Thank you for your support (Please read!)

Hi everyone, I wanted to talk to you about something that's been on my mind for a while, and that is the future of this Patreon. First of all, I am sincerely grateful for your support throughout these months. It's more than I could have possibly imagined when I started this up back in May last year, and it's gotten me through some very tough financial times as a student. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

The size of the projects I've been undertaking lately has been increasing more and more, to the point where I am mainly working on projects that need several months to complete. Now that in itself is not a problem, but lately I have been questioning how compatible that is with the monthly subscription model, since recently there have been months where I am able to share very little with you guys. I've been supplementing these months with patron sketches, but I know that with my limited time I am only able to make a few of these within the span of a month. Of course, for those of you I could not draw (which is most of you), those sketch updates are less interesting to see.

On the more personal side of things, while Patreon has been a nice source of income, monetizing my art has had two major negative effects: 1) it isolates me from the furry community by putting the majority of my work past a paywall, and 2) it stagnates my artistic development by severely limiting the free time I could use to experiment in different mediums and styles. I do have a main career, and art has always been a hobby for me. Unfortunately, this Patreon has now effectively become a prison, running directly counter to the reason I started drawing in the first place. I do think the pressure to deliver consistently has been a detriment to my mental state, twisting this fun passion into a second job with deadlines and the stress that comes along with it.

To cope with that, I turned to substance abuse to deal with the self-imposed isolation this additional work has been putting on me. I've since gone sober, but I do think I need to go to the root of the problem. So, effective next month, I am shutting down my Patreon. Here is what that means:

1) I will completely shut down this Patreon at the end of August. 

2) I have already placed a hold on collecting pledges next month, meaning you will not be charged in August, but WILL still be able to access everything I release here.

3) Regarding the VNs, I do still plan to work on them, but at a pace that works better for my schedule and health. Part 1 of Consolation Prize is on track to be released before I shut things down here (in other words, either this month or next), and you will still get early access as patrons. The VNs following that (Yeen Video Chat and Part 2 of Consolation Prize) I currently plan to work on post-Patreon as a pet hobby, though at a more leisurely pace. They will be free if/when they do release. I've already had someone take my first VN and re-upload it to itch.io themselves, so I doubt I could keep them paywalled even if I wanted to. Leaks have always been an issue with this Patreon-exclusive content, so it will be good to not have to worry about that anymore.

4) Those of you with annual subscriptions, please message me either here or on Twitter (@mosinott) and I will refund you the remaining months left on your subscription via Paypal.

5) I am opening up for commissions shortly (I've been busy working on my boyfriend's birthday present this week), and I will of course still honor your 20% patron discount if you are selected.

6) The Discord server has always been pretty quiet and small, so I don't think it would be a huge loss for anyone to shut it down. But if it's something folks wanna keep for a while longer, then I'd be happy to do that (assuming my mods are fine with that too). Just let me know!

Anyway, I think that's it, but let me know if I'm missing any important details. I've always strived to be transparent with you guys, and I do hope you understand my reasoning behind this decision.  I will still be making things and sharing them (for free!) over on Twitter, so I hope you'll join me on that journey. And if you are interested in commissions, I'll have a lot more time to take those on in the future when I'm ready! I've already got a few fun ideas rattling around in my brain for commission work folks might enjoy seeing. 

Regardless, if you have any lingering questions, please let me know, either in the comments below or via DM. And as always, I appreciate you - take it easy.