(Part 1) (Part 2)

A lot to go through today, so please bear with me and read it all!
This post is a LONG one, but I hope it’s the last update on ANY of this shit I need to make! As always I love you all and thank you so much for your continued support!

Part 3: Changes to Ash Something Art

Now this is THE big one, so everyone strap in.

Before I get into it; this is partly a list for myself to reference while I work over the next month, and partly to inform you all about these changes- because it’s a LOT, and this is the last warning I’m giving to people before they are implemented over the next month.

I shifted everything to being a full-time artist back in 2020, not long after Covid hit. I made this change after AGES trying to do it as a side thing while working day jobs, and the day jobs ruining my mental health and stonewalling my ability to progress as an artist or even slightly like the work I was producing.

I don’t know how many friends/followers/etc I have currently that have been with me for all that time, but I know most of you don’t really know how much of a process it’s all been.

I won’t dwell on that though because it’s not important; This is.
In the last five years I have tried EVERYTHING to get the word out about my art, and grow, and continue doing it- and I have suffered failure after failure in that time.

Failure to take off, failure to meet goals, failure to post consistently, failure to X failure to Y- and I am tired of it.
My mental health was devastated by it all, and my RSD got worse and worse, to the point that any time I even made a sale post or a Seeking Commissions post, I felt bad about it and would have to keep myself from having panic attacks.

But I’ve been slowly learning from my mistakes as I have kept trucking, and I’ve seen things that do and don’t work for me, as well as been planning changes I couldn’t bring myself to implement for awhile now just because the energy required was too much.

So, let me get into it.
Before anything, I want to start off with things that WILL NOT be changing:

• I will not be stopping commissions – This is my primary form of art currently and I WANT to continue doing commissions.
• I will not be cancelling existing orders or pushing them back for other projects.
• I will not be changing my prices – I did that three times last year with the most recent being the end of December/start of January, and I am happy with where they currently are.
• FUNCTIONALLY SPEAKING, Ash Something Art will not be changing that much. You can still email or drop me a message via any messaging platform I am on to request a commission, and I will continue to take payments in all the same ways that I have for the last few years.

However the following changes ARE happening, and if you wish to continue seeing me around, you gotta jump where I’m going to be.

FIRST OFF: I am downsizing my Online Presence as follows:

• I’ve been saying this for months, but I am leaving Meta Platforms. While technically speaking, I WILL still be on Facebook, I am deleting the Ash Something Art instagram and Ash Something Page, after I delete all of my posts them. I will returning to non-monetized personal profiles for both Ash Something Art (Using my Ash Vindhler Lokasson profile, which has already been my primary art profile for the last few years) and Ash Strangelove (for my personal/Clown profile). This change is because juggling being a mod in groups with running a personal and business profile, as well as a business page, has proven to be fucking useless for art- especially with the algorithmic bullshit Meta platforms do- so I’m just done and refuse to keep fighting a losing battle after literally 8 years. I’m an artist, not a content creator- I draw, I don’t want to have to turn every fucking drawing I do into a 15 second video to shove down peoples’ throats just because FB can’t get their dick out of their ass and push the content that makes THEM the most money. It’s also because in the last 2 years, every time I’ve PAID facebook for marketing/ads, I’ve had my entire budget wiped the fuck out by bots spamming the posts and fucking me out of any actual marketing.
  So, I’ve decided that facebook is a timesink and a waste of time, and you wouldn’t be seeing shit I posted there anyway- just like many of you haven’t seen any of it for the last 2-5 years, anyway.
  
• While I AM keeping both of those profiles, I will be setting them to Private, aside from the occasional public marketing post for my art, and I will be posting on my Ash Vindhler-Lokasson/Ash Something profile much less frequently. This change is because FB scrapes all public posts for their bullshit AI and refuses to let us opt out- I’m done feeding the fucking machine and my work is not their fucking content farm to profiteer off of without fucking paying me a licensing fee for every artwork they train their shitty learning model on.
  
• In place of FB, you will now find ALL public posts for Ash Something Art on the official Ash Something Art Tumblr – Yeah, probably a weird step, but I used tumblr predominantly until 2018, and I’ve already been back to it for the last month or so- and it’s way more comfortable for me.
  
• I am also putting a MUCH heavier focus on the Ash Something Art Bluesky and the Ash Something’s Art Lovers Discord Server.
  I have been trying to push my followers to these locations for the last 6-8 months, ever since Adobe pulled their AI Content Farming Bullshit, and it’s been a fucking struggle to get any traction on them- but if you want to see me and interact with me as an artist, those are going to be your only REAL spots, probably by the end of March.
  
• I am leaving DeviantArt, finally, and removing all of my art before I go. This is being replaced with Cara, which you can find here.
  
• I am putting Twitch streaming on an indefinite hiatus – I know I literally JUST created the fucking Vtuber for it and then only did one stream, but Twitch takes so much extra energy for next to no reward, and for the last two years I’ve only had 2-4 subscribers who pay for themselves, and one who keeps giving gift subs to everyone else – it’s not worth the extra time and energy at the moment and it detracts HEAVILY from my productivity, while also making me feel like a shit person when I get wrapped up in the process and ignore chat for an hour without realizing it.
  I WILL however continue to stream my art once in awhile in my Discord channel, as it’s a LOT more comfortable for me to do so.
  
• I am discontinuing my Print on Demand shop on Redbubble, and will no longer be focusing on merch or prints until I can print batches to sell directly.
  All of my products will be removed and I will only be offering direct prints via it to people who order one with their commission, since this is the only way I sell anything there anyway aside from the random stickers.
  I MAY put up a Printify shop, however I have lost all faith in Print on Demand, and I cannot fucking STAND having to censor my work just to publish via them, so I’m done with that.
  
• Other things that I have used in the past that I am also walking away from:
  Linksites – I will no longer be using sites like Linktree for anything.
  Commission Sites – I will no longer be offering commissions via places like Artistree or Ko-Fi.
  Art “Portfolio” sites – I will be deactivating my accounts on every platform like Artstation and the like, as they have become shitshows full of AI generated trash.

SECONDLY: Social and Functional Changes to Ash Something Art:

• I will no longer be working on Friday and Saturday. I have not had a weekend in 5 years, and to prevent burnout going forward, this is a hard boundary I am setting. I may still draw or make posts on social media during these days, however I will not be present to take commission requests or work on commissions from whenever I wake up Friday until whenever I wake up on Sunday. If you message me about commissions during this time, I will leave the message unread so I can remember to respond to it first thing on Sunday. This will take awhile for me to get used to, but I need to implement an actual weekly break for myself or I will just end up right back where I was 3 months ago, meds or no.
  
• I will be removing all of the links to platforms mentioned above from my website, probably by the end of today, to clear up space and make the site cleaner; This includes my Shop button.
  
• I am going to be changing how I focus on my art. At the moment, Commissions are my primary focus out of necessity, and I DO have to keep doing them and let them continue to be my primary focus, however I am structuring things so that I now have three categories of art to put effort into:
  1) Commissions
  2) Contract Projects
  3) Personal Projects
  With this change, I will now be attempting to dedicate time each week to each of these things. I have spent a LONG time having commissions take 95% of my time and hating how littler personal art I can get done.
  This will not change anything for You, if you’re a client: Once I get on top of everything, the plan will be to do one commission, then one contract project (if I have one on the table) and then one personal project, so that I can spread my effort evenly into each of those three aspects, giving me time to work on things for myself (Like my Tarot projects or Something Strange, which I discuss below), time to put into my larger contracts (Like my FGG Games work and my work with The Dread Sisterhood/Three Little Sisters).
  This does not mean my standard commissions will be taking the back seat, just that I will no longer be doing 5-10 commissions in a row while not putting time into these other ventures; It will be 1:1:1 moving forward- and with the uptick in energy and mood granted by my meds, this will not increase commission turnaround times.
  
• I will be revamping my Portfolio page to reflect a new portfolio model that I have decided on for 2025 – I started implementing this model in January by choosing the portfolio pieces, however was unable to complete it once I started the new meds. This is still pending.
  
• I will be updating my TOS with a completely new 2025 version, to make it more digestible and straightforward, and changing some terms. I will send out a separate update once this has been completed. I started this a few months ago but I was unable to complete it – I will be powering through that soon as it’s been a LONG time coming.
  
• I will be implementing Tag Lists on my Ash Vindhler-Lokasson/Ash Something facebook profile, and tagging anyone on those lists in art posts moving forward.
  I will no longer be using the @Followers and @Highlight tags on FB, as they are useless and no one ever consented to FB implementing them.
  
  If you wish to be added to a Tag Group for my art or discount updates, I will be putting together a form here on the website for you to submit info about which tag groups you want to be a part of (Finished Art Posts, Commission Update posts and WIPs, Commission Discounts, etc). Once I know which tag groups I will need and have it put together I will send it out to people directly on FB and post it on my Bluesky and Discord Server.
  
• I will not be offering discounts for the foreseeable future. Discounting my art absolutely FUCKS my headspace about the art, and for the last year and a half I have had to rely on discounts predominantly just to get my art to sell and to support myself with desperate attempts just to meet rent, with most discounts ending in me having to turn it into an Emergency Commission discount and literally beg people to help me keep paying rent.
  I fucking H A T E how that makes me feel, and I can NOT do that anymore. My art is priced how it is because of how long each piece takes, and I price myself at a base rate of $25 an hour – this isn’t just a reasonable price for you as clients, but also still UNDER the cost of living in my area of California, and while I WANT to be able to price myself cheaper, and I WANT to move to a cheaper place, I CANNOT save any money when I’m barely getting by on emergency commissions every month.
  
• However, even though I will no longer be running discounts for awhile, I WILL be trying to offer more raffles, as well as attempting to do monthly $5 Sketch Days, and other such things. I cannot promise monthly sketch days at this moment, but it is a plan I would like to implement because I have a LOT of fun with those events when I run them and I ALWAYS want to of more of them.
  
• I really want to be on a consistent schedule, but that’s unlikely to happen any time soon, even on the meds. I’m not built for a 16/8 waking/sleep schedule, and that makes anything I try to do that NEEDS a consistent schedule fall flat- So I’m no longer going to try. I will be awake when I’m awake and asleep when I’m asleep, and while I will continue to be available to receive messages and reply while I am awake, I am forgoing anything that I feel like fails me because I cannot use it during the “Active” times for the platform- this is part of the reason I am stepping away from Twitch, but also affects things like Facebook and other algorithmic based platforms- which was obviously already addressed above.
  
• I will be sharing a LOT more of my friends’ and followers’ shit online on both Facebook and Bluesky- Y’all are great and I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to do that over the last few years- but getting visibility on my own posts was already hell without drowning them in your posts. However, with Bluesky being so great for engagement, and with starting a personal profile on FB again, where I don’t have to GIVE A SHIT about that engagement and whether my posts are being drowned, I can share the absolute fuck out of all of your guys’ shit again.
  
• I will be dedicating regular time throughout the day to try and be social and present with friends, and some followers, and I will have space in my personal DMs for anyone who wants to chat about whatever they want to chat about- as long as I have the energy. Please just be respectful, listen to my limits if I state them, and do not act like my time there is something I am obligated to give you! I do love you guys, and I want to show that, but I am still a person!

THIRD: Projects I am dropping, indefinitely – unless I can make the funding goals for them by the end of March:

• My Virtual Gallery made in Unity – It’s unfortunate, as I was REALLY excited about this, but I need to make a minimum of $300 that is expendable funding to be able to even get it onto my website, and even though the core model is ready to go, and I just need to plug and play artwork into it, I have attempted to Crowdfund it THREE times in the last two years, to no avail. This has been disheartening, and instead of treating it like something that needs to happen, I’m scrapping it. I really hoped I could get it published and use it as a place to showcase artists and get the word out about shit, but it’s just not in the cards, and I’ll readdress it again when and if I can in the future.
  
• My Vtuber Work – Not a huge loss to some of you, maybe, because I literally JUST made it, and only had ONE stream with it, but the reality is, it was too little too late- and by the time it was done I was already about to be on meds and have the reasons I needed it wiped off my table.
  THAT SAID HOWEVER: While I will not be streaming or be a Vtuber, the whole process was a great fucking learning experience, and I am confident I can now do that kind of work for anyone who wants to commission me for a model, in my own style – So I will be considering adding a Vtuber pricing bracket to my commissions.
  
• Funhouse Mirrors Comic – This may feel like an asinine item to have on this list, however it was important to me to do and I wanted to keep it going. However, it took a lot more energy than I had hoped and I need to make a point to actually say I’m pausing it.
  However – This is not because I’m cancelling the project or putting it on hiatus, but because I have started working on the long-awaited E-Zine that I promised everyone when I left Patreon.
  This new project is going to be called Something Strange, and some of you may remember that name from this set of Character Sketches I did last year (Shown below). That’s right! These are part of a much larger project that I’m going to be wrapping Funhouse Mirrors into, instead of the previous goal of trying to publish it like a standalone webcomic.
  I still do not have everything worked out for the plan for Something Strange, so this is less of an announcement and more of a “Coming Soon” thing, but I’m excited to get to it.

(Part 1) (Part 2)