January Update - New Year, Some Changes

First off, Happy New Year all!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and New Years. I enjoyed my time off immensely and it was very much needed, I even remembered how to relax (albeit towards the end of the month). But January is here and so is 2022 (not sure that's a good thing yet) so I'll be getting back to sculpting. In the meantime, here are some updates and changes that I'm going to be making this year.

January Billing Paused - December Content Still Valid

Just a reminder, you will not have been billed unless you signed up as a new patron. December's content links are still valid, so if you're new you can still grab the December release until the end of January.

Work-Life Balance and Mental Health

Some of you may already know that I've been struggling with a proper work-life balance and burnout, largely thanks to the churn of monthly content creation. Fortunately, therapy has helped somewhat in overcoming burnout and getting my passion back. But the work-life balance is something that I have to put in place and put up some boundaries for a healthier life and mindset. I will be doing this mostly by removing distractions and trying to ensure that I get work done during set work hours so I can have a semblance of a homelife following that instead of being up still working at 1 or 2am in the morning.

Over the last year I've tried to deliver more and more value with bust versions, bonus parts and entirely separate artistic nude statues with accompanying busts of their own (where appropriate). I don't see a reason why I wouldn't be able to continue to deliver these value-added extras so long as I can get them done within reasonable work hours. However, just be aware that there may be some months where the complexity of the model prevents me from doing them (Cassidy and Ash came close to this). I haven't updated my tier rewards to reflect these bonus parts as standard and I will not do so, just in case I have to miss them off.

Just so everyone is aware, Ritual Casting is just myself. I design, sculpt, decimate, cut, key, repair, support, test print, upload, manage, distribute, post, and provide customer service entirely by myself.

End of Polls

After much thought, I've decided to end the polls. Doing the polls the old fashioned way led to continuously losing options and increasing frustration and doing them the new way means everything will get made at some point anyway. So, instead of managing that each month, I'm just going to do away with the polls all together. As I release the model the following month and post WIPs and previews throughout before they launch I figure everyone will have plenty of time to decide if they're interested or not anyway. Only 20-30% of people actually use the poll, so it doesn't look as though it will be a huge loss and I will no longer have to be a part of arguments or complaints about who wins.

The options currently on the poll (Anne, Tuya, Johnny) will be sculpted throughout the next few months in their current order dictated by the votes they have.  February will see the release of Anne, March will have Tuya, and April will have Johnny. After that, I will be sculpting whatever I feel like, sometimes linking multiple months together with unified themes as I did with the Campions of Death in 2020 (Mortaya, Shryka and Magdalena). This does mean I will be sculpting a wider range of characters. Whereas male and monstrous characters were secondary figures in some previous multi-character dioramas they may now feature as more detailed and defined main characters.

Potential Kickstarter Project

I know some of you will be rolling your eyes with a "here he goes again". Thanks to a terrible work-life balance last year I never had the time to sculpt for myself, it was always for Patreon. As I'm now insisting that I have a home life I will now be able to sculpt for myself at a casual speed. I rediscovered the joy in sculpting during my month off and wish to continue with the side project I started in my free time. This may turn into a Kickstarter further down the line so long as I manage to keep the work-life balance in check. If this happens I will keep everyone up to date.

Everything Else

Not sure what else to add as normally this update would be about the new releases and such. Since there is no new release this month I will be posting a new discount code shortly and I will be making Rodriguez available on MMF for subscribers from December over the next couple of days.

I'll keep you posted with WIPs of Anne throughout the month.

Thanks again to you all for your continued support.