stygianrook
fanbox
Updates regarding my current real life situation
🕑 Added 2023-04-26 00:55:54 +0000 UTCHello, sorry for bringing this up all of a sudden, but it's something I have to address sooner or later.
As some of you might have been able to tell that I've really been struggling with real life problems by now, I think its about time for me to be more transparent about it. I've been trying to solve it all by myself, but I guess there's only much I can do alone.
But first, some context. Due to financial struggles my family's experiencing at their household, I have decided to put the house I was living in on sale and I'll have to go back to living at my parent's house to help them out physically and financially if it does sell (and I'd have to spend days moving all my belongings back too). Until then, my attention will be divided between attempting to helping them out at home and making more with my art while balancing all that mess.
Anyway, the details are very depressing and I already have a lot of things to address on this post, so I'll link the details of me and my family's situation if you want to know more:
https://pastebin.com/C3n4cJQL
At first I was absolutely devastated, and to be frank I'm still a wreck emotionally, but now that I'm calm and collected and have carefully analyzed all my current options as well as things I can and can't do, I have a plan on how deal with the things that are still within my reach, at least on the art side as anything more than this would be well outside my control.
So, going forward, there's some considerations I've got to make for all upcoming content I make, though I think they will ultimately benefit all of us, yourself included. They are as follows:
-I literally cannot afford to quit art as there's no more safety nets left. My income and savings aren't enough to cover all my families expenses, so I'm going to have think of ways to increase my current income ASAP in the very near future. There's still time to act, but I'm not sure how much time that is. Basically, don't worry, I'm still going to keep making content, but I need everyone's support more than ever.
-I can at least guarantee my own safety/stability for the foreseeable future so I won't quit art even if the worse comes to worst. As long as I can keep drawing I can still keep on living. However, it'd be pointless if I'm the only one in my family left living a "normal" life, so I'd like to do my part in helping out with my family's living costs.
-I will focus on finishing my current patreon/fanbox/deviantart backlog to test the waters for how I'd like to approach future content, style/schedule/workflow-wise.
-For my backlog pics, I'll likely try to draw them in a style closer to my old one which is more stylized/cel shaded to ensure I pump them out faster. For my future commissions it'd be nice to have an option for people to select a simpler/cheaper style if they can't afford full renders, so I'll be taking this opportunity to have some more examples ready as a result too. Needless to say, I'll keep doing full renders, though more likely for commissions or personal projects than monthly content now that it's very clear that this workflow is too complex to execute consistently under a fixed deadline, at least with my current capabilities, mental state, and circumstances.
-If any further emergencies arise I might have to put the entire backlog on hold to work on emergency commissions or focus on more diverse exclusive content for patreon/fanbox/deviantart until things get better. I might have to consider other formats like donation drives on twitter or YCHs, though I don't think I'll be doing that if doing coms turns out to be more effective.
-I'll be focusing the next month or so to complete my backlog pics, so to ensure I won't overload myself I'll have to put the monthly polls on hold indefinitely. I'll do my best to do this month's winner's pics, still (though again I might have to put it on hold depending on my situation). However, as I still need to know what people are interested in on a monthly basis at least, I won't stop posting the google form itself as a compromise. It's only that I'll have to treat it more like a survey to for me to be up to date with what people want rather than having it dictate what I have to draw.
-I'll also keep making content like exclusive alts as they're still very effective to get more supporters, so in practice not much would change for patreon/fanbox/deviantart stuff. I've also been receiving mixed reactions from more vocal fans regarding the poll itself anyway and people have expressed interest in more original content and other niches/fetishes, so I think this will ultimately be a change for the better since I'll keep drawing pics and exclusive alts regardless.
-Once the backlog's caught up and I have figured out prices for both cheaper and more expensive commission options, I'll be leaving my commission form open to the public (and closing once I have enough requests, and then opening again once I'm done), and I'll be doing my best diversifying my patreon content (instead of only doing monthly polls) while I wait to the commission requests to come in, so look forward to more original content and personal fanart from me as well as more pics of other tum fetishes like preg and expansion. I'll still draw vore, so no changes on that side of things. If you have any ideas about more/better patron rewards, please let me know.
-Regarding my older/private commission requests from last year, I'll unfortunately have to drop them in favor of newer ones as I'd need to take commissions under different prices. So, if I've reached out to you about planning on taking your commission request before, please let me know if you'd be fine with the new prices.
-New commission prices are still TBD until I test some new styles/workflows with my future exclusive content, though the price will likely have to change depending on what kind of emergency arises.
-Realistically speaking, patreon/fanbox/deviantart is my most reliable income at the moment and it's also the easiest/cheapest way for the average person to help me out directly, so I'm counting on everyone's continued support, no matter how big or small. Also, in case you haven't joined yet, I also have a very active and friendly Discord server open for all patrons, so every tier has something good to give back to you too. You may also donate on ko-fi too if you prefer to make one time payments.
-Also, I have made all the considerations with everyone's needs in mind, so hopefully they won't impact you all too much. As always, your ideas, advice, and feedback are always appreciated.
-On a very positive note, I'm almost done with my current art studies I set for myself (I'd probably want to study more original character design later, but as far as the fundamentals go I should be good on most fronts), so look forward to my new pics! Studying in advance will hopefully pay off as I've been preparing a lot of thing I'd need "just in case". So, now the time for me to put all those plans in action has finally come. While things are difficult around me, I'll overcome it all somehow. Every adversity I overcome makes me stronger, and now that I'm facing the biggest one in my life so far, I'll trully be unstoppable once it's over.
That should be all. While I'll probably still be busy cleaning up after my family and keeping with other real life obligations for this month, I should hopefully be good to go to do all the above by the time May comes. There's also some time until the end of the month, so I might be able to get some more progress in.
Sorry about the long post and the venting about my family's current situation and thank you for reading and for your understanding. Again, I really ask for your continued support. I need you all even more than ever before and every help counts, no matter how big or small they might be. Supporting any tier or donating on Ko-fi will always help. I'll make up to you to the best of my abilities.
tl;dr: Things have gone wrong at my parents' household financially and I've been stuck cleaning after the resulting mess and I cannot produce content as efficiently due to that affecting me a lot, so I'm going to approach some art things a little differently in order for me to still keep making content while dealing with all of my family's real life problems. It will likely take months for things to recover, but if I plan things carefully I should make it. Your continued support is very much needed and appreciated.
Cheers,
StygianRook
