Important Updates !

Hello lovely peeps, 

This is going to be an update post and it includes a bunch of important information regarding my page, tiers and rewards.
Please skim it if you can, or at least read the TL;DR at the end, as this will likely affect you.
Do feel free to ask any questions you have or share any concerns, and I will get back to you asap. 

Fairly irrelevant information but something I need to say :
  I am very sorry about my patchy updates the last couple of months. The end of the year was a lot more chaotic than I was anticipating, in big part because I did what I usually do and put too much on my plate. This is one of my biggest flaw, but I am learning to manage it (Part of the reason for the following updates).
  I also severely overestimated how much I would manage to do while home in France over Christmas. I decided to go away for a month this year, as I hadn’t been home since last Christmas, and my brother was coming home for about that length of time, after being away for 2 years. I figured it would be nice to be home with family for a little while, and worked twice as hard to prepare stuff to work on while I was home. Unfortunately, it turns out that not having an office (I don’t have any space to work in my bedroom), a computer with my usual softwares on it (my dad has a few basics but needs his computer to work most of the time), and  less time to spend working (people always around when I work, friends and family dropping by) all piled up to make it very hard to get anything done.
Please understand, this is not to excuse the fact I have been less active AT ALL, this is purely an explanation.
Now that I am back in the UK, my priority is going to be catching up with rewards and posting more on Patreon, as well as creating new work.

  2019 was under the sign of overworking myself. I was overly ambitious, and blinded myself to the realities of the job and how much time and energy things take.
 For 2020, I want to re-examine my priorities, and balance everything out the best I can.  I want to focus intensely on creating more work, working in my sketchbook, finding my style, and teaching.  

  You may have noticed this last year that I had more trouble keeping up with rewards and posts than I did in 2018. This is obviously due in part to the normal growing pains a business like mine encounters (I have only been doing this for about 2 years after all), and is completely normal, but it does mean that I think I have to be honest with myself and how much I can actually do. I need to restructure things, and be probably less ambitious, and more realistic.
 That means changing some rewards, and even deleting some.
 This is always scary, as I know it will mean I will loose a few of you that may have signed up for the rewards I will be deleting, and since Patreon is my main source of income, it is obviously daunting to make changes that impact my livelihood. I do however believe those changes are necessary, both so that things can be more sustainable for me in the long run, and more honest for you.  

So here goes. 

1. Deleting TINY TUTORIALS

  One of the biggest changes I want to start in January, will be deleting the Tiny Tutorials.
They were a test anyway, as I mentioned when I set them up a few months ago, and it has been clear the last few months, that I am struggling to keep up with them.
I still owe you a couple of them, and I will be uploading them soon, but once I am all caught up, I will delete them for the foreseeable future, as they have become more a source of stress than I had anticipated.
This is not to say I might not reinstate them in the future, but for now, I need to leave them behind. 
Please read the next section to understand what that will do to the $10 tier.

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2. New STICKER TIER 

   I recently managed to print my own stickers, which means I can now do small batches of them, as well as exclusive designs.
I don't have a sticker-cutting machine though, so I can't do big numbers of stickers, or print sticker sheets, but I should be able to manage individual hand-cut stickers.
Physical rewards are time and supply consuming, but stickers seem to be a popular reward on patreon, and I can prepare them with the rest of the physical rewards, so I am hoping they won't take up more time than my current rewards do. 

3" stickers on my shop usually go for around $4, not including shipping (which is about $3 for international), so I have decided to convert the $10 into a sticker tier. 

The rewards for the $10 will now be :
- 2 EXCLUSIVE to Patreon stickers every month*
- Access to my Skillshare courses (without having to join Skillshare, obviously)

PLEASE NOTE :
- The size of the stickers will change as I experiment and try and figure out what works best, as will the paper. Designs will be picked from anything I have created previously, and won't be up for a vote. 

* Exclusive in this case means that the stickers will not become available to the wider public for a few months, if ever. I might decide to use some of the designs for stickers in the future, but not for at least 2 months after they are used for Patreon, and some designs will stay special to patreon only. The designs might be used for alternate products however, such as prints or shirts, that will be more widely available.
NOTE FOR EXISTING PATRONS : You should have received a message in your inbox letting you know of these changes. 

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3. New $35 Tier

$15 and $20 will not include stickers anymore, but I have created a new $35 tier, that includes all of the $20 tier rewards (8x10 print and A5 print) PLUS the 2 stickers. 

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 4. Changes to Process Videos  

When I tried out doing Tiny Tutorials, I had said that I would start alternating Tutorials and Process Videos, as they were both so much work that I couldn't fit them both into one month. 

Since I am getting rid of the tutorials, I want to replace them with a real-time video. 

So basically, this is how things will work for now :
- Full Process Videos of a painting will still be every 2 months, but on the month when they aren't happening, I will upload a real-time video of a sketch, small painting, or study, with voice-over when I can, and without if I don't feel it needs any extra information. 

I still owe you a few Process Videos, which I am in the process of finishing up so you should get them in February, but after those, this is what will be in place.

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All of this will go into effect on the 1st of February onward. 

That's it for now peeps!
Thank you for reading this far if you have, and I hope these changes won't be too jarring!

As always, don't hesitate to ask me any questions you may have in the comments, or even just let me know how you are doing. :) 

I hope you are all really well!

I'm now off to pay my taxes, which is going to be very painful, but is something I have and can do thanks to all of you, which is amazing.
Thank you all for absolutely everything, you have no idea how much I appreciate you all!

Take care everyone <3