted, or illegal, pop up during the course of this job. Your reputation and attitude can effect clients and my art in a negative way if there is a lack of self control and tolerance (Just be a gud boi <3 ).
7) Able to handle finances and numbers; you'll be the center of contact between myself and client, so you might need to handle numbers, finances, etc.
8) A good attitude; a healthy attitude and positive effort is of the utmost importance with any job reflecting the communications between customers, clients, and anyone else.
9) Pay will be low for awhile, until things pick up. You are paid for help as it comes, and [legally] in a voluntary position. The first 30 days are a probation period, but afterward, pay reflects on the amount of incoming commissions, Patreon payout, and client reviews.
This isn't actual employment, to clarify. This is a voluntary position with possible pay to help the workload. However, your position will help tremendously, and will not go overlooked or unrewarded, I promise. You'll have access to sensitive documentation and more, as this will be treated as a serious position.
If you are interested, you can note me or PM me over Telegram @ Raphial or contact me via our Discord server (found in my profile info).
<3
ALL DAY COMMISSION STREAM TODAY! STREAMING NOW!!!
Posted 7 years agoWhat's up guys! I'll be streaming for the rest of the day and tonight as well! Possibly long past midnight!
I'll be taking in-stream commissions too! Please feel free to commission me in the stream using my price sheet @ http://iraph-studios.com/services with a max of $50 per person! You can commission me for any NSFW or SFW! Just note that the stream IS NSFW!
Come on by, and hang out with us! Stream is @ https://picarto.tv/raphial
I'll be taking in-stream commissions too! Please feel free to commission me in the stream using my price sheet @ http://iraph-studios.com/services with a max of $50 per person! You can commission me for any NSFW or SFW! Just note that the stream IS NSFW!
Come on by, and hang out with us! Stream is @ https://picarto.tv/raphial
