Just wanted to share here for those who have been following me for quite a while and have gotten to know my pets, but today I had to put down my 16 year old himalayan, Esmeralda. Her body was beginning to shut down and as of this morning she couldn’t use her back legs at all. Not eating.. drinking, the whole laundry list of symptoms that tells you your pet is ready to be sent off over the Rainbow Bridge.

She was humanely euthanized, I held onto her the entire time. She was purring as she was beginning to feel at ease under sedation. I spent a while with her talking to her, letting her know she was loved by not just me, but those who’s lives she touched whether through meeting IRL or online. The support I’ve gotten so far today has been so heartwarming that so many people noticed how much I loved and cared for Esmeralda. She will be missed so dearly. The tears have not stopped and I’m going to be taking some time to grieve as I can.

Just wanted to put out a friendly reminder that today is the 17th, and it’s the final day I’ll have my bases available for sale to the public before my shop comes down. Do keep in mind that when you buy these, there will be a grace period of 20 days that you’ll have access to your files once purchased. So that would be on August 7th you have until you can secure your files.

Thank you so much for the overwhelming support on my decision to change things up as well, it’s been wonderful 😭💜

You read that right. I’ve been doing some serious thinking about the current value of my work and this new direction I would like to pursue with my art and brand as a whole. That starts with getting rid of what’s no longer working to make way for the new, and that’s my bases. Sorry to say, but I will be deleting them all for good. I have canceled my subscription on E-junkie and the store will close for good on July 17th. I will be deleting all bases off Ko-fi as well.

I will no longer be providing bases to the public. I may consider exclusive ones via Patreon after a long break from them, but for now, I have made up my mind. It’s time to rebuild the value of my work that bases have slowly brought down over the years. It’s really scary to get rid of what was once a very secure source of income, but given how they do now, it’s best I look towards different avenues of where I pour my creativity into at this time so it no longer feels like a waste of time.

Thank you so, SO much for the support with my bases over the years and to those who still use them. I hope they have helped you as much as they helped me.

If you follow me on twitter, you’ve seen my updates regarding Esmeralda and her recent diagnosis. She was seen by a vet today because over the weekend she experienced a sudden decline in her health.. today the vet confirmed her heart and kidneys are beginning to shut down, and we’re awaiting her blood test results to determine if she’ll be ok for palliative care or if it would be in her best interests to be humanely put down. Making this decision is not easy for me to handle, let alone the thought of it.

I’ve put up all of my leftover merch in store to help recoup some of today’s costs and to cover what’s next. It would mean the world to me if I could get some help with getting this remaining bulk of my merch sold so I have what’s needed when the time comes to make a decision in regards to Esmeralda’s quality of life.

https://twitter.com/luxebytes/status/1534250784841519105?s=21&t=MK-fcGzUC5b9uY81yGVx7g

https://milkywaypress.bigcartel.com/

Just making a post here about my current situation. I’m in the last stretch of my move to my new apartment I was approved for last week. Initial deposit of $1500 was paid to secure it, $3K is still owed (totalling $4500 for first, last and security).

I was stuck in Virginia a few days ago due to getting caught in that recent snow storm and decided to hunker down in a cheap hotel to have a place to shelter and also continue to work on adopts to raise the remaining $3K. To my surprise I was not expecting my recent zombie giraffe to be autobought, I was prepared to use another day or so to work on whatever else could get me a remainder by Wednesday (today), when it was due and for me to meet with the landlord and sign the lease.

Well, that giraffe was autobought. I couldn’t believe it, so I made plans to leave the following morning since the buyer promised payment by then. That did not happen as they completely dropped communication on me while I was in route to PA. Along the way, just as I had reached Maryland, my car suddenly broke down in the middle of driving. I had to pull over to the side of the road with my two cats with me. We were stranded for a good 3-4 hours before I got help from AAA.

Next day, I find that not only did I need a new battery for my car, but what made my car stop was the fuel pump going bad and needing to be completely replaced. The fuel pump, battery and costs of labor is running me at $1300 I owe these folks today.

I’m in a really. Really bad spot due to this person dropping the ball on me. I would have never left Virginia had i of known I needed more time to work. Now I’m stuck in MD until my car is fixed, and these guys said it should be ready by noon today. Once paid I won’t have a dime to my name since I’ve had to cough up funds for two expensive hotel stays thats next to this car care center.

I’m not asking for donations or anything of the sort, but more so boosts on my adopt repost if you could. I’m really distraught over this person claiming autobuy and just dropping when that $3K was my access to my new apartment. My last townhome I was in was sold by my landlord beyond my control and it has been absolute hell trying to find and get approved for a new place for the past several months. I really need this new place to pull through for me.

If you could share, post journal or RT my post on twitter I would greatly, greatly appreciate it so much: https://twitter.com/luxebytes/statu.....214276097?s=21

Some god damn freak is out here trying to impersonate me and message previous winners of old ass adopts from years ago to pay them for the adopt they won. Please be careful if they message you. It turns out they have impersonated many popular adopt designers to scam their followers and buyers. They were originally on DA and TH and have now moved over here to FA.

This is the account:  Vani-

Here’s my post about it: https://twitter.com/luxebytes/statu.....106571264?s=21

TH thread about the theft: https://toyhou.se/~forums/5867.serv.....-11-30-?page=1

Hey guys, sorry to update under these circumstances but I just rushed my elderly senior cat, Esmeralda, to the emergency vet at this late hour during a bad storm due to finding her completely soaked in blood. I made a post on twitter to help get some donations in to help with the sudden $600 expense I’m having to foot, and only have $200 to my name at this time.

Any help is appreciated by boosting my post or donating to my ko-fi:

https://twitter.com/luxebytes/statu.....914638336?s=21

https://t.co/WJ3URFmJEY

I also have this adopt for sale too to go towards funds, A is sold but B is available for $100:

https://twitter.com/luxebytes/statu.....905636864?s=21

Just wanted to make a journal to say the winner of my auction was unable to follow through with their payment so the adopt has been relisted! It’s new end date is 8/31 at Midnight, EST.

https://twitter.com/luxebytes/statu.....985788930?s=21

I totally forgot to mention here that I finally relocated my physical merch store over to Big Cartel to do some spring cleaning of some of my leftover merch I’ve had sitting for a while in hopes of a con being able to safely happen for a minute lol. With the way things are looking I felt it was best to just start working towards setting up new store front online and amping that up over the course of the year to come.

I posted this up in twitter last week so as of now my sweaters and some charm designs have sold out now, but I do still have some remaining if you’d like to take a peek!

https://milkywaypress.bigcartel.com/

Just wanted to bring to everyone's attention that follows me on twitter! I switched handles to @/Luxebytes: http://twitter.com/luxebytes

My old account is still in place, but links you to my new handle so I can always be found! I'll be working on getting a carrd set up with all of my up to date information shortly.

Hello all!

I just wanted to bring to your attention a very important update for my clients I made on my trello this evening. As of today I have officially sent out a total of $1014.14 in refunds in a group batch. If you were apart of that batch, you should have received both your payment and a follow up email from me (sogaykingu@icloud.com)!

I'm doing these in batches because I would like to take the time to recover from each round, and also, not get locked out of my paypal for unusual spending activity lol. I feel that works out best for all of us.

If you are waiting on a refund from me, on my trello I have a list of people I have either lost contact with or can not track down their information. Please see my trello on how to be properly recorded for my upcoming batches of refunds. There should roughly be 2-3 more waves as of this first one, the last being mostly reserved for the largest amounts. Please fill out a form if you don't see yourself in my list.

Trello: https://trello.com/b/dU3cUcEA/vanis.....-queue-updates

Refund form: https://tinyurl.com/y3d4vt8p

Thanks! And take care

Hey everyone, I wanted to bring to your attention that I do have a ToyHouse where you can follow and credit any adopts you get from me. I will most likely look into trying my hand at auctions there via the bullentin board feature there as well in the near future.

I'm looking to finally have a place where all of my designs can be tracked since I never know who owns what these days lol. So if you have one, I'd appreciate if you could properly credit my TH! Thanks

https://toyhou.se/Vani-

Just thought I'd make a journal about this, but over on twitter I had a few followers express interest in limited "come back" designs on my retired bases that I don't use anymore and haven't touched in ages! I'm in the middle of major con crunching for MFF and I have a multitude of invoices for new merchandise to get paid this week and the next, so I'm trying to weigh in my options for obtaining these funds since unfortunately a capital or personal loan isn't in my favor at this time. On top of that, I'm majorly juggling a variety of merch I'm finishing up as well that I'm strapped with due to deadlines for production coming up. So drafting a new base isn't possible for me at this time. I can only make time in-between for a few designs on a pre-existing base.

So, if that sounds like something you guys would be down for, I'd love your feedback. I have a poll going on my twitter right now for a few I picked out that I would personally be okay with revisiting: Fem Werewolf Base, Serval Base, AWD Base, Lop Goat Base, Hyena Base, Rabbit Base, Fem Deer Base and the male big cat base.

Let me know!! I gotta start cranking some designs out asap bc time is of the essence and deadlines are coming in fast. These adopts will all be for flat sale btw, no auctions~

Just wanted to make a separate journal to touch base with you guys and thank you for all the overwhelming response and feedback on my last journal, there were so many good comments that I agreed with and gave me the reassurance I was looking for despite the truth of the situation. To be quite honest with you, I'm feeling better about it now compared to a few days ago. You could say it was just one of those days where I had a lot of stuff troubling me, and coming online to the note about a base being traced was just kind of a nail on the coffin that really got me down with everything else going on in my personal life at this time. Normally I do just brush this stuff off and keep on going.

That being said, I'll continue to upload bases publicly for you all to use, but I think what I will be adding moving forward is a watermark that will be required to use from here on out. (Finally, right?) That may not stop the tracing or stealing, but at least it's something to help narrow down people who need to be reprimanded.

If I do make a move with Patreon, I'd only make patreon-exclusive bases, but still continue to release bases to the public. I'm also wondering that for the time being if you all would be interested in a public discord server dedicated to updates and discussion about my bases? I imagine it would be a great way to share what you all are working on and get the word out if you need help getting your adopts sold too. I'd be more than happy to share wips of stuff I have in the works as well. Let me know and I'll get right on setting that up!

Hey everyone,

So I wanted to address this publicly, but over the past couple of months and what feels like it's starting to pop up more frequently, it would appear that more and more folks out there are tracing my bases or simply taking my bases and for whatever reason deciding to put them up for free on "free lineart" websites. People are passing these links around and it's really pissing me off.

It's really starting to get to me at this point. I feel rather defeated as there's nothing I can do to keep people from stealing my bases for free in some shape or form. Today I got a note from someone who apparently commissioned an artist for a reference who blatantly traced one of my bases and tried to get away with it. So, I would say that was probably my last straw. The only thing I can think of that would give me a little control over who's using my bases and moving to a more exclusive route with them would be to possibly look to only allowing access to any new future bases through Patreon at this point.

Would that be something you guys would be okay with moving forward should I decide to only release bases on Patreon to supporting patrons? My main goal with allowing people to use my bases was just to offer a way for those of you looking to get extra help with your finances as they help me with my own. For them to be stolen and abused like this has really got me feeling like Hot Garbage and taken advantage of. For all I know someone is probably giving all my bases away for free and I just haven't found out yet.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, because I would like to continue offering bases to those of you who do very well with them and rely on them for your own income. But I don't want to make them so exclusive that it becomes an issue of some kind.

Hey there, so you guys might of noticed I deactivated a few days ago. It's a long story but basically I deactivated during a real bad depressive episode I was having after I met up with a therapist I was reaching out to as a first step to getting some help around here. It didn't go too well, and basically made my condition and suicidal ideations I was already having, worse. So I found myself closing myself off completely from everyone to be in complete isolation. Friends, family, the internet...literally everyone.

I drafted a statement regarding what happened that you can read here: https://tinyurl.com/yxwbny68

There was a bit of an uproar on twitter about my disappearance that was really... uh.. jarring to come back home to after I had come back from going to a few CRCs nearby me to get some help. Due to this uproar I ultimately decided that it would be in my best interests for my health, and for the sake of my clients that I keep in waiting for long periods of time while I'm fighting my mental health issues that I should just issue refunds via adopts. I explained all that in the document if you'd like to read my reasoning in full. But it's just gotten to a point where I just can't keep jeopardizing my health any longer. I make money faster with adopts/bases than I produce individual pieces of art that I pour a lot of my time into, and a lot of that time is affected by my disorders I was diagnosed with recently that I didn't even know I had until I saw a psychiatrist recently for medication.

So I need all my clients reading this that I did not personally reach out to recently, to fill out this form for your refund. I'm really sorry it's come to this, and I know for most of you it's highly disappointing: https://tinyurl.com/y3d4vt8p

So far I only have 25/96 of the people on my refund list that I pulled from the full list of owed work that have filled out the refund form. I'm keeping 25 clients I personally picked to keep the art for due to personal reasoning. Most are friends that keep up with me personally to understand why my art outcome might be affected and don't mind waiting with zero pressure. I wanted to keep it to a strict number of 25 since I personally know that it's something I can handle once all my refunds have been dealt with.

After I have tackled my overdue rent for March, rent for April and funds for bills, I will be dedicating April to dishing out as many adopts as possible to start hacking away at these refunds. It'll be no different than how I managed to get the funds I needed for moving and my car last year, so I'm pretty confident I can make this happen to get my queue cleared once and for all.

If you know someone I owe work to, and they've lost touch with me, I urge you to share this and help me get the word out that I'd like to refund everyone I owe something to. No matter how long ago it may have been, I just want to get this all cleared up.

I've got a pretty important update for you guys waiting on art from me. I just received a letter from my apartment complex regarding whether I'm planning to stay or end my lease here, and I have until when July's rent is paid to make that decision. So after much thought and trying to figure things out as quickly as I can, I've put together an update to let everyone know what my status will be looking like while I work through these next two months of trying to raise what I need before my time is up here.

You can read all the details here on this form. Once you've read the update, you're more than welcome to go ahead and file for a refund from me or disregard to stay on queue and sit tight with me while I begin to transition to a new place come this September: https://goo.gl/forms/NrGRcJmgOJpOHTzy1

Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about all of this.

Hey, just want to make everyone aware that I will be relocating all base sales over to E-Junkie from now on! So please help me get the word out! I've been meaning to move away from Sellfy due to relieve myself from the extra charges that occur that I'm never quite prepared for to save on my finances.

To promote this move, I've implemented a weekend sale for 35% off all bases in my store, along with the addition of my exclusive revamped chibi werewolf from the mega werewolf pack bundle. It will only be available for purchase during the sale, but the discount does not apply to it. Once this sale ends on 5/7/18 at 6pm EST time, this base will be removed from my store and those lines will only be able to be obtained from buying the giant werewolf pack.

Here's the link to my new store!: https://vani-illustrations.e-junkie.com/

Please note that the discount prices will not be reflected until you add a base to your cart! Once you check out, the discount will automatically be applied to all bases that the weekend sale applies to.

I will be permanently shutting down my Sellfy store within a week to make sure enough time has passed to get the word around.

Hey all, it's been a long time coming and I'm sorry it's taken a bit! But I finally got around to creating a TOS for my designs and usage of bases since I planning on dropping two new bases in the store and doing a sale. So now's the time to finally get this thing up. Feel free to take a moment to read it when you have the chance. This is for those who have purchased designs from me and use my bases regularly. The section regarding trades and resales is a definite must read. Thank you!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/.....it?usp=sharing

It's been a long time coming, but I finally decided to pursue a plan of action I've been rolling over in my thoughts for the past three months now. Now that I finally have my goal in motion, I'm happy to finally announce my plans since I have money in hand as of now. I've decided to go with the plan of giving out refunds to knock out my queue this month and down to a reasonable amount that I can finish out in a short amount of time. I'd also like it shorter before I launch my Patreon next month.

I'd really, really appreciate it if you could give this update a read, as I've explained my reasoning behind it all here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/.....it?usp=sharing

As I mentioned in this document I will be releasing a form for folks to submit to once I reach my first goal amount of $2500, right now I currently have $1k safely stored away.

Refunds will be available for everyone from 2016 and back. If you got something from me in 2017 or recently, or have a wip in my progress queue, you are safe and sound as that list is very, very short. Feel free to shoot me a note or DM on twitter if you have any questions or would like to talk to me about possibly keeping your commission. But otherwise, I would really appreciate folks accepting a refund from me when the form goes live at this time. Thank you for taking the time to read! I know it's wordy and I apologize, I over think quite a bit.


**: Also, pointed this out in the update but if you're going to FWA and are getting a badge from me, you're also safe from the rapture haha. I'll be keeping badges for those attending to deliver at the con.

I mentioned this on my trello a while ago, and only had a couple of people respond and I just want to make sure that I have an up to date list of those going to MFF this year so I can get your badges done on time, whether they're a trade or commission. Please let me know if you're going so I can add you to my to-do list for this month. Thank you! I'd like to start getting badge wips worked on this weekend. I'll also be posting my MFF list on my trello as well.

Hey! So those of you who have been keeping up with my updates on Trello, I posted about needing to restock on art supplies so I can work on some of my traditional pieces while I'm out of town for the next week. Turns out I need to do some restocking on my art supplies for this because I'm missing way more than I thought after going through what I had. So I decided to put up two slots of my busts that folks have been inquiring about, especially since by November they should be all 80% done given my current schedule, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to offer up two for December completion to tack onto the end of the list I'm working through.

I'll be putting up the post shortly! Keep an eye out if you're interested.

Also if you haven't seen the recent updates on my Trello, definitely check those out! https://trello.com/b/dU3cUcEA/full-.....ue-and-updates

It's over!!!! the scraps spam is done.... thank u for putting up with my shenanigans............

I'll be streaming tomorrow btw!! sorry I haven't been doing much of that, when I get kinda anti-social I just wanna keep to myself to draw pff.

Well, you guys agreed to this. I scavenged through all of my scrapped doodles and wips and junk and compiled some sketch dumps. So keep an eye on my scraps for some scraps exclusive sketch dumps. It was one of those instances where I wasn't aware how much had accumulated since like... early last year??? Some of these doodles are old, some recent. But... it'll be something, including some nsfw doodles. So I apologize in advance!

Would anyone be interested if I started uploading personal stuff to my scraps?? I have a few things in the works that I work on in between comms and what have you else that I can't finish right away since my main focus is my owed stuff, so I was thinking I could upload wips and sneak peeks to my scraps for the time being. Like temporary refs I have that won't be done for a while lmao... thoughts??