reward changes & a new look – i’m back!

i am finally returning after a long hiatus! i’ll resume posting content in march, so normal billing will resume on april 1st. I’m excited to be back, but i’ve also got some important changes to announce. this is a long post, but please read on! all of these changes take immediate effect, and i want to make sure everyone is up to date!

as many of you know, i’m struggling with poor mental health (including untreated & unmedicated adhd, ocd, and anxiety), stress, and exhaustion. i keep taking on too much work, leading to overwhelm and cycles of burnout. that’s the main reason i had to take a hiatus. i need to scale back to a sustainable workload, so i’m making some changes to my tier rewards.

basically, i’m trying to refocus on the core of my content — which is art of hot monsters. making behind-the-scenes stuff is also fun, but defeats the purpose when it takes too much time away from actually painting and drawing and sketching. the amount of bonus stuff i try to post often leaves me feeling spread way too thin across too many different tasks. these reward changes are mostly about scaling back on “less essential” things, so i can have more time (and mental bandwidth) to make art.

here ‘s what’s changing:

1) i’m going to stop posting process videos. (judging from polls and feedback, they have consistently been among the least popular types of content, so they’re first on the chopping block.)

2) i’ll still post wallpapers – but less frequently. basically i’ll post occasional wallpaper bundles, at irregular intervals and however many months apart.

3) i’m still going to post concept art + design commentaries of each monster of the month — but the design commentaries will be shorter and more to-the-point. (quality over quantity.)

4) the OC spotlights have frankly gotten too long and the “need” to have a steady stream of new, well-developed characters to talk about has become really stressful. so i’ve decided to change “OC spotlights” into a more broad “lore/OC trivia“ kind of thing. it widens the scope in fun and liberating ways; a lore post can be almost anything that’s relevant to my characters and the worlds they live in, plus i’ll be able to mix text and art more freely, depending on whether i feel more inspired to write or draw (though again, text posts will be more short and concise).

ideas include info about the gods of our desert empire; “what if” doodles of crack pairings; illustrated character Q&As or “interviews”; mock-up pages from a witch’s grimoire; sketches of a character’s home; in-universe folklore and legends; an introduction to new characters; a map of ubdyi’s rest; illustrated commentary on traditional rhaajim clothing; AU doodles of familiar OCs; and perhaps even character playlists?

also, i’m removing the voting element; instead of polls i’ll personally choose which piece of lore, OC trivia, or worldbuilding to share next. polls are fun, but picking topics myself helps guarantee i’ll be really invested, which means i’ll have more fun, which means better content! (however, i may ask for suggestions of what kind of stuff you’d like to see!)

and finally, for the sake of not overthinking or trying to fit things into unnecessarily rigid categories, i’m mushing all types of $3 posts together under the shared umbrella of ”sketches and lore.” (and as with regular ”sketchbook” stuff, some of the lore/OC trivia content will be early access, and some of it will be patreon exclusive.)

5) i’m removing the “random polls” from the $1 tier (such polls haven’t been happening lately anyway) and the “coming soon!” from the $25 tier (because the idea i had for that tier is not realistic right now – until further notice, it will remain a tier for generous souls who want to support a bit extra).

6) i’m still going to do HOW TO MONSTER tutorials, but i’m going to turn them into more manageable projects. recent HTMs have been huge undertakings that take weeks of focused work to complete, and i’ve literally gotten sick, several times, from HTM crunchtime. i need to “shrink” them into something i can sustainably produce alongside the rest of my content. i’m might have to trial-and-error my way to exactly what works best, but here’s what i’ve decided so far:

- future HTMs will be shorter (again, quality over quantity!) and deal with more narrow topics (so that i can successfully cover them in fewer pages) or divide large topics into several smaller parts. for example, i’m still going to make tutorials about body language and nsfw expressions/body language, but i might chop them up into smaller parts, like posture/attitude, hand gestures, etc!

- i’m removing the voting element from HTMs too. again, me choosing a topic i'm invested in at the moment = me having fun = better content. it’ll also give me more control over choosing topics that aren’t either too broad or too narrow; and not having to wait for poll results streamlines the process, since i can get started quicker. (but again, i may still ask for topic suggestions!)

- i’ll finish the exercise sheet for HTM13, but as of HTM14 and onward, i’ll merge the “main” tutorial and exercise sheet back into a single document (the way it used to be in earlier HTMs). so yes, there will still be suggestions for drawing exercises, but they will be scattered throughout the tutorial, rather than separated into a wholly different document.

- the layout of future tutorials might look a bit different? a surprising amount of time goes into making them look so “textbooky,” so a less rigid aesthetic might be smarter.

- i’m going to avoid hard deadlines and not make any promises about EXACTLY how often i’m going to post new tutorials. i want to be able to keep a healthier working pace without the crushing pressure of needing to finish new tutorials at exactly X month intervals. i’m not going to either half-ass my content or burn myself out again, so i’ll let it take the time it takes to create HTMs that are useful and high quality.

7) in general, feedback from both patrons and friends has made me realise that i’ve been unnecessarily strict about my posting schedule. for four years i’ve felt a need to post a fixed set of exactly the same things every single month, or at very specific intervals. it’s felt increasingly limiting and restrictive, caused a lot of stress and pressure, and took a lot of the fun out of being creative.

it seems most patreon creators focus on simply sharing whatever they create, as they create it, guided by inspiration and passion (rather than keeping a rigid month-based posting schedule). i think it would do me well to try that more “freeform” approach; i do better art when i can create whatever i’m most excited about at the time. so i’m not necessarily going to decide exactly how often i “need” to make a lore post, or exactly how often i “must” publish a new tutorial, or the exact quota of X and Y that i "have" to produce each month. of course, i won’t use this as an excuse to be neglectful or lazy, and stuff like the “monster of the month” content will remain predictable – but i will no longer let an all-too-rigid posting schedule rule my creativity, and it feels great!

… and that should be it! i’ve updated all tier descriptions -- and also, check out the new aesthetics! i’ve got a new header, tier images, and avatar (and i might experiment with doing titles and tags a bit differently too).

change is scary, but often necessary. i’m trying to find a healthier balance between creative passion, mental wellbeing, realistic expectations, and financial necessities. when you’re self-employed, it’s easy to put way too high expectations on yourself. it never feels like you’re doing enough, and it seems sadly common for artists/content creators to only acknowledge that we need to take a break and/or scale back after we crash and burn. i want to maintain the same quality and keep improving my art, while also respecting my limits.

thank you so much for reading, and i hope it all makes sense. if you have any questions, or feedback, or if there is anything you want me to elaborate on, comment below or send me a DM!

wishing you all the best, and THANK YOU ALWAYS for the support! <3