Hey, it's July 1st! Canada Day! It's also the day I had planned to announce this year's Tournament of Sex, because it's when I announced all the previous ones, and it's supposed to be an annual thing. (Since the hosts trade off sequentially, this year was gonna be DJING! and Zedd leading the event.)

Unfortunately, as those of you who follow me on social media know, 2025 hasn't been kind to ol' Tailsteak. I've been dealing with various stresses, including what I now realize is generalized anxiety disorder, and I'm already *way* behind where I'd like to be on various other projects and obligations, including the fact that (as of this writing) I have *no* Forward backlog. I had briefly entertained the notion of drawing Zedd confronting DJING! about forgetting the Tournament they were supposed to be running and making it just a big freeform YCH concert/backstage thing instead, but even that feels like too much for me to tackle right now. Thus... yes, the annual Tournament is, sadly, skipping this year. If I'm lucky, I'll get to bring it back in 2026.

For the time being... please feel free to support me in other ways, by buying regular commissions, subscribing to the Patreon, word of mouth, etc etc. Every bit is appreciated (and helps my mindset and recovery), I really mean it. You guys keep me going, and I know the best is yet to come.

Hey, for anyone who doesn't follow me on social media (why not?) I recently finished doing one 10-minute thumbnail per day for every day of Paletteuary. Now, there's a poll up, and whichever thumbnail you vote for is the one that I'll expand into a fully rendered piece!

Click here to vote!

I've heard multiple people (who evidently don't follow me on any other social media sites or watch my streams) say that they're not aware of what's been going on with me lately, so here's the tl;dr -

-Going through possible living situation changes (landlord selling the place, downstairs neighbours moving away, I expect to still be able to stay here at the same monthly cost if/when the house is sold, but that's uncertain).
-Had some weird mental/emotional issues recently, having lock-up-and-stutter anxiety attacks at inconvenient times, trying to work through'em, human brains are annoying.
-Currently monofocusing on Tournament of Sex 4, plan to have it out by end of November (as of this writing, done page 3, sketching page 4). New commissions welcome and November's prices will be honoured, but I'm not starting on any other work until December.
-Yes, Forward is still updating on schedule every Monday and Roll To Save is updating every other weekend.
-Yes, I'm still streaming 11am-11pm Eastern every Monday, and the current PNGtuber is Wanda Wix, streaming her way through Disco Elysium 5pm-7pmish every Saturday.
-As Twitter goes down the tubes, I have been posting more on Mastodon and Bluesky, and I encourage others to do likewise.

I thank you all for your continued patronage & patience.

Considering doing a special RNG lottery commission. $1 buys you a slot for your preferred character, setting, or activity, and, once I get a certain total amount (say... $60?) I do a stream where the dice decide who I draw doing what. Would people be interested in that?

Hey! I'm doin' a full-day art stream on Friday (i.e., the 12th, "tomorrow" as of this writing), going 11am-11pm Eastern, just like I normally do on Mondays, over at picarto.tv/tailsteak

BUT THEN!

The day after that, Saturday the 13th, starting at 5pm Eastern, I'm gonna be doing an in-character PNGtuber gaming stream! Come see one of my characters (not sayin' who...) play a videogame and interact with chat live!

---EDIT---

Both streams went well! As of this writing, they're both still available to watch as VODs on picarto.tv/tailsteak, though they will cycle out over time. The PNGtuber stream, though, (Bellina playing Chants of Sennaar!) is also available (in censored form) on Youtube!

As you may know, I've been doing 1 art trade with a different artist every month in 2023. As you also may know, Twitter is gradually shitting the bed, so Twitter DMs (which were the main way I was spamming artists to beg for trades) aren't the best way to contact folks right now.

So I need to find an artist - ideally, someone I have never worked with before - who'd be willing to do some sort of art trade (literally anything, I'm not fussy!) with me between now and the 30th. Anyone interested?

I would normally go fishing on Twitter, but... well, that's not a good idea right now, so I'll just post it here!

I've been doing an art trade every month this year! Who should I trade with for July? (Ideally, someone I haven't worked with before - and it doesn't have to be NSFW!)

Hey, here's a friendly reminder that no single social media platform is perfect, so, if you haven't already, go ahead and follow me on Twitter (@Tailsteak and @TailsteakAD), Mastodon (octodon.social/@Tailsteak), Pillowfort (Tailsteak), and so on. tbh, I'm not optimistic about BlueSky, but if someone's got an invite, I wouldn't say no.

Y'know what kind of commissions I like? Joint commissions! I like matching up two OCs from two different commissioners... so I've decided to play matchmaker.

If you've got a unused or underutilized OC (maybe an adoptable you just bought, let's say), but you don't know what to do with'em, go ahead and shoot me an email or a twitter DM with their name, gender, orientation, likes/dislikes/kinks/limits, and any art (ideally, a refsheet), I'll add'em into this big spreadsheet I'm working on (it already has 14 characters in it!).

Some time this weekend, I'm going to see if I can pair up a few of these lonely hearts, and I'll let their owners know my idea. If both parties are into it, we can set up a joint commission! Assuming two characters and no background, that's only $60+$40USD... and, if the commission is in theme for the month, or if one or both of the commissioners are at the $10/mo level or higher on my Patreon, that price gets cut in half... so, potentially, you could get some full colour art of your lonely character getting railed for only $25 USD!

I'll say it again - send me your OC deets, I'll pair'em up with someone else's OC, and you could get your art for as little as $25!

Just a heads up - I have finished writing a one-shot Sherlock Holmes RP with a unique system and pre-genned characters for a four-person party of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson, Irene Adler, and Wiggins. I'm planning on playing it over Discord with four players and streaming it live to Picarto!


-EDIT- I have my players, and I have my schedule! We're going to be playing on Saturday March 5th, starting at 6pm Eastern. Don't miss it! (Even if you do miss it, that's okay - it gets recorded!)

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

On Friday, May the 7th at 7pm Eastern, I'm going to be streaming a porny dungeon crawl game!

Tune in to picarto.tv/tailsteak to see me guide my players through a world of devilish traps, exotic monsters, and sexy challenges that will all be solved with ridiculous copulation. Obviously, this will be a 18+ event, but don't worry; although this is D&D-inspired, there will be absolutely no combat - I personally don't feel that violence and sex go together.

Even if you can't catch it live, you can still watch the game after the fact - Picarto will archive the stream for future viewing!

Hey, it's the first of the month, which is when I update my commission themes, and April is gonna be a special one.

Y'see, most people have agreed that this isn't really an appropriate year for April Fools pranks, but I still like when friends surprise each other. So for the month of April 2021, your art is 50% off (as little as $25 USD!) if it's a surprise (a NICE surprise) for someone else!

Full commission rates here.

That's right! Get a pic of your friend's OC in a funny costume! Get character portraits for your DnD group! Get a romantic embrace with your significant other! Get porn for all your horny friends!

...as always, of course, if you really want, you don't have to meet the theme criteria at all - you can still get that sweet sweet discount if you pledge to my Patreon at the $10/mo level or above. (That's in addition to all the books and exclusive art you get at the $1 level and the icon you get at the $5 level.) Even if you only get a commission once every other month, that patronage pays for itself!

Heads up, I’m going to be running a one-shot tabletop game on Friday July 3rd at 7pm Eastern, over on my Picarto channel. We will be dropping links for folks to donate to #BlackLivesMatter and associated causes, but the game itself will (hopefully) be free of real-world politics.

The players will be travelling circus performers - keepers of the last vestiges of the world’s magic - travelling from city to city in 1930′s America. They’ll be dealing with not only the bleakness of the Great Depression and the challenge of putting on a show… they may also be encountering villains and monsters who also tap into the world’s waning magical power.

Anyway, the game will be recorded automatically on Picarto, so you can go back and catch it afterwards if you can’t see it live, and I’m also going to try to see if I can record it, edit it, and post it to Youtube. Hope to see you then!

Brothel is officially available!

https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/tailsteak

It's a sexy card game - one of the few games I've ever made that I've properly playtested and revised. I put a lot of work into this! Please, please buy it!

If money's tight, go ahead and sign up on my Patreon, where for as little as one dollar, you can print out a version at home... but I really recommend you get the professionally made pack, it's worth it!

Since I keep my --Tailsteak-- twitter account generally SFW and since most of my commissions tend to be porn, I decided to set up an After Dark account, it's at --TailsteakAD--. Gonna post various NSFW arts there, may also talk about sex and sex-related subjects. Give it a follow!

The fifth and final book in the Guide series, The Bard's Guide To Life, is now available!

As with all of the Guides, hard copies can be purchased through Amazon, and the pdfs are available (for as little as $1/month!) to all my Patreon supporters.

Go get'em!

The fourth book in my fantasy Guide series, the Necromancer's Guide to Life, is now available!

All my Patreon patrons can get the PDFs at no additional cost here, and if you'd like a physical copy (they make great gifts!), those are available on Amazon!

I guess next up is making an audiobook version, then start working on the Bard's Guide. Thank you all so much for your continued support!

The new comic is up!

My new comic, Forward, has officially launched. It's going to update every Monday - and I've already got five strips in the archive, to get you started!

In addition to the new comic for you to read, this also means a) I'm accepting commissions again, and b) I'm also going to start in on The Barbarian's Guide To Life.

This new comic is going to be great, you guys. Check it out!

Welp, Leftover Soup hit 1000 strips, and is officially over. Another project, completed.

But that doesn't mean I'm done! I'm switching gears, but not into neutral, folks!

In addition to continuing Roll To Save, finishing the Rogue's Guide to Life, and taking on commissions, now I have to get started on my next webcomic - the sooner I get it launched, the better!

Wish me luck!

Well, my hours are finally coming back down at the call center. I'm going to be working there a lot less in the coming weeks! Good - this gives me a lot more time to work on Leftover Soup, Roll To Save, the Rogue's Guide, and all my commissions! Bad - I'm gonna have to be reeeal money conscious in the coming months.

This is a great time for it, though, as the ending of Leftover Soup is coming soon - we're going to hit strip #1000 in the middle of April, and the sooner after that I can launch my next comic, the better. I haven't done much on that yet, and I don't want to launch it until I've got a decent backlog, so regardless of how hard I work, I think it's going to be at least a month or two after LS ends before I can launch. Don't worry - I'll be putting out weekly status updates in the interim - wanna be sure you guys know I'm not slacking!

I love all my readers and I'm so, so glad I can do this stuff for you. Thank you all so much!

Well, we're into the new year, so, as promised, my commissions are open again and my prices have gone up.

....I had hoped that during December with commissions closed, I'd get all caught up, but, to be honest, I still have some outstanding art from November. I'm choosing not to stress it, though.

My New Year's resolutions for 2017 are a little non-standard:

1) I'm not going to worry about my weight at all. I'm going to eat what I want to eat, I'm going to not eat when I don't want to eat, I'm going to exercise when I want to exercise, and let my waist size do whatever it wants.

2) I'm going to say no more often. I'm going to turn down commissions I don't want to do, I'm not going to overextend myself to make other people happy... it's been a major contributing factor for stress in my life, and stress makes it harder for me to make the art I want to do!

3) I'm not going to worry so much about productivity, either. I get done what I get done. I'm only human.

And y'know what? That's it. Everything else I want to do in 2017, I'm already on track to do, as far as I'm concerned. Success isn't about a finish line, it's about organizing your life so that, on the average day, you get farther ahead than you were yesterday. I'm getting a little further every day. 2017 is gonna be pretty great. I can feel it.

I've got a lot of commissions on my list.

I always feel bad, making people wait. Used to be, I was a speed demon! I could get a normal pic done within a day, or at least a week. Now, I'm looking at my art to-do list, and there are things on there that are over a month old. The lingering unfinished obligations nag me, like an itch in my brain.

I guess my problem is that I just can't say no to people. I'm a very independent person by nature, I resist being put into boxes or told what to do by authority figures... but as soon as someone who isn't an authority figure says "hey, Tailsteak, I'd really enjoy it if you did X" I immediately go into people-pleasing martyr mode. It's hard for me to say "no, I wouldn't like drawing that" or "no, that would be way too much work" or "no, here's another artist who might do that commission better".

I mean, as it is, I already draw not one, but two regularly-updating webcomics and I'm working on an illustrated book. A lot of people would say that's enough!

I guess the other half of the issue is that my art is getting better (and therefore takes longer), while my prices are still pretty low. I am planning on bumping them up in the new year - it's a supply-demand graph curve thing, I guess. Which is good! That's the trajectory I want to be on!

Anyway, I guess the point of this journal is - please be patient with me. I am trying to churn through all this stuff as quickly as I can. I love and appreciate every single one of my fans and readers, and I do want to make as much stuff for as many people as possible with the finite number of hours in every day.

Thank you.

Hey there, world!

My name's Tailsteak. I've been doing webcomics and other art since 2000. Been meaning to make an FA account, but just never got around to it until now. I figured I'd upload a few dozen of my pieces - whatever I happen to like best right now - and I'll see how it goes.

Still learning how FA goes, so I apologize if things are rough at the moment. I'll tag and annotate things properly one of these days, I promise!

But yeah, if you don't already know me, I draw a webcomic called Leftover Soup and I do take commissions. By all means, say hi, let me know what you think of my stuff!