An Update

Hiya! Just wanted to offer an update regarding some concerns, and a little about my process as well!

Recently I've had a couple anonymous exit interviews saying they left because I wasn't posting enough/ wasn't engaging enough as a creator. These are fair points, and unfortunately my work is never going to please everyone like I would like it to, but I would like to address these concerns all the same.

I seriously work as hard as I can to put out content. A typical piece takes at bare minimum one full day to gather reference pieces, create a rough draft, ink, put in flat colors, shade, highlight, finalize details, and in some cases create a background as well. Usually, because I have high expectations for myself, a single piece will take 2-3 days to get it how I want it. For example, each of my comic pages takes 3 full days. So far I have not been able to get them done any faster than that, but I am happy with the level of quality so I'm not trying to rush them. 

At the moment I am working on the Mario RPG orgy scene I posted about at the beginning of the month, and it is a WHOPPER of a project with 18 different characters included in one scene! I've also been breaking up the work on it throughout the month so that I could post some smaller pieces here and there! And this is where it becomes tricky: Should I forego larger projects and just put out single, simple illustrations with more frequency, or should I mix it up and try new things, new projects and ideas with some taking longer than others? 

For me, I like to keep things fresh and interesting. I also think, in the long run it's more interesting for you guys that I don't post (basically) the same piece over and over. I want to draw a variety of characters in different ways while still holding true to the hunky daddy theme. I'm not a machine, and boredom can quickly become a problem for me if I keep doing roughly the same illustration over and over, so to keep myself consistently involved, I have to switch it up.

Regarding being more engaging, I want to be! That's a big part of why I'm on social media in the first place! I always try to include detailed descriptions of my work, maybe with a silly tale about why I was moved to create it in the first place. I could post more about my personal life/thoughts in general but I don't want to clog this Patreon account with a bunch of stuff that isn't art-related. Do folks have thoughts on how I might be more engaging? I hope once I reach my art stream goal that that becomes a great way to feel engagement with me as I work from time to time. In the meantime, I respond to personal messages, and read every comment left here. (I also hope I come off as approachable generally, because I promise I am!)

Lastly, I've received comments regarding it being difficult to look through past work/posts on this platform. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if there is a decent solution to this. I tag everything, but there is no archive view, there are no folders or galleries available... Patreon says it is looking into ways to add such things to the U.I. but until then, I'm unsure of a good workaround. If anyone knows of something, please let me know!

Sorry for the wall of text, but when people are dissatisfied with my work, I like to address it. It is disappointing that I am not made aware of such things until after someone has canceled their subscription, but that's the way it goes sometimes. The artwork that I create can't be done especially fast, or the quality will drop. I am unsure what the expectation is for how many pieces I should have completed each week or month, but I do know it is different for every visual artist out there and I can only do my best.

To sum up, I'm not upset about losing some folks because I'm not meeting their level of expectation. Quite the opposite, I'm happy to respond to these concerns and hopefully provide some insight for others who may have felt similarly, or are just curious. In the end I hope the work speaks for itself, and I hope the vast majority of you folks are happy to be here and enjoying the content. I know I am! If you have thoughts on any of these subjects, or answers to any of these questions, please let me know below or in a private message! Thanks for reading.

D.B.