I realized it's been a hot minute since I posted, either art, or a journal.

This whole pandemic thing may have been the start of some folks' radio silence, but for me, I've been sort of in flux since late November. Between moving, holidays, general seasonal funk and trying to adjust to a new space, it put me in a weird place artwise where I've been largely unable to get my mojo back, and before I could, the world started getting crazier.

I hope ya'll are well and taking care of you and yours, please stay safe out there and take the necessary precautions! I know in some places it's less bad than others, and some people don't catch it as bad, but even if this isn't as bad as everything is making it out to be, I'd rather overestimate than under. The stress of this event is also taking its toll on every facet of daily life, and even though it's not upset my routine as much as others, I too, am feeling the restlessness and general feelings of 'am I going crazy?' and anxiety that come with it, so art will be slow, but it'll get there.

In the meantime, if you can afford to support your local freelance artist, please do! I am fortunate enough to be in a space right now where I do not need to worry as much financially, but there are others who aren't so lucky. I'll be keeping an eye out for folks I follow who really rely on this income and are feeling the crunch right now, and will feature their journals to help boost them. If you're one of those people feel free to note me the journal and I'll get you on the list.

Be good to each other, practice self-care to help decompress, and stay safe and healthy!

Need to make around $800 in short order here, I'm very close to caught up and feel less bad about reopening now.

These slots will be available until I've met my goal and will - as usual - roll in batches of 3 which will likely be mixed in with backlog as I go. These will be due to start the weekend of the 7th.

All pieces are experimental and priced in ranges based mostly on the complexity of the design, wardrobe choice etc!

Pinups - $50 - $80

Boy, girl, whatever. Pinups are pinups! Sexy, nude, semi-nude or underwear etc. Full color.

Similar to this in quality (sans background):
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/32854962/
(line style subject to change, that's the experimental part of this.)

Sketches - $15 - $30

What the label says, pretty standard fare, always a good option, line style experimental. Full body, preference for dynamic themes/moods, but not necessary. These are clean.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/32087463/


Pixels - $15 - $30

These are experimental in more than just lines, simply because it's an entirely different medium to work in. Sprite work, stylized, potential, simple animation sequences just for giggles (blinking, bouncing, etc). I'm looking to expand a bit in this direction,
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/27994874/

I've got a bit of a deficit this month and have shit I need to pay off before the month is totally over. Namely rent.

I hate reopening with backlog I need to get done, and have gone over it a bit more in depth on my discord channel, but suffice it to say, it's necessary, as much as I hate it.

Because I am living in stressland, I don't have any specials to offer, just general commissions of whatever-the-heck-you-want, and the other more flexible PWYW option.

You can note me, or dm me on discord if you're interested.

I'm doing these until my deficit is matched and am currently at: $155/$275

I've had this up in a couple other locations, but because the pool is relatively small, I'm expanding to include more places!

NORMALLY I just find a friend or two to represent my new brain children, but I wanted to try a slightly different approach this time.

The details -

I have a male and female slot open for the Kura. You may have seen them in my gallery in a couple pieces. I'm looking to fill these two slots by July 10th, but there's a modest app process just so I can be sure I have the right fit for the trial run!

Most of my CS information is located on a roleplaying site called The Roleplay Repository. You can find the species information >> HERE <<. An RPR login isn't required for eligibility, but it is a pretty decent site, so it never hurts. You can note your applications to me here, or on RPR if you have it. You will find the instructions on the first page, under News. The rest of the species info can be navigated to from there!

The people who are the best fit will be chosen after the 10th, and the designs (which will allow for input, but will ultimately be up to my discretion as the developer of the species) will be started towards the later part of July after I've spoken with everyone!

I'm short this month for the necessities so I'm opening commissions to cover the financial deficit. These won't be started until next week (the 24th) as I have some other things I'm finishing!

Good news for those of you who haven't been interested in any of the specials I've been offering over the last few months, this is your chance to get whatever kind of commission you want!

In order to reserve yours, note me what you want (references, character count, their refs, etc) and I'll sort out a quote for you. If you need a baseline to work off of, you can always to refer to my (slightly outdated) pricelist.

Humans, human adjacent, monsters, anthros-- All are welcome.
NSFW (at my discretion) and SFW friendly.

I need to take my happy ass to bed soon, so I did the drawing an hour and a half earlier than I'd intended to, but the count has wound down a fair amount, so I doubt it would have made much more of a difference!

ANYWAYS~

Our two winners are:

 Marauchettes &  wastelandrat!

https://gyazo.com/b2a3536ec2f9df4359873da7061481b1
https://gyazo.com/4e495b47ac8418802953228a051cc0c4

SO NOTE ME YOUR CHARACTER REFS ASAP.

HURRAH, Congrats to the winners!

Hello to all my new watchers, and thanks for participating! I'm sure there will be more of these in the future!

THE ART FIGHT COMETH, AND IT COMETH FOR YOU (and also me.)

I'm hoping to get a bit more action in this year, since last year I was a relative unknown who came in halfway through!

Get ready for a FOIGHT and follow me over there!

https://artfight.net/~skaikrasha
https://artfight.net/~skaikrasha
https://artfight.net/~skaikrasha

I have had that 'new OC itch' for a couple months now, but I've been having a hard time satisfying it.

LOOKIN' FOR OC TRADES AND OTHER SUCH STUFF.

Preference for pred species, preferably male, beefy is best. My beef category has shrunken considerably and I cannot let that be.

I'm willing to do art trades for it or straight up oc for oc trade. You can see what I've got up on my toyhou.se account >> HERE <<

Happy to accept unusual species, custom species, etc. No ferals.

I'd be willing to trade a faer slot also, if that's something that interests the person trading. ANYWAYS. You can note me, or just comment here. I'll be keeping an eye out!

A friend of mine has finally gotten off her ass and started posting here, go give her stuff a peek and hey, maybe a watch to encourage her to KEEP posting her art somewhere people can appreciate it!

 fokscy  fokscy  fokscy  fokscy  fokscy
 fokscy  fokscy  fokscy  fokscy  fokscy

This isn't likely to effect too many people, but this is for the ones it does effect.

Neat way to get other means of support, but if you have any sort of tie to NSFW content on your page, do be aware that when someone donates to you, the order detail box clearly states the name of the FA recipient, tying your FA account to your Paypal account.

I'm not saying it WILL, but it could lead to problems down the line for you. Just be vigilant. <3

FULL UP! Thanks ya'll.

Now with more options! Not a lot, but a bit more. As I generally work on a special by special basis these days, it can be hard as the commissioner to find the commission type you want.

Don't worry, I got you. I'll be offering three different types of commission the weekend of the 22nd-24th.

The downside? All of them are experimental. Or maybe that's not a downside for you, in any event, there won't be any SOLID examples to showcase the sort of work.

Smut

Dynamic angles, maybe some basic props, comes in sketch and colored sketch format. No values. These will be budgeted with couples in mind. Please let me know if you want solo and we'll figure out the price.

These are experimental in that I'm trying to break away from the mentality "I need to show every part of everyone for them to get their money's worth." Turns out, that doesn't always make for the best smut composition and is severely limiting to the mood I can potentially create within the image itself.

Full Body

These are likely to be more pinup as I'm not trying to play with angles as much as I just want to continue building on my full body game. Comes in sketch and colored sketch form. Overly elaborate outfit requests will mean additional $$.

"Scenes"

Here's the real experimental fare. I want to work on my multi-character interaction. Have a (clean) RP scene you want illustrated? Something written for personal use? This would be the commission type for you. Can come in Sketch and Colored Sketch form, with or without widescreen boxing and subtitle snippets.

I know what you're thinking. But Desi, where are the prices? Soon. I'm gauging interest and letting folks secure a slot (if budget is not an issue.)

In keeping with the theme of three, there will be three slots.


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I have amazing friends, big thanks to Fokscy and Aowian for gifting me with the money I needed. I did not expect it, and am very grateful to both of them for being so supportive. <3

New tablet setup will be here friday! Hype!

I've decided that it's time for me to make the jump from a standard graphics tablet (that's my intuos medium, currently) to a proper, screened tablet. Now, I've been considering this off and on for a year, but what it always comes down to is a brand loyalty that will unfortunately prevent me from ever amassing enough expendable income (at least as things currently are, financially) to afford a wacom cintiq. Can't do it, just don't have it in me, or my bank account, and I certainly can't go back to a smaller active drawing area to get one of the cheaper ones.

That being said, I've been looking for alternative offbrands, but after my terrible experience with my huion a couple years ago, have been hesitant to invest any amount of money into that or turcom. It was through this process of slow, tedious elimination that I found the Gaomon PD1560 and did some research and watched a few videos, specifically with unboxing and setting it up to see how it'd function/what it comes with.

It's a good intro screened tablet, and for the price it gives you a pretty decent bang for your buck, coming in at $359.15. In fact, I'm almost positive that was less than I paid for my intuos like... three years ago. We won't focus on that, we'll focus on the fact that it's something I can be closer to my art with and hopefully more efficient (as I've been told by so many people who switch from standard to screen.)

So, that brings us to funding this endeavor. For me this rounds out to a little higher, as I need an adapter to make room for this on my video card.

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Funds Raised
$200/$375
(Special thanks to Fokscy who is so supportive and so ridiculously generous that she donated more than half after me just mentioning I wanted this.)

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So, in order to raise the last $175 I need, I'm offering two options: Credits to be cashed in for the full or partial amounts for art at any time, obligations depending, or a straight up Reference Sheet trade.

The reference sheet would be similar to

Kingship's Ref Sheet

Full body, clean nude, back and front and two detail studies of your choice with swatches for eyedropping, all put together on a neat sheet (with the addition of each individual piece of that ref sheet for whatever use you may need 'em for.) All species welcome, whether anthro or human.

This would probably be pushed to later in the month, once I've finish the last two pieces of backlog, and fulfilled my patreon and TiTs obligations!

Additionally, if you're just feeling generous and want to help me reach the goal, my paypal link is below:

Ye Olde Tablet Fund


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My dudes,  growlybeast is having a tough time, I've been through impacted wisdom tooth pain and oral surgery and it is no. fun.

They're having it even worse and are really in need of a little extra support and an influx of cash, so hope on over to their journal vvv

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9057658/
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9057658/
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9057658/

All the links you need to help are right there, as well as a much better explanation and breakdown!

There are two orders of business today! The first is the winner for the faer base sendoff that I raffled this weekend.

Results are in, and it is...

Hellishhound @ DA
(not sure if they have an FA)
Congrats, my dude, check out my custom page to get an idea for how to have your custom completed and drop me a note!

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Now, onto the Patreon portion of this journal.

I know there are mixed feelings about patreons and the promotion of them, but they really are a boon to folks who use art as their main source of income. I also know they can sometimes be taken to the extreme with an all for nothing sort of mentality.

I've spent the better half of a month sleuthing and writing, revising and adjusting tiers, rewards and info to strike a balance between what I can afford to give, and what I cannot at this time. 

Current Patreon Exclusive Benefits -

+ Early access to all P2U bases.
+ Limited & Unlimited MYO slots for Faer.
+ Features in Monthly Sketch Pages.
+Monthly and Bimonthly bust/wing it rewards.
+ Loyalty rewards for consecutive months pledged.
+ Polls to vote on bases to be created.

Milestone Benchmark Content Additions -

+ Supporter role exclusive discord channels to discuss art, commissions and ideas for upcoming content.
+ Reduced wait for tier exclusives & loyalty rewards.
+ Illustrations with Patreon OC features.
+ Generic bases voted on and produced for EA release on Patreon.
+ Private streams.
+ Full colored rewards.
+ Improved Faer bases & expansion packs.
+ ...and so much more as we hit milestones and grow more stable!

I appreciate every dollar and any consideration, click the link below to pop over to my patreon page and take a peek at it in more detail!


Skaikrasha @ Patreon


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Because I did a poll on this before the holidays, and as a sort of sendoff for my old female Faer base, I'll be holding a raffle for one custom female faer design (using the old, not my most recent) base!

The rules are pretty simple, you need to be watching me, and have looked at the faer page to know what they are/basic. Oh, also, this is for whoever enters. None of that entering to increase the odds for someone else nonsense.

This will be open to entry until Monday the 4th, at which point I will run all the names through a random picker and select the winner!

Just comment below to be entered to win!

So, long journals are one of those things I try to avoid because you know. Privacy and whatnot, but! I am drafting this as a sort of guide to some changes I’m going to be making to improve on maintaining healthy work practices.

As some may or may not know, the winter months (ranging from about mid October to mid January) tend to be the lower months for my productivity and output, I’m not 100% sure what it is, but I do have an inkling. I’m involved with a lot of family related activity once we hit that holiday trifecta, and family requires energy that my very introverted self has little to spare for, on top of which SADS is a thing I’ve always suffered from when it starts to get into the shorter days and longer nights. I will be endeavoring to invest in one of those fancy lights this year, but also cutting back on what I offer to do for family (I somehow end up being chef and event planner every year and cutting back would be ideal even without the need to be artistically creative.) Those who have commissioned me during this time have doubtlessly noticed the sudden and lengthy dip in delivery times, for that I apologize. I’m still figuring all this small business owner my-own-boss stuff out, the learning curve can be brutal sometimes!

This brings me to the subject of commissions going forward. At the end of 2017 I suffered a pretty severe artblock that made me nearly give up art altogether, and it was really compounded by the fact that when I can’t deliver, I feel exceedingly bad, and then get stuck in this guilt cycle of inactivity-- it’s pretty gnarly. The theme you’ll find prevalent in this journal is learning. I tried some very different methods for commission work last year and - overall - the way I structured them worked relatively well for me, I do better when I have more freedom over the things I offer and it allows me to grow more in a direction I want to be going. The happier I am, the better the art I produce (go figure, right?) I produced more and tried new things, making it a success, but! There were still some hitches in that giddyup I need to work out.

Now, onto money. I don’t make enough of it. While my weekly specials method produced better art, when it comes down to the numbers and what I need to ideally make to not just keep my head above water, I did abysmally. Last year I just skirted by with the bare minimum, and if at any point I want to improve my situation, I need to do better than that, but there is a delicate balance there to maintain in order to avoid the scary and often times damning burnout. The conclusion I came to is that I need to have some sort of residual income I can count on, on a monthly basis, and I believe that means attempting patreon once again and trying to create designs that suit merch that can be sold elsewhere. The more streams of revenue, the more stable I’ll be, opening up a whole new world of possibilities to me (and you, by proxy.)

I’ve spent a while considering how to structure a patreon in a way that will be maintainable from month to month, regardless of the season, and striking a balance between give and get is always hard, but one of my ideas for higher tier incentives have been bases. I’ve seen it work wonderfully well for some artists and those will always be available. Particularly bases for my custom species, but with plans for more generalized bases down the line, providing that’s something of interest to people. That’s the biggest part of it, the remainder of their structuring is rather general, and I’ve been creeping a lot of artists patreons to get a feel for what makes their pledge tiers most enticing. Another fun idea is monthly sketch pages, with certain tiers having chances at, or full OC features in a series of laidback doodles. And another still is doing process tutorials on how I do certain things-- assuming the interest is there.

I’m also considering putting together a gumroad for base expansions (specifically with the Faer in mind, once again, but for other bases down the line also) and the bases themselves as an alternative for people to flat purchase.

It’s all very WIP right now, but I’m trying to gauge interest and see whether or not it’s worth putting together, so leave me some feedback:

Do you pledge to artist patreons already? If so what do you like and what do you dislike in the tiers & milestones.

Do you like more or less audience involvement on what the artist produces?

I have a couple backlogged spooktobers, and then I'm doing ONE more batch before throwing in the towel on those and moving on for the month.

The backlogged batch will be uploaded at the end of the weekend, and I'll be randomly selecting people from the waitlist to see if they're still interested in their themes/invoicing.

We've got some new stuff in November though!
Most notable are a return of the Serene Snowfall Series of icons, now more fully optimized for your icon use and freehanded in my new favorite pixel program: Aseprite.

Alluvial My 'sona Izziebiz
 
This is the display size, but they come with three different versions: 95x95, compressed 95x95 to avoid 55kb upload limits some places, and x200% for fun displays.

It should be noted these are 80+ frames, but only 20 when overlapped, so they will work for furcadia animated portraits (I will be testing this later tonight with the help of @miss-alluvial ) but as far as I know there's no reason that they shouldn't. They fall below the 50 frame limit and should be low impact enough (updates when I know for sure!) In the meantime they're great for social media avatars and work well on RPR.

Because of the amount of time and animation, these are going for $45 a piece, and I will be taking these until January 1st. I've released them this early to give myself time to complete as many as possible before Christmas, so you can enjoy your icon through the Christmas season. As such, if you want to use it in December (or now, I mean, I am, it's Christmas season once Halloween is over IMO.) I would suggest noting me with your order ASAP. These have a relatively quick turnaround, if I'm able to sit and churn them out.

Ideally I'd prefer to just do these for my monthly money needs, but stay tuned. I may have to supplement with other commissions.


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I want to participate in #drawtober this year, but the thing that always gets in my way is commission work, so why not make the prompts commissions, right?
That's the plan this year, I'm posting this early so folks can claim prompts for their characters and start collecting the necessary refs for me to work with, but also just for awareness, so anyone interested has a while to consider it!

So how's this gonna work?

You pick a prompt, comment with the one you want and I will note you.
Each prompt will be completed within the month of October but not necessarily on the day it corresponds to, I will allow up to 2 of each prompt, as I know some will be more popular than others, and I'll be doing these in lieu of my normal monthly commissions.

Each piece will be $30-$40 (it's undecided at this moment, I've got one prompt claimed and how long/how much detail goes into it will determine where it falls, but somewhere within that range.) and will be done in limited palette fashion appropriate for the theme itself.
Now, I want to preface before I list the prompts, that these are intended to be head scratchers. I want to have fun with the themes, some of them are a little more vague than others, but all are intended to be unsettling, gory or downright spooky. It's October, after all. If there's enough complaint, I'll begrudgingly oblige with some illumination, but half the fun is a little uncertainty about how I'll interpret the theme.


1. Ties that Bind - Fokscy InGrimCare
2. Smiling throats
3. Mutation
4. Backbiters
5. The Void
6. Nightmare - InGrimCare
7. Monsters on the Periphery
8. Unfamiliar Faces
9. Eyes on Me
10. Chattering Teeth
11. Made of tougher stuff
12. Blanch and Sterilize - Aoibhin
13. Left Breathless - Fokscy
14. Lovebites - Essie
15. Decay - Moql
16. Liquid Iron
17. Ghost in the Machine - Moql
18. Possession is 9/10ths of the Law
19. You've got a friend in Me
20. Joyride
21. Under my Skin
22. Unusual Appetites - Jenamore
23. Water in my Lungs - Izziebiz
24. The Loop - Izziebiz
25. Inner Demons - Ophir
26. You're an ANIMAL - Sparkling-Goat
27. The Sharper Edge
28. Truth in Lies
29. Uncanny Valley
30. Jutting Bones
31. Alien


This is my own personally curated list for the year, so! It should be fun. And if you're another artist and want to interpret these for yourself, have at it, just tag me so I can see what comes of it!


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Welcome to September! I say.... halfway through the month. B) Eey. Yeah, the beginning of the month was rough for art and I produced exactly zero pieces that I liked, so here's hoping half nmber two goes better.

Couple of things.

I've got bills to pay, so it's player's choice. If there's a type of commission you've been itching to get from me, but I haven't been offering it with my usual specials, now's the time to bug me for it. Alternatively, if the idea of trying to pick something doesn't work for you, I'll be offering painted busts (not to be confused with portraits) for $45. These will be quicker renders, and experimental (as usual.)

There is also a new custom faer slot opening for anyone interested in getting in on it. I believe that will be the only one for the month of september, as I have plans with someone else to create an adoptable to appeal to a different audience and just show the range of the Faer appearances!

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So, for the past couple weeks I've been feeling that itch to once again step out of what I'm doing and delve into something more experimental and creatively stretching. The problem has been not having any sort of idea what that looks like, but now I do.

I want to do some experimental moodboard commissions. You can consider these like character study pages in that they're meant to give you a glimpse of the character, but less with portraiture and more with the board and the thematic challenges it presents.

I've considered this from a few angles, but the most ideal one would be to be given a blank slate. Just a species, board and a general direction. HOWEVER, I can also see it working for characters already put together.

I'm announcing these this early because making or finding appropriate moodboards can take time. The ETA for when these would actually be worked on is the week of the 20th. After my birthday weekend.

I will be gone from the 17th to the 20th, enjoying a little fun in the sun along the coast for my birthday.
and away from this god foresaken wildfire smoke cloud, weather, wind and GOD permitting.

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The Skinny

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Custom Character Adoptable (Option 1) - $65

The custom adoptable is what the box says! Custom. This option puts most of the creative direction in my hands, but you do definitely have a say. This is trusting me to come up with something appropriately aligned for the moodboard/species/theme. You choose, gender, species, theme.

You will get, a sketchy painted render full body with three accessory/belonging studies to interpret as the player. The background and layout will be based on the moodboard provided and you will receive that presentation piece, as well as transparents of the detail studies and the full body to use on RPR or as site bling wherever you want it.

---

The thing to bear in mind here is that there will be no wip stage for you to approve, these are priced lower because they allow me more freedom to be creative with, and limited direction and course correction by you.

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Pre-established Character Commission (Option 2) - $85

Much more direction here, since the character is already well established. You get to give me input at the sketch stage and mild edits at the end stage if necessary. You obviously supply the character, the moodboard you want to portray and three accessories, or objects important to that character(could be everything from a book, a fern, to something like an heirloom accessory, or whatever! No limits on what this entails, I just want the practice and the chance to create something aesthetic and affecting), and an outfit (or none if you want a nude study, it's whatever).

You will get, a sketchy painted render full body with three accessory/belonging studies. The background and layout will be based on the moodboard provided and you will receive that presentation piece, as well as transparents of the detail studies and the full body to use on RPR or as site bling wherever you want it.

I will only be taking two slots. Invoices won't go out until the 17th to ensure we're all paid up when I get home to start.

To claim, you know the drill, note me interest to secure your slot, or hmu on discord.

These have no examples, but you can reference all types of work in my gallery, including painted pieces. If you need more, ask!

i know it's sorta late but

https://artfight.net/~skaikrasha

FITE ME ON ARTFIGHT, and also leave me your handle here so i can follow you for future fitey attacks.

What the title says. I want to test my speed with pixel dolls built off the base I made for this one:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/27982277/


These are supposed to be androgynous, so they apply to all dudes.

To claim a ticket be a watcher, and respond to the journal and later this afternoon I'll draw the winner!

Lyssarts over on DA won!

Hello you wild and wooly people. It's that time again, time to decide what the fuck I'm doing for the next round of commissions.

I'm posting this early because I can and so I can cover some TiTs related stuff also!

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Teal In Triplicate - News

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This month in TiTS news!

Collaborations between miss-alluvial and I. Since izziebiz is in recovery after surgery, it will be just Alluvial and I collaborating on some easy, fun commission pieces at nominal prices!

Headshots - $20 - $30 (The cheaper option is just nice, clean lines. The more expensive is flat color also.)
Waist+ - $40 - $50 (Same deal, lines + flats.)
[TiTS Discounts apply!]

I feel inclined to mention that you can get a fully colored monthly headshot from us for as low as $20, never mind additional art to win!

We will also be twitch streaming a TiTS playthrough of Starbound a little later in the month as we spitball ideas for what sort of mod we want to create for it. It should be a fun, humorous little gathering, so stay tuned for a solid date announcement in later journals!

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Personal Commissions

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I'm sort of on the fence about what I want to do, but after talking with some folks and hearing interest, I decided to offer not one, but two options this round. The lineart option will be a bit experimental only in that I'm not 100% sure how I want to apply the cel shaded aspect, but otherwise are a low risk investment.

(Thigh Up) Lineart & Greyscale Cel-Shade
(2 Slots Available.)

$53

Clean Fullbody Sketches
(Limited to 1 per person, 2 Slots Available.)

$27.

General examples can be found throughout my gallery, if you're not familiar with my work!