Cross-posting this from my personal FB Profile, because I want to get as many eyes on it as I can:

After a month working my entire ass off I have gotten July, June and May’s rent in and I’m FINALLY back in the black, for real.

I would love to be able to get back to a point where this situation doesn’t happen again- but for that, I need everyone’s help- YOUR help.

A few years ago I was able to live mostly comfortably on my art business alone, but the last few years that has become less and less the case.
I want to blame AI, the Pandemic and the Economy, and lash out against those things but I don’t honestly believe they’re the root.
I believe that the root is that I was evicted and had to uproot my life during one of the worst mental health periods of my life- and that coupled with AI and the economy worsening, made my mental health worsen and I started dropping more and more balls.

And this created a cycle in which I had no energy due to burnout to be as active and social and outgoing as I need to be for this job, while also being less able to be creative and think of new and exciting things to do to appeal to you all and market my work to my followers- coupled with more and more severe burnout every time I tried.

In January I started my meds, and between then and now I’ve been acclimating to them, and it was a process, but I’ve been noticing more and more than regardless of how hard I work or what effort I put in- I am no longer getting burnt out. The meds are working, and all the work I’ve done the past couple months on my website, commissions, socials and the like, are all a testament to that fact.

I’m planning again. I’m excited for my art again. I have passion projects I’m working on again.
It feels like at this point the only thing I’m missing is money and time- and the only way to give myself more time is to make enough money to support myself.

Doing art is hard as it is- it’s a constant learning process where you study as you go, learn and grow the more work you do. Doing it as a career is even harder because you have to drop a ton of stuff on your plate to do that has nothing to do with art and you have to find a way to be as passionate about those things as the art itself- and I often fail at that last part. I don’t like doing sales. I don’t like pushing people to pay me for a service they may not need. I don’t like marketing, and social media makes me want to pull my hair out. I just want to sit down and do my art- but I HAVE to do all the rest if I want to be able to keep making art- which becomes hard to balance.

And so, I rely on You, and I love and appreciate all the supporters who want to make sure I can keep doing the things I love as my career.
Because I honestly couldn’t do this without any of you. You literally make it possible for me to follow my dreams.

With all the tribulations of the last few years, I have watched myself be in a constant state of complaining, begging, running emergency commissions, just trying desperately to tread water and keep myself floating.
And I know that seeing those kinds of posts from someone gets hard to deal with- that for every commission I get on an emergency comms post I also probably lose at least one follower who was so stressed by their own life that they couldn’t deal with my stress on top of it- and I understand that mentality to my core.

I’ve spent most of the year working on creating a stronger foundation and a plan of action for myself, so now that I finally have some breathing room after the last couple months I wanted to sit down and to ask everyone for their support- to help me get out from under these cycles so that I can start to work on that plan of action.

Commissions help, of course, but I currently have a LOT of commissions on my table to get through- and commissions are sporadic, random, and inconsistent.
I set up my VIP Funpass after leaving Patreon a few years ago, as a way to start building a baseline income for myself while also giving back to those of you who would support me through it. The program currently only has two subscribers (Six, after this post was initially added to Facebook earlier this afternoon).

I need to build this following up so that it covers my basic necessities- and so my first goal in my plan of action is to get enough VIP Funpass subscribers that my monthly income from the program reaches $700.

If even 10% of my followers on Facebook subscribe for $5 a month, I will meet that goal.

And so, I’m coming here first- to ask you all for your support.
Subscribing will get you a guaranteed discount on commissions, your payments are counted as a credit towards future commissions, you will get free entries into raffles, give-aways, and Sketch Days, and access to my VIP channels on Discord.
On top of that you will help me free up time and energy to be able to more easily complete my commission queue and start making real progress on my passion projects- including the Something Strange newsletter that I plan to release as a reward for subscribers- I have more or less a full outline/plan for the project as well as the initial scripts; I just need time to sit down and draw the first few issues for you all.

I know the economy is rough and prices on everything are going up, but the support I’m requesting is less than half of the cost of a fast food meal every month.
If you can afford that and if you want to see me thrive and see even more work from me I request that you please consider joining this membership.
And I want to thank you all for taking the time to read this, and sharing to anyone who you think would want to support a small artist!

How to Support:

Click Here to be taken to the VIP Funpass page on my Website
Or:
Click Here to be taken to the VIP Funpass page on Ko-Fi

I’m working on getting the program set up on Patreon, Kick, Subsribestar, and MAYBE Fansly or Onlyfans as well, but each one will take some doing to set up so I won’t have them ready for the next month or two!

As always, I love and appreciate you, and I look forward to everything we create together!