Very long update about life + future of patreon and commissions

Hi everybody!

I hope your summer is going smoothly, and that you’ll be able to enjoy some holidays, plus spend some great time with friends and family! :)

So, I want to update you once again about a couple of important things. I’ll be publishing this first on my patreon so you patrons will know before hand what is going on.

Warning: it’s long. The TL;DR basically is this: very busy summer so I paused billing, IRL job stuff, avoiding burnout, need to change my patreon model, and taking a break before resuming work and commissions.
Yup, you’ll have noticed there are some news that could be considered as “not very good”.

Firstly: without getting into details, I’m gonna have my hands full this summer while dealing with several IRL matters, hence why I paused the billing among other reasons. Nothing bad happening, it’s just I’m gonna be busy! I’m going to try and unpause it in August, but note there’s a chance I won’t resume billing before a couple of months while I take care of all of that IRL stuff.
Still, worst case scenario: I’ll just continue posting some WIPs and sneak-peeks, even if it’ll be at a slower pace, and whenever I’ll have a page ready I’ll post it, and unpause billing for one month.

Regarding my IRL art-related job.
I’ve had my hands quite full with it for the past last months, and overall it’s been a great experience. It’s not a studio job, but it’s allowing me to make a few contacts in the industry and, more importantly I’m having fun, learning and improving my skills, having a sense of fulfillment, and being happy to go to work (something that hasn’t happened in a long time).
Still, it could be better, there are some drawbacks. I mentioned on twitter that a few colleagues are quite anti-furries, quite queerphobic (by queer I mean “anyone not straight and cis”), and very vocal about both. You can’t really choose with whom you’re going to work, but more reasons for me to hide even more all of my Xss related stuff and my asexuality. I’m not saying I would get fired if they discovered it, but it’s likely they’ll try to push me towards resignation by creating a toxic work environment.
On the other hand there are a lot of other people I’m very happy to work with and to meet thanks to my job, so I’m trying to focus on that positive instead.
Also, it seems my contract has been renewed, so I guess I’m somewhat safe until AI art will take over all of our jobs. While nothing is future proof and the pay could always be better, it should cover most of my basic expenses if I keep a frugal lifestyle, and it’s still paying much more than commissions and patreon combined.

However, that’s taking a lot of my free time as well: I need to constantly polish my skills, and now I want to learn some Unreal Engine to include it into my workflow.
That is free time that I would normally reserve for just relaxing, but also for my art as Xss, which brings me to my next point. I promised some drawings (gifts and trades) to online friends that I’ll need to complete over the summer: that will keep me busy on top of all the IRL stuff happening.

Regarding commissions and patreon, those two have generally been going okay, and I have to say that Artistree is an amazing platform for commissions (really, give those guys lot of love: I wouldn’t be doing commissions if it wasn’t for them!), so thank you so much to all of you who commissioned me or are supporting me on patreon, it truly means a lot! :)
Also, expect a new tier with private streams to appear at some point...
It’s also good to know that if worse comes to worst, my gig as Xss is something I could keep doing as a freelancer if my IRL career doesn’t take off, or even as a side gig.

However, this is where the bad news start pouring in, and I’m a bit nervous about this...
I completely understand if what follows might anger some of you and you decide to stop supporting me on patreon, so don’t feel bad if you think you have to cancel your subscription: no hard feelings.

Firstly, as I’ve said, my free time is limited due to my job, and patreon is taking me an awful lot of time and energy since I’m a very slow artist, while bringing too little profit. As a result I need to evolve and change the type of content I’ll propose on patreon and work smarter instead of more.
Keep in mind creators roughly get half of what patrons pay. Yup, for a €10 pledge I get €5-€6 euros total in my pocket. Patrons are charged extra VAT that we creators don’t get. Then patreon takes roughly 22% or so in different platform fees. Over what remains, I have to pay taxes as well (also 22% approximately), hence the €5-6 I get at the end.
Yes, I know commissions are much more lucrative...But patreon is more personal and important as well in the long run.

I also have plateaued with my patreon as the last exclusive content (the starfox comic) didn’t do as good as I had hoped. Contrary to the two previous ones which almost doubled my income in just one day, this time around I barely made up for the patrons I lost during the previous month. It’s a bit of a shame considering the amount of time I invested in it, and I really thought this one would break the bank, but that’s the thing with a plateau: I don’t think trying to overcome it with sheer brute force will be a smart move, aka spending more and more hours to create even more fetish content to release.
Hence why I need to rethink my strategy.

And to make things worse, I’m sensing I’m getting close to a burnout! :( So I have to be extra careful not to get one! That also explains the pause in billing…
I feel I’ve drawn too much fetish artwork, again. That feeling I compare to stuffing myself with too much super-sugary chocolate cake is back...And it’s affecting my IRL art as well. Since fetish artwork doesn’t make me happy, I can’t work properly on super challenging IRL art since my batteries are low (note: my IRL art-style is quite different from my Xss stuff, and on a different league of its own).
Chasing the numbers on patreon while trying to create content that would cater to my followers is what put me in this situation and created this serious burnout, and drawing fetish content is slowly turning into a real chore.

That’s always been my problem with this type of art. I enjoy drawing it in reasonable amount, and when inspiration knocks in, I get motivated enough to draw something nice as a result. I could keep doing it more as a main source of income, and it brings money more easily than SFW artwork…
But it’s not what I ultimately want to do, it’s not the end goal for my art, it’s not what keeps me awake at night when I think about what I want to draw.
Ultimately, I feel like what Leafywolf said in one of her recent journal entries: I need a break. I have limited time and I want to draw other things.
And I still haven’t figured out how to reconcile what I want to draw with what you’ll like and pay for me to create.
So this is what I need to work on, this is the unresolved equation that I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the past: how can I keep creating some fetish content for you, while being able to work on my personal stuff?

...Aka, I need to work smart, not more.
Because this is a marathon, not a sprint.

And pausing billing on patreon for just one month might not be enough. I might need to pause billing for the entirety of the summer, not only because everything that’s happening IRL, but because I need to work on myself, replenish my batteries, and think of a plan.

Regarding commissions, I have a waiting list that’s starting to get long, with at least 5 people in it, and the more I think about it, the more I feel I won’t be able to work on them over this summer: at this moment, I simply don’t have the energy for all of it. I would rather spread those commissions over several months and get hit financially, rather than chase the money and get hit by an art burnout that would affect my IRL job as well.

So this is where I need to come clean with you guys, as my patrons, commission clients, watchers and fans. Pausing billing and taking a break before getting back at it will only be delaying the next potential burnout, it’ll only be “rince and repeat” without fixing the core problem.
I need to change the way I work, change my patreon model so it becomes more successful not only financially, but also emotionally and spiritually for me.

I’ll probably discuss that more in details with another patreon update for my patrons, but this is the temptative plan for the next few months, keeping in mind things could change that there might be a lot of trial & error!

1) Based on the last pool I did, creating a new tier with private streams where I work on my patreon stuff might be the best way to make some more bucks without pulling in extra hours of work.

2) Once the Starfox comic will be finished (it’ll be short, around 5 or so pages), I’ll be switching to some comics that will first be released on patreon and then published online, while keeping other things behind a paywall. Basically, all future comics will be made public, but patreon will always have the 4 or 5 most recent pages...Meaning that if I stop working on a comic for a while, those pages won’t be made public.
I don’t know if that will work since it’s a double edge-sword, but it’s worth a shot and I want some comics to ultimately be available for others to enjoy. The trollangina remake will be among those ones (starfox will remain on patreon however).

3) I think I’ll revert back to a few single pics from time to time, instead of full lengths comics: if an idea really motivates me, it might be better to quickly make a pic of it, while the inspiration is still there, rather than turning it into a comic that will bore me after a mere few weeks.
Regarding comics, I might try and do a few short “interactive” one literally with you guys (€5 tier): you give me a basic idea, I start with it, stop at a cliffhanger, ask you ideas of what will happen next, etc, and we create it all together. I think it could be fun...But maybe it’s a terrible idea!...I’ll have to test that to see how it works!
I also might work on a few SFW relaxing art, so I might ask you for some ideas of very relaxing ASMR-ish pics!

4) Let’s talk comics and how I’ll have to change the way I work on them. Right now, I’m going head first into the fetish side of things, right from the first page, to tease people and force them to join the patreon...It’s the best way for me to have a massive burnout again. I can’t simply draw fetish scenes after fetish scenes, rince and repeat, over and over again.
I need some story to breathe, put more life between those fetish scenes. But that would also mean that, for several months, there would be no fetish content posted, because I’m working on those SFW pages. That also mean that any fetish comic will be much longer and I’d be stuck with it for a long time, which can lead to even more massive burnouts unless I find a way to make it enjoyable.

5) Let’s talk about all the non-fetish stories I want to work on. I’ll post another update where I’ll go much more in detail about them, the stories, their scope, etc...
Meanwhile, the ideal solution is still to find a balance between non fetish art for those who like it, and fetish art for those who do. Maybe even create a few tiers for SFW art and comics only, leaving the current tier for all the fetish material as extra. That will force me to create a bit of fetish each month, but also a bit of personal SFW stuff so I can move with those projects.
Just to be clear, I also understand there’s a risk of those personal stories taking off and somehow becoming super-successful to the point they eat me alive: fandoms can be really toxic sometimes (“cough” Volton “couch”), and even my dream projects can lead to massive burnouts...

6) Regarding Kylian’s adventure (non fetish, SFW), I want to publish some first pages before the end of the year, once I’ll have reworked them. To me this is the most disheartening and infuriating thing: I started drawing those pages almost two years ago, and I haven’t published them at all! I don’t know what I’m waiting for...Perfection? Validation? I just don’t know...

7) Among all the other story ideas, I have another one that I want to work on: something very recent that popped in my mind this year, in just a matter of months. It’s a story I really like, that I’ve become really obsessed with, and that ended up becoming very dear to me. I really, reeaaally want to give this a try, and I could even add some fetish scenes here and there, as extra NSFW content since at its core it’s not a fetish story.

8) Finally, I think I’ll have to try try and juggle between all of those projects so I can avoid burnouts: a bit of a fetish comic, a bit of a non-fetish one, with a few breaks and paused billings here and there to replenish batteries.

So there it is. I’m not stopping fetish content, however it will come slower, little by little, so I can work on other personal projects for patreon, avoid burnouts, and because IRL job will take most of my time.

Expect another update soon on patreon about those personal projects I really want to work on, and thanks for your support! :)