Sunsetting the $45 monthly reward tier, and what shall follow

It's been 6 years but this reward had a good run! Shuttering the monthly image rewards by the end of this year (just the ones for this tier, not the whole Patreon)

I've increased its price, I've limited the things people can request and then changed the art style but no matter how I flip or season it, I'd much rather spend that time elsewhere now.

When I crunch the numbers, it's an underpriced commission, even with all the stipulations in my favor. I've had many, many bangers with these over the years but it's not quite the same anymore. On average it's become too difficult for pledgers to present me with ideas I really vibe with and it has slumped into a mediocre "ok enough".

With every unpledged person, I'll reduce the slot capacity by one, there used to be 4 and yesterday they became 3.

The "Big Blue Appreciator" pledge will still receive a monthly reward image.

MOVING FORWARD...

Polls and Suggestion Threads remain, my focus will shift to I want to draw. Polls still have a slant towards characters with mass appeal and while Suggestion Threads are better at landing the hit, that's someone else coming up with the prompt. So I'm going to add a third type of monthly event, a mood board of ideas which people can vote on or something to that effect. Specific ideas I wanna draw, disconnected from generating hype.

I'll rely more heavily on time-gated content as the main incentive for folk to pledge. I'm keeping them locked for 2 months still.

I miss drawing on a whim, having a strict schedule is GREAT, but my soul yearns for my muse to be nourished. Having the ability to draw art of my OCs with others, spontaneous ideas that never got drawn because I was bogged down with a backlog, etc.

Speaking of backlogs, that's another reason why I'm making this change. Being uninspired makes me drag my feet. It's become a battle of overbooking commissions to afford living, then living on austerity to catch up. I need to get back into an equitable rhythm.

I'll keep everybody posted on here and on my notifications-only discord server (self-appointed roles) as to how things will progress but as it stands:

Drawing a monthly picture for the $45 tier is getting discontinued on December 21st, 2024

Thank you all for your support and understanding 💙