I've got everything set up besides the gallery itself, so the grand, tedious migration has officially begun --->

I'm starting things off there by offering some quickie sketches featuring micro characters, because I have got the itch for some super small cuties. Here's the journal for more details.

To be clear, I won't be deleting the gallery or scraps section of this account, so you don't have to worry about doing mass saving or some crap like that. I will be reuploading some of the pieces I'm most proud of to the new account, however, so if you don't want to sit through a ton of art you've already seen before, just hold off on watching the new account for about a week.

I'll still be checking this account for comments, notes, etc. until July 31st, and will post a periodic reminder that I'm moving accounts until that time, to allow for stragglers to have a chance at seeing the information. It'll be a slow process moving so many pics over, but I'll get there eventually~

NSFW, and also it's cub art, shh. My housemates are watching the dog at night, so I can stream again sometimes! I'm so excited.

https://www.picarto.tv/live/channel.....atch=Malachyte

So now that the dog I'm fostering has grown more comfortable in my home, she has turned into an untrained, adorable nightmare. I have to watch her every moment of the day, except for the few hours she sleeps. She is constantly chewing and tearing everything she can find, and is not trained to be contained in a dog crate yet, so I can't even take breaks unless my housemate watches her for a bit. I'm trying my best to conduct art-business as usual, but it's proving to be a tall order. So if I don't reply to comments or post a lot right now, please forgive me. Things should be better in about a week, where I'll either have trained her enough to be manageable, or had to re-home her to someone who is actually a dog trainer.

I'd also like to apologize for how catty I was with my name change journals. I haven't gotten to sleep more than 4-6 hours a night for the last 5 days or so, and like I said, I've been dealing with this dog who has been leaving some substantial bruises and bites on my bod. It's like being lightly punched in the arm for like, 5 days straight, at all times. It wears on you. I also have a tendency to get preemptively defensive about... pretty much anything I do. It's a very difficult mindset to break given some of the things I've experienced in my past, but I am trying. I don't want to be an uptight asshole artist who yells at everybody, and lately I feel like I'm touching on that a bit, which I really don't like.

So yeah. I'm not trying to make a "poor me! I'm doing charity and have a troubled past, so please pardon everything I do!" journal here. I just want to let you all know what's up, and let you into my head space a bit with this. Again, I'm sorry I came across as so unnecessarily defensive.


Also, I made my new FA account for my name change. http://www.furaffinity.net/user/malachyte/
There's nothing on it yet, but I'll be poking at it slowly to get it in shape. Like before, that account will be my PG art. My adult FA account remains unchanged, as do my Inkbunny and Weasyl accounts. Linkbacks to those accounts might be broken, though. If you feel like having a super fun time, you're welcome to retag my name in commissions you've bought in the past. But I definitely won't blame you if you don't feel like it, ha ha.

To those who have shown support and understood my position on wanting to change my name over, I truly appreciate it. Even though nothing about me, personally, is changing, it still does feel very weird to be called by a different name.

I am seeing a lot of people who are coming across as dismissive, or downright adverse to this. I understand that not all of you read the name Spix and thought of that racist slur. I'm not trying to insist that any one of you is racist, so you don't need to defend yourself on this point. For those of you I've met online, first, you also get to see the way it's spelled, without hearing the pronunciation, so you have time to disassociate the name and the slur. But again, those who I meet in person first, like at conventions and furmeets, don't have that time to disassociate.

Additionally, I'm not looking for name suggestions. I don't want to be "Malaspix", or "Malachyte Spix Eye". The entire point of this is so I can stop worrying over this issue, and so I can have a name that I feel represents me as a person better. I don't know if it's just because the name is so different than it was before, and that's making people dislike it, but I've thought about what name to go with for getting on half a year now. This isn't something I've picked without thinking about it first. I can't demand you all to respect the decision, but I do wish you would.

If it helps, here are some nicknames that you can wring out of the name Malachyte. Perhaps one of these will catch your interest, or spark ideas for new, fun names. Mal, Mal Pal, O'Mally, Mala, Mally, Mals, and Kite are a few.

Hey everybody! I love separating my journals into sections by topic.

New York Trip!
So, as I mentioned in my last journal, I went to New York for the first time! I had a lot of fun and saw some cool stuff. I think my favourite was getting to randomly see a zombie walk of about 4-5 people at around 11pm outside a meatball restaurant. It was so unexpected and neat. Even though I knew stuff like that happens, seeing people that look like zombies tailing you at night is actually pretty scary. Or maybe that's just the horror movies programmed into my brain talking. We saw They Might Be Giants live, I got to finally visit a Kinokuniya and buy some lovely books, ate a bunch of delicious and expensive foods, and I even bought some Japanese Royal Milk Tea <3 Overall, the city is very big. Cool to visit, but I would never want to live there.

Fostering a Dog!!
Our housemate is involved with dog training and rescue, and we offered to foster a dog if one ever needed it. That day finally happened, the next day we got back from our trip. So for around a month, Toby and I are fostering a 2 year old little pibble, who was on the list to be put down. She's incredibly lovable, non-aggressive, and just generally really sweet. However, she's also untrained, and pumped full of energy with the strong muscles to back it up. It's only been a couple days since she went from being in a cage for 6 weeks to being in a house with rules in it, so it's understandable she's pretty wild right now. Buuuut, this does mean that until she gets some basic manners down, work is going to be slowed down a bit. I'll do my best to work when I'm able, but streams might be scarce for the next week.

Name Change?!
Changing my online handle/furry name/what have you, has been on my to-do list for years. When I first got into the furry fandom in 2009, I picked the name "Spix" out of thin air; I wanted something short, cute, and easy to spell, nothing more. I googled it, as I had spelled it, just to make sure it didn't already mean anything, and all I pulled up was Spix's Macaw. Sharing the name with the dude who discovered a bird was totes okay with me, so on I went. I had already been using the name on FA and at furmeets in my area for 2 years when I learned about the word with the same pronunciation, different spelling link to racist word here. I never planned on being a full time artist, or to have any real presence in the fandom, so I decided to leave it be and rely on the different spelling of the word to be enough. However, once I started going to conventions, where staffers would loudly call out badge names so people could pick theirs up, I realized that this was going to be a problem. I was still stubborn though, especially since I'd made many accounts under the name, and was hesitant to do the work to change it. I started having people use the name "Spixy", to help distance the sound of the name further, but even that isn't really a solution. I showed up to a live stream at one point, and the artist hesitated to say my name when they started to greet me over mic, because they were uncomfortable. That was kind of my last push to think, "Okay, enough is enough, I need to take care of this." I'm tired of cringing when this name is used out loud, and of wondering if I'm offending people by having it.

I want something that has at least a little personal significance to me this time, that's still easy to spell/remember, and is also more gender neutral, to better reflect more recent changes in how I identify as a person. I made a character around two years ago, back on deviantart, that I named Malachyte Eye, and I ended up using that for my Steam name, among other things here and there. Friends outside of the furry fandom have taken to calling me Mal, or Mala, and I rather liked it. So, instead of making up a new name altogether, I think it would be nice to just use more of this name, all around. It's going to take time to switch over my galleries, social media accounts, and most of all, you guys, to this new name, so the change is going to be sorta gradual. FA will be the hardest move, since you literally can't change your name there unless you make a new gallery completely :/

Now, I completely understand that this is a change that will take getting used to, for myself as well as all of you. Let me be clear; I will not get mad when you slip up on names, and I will not get mad if you bring the name up later. It's not something I'm trying to hide or forget. So please, don't feel like you're walking on eggshells about this topic or anything like that.

Some of you may not like the name as much, some of you may think it's unnecessary. I know I've rolled my eyes a few times when I see users moving accounts or switching names left and right. But I really do think this is an important change to make, since it's not just effecting myself. I hope all of you can respect that, and keep your comments about this civil.

What About Your Fursona?
This part will kind of take some trial and error, I think. I'm still a red panda, and I'm not gonna change my overall look. But at the same time, when I look at Spix Panda, I see... well, Spix. Same with Ms. Spixy, I can't even imagine changing her name, so I really don't think I will be, there. The best solution I can see is to keep going with my style of drawing Spix in whatever way fits the situation. I've got a toony version of her, a childish one, a cub one, long hair, short hair, androgynous, chubby... the list goes on. I've always drawn her however I saw fit, because that's part of how I see myself; never the same twice. I have a version of her I've called "IRL Spix", and that one is the closest in design to looking exactly as I do in real life. I think what I might do, is take that design, and possibly pieces of the design of the aforementioned "Malachyte" character, and mix them up just a tad, to make Mal. IRL Spix already looks pretty distinct from the rest, since she has glasses and is the most androgynous, so it should be a pretty easy thing to morph. I'll still tag art of the other red pandas as "Spix", but for me personally, the artist behind the drawings, I won't be going by that name.


TL;DR
New York is pretty cool and has zombies in it.
I'm fostering a high energy dog and it's mildly disruptive, as well as adorable.
I'm changing my personal, online name to Malachyte (Mal or Mala for short).
Fursona is essentially unchanged.

I'm going to see New York for the first time! Toby and I are heading out for a small trip, and I'm really excited. We'll be leaving tonight, and won't be back until sometime late on Monday, so you won't be hearing from me until Tuesday. I don't know much about NYC to be honest, so I'm very interested to see just how overwhelmingly large it is. Most of all, I'm excited because I know there is a Kinokuniya there, and I've wanted to see that store since high school. I also want to check out BookOff, and a grocery store called Dainobu. Finally, for the first time since I left Japan from my study abroad, I will get my hands on some proper, delicious, Japanese Royal Milk Tea. I've been craving it for 8 years, but nowhere I've lived sells it, and buying liquids online is pricey. It's going to be glorious.

See you all Tuesday! I'll be marathon streaming DraKitten's commission when I get back, so look forward to more adorable lions. Additionally, I'll finally be writing up my follow-up on the Paypal issue of adult material, as I've gotten all the info I think I'm going to get on the matter. And last but not least, I'll be changing my furry username, which is something I've been meaning to do for years and years. It's going to be a pain in the butt, but the time has come.

did a lovely journal about their contact with a Paypal manager about some of this very matter. I'll still do my research too, but here is some more immediate information from yet another first hand account.
Link

I definitely saw this coming, ha ha. I am getting all sorts of tidbits of information and mixed responses about Paypal allowing adult material, and if so, what kind. So, what I'm going to do is contact as many people as I can, and give you all the information I can find on the matter.

First, I'd like to talk to as many artists as possible whose accounts were banned for selling adult artwork via Paypal. If you are or know artists who are willing to talk to me about the details of why and how they were banned, please let me know so I can reach out to them. I'm wondering if Paypal is against certain kinds of adult material (like cub art, feral art, or other things that toe the line of legality when put in an IRL context), or if accounts who were reported for adult content also had other things they were doing that unknowingly violated the user agreement (fee dodging, etc).

Second, I'm going to email Paypal several times from different emails asking them to clarify about "obscene and sexual materials", so we can have a bigger sample size of what this means, specifically. I urge as many of you as possible to do the same, so we can share the info. From what I understand currently, it seems to only prohibit physical sex (prostitution, porn videos), but again, I want to verify this.

Third, I recently learned from two separate users that Paypal apparently has a sort of morality committee, similar to how movies get sorta arbitrarily rated. I'm emailing this department as well, and linking them to specific, pornographic examples of artwork, so I can get clear answers on what is okay.

And lastly, even if it turns out selling drawings of porn is totes okay 100%, you should still always be careful and never label your payments as such. The porn industry is a very gray area, and our culture is not a sex positive one. There is always the possibility that all of this could change in a hot minute, and you'll wind up in a heap of trouble with a frozen paypal account. In my previous journal I made a section called "Treading Lightly with Paypal" for a reason. Give it a look over if you haven't already, because this is important advice for buyers and sellers alike, okay?


I look forward to finding out more about this. It's a matter that's bugged me for a long time, and I really just want to know the facts on how worried we all actually need to be about this.

[EDIT]
While I do have 1 source saying that adult content is acceptable, please be cautious about what you do and how open you are about this matter when buying/selling! I'm trying to find out more, so keep an eye out for future journals on this matter.
An update journal about my plan on this topic.

This is all written from the point of view of an artist/seller from the United States.

So there is a ton of information flying around about Paypal right now, and not a lot of sources to go with it. Now, I’m not claiming to be a Paypal rep and have all the answers, but! I did take some time to look for the facts, and even made a call to an actual employee to get as much cleared up as I could. The rep and I went over the User Agreement a bit, I asked about the $2500 fee, and about adult content in general. Here’s all the information I have, as credible as I can make it.


The Quick Summary
•The $2500 fee is not actually new, and has been in effect for years
•You will probably never have to worry about this fee, unless you are dodging seller fees
•Adult artworks are okay to sell on Paypal under specific circumstances (more on this in a future journal post)
•Be discrete with your transactions for maximum safety; don’t link to your galleries
•A guide to addresses, shipping and Paypal is below, because Paypal sucks at this

**Read the rest of this for the explanations and important details, please. Arm yourselves with knowledge**

The $2500 Fee
First off, this fee seems to have been around since before the update coming on July 1st.

Here is a forum post from 2008 complaining about the exact same issue that’s causing so much panic currently.

Additionally, here is the current Acceptable Use Policy. If you go to section 10.3, you’ll see the bit about the $2500 fee for violating the User Agreement or Acceptable Use Policy. At the top of this page, it states that this AUP is active until June 30th, and then links to the revised version (which will activate July 1st), on a separate page. This verifies that the fee is not an update, but has been with us the entire time.

While I was on the phone with the representative, I asked what sorts of violations this fee can apply to, specifically. Ultimately, it is up to the discretion of Paypal itself to choose, but the basics of it are that it applies to the Prohibited Activities section of this page.

I’d like to specifically point out that this fee applies to people who try to avoid Paypal fees. This is something you should really not be doing. Customers, you are not helping the artist when you send money as a “gift” instead of “good and services”, it can really get the artist into a lot of trouble. And artists, this fee is your responsibility as someone doing business online. Whether you pay it or whether you include the fee in your commission cost is up to you, but it needs to get paid. Be responsible.

However, the scariest bit is that part about “(f) items that are considered obscene” and “(h) certain sexually oriented materials or services” right? So, I asked about that as well.


Selling Adult Artwork & Objects with Paypal
IMPORTANT UPDATE (May 17th, 2015)
I've been delving into the matter of Paypal and adult content even further, and have discovered that it *is* allowed, but only in specific circumstances. I'm going to keep talking with various sources to get as many details about this as possible, but for now, just remember to *be safe* and keep your payments vague.


We all fret over being reported to Paypal for selling furry porn. I know I do, at least. But somehow, you can buy obscene objects and sexual materials on Ebay, which is affiliated with Paypal. You can even buy a Bad Dragon dildo with Paypal. So what’s the deal?

I asked the representative in very plain words, “Why can you buy dildos with Paypal?” After a bout of laughter, she explained that while they don’t prefer people use Paypal for these services, it is acceptable. The main point of this prohibition is to keep people from paying for physical sex (a.k.a. prostitution) using Paypal’s services.

To clarify, I asked “If an artist sells a comic book that contains a sex scene, would that be acceptable?” Her answer is that this is completely fine, no hesitation in her voice. I’m considering emailing Paypal as well, so I have this in writing, but as of now, I can tell you that this has been confirmed first hand by myself to be the case. No hearsay or rumors, just a straight up phone call.

That being said, for those artists who draw adult rated cub art, I would still be careful with what you do and say on the Paypal site/invoices.

An additional note on the vagueness of “obscene” content and “certain sexually oriented” things. Yes, this does mean that Paypal can choose what to consider obscene on a case by case basis. But in my personal opinion, I don’t think this is something we need to worry this hard about. This is mostly to protect Paypal if, say, someone found a loophole to pay a call girl without technically violating the TOS, so they can still get this shit out of their site before they face legal repercussions. Selling adult artwork isn’t dangerous to Paypal as a company unless you do something really stupid and make it dangerous for them (like selling straight up human child porn drawings; that might not be such a hot idea, even if they are drawings). In short, don’t worry so hard, I think.


Treading Lightly With Paypal
Now that we’re all on the same page with the fees and the adult content, let’s talk about being careful. Adult art is allowed on Paypal, but that doesn’t mean we should all start linking to our feral art and toon porn every time we pay or get paid. Being discreet can only be your friend in this world of freelance furry art.

For those who use Invoices:
First off, here is a screencap of what an invoice is made of, and how I personally fill mine out. I made a template for my invoices, so that every time I send one out, most of it is filled out to my liking already.
Top half
Bottom half

You’ll want something that points to who you are as an artist, so your customer knows where the invoice is coming from, but you want to avoid linking straight to your galleries. Even my TOS is linked to a google site, rather than an upload on FA. In the memo section at the very bottom of your invoice, you’ll want to write something to help you identify the customer, to make it easier on yourself later, but again, don’t link back to their gallery. Writing “Spix, FA” is smarter than “Spix, FurAffinity”, even.

The best part about invoices is that the seller has control over what gets written on the thing, and how it’s processed. You know exactly how much you’re asking from your customer, you can write your TOS on it, it’s numbered and easy to keep track of, and no one can dodge fees or write “From SexyBunny69 on FurAffinity! Thanks for the porn, tee hee!” and get you noticed in the wrong ways.

The downside to invoices is addresses. I’ll put all the information I have about addresses and Paypal in another section.

For those who pay via Goods & Services:
This method relies more heavily on the client to send the money correctly, rather than the artist. When you pay an artist, you need to pay under the “Pay for Goods and Services” section. Do not send the artist money as a gift, or as “Send Money to Friends and Family”. If Paypal find out you’re dodging fees, then that $2500 fee may become a reality for you.

The best part about this payment method is that no one needs to give out their address. If an artist you know prefers invoices, but you are uncomfortable being required to give out your address, reach out to them personally and see if they’ll take payment as Goods and Services. If you explain your situation and speak eloquently, they are much more likely to trust you to carry out the procedure correctly. This way also makes sending a tip easier, so if they’re going out of their way to not use an invoice, show them a little thanks with an extra buck.

The down side lies with miscommunication. If the buyer sends the incorrect amount of money, or sends it as a gift, now you have to refund the transaction and ask them to do it again, possibly multiple times. You also can’t add details to the payment notice, making organization more difficult by far. This is probably fine for artists who don’t do more than a few transactions at a time, but if you do several a week, you’ll probably find this a bit overwhelming.

Again, if you are a buyer and you use this method to pay your artist, be discreet! Write enough information so the artist knows who’s paying, but don’t specifically mention the full name of the website, or what you’re buying. “Spix, FA, chibi” is a good idea. “Spix @ FurAffinity, bondage slave YCH” is a poor idea.


Revealing Your Address & The Annoyance of Shipping on Paypal
This only applies to users who pay or receive payment via invoice.

As the sender of the invoice, you’ll want to double check that your address isn’t being sent on your invoice. To do this:
1. Go to Seller Preferences
2. Click Update across from Invoice Templates
3. Select the invoice template you use for art, and click Edit
4. On the invoice template page, click Edit Business Information
5. You’ll see a dropdown box labeled Address, and from there you can select for it not to be shown on any future invoices using this specific template.

As the buyer, as far as I can tell, you are obligated to put in your address, whether you are buying physical media or digital goods. If doing this makes you uncomfortable, you should try contacting the artist to see if they will work with you for an alternate means of payment, like money order, or Squareup, etc.

Additionally, sellers of intangible/digital goods have to perform an annoying extra step after being paid, to let Paypal know that nothing needs to be shipped. I’m not completely sure if this is pressing to take care of, or if you can let it slide for a long time, but I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to being noticed by Paypal for anything whatsoever.

On your main Summary page for Paypal, you’ll see all your recent transactions listed below. Once an invoice is paid, it will look like this (I’ve removed the price for privacy’s sake). What you want to do is click on Add Tracking Info, which will take you to this page. Click the drop down menu for Order Status, and you’ll see an option at the bottom named “Order Process/Service Rendered”. This is what you want to click, to tell Paypal that you don’t need to ship anything, and it can stop worrying it’s lil’ ol’ head about things. After you click it, hit save. It will show you a confirmation page which states that your customer will get an email, letting them know that their service was rendered. Your customer may contact you wondering what the heck that email is, but hopefully in time, most of the fandom will understand that annoying step (or Paypal will remove this need altogether, who knows).

---

That's everything I've got, as neat as I know how to make it. If you know more detailed information on any of these points, and have sources for your information, please let us all know! I want this to be the journal people can link back to with confidence to help people feel educated, whether they're worried/confused about the July 1st update, or whether they're just a new artist who doesn't know how to use Paypal in the first place. We're all in this together. Let's help each other out.

http://www.tigerdile.com/stream/spixypics/

Streaming for a few hours. Just bouncing from commissions to projects, making as much progress as I can. Stream will be NSFW most times. My stream rules are on the tigerdile page, just about the video, so please read them over and act accordingly.

I feel like a journal should be posted, but I don't have anything important to say. So let's talk about whatever!

I got a bit behind on posting art, so you're going to see an art explosion from me today, after I get back from the gym. Speaking of that, I've been going to a gym! And pretty regularly, which I'm a bit surprised at myself over, since big rooms of strangers make me p. nervous. I'm in pretty good shape as it is, but my running endurance is preeeetty low, and my arm strength is nonexistent. I'm tired of being totally useless whenever Toby and I have to move to a new place, and I can't lift my half of the couch, ha ha. I started out at a struggling 10lbs on this one deltoid machine thinger, and now I'm managing 15lbs finally, so there's some progress at long last.

My garden is going... going, currently. I planted seeds at the end of March, but my housemate's dogs broke into the enclosure and stomped them all out because they wanted to see what this secret dirt patch was all about. We bought some baby plants and replaced them just last Thursday, and so far they're not dead. They feel a little limp, but I could just be overly nervous. I seriously do not have a green thumb u.u;;

Been listening to/watching a lot of Let's Plays while I draw, recently. I caught up on the mighty backlog of Game Grumps I still had a few months ago, so I've been branching out more. I learned of a youtuber called Cryaotic and I just adore his narrative style. He mostly plays indie games, I guess? And like horror and visual novel style games. While I do enjoy GG and Markiplier, they tend to ignore most of the things happening in a game while they yell and react to it, so it's refreshing to have a player who turns the game volume up, let's the cut scenes play, and just takes it all in. I definitely recommend watching the playthrough of Dandelion. It was so funny and entertaining, I can't even take it. Seriously one of the best things I've seen in a while. It's still running, too.

Okay, I think that's enough rambling about my daily life. I feel like my journals over the last few months have been entirely about commissions and business and art, and it's getting far too impersonal up in this gallery. I thought about doing one of those TMI Tuesdays, but I realized I don't really want to give out TMI, ha ha. Just isn't for me, I think. I'll try to post more about the artist behind the markers, though, because I do like to come across as a human, and not an art machine.


Now, tell me a little something about you. Seen any good Let's Plays lately? Do you garden? Do you hate plants altogether and wish you'd never seen one in your life because of the tragic past you hold between your childhood self and a bean sprout? Tell me in the comments.

I'm going to hold off on doing a second chibi stream tonight. I made dinner, and it took like an hour longer than the recipe said it should, so it's already way later than I'd like to be starting a commission stream. I'll be working on my queue instead, and probably streaming it as well.

Out of curiosity, what weekdays would you all like to see me start streaming on? I stream pretty much at random, but have been trying to stream consistently every Saturday. However, a lot of people have plans or even work on Saturday evenings, so I want to stream during a weekday as well. Throw your vote down below, if you have a day you prefer.

Hello everybody! Somehow it's already May. This past month, I've been running into a lot of issues with how I take commissions. Up until now, just leaving my form open and letting people submit requests whenever seemed to work, but these days, I just get too many submissions to keep up. I'm incredibly thankful for this amount of interest in my art! However, this does mean that people are waiting up to a month or more for me to even open a discussion on their request, and by the time I do, they might not even be interested in what they originally asked for anymore. I've been talking with some other artists and thinking a lot, and it seems taking submissions in batches is probably the way for me.

There are two different methods I'd like to try for that. I've never been a fan of the "first come, first served" style, since that leaves users who don't check journals constantly in the dust. I'll still be using that for some things, but I think I'd like to rely on a random list method. I'll open commissions for however many slots, interested users will comment, and after 2 days or so, I'll close the pool, shuffle the names, and there I'll have my queue.

I'm sure doing this will require some trial and error, so this is just a sort of rough draft for the process. But with how often I have to leave people waiting to hear from me, it's pretty obvious I need some major changes in my system here. What do you all think? Any glaring flaws you can see in it? Does it seem fair? I'd love to hear any suggestions you all may have.

I won't be implementing this for a little while yet. This week, I'm going to be taking care of the last few people who are waiting to hear from me for their own commission requests. I'll list the names below, just to make sure you all know I haven't forgotten you, and so you can see what order it's in. After that, I'll need a day or two to take care of Patreon rewards and content. My estimate is that I will be opening for commission slots on May 12th, but I'm hoping it will be sooner.

TL;DR
Commissions are closed until the 12th, will open again via a journal post, and will be taken in batches from now on.

The clients I still need to contact before I will start on this new method are:
Bencoon
Arcturus
Bit55
SilverFox442

Streaming Tonight & Tomorrow Night
While I do want to take care of people in order, I do still need to make some of that money stuff this week. I'll be doing some stream commissions tonight and tomorrow night, so if you're interested, keep an eye on my Tigerdile and feel free to pop in.

Shaded Chibi Sketches
Slots are first come, first served
Speak in up stream chat for a spot
Payment is due before work begins, via Paypal invoice
Only taking 2 slots at a time
You do not have to be present after you've secured a spot
These are "low input" commissions, meaning they're meant to be quick and fun, so you're not going to get to ask for changes
Visual references only, please
$30 per character
Any rating
Blue pencil or regular graphite pencil

Homecon is officially over. Thank you all for a fantastic weekend!

After I get the rest of my stuff for the day finished, I'm going to start up today's stream. This time, I'll be offering in-stream commissions, which is something I don't usually do. It makes me more like an irl convention this way, heh.

Information
Slots are first come, first served
Speak in up stream chat for a spot
Payment is due before work begins, via Paypal invoice
Only taking 2 slots at a time
You do not have to be present after you've secured a spot
These are "low input" commissions, meaning they're meant to be quick and fun, so you're not going to get to ask for changes
Visual references only, please

Shaded Chibi Sketches
$30 per character
Any rating
Blue pencil or regular graphite pencil

Sketch Page (No examples, sorry!)
$20 per hour
Any rating
Up to 2 characters per page
Basically a sheet full of bust shots, doodles, whatever will fit on the page that you want!
(This is a bit of an experiment, so I may change the regulations after I complete one or two of these)


I think that covers it. I'll be starting up the stream at 3pm EST, and going for as long as I'm able. If I've missed anything important, or you feel confused, please leave a comment and I'll fix things up!

Stream is going live, but it's a short one today. Again, bring your art for free critique if you like!
https://www.tigerdile.com/stream/spixypics

This evening, I'll be streaming again for HomeCon, and I'd like to offer free live redlining for any sketches you might have made up that you might like critique on! Even if it's the very first drawing you've ever done drawn, please bring it on by. You don't have to be "good enough" at art to ask me, and I super really encourage beginners to come get some tips c:

In between that, I'll be working on my commission queue, and possibly multistreaming with Jonas again. Speaking of multistreaming, I would really like to branch out and do this with more artists! If you or someone you know is looking for someone to stream with now and then, please note me! I'd love to talk about the details.

I'm really excited about some of the panels that are happening today for HomeCon, so I'm going to point them out to you all as well, in case you're interested. The first is happening in about half an hour, and it's a panel about making shibari badges, which sounds super neat. The second starts at 3pm EST, and will be a tutorial about using Manga Studio 5/Clip Studio Paint, which is what I currently use for all my digital art.

So yeah, hope to see you all there, either at these panels or at my own stream later tonight. Have fun!

HomeCon Stream! Patreon reward stuffs, streaming with Jonas, butts. https://www.tigerdile.com/stream/spixypics

Stream will last for about 5 hours.

Tigerdile is running another Homecon, and it starts this evening-ish. By streaming for half an hour or more each day, you can get entered into the raffle for a free month of premium dile. This goes for users streaming using a free trial, so if you're on the fence about trying the site out for the first time, now's the time to do it! For viewers, there will be a lot of artists streaming, and some panels to attend as well. I didn't manage to put a panel together myself this time around, but next time I would like to make a little something up. I'm not sure what I would talk about though, since I don't feel like I know anything solidly enough to go teaching it, ha ha.

I'll be streaming regular commission work today and tomorrow, and on Sunday, I'll be offering some quickie headshot sketches. For those, you just show up to the stream and ask for one, and if I'm open, you pay right there and then it happens. I'm not usually a fan of the fast-and-loose style of commission selling, but I feel like trying it again just to see. I'll post more definite information about them later today or tomorrow, when I post some example of the sketches.

All the information about HomeCon is here!
My Stream

Edit:
Actually, if anyone would be interested in this, I wouldn't mind using part of Saturday to offer free red lining to people. If you have some sketches you've done, and you wish you could understand a little better just what could be improved or changed in them, bring your sketch to the stream and I'll red line it live with commentary! (If you're not sure what redlining is, it goes a lot like this)

Going to stream for about 4 hours, so until 7:30pm EST. Be sure to read the stream info on my Tigerdile page if you have questions, please.

http://www.tigerdile.com/stream/spixypics/

So yesterday I'm all, "Yeah, I'll just get my plants started in their pots and then stream the rest of the day, no big deal, easy peasy!" Then I remembered that no, gardening is still a lot of work, just like last year and the year before, lol. I had to clean all my pots, figure out what I'm planting where and when and how, then write down what's in each spot so I don't lose track. I also have a yard this year, and a little spot of actual in-the-ground garden in it. Fantastic indeed, but that also meant I had to til all the ground, mix in the new soil nutrients, make mounds, then plant in that, too!

My back hurts a TON now, and I also have a blister riiiiiiight where I hold my pencil/pen, ha ha. So I'm just going to call it a day and try to doodle later tonight. Comic stream day will be moved to tomorrow. Sorry!

For anyone curious, I decided to plant--
Dahlia flowers
Chives
Green onions
Spinach (regular and heirloom variety)
Pole beans
Peppermint
Oregano
Cilantro
Thyme
Parsley (flat and curly leaf)
Basil
Sweet bell peppers
Hungarian wax peppers

It sounds like a lot, but I'm only planting 1-3 of each.

Survey Results

Just in case anyone was curious what kind of preferences others had. I got way more responses than I expected, and I'm really happy about it. Once I'm done getting my Patreon content out, I'll be starting in on making some bookmarks!

Also, tomorrow is Saturday, and that means stream day. I'll be working on more comics and practicing hand anatomy in between. Not sure when I'll start the stream, but it will be in the afternoon, EST. Additionally, I've added a survey on my Tigerdile page to help collect data from viewers who experience connectivity issues and the like. It seems like it's been happening frequently, lately, and I want to keep track as much as I'm able, for my own benefit as well as Tanabi's. So if you're every having issues during my streams, please feel free to fill it out as a sort of non-official trouble ticket.

I've been asked about bookmarks here and there, but always assumed no one would want to pay for custom ones, since I'd have to charge at least $20 to make it worth the time put into them. But it seems I might be incorrect about it, so I made a little survey to gather some info.

If you have a minute, I'd love to get some more responses, and possibly make some bookmarks that fit the general criteria of what people seem to like.

Survery Here.

So right as I was ending my stream a bit ago, I thought about dedicating my Saturday stream block to working on my comic projects instead. I might actually go with that, and take the month off, so to speak, from stream commissions. That way I can really get some solid time in on those, take some time from steam CMs, but still keep up my schedule.

So yeah, that's what I'm going to do for April instead~

The last magical girl commission stream starts in just a few! I'm a teeny bit behind schedule, so it won't be exactly 12:30pm, but it won't be much long past that.

I'll be posting a journal next week with the new theme for April, and will be reopening the form for sign-ups at that time. Hope to see you there!

All times are in EST:
12:45pm Kylithi
2:45pm Caylen
5:15pm Schnookums

https://www.tigerdile.com/stream/spixypics/

I mentioned it briefly in my last journal, but I'll go more into depth about it here. I spent a lot of time this week updating the layouts of my profiles, getting informational stuff smoothed out, and re-examining my commission taking process as a whole, so I just want to make sure you all aren't caught by surprise by the changes.


My Website
My terms of service, commission prices, and example pieces have all been moved to this location. There are also links to every active gallery I have, and I will be adding more things later, like a convention schedule.

As for my prices, I've always felt weirdly underhanded whenever I change them, since it kind of gets done quietly. So, I've decided to pick a date, twice a year, where I'll review them and see if they need to be changed. This way, you all can see when a potential price change might happen, and maybe grab a spot right before, rather than missing out on lower prices by sheer chance. I'm going to review them at the end of May and November, each year, I think. I'll be posting those dates on my price list page later.

In my Terms of Service, the changes were mostly minor, but here is a list of some of the more important updates:
•Will/Won't Draw list clarified
•Payment Policy for Paypal is explained, regarding the need or lack thereof for tracking info
•My drawing process, and when you can/should ask for alterations to your commission, has been outlined more clearly
•Shipping cost has increased (thank USPS, not me)
•A section about getting your commission streamed has been added
•A section about getting a character drawn for the first time has been added. Hopefully this will help out you first-time-ever art buyers!
•Some of my own characters are available to appear in commissions now


My Commission Form
This thing was in sore need of some updating! You all can now buy reference sheets, badges, ATCs/ACEOs and icons much easier now. The rest of my updates to this were just trimming some of the text and making things clearer to read.


My Patreon
Now, I had my Patreon running before, but I ended up overwhelming myself at the same time that I was first starting to do art as a full-time job. The reward tiers are much more focused and simple now, but I think they still provide some attractive incentives for people looking to support my art. I'll throw the text from my page on here, to help explain exactly what I'm using the account for in regards to my art.

Each month, I will spend time studying one or more art related topics. Anything from basic anatomy to backgrounds to panel pacing in comics. During the month, I will be sketching and working towards those specific goals, and showing my progress each week. At the end of the month, I will share the resources I used to study, and create "final exam" pieces, which will show the extent of what I've learned in that month. In the event that a study topic needs more than a month, I will do a "midterm exam" at the end of month one, and another final at the end of month two, then compare the two exams to see how I've progressed.

At the beginning of the next month, once reward payments have processed, I will randomly select a patron using a random number generator and use a character of their choice for the exam pieces. If the study topic of the month does not interest the winner, there will be a redraw. The exam pieces will be completed during the first week of each month.

So basically, I'm going to use the tips from Patreon to fund my study time, which means I get to improve my art without eating the cost so hard on my time. Two patrons get picked each month, and one wins a bust commission, one wins a full body, in line with the theme. Patrons also get sent discount codes if they are on these payment tiers, so that even if they don't win a slot, they aren't left empty-handed. The lower tiers grant you access to all my sketches and progress pics, as per the usual for most accounts.


Spix@Weasyl | Spix@Inkbunny
I'm not even going to start to preach or give advice about the whole IMVU thing, but the facts for me are that I've been uncomfortable doing business on FA for a while, and that's only increasing. Slowly but surely, I'm trying to move off this site, and that's going to continue unless something drastic changes (for the better, that is). The one thing I'd like to ask of you all is that you really take your time to read up on these matters, if you're someone that does business via FA. This site represents a piece of your store front, where you make money to help you survive, so writing every single thing off as "silly drama" is ludicrous, in my opinion.

That aside, I'd just like to post a reminder that I post higher-resolution versions of some of my works on Wzl and IB, since FA has the size limitation. More of my scraps and doodles end up on IB, specifically, since it's easier to upload to that site. I also sometimes put up YCHs and discounts on these locations.

I'm not going to stop posting here for a long time yet, most likely, so don't feel like I'm zooming away here. I just want to make these other options and facts known.


Thanks so much for reading this huge journal, and I hope you all enjoy the majority of the changes I've made, and are understanding about my choice of gallery use.