Hello everyone, it's been a while since I last posted (however, if you were following me on my social media, I'm posting progresses there). Please don't worry as I'll definitely deliver artbooks & I hope it'll be worth the wait!
The important announcement may come as a good news or bad news depending on your perspective, although I don't really treat as a majorly bad news (´∀`;).
There are very important things I would like to talk about:
1) Artbook Vol. 15, 16, 17, & 18 are all targeted to release on July.
• Artbook Vol. 15 (covers the March 1st charge)
• Artbook Vol. 16 (covers the April 1st charge)
• Artbook Vol. 17 (covers the May 1st charge)
• Artbook Vol. 18 (covers the June 1st charge)
2) Month starting from July & going forward will not be charged.
3) After all the pending Artbooks have been released, my patreon content delivery will go on semi-hiatus.
4) I'll be taking a break.
5) Once I finish my break, commission will finally open
6) Artbook delivery will no longer be a monthly thing. It will be paced slowly & will release whenever it is ready. You won't be charged in advance, and you will be notified a week in advance should the artbook release soon so you can decide if you'll continue pledging or cancel before the artbook releases (which will probably take many months or so).
Now, I'll address some of the possible concern:
Will you stop making JRPG related content & JRPG/video game fanart?
No, jrpg is my lifeblood & I'll definitely continue to make content related to them, draw, create, & play. I'll continue to do it till the day I die ((⊂(`ω´∩).
If the artbook is no longer a monthly thing, when will be the next artbook(Vol.19) release?
All I can say is whenever it will be ready, maybe many months or longer. I want to take time on it & just have fun working on it & push the artworks as far as I can.
Will these change the way you do things?
Most likely no, the only thing that will change is the frequency of artbook delivery & less burden on your wallet.
Will we see less fanart now that the artbook delivery will be less frequent?
May be unlikely, but I can't say for sure since it'll depend on the commission I'll get. All I can say for now is 'personal commissions' will most likely be jrpg/video-game related fanart. I can only assume for now, but most it'll most likely be Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Nintendo games like Kid Icarus/Smash Bros.,and etc.〔´∇`〕
With that context, it might actually get more frequent as I'll also be posting/sharing them on twitter/pixiv/fb or wherever I am.
What about the JRPG emojis?
The same frequency as the artbook, it'll release alongside it.
As for the previous months, all pending JRPG emojis will also release with the pending artbooks. In fact, I already finished quite a number of them.
Will these affect our discord reward/roles & access to patron-access only content?
No, you'll continue to be a protagonist/patron even if you don't get charged for months, as long as you're still pledging.(`∇´ゞ)
Won't this be exploited by pledging, then canceling when artbook is about to release (to avoid getting charged), then pledge again after?
Sure, but I care more about my real supporters. Those who really want & can support will stay, and those who don't will not. Not that I'll just let it go as it'll be not fair to the current supporters & possibly cause inconvenience to both me & my supporters, so I'll blacklist them after seeing a pattern & investigating it.
Why have you decided to change the schedule of delivery?
Mainly due to burnout and being both physically & mentally exhausted. It's been very unhealthy for me. With each every volume, I try to push the content & quality of artwork as much as I can while also factoring the time. The problem with this is, aside from its taking more time, whenever I get new supporters, there is much more expectation due to the standard I set from previous volume so it snowballs. I can't just reduce the content since it'll be like selling the DLC & immediately nerfing it, and the artist in me just couldn't settle being stagnant so I'll always try pushing it.
Although as what can be seen, it's recently really shown some of its effect these past few recent months(´Д`).
There's just a lot of challenges:
• I've never felt satisfied about my artworks recently, hence I decided to take more time to work on them. Like for example, Vol. 15's artworks can be considered finished, although I haven't compiled them yet as I continue to revisit them and make improvements.
• There's just too much burnout + exhaustion to the point that I often had to artificially motivate myself to keep on.
What about your Draknier Story Project? What happened to it?
I'm always trying to work on it whenever I can, although it's mostly concept art related & story drafts that I'm not ready to post.
It's also one of the reason why I've considered making these changes, so I could have more time for it, hopefully( ̄人 ̄) .
While you are on break, will you be less active, see less post from you, & less active in the community?
No, I'm here to stay, nothing really changes aside from artbooks taking much much longer & doing commissions(after the break). (๑´ㅂ`๑)
What I'm attempting to do with these changes is turn it into "my pace" kind of thing & take more control of my time.
In fact, I think I'll be able to share to more variety in what I do & share. Doodles, art & gamedev studies/progresses, sketches.
Another thing is stream, I may be able to make more time for it, either to play games, draw commission, or draw for personal content (artwork for artbook, draknier story, doodles, etc.).
As for "break", I'm not really taking a break as if I'm going alone on a self-searching kind of thing, but more of a 'fun productive' rather than a 'logically/efficiently productive'. Just have fun doing personal stuff randomly. Play games, do studies of what I'm interested in without being concern about making money/living or being productive to make money/living, but more on about personal growth.
Why semi-hiatus?
It's because I will not stop from making fanart, but when I start the commission after the break, it might greatly affect the frequency, although technically, I am still making jrpg/video game fanart, but as commissioned artworks. It's been so long since I last opened a commission publicly, probably back in 2019, so I'm not sure about the amount of commission on the first wave as it will not be slot-limited (at least for the first batch).
PROS & CONS of these changes:
PROS:
-1~2 years from now, I can finally have the foresight of not seeing myself being in a hospital.
- Can be more active in the community/social/art platforms.
- More quality on artwork for the artbook
- Punctuality on artbook delivery
- Can finally do commissions (Personal & Commercial). Not just a one time thing, but can be a recurring one.
- More time to work on personal projects
- You will no longer be charged monthly.
CONS:
- Artbooks will take longer
What about us who wants to continue supporting regardless of the reward?
I know that there are some of you, so thank you, I really appreciate, but you don't necessarily have to feel oblige as I've already received so much. But for those who insist, I don't know yet, there'll probably be some ways.
I'm really curious about the commission, what are your prices, what options do we have, & how long will it take to finish?
Please wait until after the break, please don't worry, I got you covered, all of that will be answered & you can ask/inquire for more details if the commission info that I'll prepare doesn't suffice (๑˃́ꇴ˂̀๑)
So when & how long will you take a break? And when will you take commissions?
I will be grinding(not rushing) to finish & release all pending artbooks in July so on August.
Probably for the whole month of august if I can.
If everything goes well, starting from September then onwards. I'll probably have to work on the 1st wave of commissions for months〔´∇`;〕 .
And that's all for the announcements!
Thank you for your time & sorry if it's a long read, I really want to give context and explanation as much as possible (´∀`ゞ.
If you have more questions, please free to ask via comment/dm message/email/etc.
Thank you again & have a great pleasant day (๑´ㅂ`๑)!