1 Year of Patreon: A Retrospective

With my first year on Patreon, I want to take a look back and reflect on my experience. When I made my Patreon, I had 3 goals:

• Make it a viable source of income
• Reduce commissions
• Make an Eroge

Pretty straightforward, I didn't really think too hard on these goals back then. But they did serve me well as guides for the following months and leading up to today. So let's see how I fared in the first year and after that, I'll talk about future plans.

Income

It took a year of ups and downs but we managed to reach the $500 goal! I have been taking commissions here and there to supplement my income but now, I don't need to do that anymore. This truly means a lot to me and I can only repay that by doing better and more works!

Some of you might sneer at this amount but due to my location and a few arrangements, I can live with this amount for the time being :D Let's move on to the next!

studies (lots of skin coloring practice!)

Reducing Commissions

Naturally, I was able to decrease commissions once I got more Patrons. This is a bit of a rough one though. I actually struggled with balancing commissions and Patreon especially in the beginning. But I think I managed to figure out in the end.

The direct result was I was able to devote more time on personal work and more importantly studies (as pictured above, I do a lot of these stuff now)

I made significant improvements over the past year, if I do say so myself :3 I would say the biggest improvement is that I'm no longer afraid of drawing in High Resolution (believe me, I used to be like a headless chicken when I drew on a canvas bigger than 1500x1500) Now, I default to high res and can now focus on my other weaknesses. I also now have a better control over anatomy, which is extremely important when it comes to lewds. All in all, having more time for personal work was a massive boon to my improvement. But of course, improvement is never-ending so while I'm satisfied, this is not the end! Next!

discontinued eroge project

Eroge 

I'll try to keep it short. I've always loved the idea of exploring ways to use my art. So last year, I started an Eroge project to do just that. I was so ambitious back then. Unfortunately, reality ensued and I had to drop the project in December last year.

As I mentioned earlier, I was already struggling with balancing commissions and Patreon. Add the workload of a Visual Novel and you have the recipe of a disaster. Add to that, we were hit by a pretty strong typhoon last year, compounding the smothering pressure that I put on myself. It was really bad.

Basically, I tried juggling too many balls at once and lost control. I missed deadlines, I kept refunding pledges and commissions because I felt guilty for being paid for not delivering which really put a strain on my finances, and the once passion project turned into a nuisance and even a source of negativity. There was a slow realization that I had to make sacrifices but back then I couldn't accept failure because it shook my ego. In the end, I crashed and burned, my body gave up and I shelved the project.

Oof. That kinda opened up old wounds but hey, life isn't always sunshine and butterflies. Looking back at it now the problem was I was obsessed with finishing the damn thing that I did not take my time to enjoy the process. It felt like I needed to prove that I could do it. That was the wrong mindset.

The bright side is no matter how painful it is, there is wisdom in failure and it is essential for growth. What I'm saying is I should have had only 2 heroines :P In all seriousness though, this was a great learning experience for me.

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Whew. That's a long post. I'm definitely happy that I managed to achieve 2 out of 3 goals. All in all, it's a positive development. But now it's time to set my eyes on the present. I'm really excited for what the future holds for me and I have a couple of goals to hopefully put me in the right direction, namely:

1. More Variety in Content

If you've noticed, I've kinda mixed things up a bit lately; sometimes I do pinups, sometimes a collage of images, etc. I want to keep this up and add more variety. One thing in particular that I want to do is multiple character illustrations. I've been avoiding this for a long time but I think it's finally time to rise up to the challenge! :D

2. Game Project

Technically this is the same as number 1, but I'm putting it in it's own category because it's such a massive undertaking. The truth is I'm already doing this on and off with a project called Switch/Swap. I'm in charge of the art and but I'm taking my time with this project. I don't want a repeat of last time so it might be a while before you guys can play it. But yeah, this is a thing and I have more projects lined up after this! 

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And that's pretty much my goals for now! Next year I hope to look back on this and confidently say that I've achieved both goals. Only time will tell I guess!

Lastly, I want to thank everyone for your support. You guys have made this all possible and I am motivated more than ever to keep pushing forward! Onward to Year 2!

Thanks for reading and here's Iris Heart as a reward! :3