Not gonna mince words. First off, I’m currently open for commissions. I’ve opened ten slots and 8 are still available as of writing this. I plan to start working on regular commissions on September 16th, so if you’re interested, please check out my commission rules and pricing via this link, then contact me. Next, regarding my Patreon Shop and OxShop. I’ve been adding a lot of pictures from the latter into the former in pairs. You can check the Post Shop Previews gallery to see what’s currently available in the shop (each post has a link to the product). Furthermore, I’m offering 25% discounts for a number of items depending on the Patreon tier joined (please contact me so I can issue it). What’s more, the program I use for the OxShop has given me a bunch of extra payment options beyond credit/debit cards and Paypal, like Apple and Google pay, etc, so if that’s more convenient for you, feel free to purchase my work from there.
Alright, now for the main point of this post: I’m in a bad spot with my income right now. I haven’t even made $2000 a month for most of this year, let alone the $2500 or $3000 needed to be stable (at least for me) and now my current bills are too much for me to handle. Not only that, but some might recall how I got caught up in a phishing scam on DeviantArt in January (the type that tricks you into thinking your account is at risk and you might be investigated for fraud). The truth is, I lost $2000 out of my savings from that and I haven’t been able to recover since and now I’ve had to dip into whatever’s left to keep afloat. As such, I’m making a hard pivot in how I go about most of my work in both popularity and transparency in hopes of attracting more support.
For the former, as of writing, I’m currently holding a public character popularity poll on via this link on which characters I should focus on and will do so periodically. For the transparency aspect, this mostly relates to Sponsored Commissions (SponComms) and Squish Drives. First off, I’ve largely simplified what can qualify as a SponComm: pretty much any picture featuring a franchise character I really like in a composition I like with little OC presence can work (check my commission rules for more info). The most important part, however, is that I plan to post SponComm sketches publicly under a SponFund. This matters a lot as I plan to focus more on sketches over full colored work overall. I’ll still try and complete some colored works for my Patreon on a monthly basis, but I need to be more targeted on what I spend my time on.
Anyway, the SponFund follows similar rules to the old Squish Tips in that the sketches with the most points will be what I finish whenever I reach a $150 milestone (up to two at a time). Anyone who donates to the SponFund within a milestone window, even as low as $5, will receive a copy of the finished work (as will Patreon members, of course). Furthermore, the point count on pictures doesn’t reset and has no limit, so every picture will have a chance to be finished eventually.
Squish Drives from here on will be sketch drives and when all sketches are finished, they’ll be added to the SponFund gallery. As such, the goals for such drives are far lower ($50 per sketch) and I’ll be adding rough sketches over time to give people an idea of what the pictures will look like as proof of concept. Likewise, anyone who donates to the Squish Drive will receive a copy of the finished versions of all the pictures that comprise it. And of course, I’ll be sure to acknowledge everyone who contributed, likewise for SponFund milestones. Both of these can be found on this page, so no need to search everywhere.
Lastly, I’ve made a plain old tip jar (yes, I’m that desperate). If I’m being honest, I’d much rather people throw money my way via every other option, but this exists if I’m both swamped with work and suffering a deficit. Even then, I’m compelled to offer the chance of a simple request per $5 donated, to which I’ll make time for when the total reaches a certain amount. As of now, I’d alternatively like to offer a Lusty Lamp Q&A suggestion from this chart, something which is only available $20 patrons to do at present and is a lot more likely to be fulfilled. In either case, the point of this tip jar is strictly for extra support with little promised in return.
So yeah, that’s pretty much it. Apologies if it’s a lot to read, but I tried covering everything as briefly as possible. If this all sounds like a plea for help, that’s because it is. If I’m not doing regular commissions, which I haven’t gotten a lot of lately, then I’m in a really tight spot. Still, I appreciate any and all support I receive, as I’d be in a much worse situation otherwise. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via the available channels at the bottom of my commission info.
