I’m expecting to do quite a bit more over the next week, so this isn’t my usual end-of-month update, but I’ve already done a LOT this month, so I wanted to get in here and let everyone know what’s been up!

The First Ever Ash Something Art Raffle went off without a hitch!
With a total of 58 entries, I was able to give away two prizes; a $500 commission slot Grand Prize, which was claimed by the lucky winner Tempest Saucedo, and one $100 Commission slot, Runner-Up prize, claimed by Katherine Gilraine!
I’m continuing to work through commissions and I’ce started working with both of the raffle winners to get their projects slated!

New Program: Model Submissions

A couple years ago, I put out an all-call for people who wanted to let me use their photos as references. An artist can never have enough references, after all, and honestly I get stuck so often LOOKING for references that it’s always a huge barrier to me doing personal projects. I have to balance the need for references with making sure the rights/license on the reference is up for grabs and I can actually use it for the work I’m doing, and it’s just a huge task to think about every time I’m getting started on a project.

Couple that with the fact that many of the personal projects I have planned are either NSFW, or commercial, OR both, it’s incredibly difficult to actually do the hunt especially when I have commissions I need to be doing; Just hunting for good references can take me as long as doing the art itself, sometimes.

So, this last month I took a page from 2022 me’s book and created a new Model Submission page to allow people who wanted to give me their consent to use their photos, to do so.
You can find it here!

I tried treating this model consent form as an actual model-release, however I have no intention to take your content/images and use them beyond what you allow. I cannot currently pay people who submit themselves as models, however I have worked a plan into the consent form to help you profit off of the work I do of you, if I am using the work for commercial reasons once it’s done. Eventually I would love to be able to offer a percentage, or to pay for image sets from models, but the reality is most of the work I do that sells is my commissions where the client is providing their own references, and I get next to no income from merch or prints, so even if my personal art goes up for sale I tend to be doing them as passion projects without expected income.

However, if that’s fine with you, I’ve gone ahead and made the consent form super detailed and allow you to give/deny consent to multiple options to make sure I’m only using your likeness in ways you are comfortable with, and it’s incredibly appreciated if you want to be a part of my art process!

July Commission Update:

As you can see from the above image, as of today I have completed 6 commissions; One of which was a 2-artwork commission and one was a 7-artwork commission for a total of 13 completed artworks since July 1.
There are still a couple things I need to do with these pieces; One needs to be approved by the client and delivered if approved/revised if requested, and the Cat Portrait painting needs to have the bottom edge painted now that it’s dry, and then another week or two of drying, before sealing (and yet more drying); But for all intents and purposes the art itself is done, and the client has already approved the final draft.
I can’t move forward with one of the backlog pieces, for BeyondTheRedHood, until I get a manuscript from him, which I’m expecting to take a long while, so I’ve put him on the backburner so I can keep my forward momentum going.
It took us awhile to arrange, but the client finally got the references photos to me for the other commission (shown as the in-progress sketch above) and I was able to start working on it; I’m going to be streaming the art process for that one over discord for the next few days to get it finished.

In celebration of being down to 1.5 Backlog commissions, I’ve gone ahead and done away with my Backlog as a whole and have officially started planning out the 21 Current commissions (which span from Jan 1 to Now). Just like usual, I will be doing these 21 in batches of 3 at a time (so, there are currently a total of 7 batches) until they’re done!

I’m so glad to finally be able to justify ending the Backlog process.
When March rolled around, I had started planning out the backlog from last year, which was accrued predominantly due to the fact that I was evicted and had my life uprooted suddenly. It took me nearly 6 months (July to January) to get back on my feet and actually be able to really start pounding out commissions again, and while I DID get some work done during that 6 months, it wasn’t enough to keep me on-track so I had a massive commission list build up.

Between July last year and January, I accrued a total of around 40 commissions; Thankfully all of the clients were incredibly understanding of my situation and have been waiting SO patiently, and I can finally say I’m almost done, even if it did take me 5 fucking months to get there!

The process to complete those 40 projects was a LOT of mental anguish. I’d never been so far behind, and generally speaking I try to keep my commission waitlist at around 10 projects, and power through them as they come; However this was obviously not the case suddenly, and there was nothing I could do about it except try to power through.
Due to this, I ended up taking a LOT longer than I should have needed to to complete these projects. Just having the backlog was so stressful that every single commission on that list was a massive undertaking, mentally, and I found myself fighting through insane amounts of executive dysfunction/ADHD paralysis with them, and burning out every month as I tried to power through. I knew that each one would only take me 2-5 days, once I started working, but for every one I completed I got a new commission request which kept my commission queue floating at roughly the same numbers, and it felt like a sisyphean nightmare trying to keep grinding and power through it.

So, what’s to stop me from having that same mindset going into this set of current commissions? I mean, after all it’s yet another 6-month backlog, right?

But amusingly, it’s an entirely different situation.

The backlog from 2023 was a constant reminder of how much shit I went through last year. It was this horrifying, looming billboard that not only kept telling me how fucked my life is, but that I entirely failed at keeping my business manageable, and juggling getting new projects while having that backlog looming made me have to face some of the worst imposter syndrome of my life for the last six months while also having to just try and ignore it and keep going.
My mental health has been in the TANKS because of this, but with it finally done there is SO much weight off my shoulders.

On top of that, my current workload from the last 6 months is half of what I started the year with, meaning it’s a MUCH smaller undertaking, that comes with NONE of the emotional baggage that the Backlog did (which is why I had them neatly compartmentalized as my Backlog and my Waitlist/Queue, instead of just considering it all to be one list; so I could view them as two separate projects to get through from the start).

So, anyway, I’m feeling a lot better about the upcoming commissions, and really feel like I should be able to keep myself going and finish all 21 sometime in the next 1-2 months; I mean, after all, I’ve done something like 10-15 commissions in a month multiple times this year in my attempt to catch up.

Anyway! That’s all for now!
Look forward to a lot of new art coming up, including the next tarot card for my Lokabrenna Tarot, as well as potential revisions on the two existing cards.

As usual, thank you all so much for your support! I love you all and I wouldn’t be able to do this without you!
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