Welcome to the
September Fundraising Extravaganza!
Ash Something Art is happy to announce a once-in-a-lifetime event!
A month long opportunity for you to get awesome art for a massively reduced price!
You can start your discounted order here:
Or read on for all the details about what this event entails, and why I’m doing it!
What is the purpose of this fundraiser event?
How will these funds be used?
Well, let me tell you what I’m doing, first!
Accepting commissions at 50% off
This is a huge deal for me, because I don’t like to undervalue my art; However I feel like my current situation justifies doing an across-the-board discount, and making that discount large!
I need to get as much money in this month as possible, so I’m hoping this will draw people to order instead of putting of the art they’ve wanted until the last minute!
My commissions normally start at just $35, but with this discount they’re starting at $17.50, however the price does still change with the add-ons you choose, as well as increases in detail or selecting my more detailed styles!
This discount applies to the BASE cost of your project, not anything from my Add-Ons menu (Commercial use, rush delivery, HD/source files, shipping, prints, etc).
You can start your commission order by filling out this form!
Accepting Tips and Donations
Maybe you love watching what I do and don’t feel like you need any art; Maybe you have the extra cash to throw at a small business to help fund them. I don’t know your situation, but I’m accepting tips and donations, openly, all month!
Tips and donations help because they give me a bit of extra cashflow without impacting my already-heavy workload!
Tips can either be submitted here, or they can be sentto me off-platform at the following locations:
Paypal: @AshSomething
Venmo: @AshSomething
Cashapp: @AshSomethingArt
If this is a tip, just add a Heart emoji to the note!
Advertising my VIP Funpass
There’s no discount on the membership unless you order an annual subscription, however I want to get peoples’ attention on this because the more people I get supporting me consistently, every month, the less often I’ll feel forced to do events like this.
I do love all my clients and I appreciate the hell out of those of you who jump on these discounts, but at the end of the day, they create a sometimes months-long backlog of commissions that I have to work through, that prevent me from getting other work done.
My VIP Funpass Membership is a way for you to continuously support me in small ammounts, and then cash in the amount you’ve submitted as a commission at a later date!
You can join the VIP Funpass to get awesome discounts and perks here!
What am I fundraising for?
This is the important question you’re probably asking yourself!
The honest answer is that, while I am successfully supporting myself with my art, I’m doing so by the skin of my teeth! The idea of the starving artist is entirely true! I’ve been hitting my head against a wall for around three years doing this all full-time, after another 15 years doing it on the side!
Last year, I faced an eviction and was uprooted, and that showed me just how precarious of a situation I’m in; I then had to spend almost the entirety of the last 12 months working to break even again.
This left me scrambling to catch up on commissions that came in while I was in between houses, or moving, and couldn’t work, which in turn left me barely being able to meet rent on time for the last few months!
But this isn’t about the Troubles I went through last year!
It’s about finally having a plan and course of action, and trying to gather funds to work towards that plan!
My first goal is upcoming Rent and Bills: I have been able to meet my rent and bills every month, but I’ve been doing it down to the wire or late every month. My issue isn’t PAYING rent, it’s having the money BEFORE rent comes up, which means I need to start planning from today to get October’s rent lined up.
Fixing this roadblock would essentially be like you getting your payment schedule at work set back a week or two, so you have the funds available sooner. It’s not so much a matter of needing more money as it is getting myself in the habit of building funds earlier in the month.
To fix this, I need to make $1000 before the end of the month!
This will cover:
Rent – $675
Phone – $100 ($50 for Sept and $50 for Oct)
Internet – $100 ($50 for Sept and %50 for Oct)
Groceries – $125 (This isn’t a full month of groceries, just enough to stock up on non-perishables to replace my stock from before I moved)
My Stretch Goals:
If I can meet the basic need outlined above, then I plan to start working on the following stretch goals.
Goal 1 – A $500 Emergency Fund: This will be placed into a savings account and set aside for actual emergencies like surprise doctor’s visits/injuries, medication, replacing work equipment as it breaks, and the like. This fund will not be touched unless an emergency occurs, so as to prevent me from sliding back into the red accidentally, and I will be trying to add $25-50 to it every couple weeks.
Project Funding: For those of you who have followed me for awhile, you have seen a lot of projects start and then seemingly stop! I have no plans to actually stop them, however because of all the issues I’ve been facing I’ve had to pause them indefinitely as I work on keeping myself floating. If the two above goals can be met, I can start working on a goal to start funding these projects.
The upcoming projects I need funded:
First and foremost, I need to fund an upgrade to my website subscription on wordpress. This will cost me $300
This upgraded subscription will allow 2 things:
First: I’ll be able to use the FTP server method to add my interactive Virtual Gallery to the landing page of the website. The framework for this gallery is already made, I just need to finish creating assets for it and add art and different gallery rooms.
Second: I’ll be able to integrate the new print and merch shop I’m building through Printify right here locally on my website, making this a one-stop for all Ash Something art services.
After that is handled, the next step is to start funding my Print Projects.
I have around 20 artworks that I want to create Limited-Run prints of, so I can start selling signed copies as well as showing in galleries locally, and presenting at Art Shows.
Each batch of prints will run me between $50 and $300, for a single artwork.
The final project on my table that I have to plan for is my Tarot decks. I currently have the outlines for 3 different tarot decks, however I have been unable to set aside the time to work on them heavily because of my commission workload! I do not expect to start funding these projects in bulk with this fundraiser, however it would be incredibly helpful to get enough funding that I can START to work towards them.
Each card will take me between 10 and 30 hours to draw, and I mostly just need enough breathing room financially that I can start drawing them. This means lessening my commission workload and having enough money set aside that I don’t have to spend 2/3 of the month marketting and trying to bring in new work!
Now after all this, you may wonder:
Why should you order, or be interested in helping me?
I always have the hardest time answering this question and trying to appeal to people. I realy feel like my art should speak for itself and I shouldn’t have to ask for your support; But art is an incredibly volatile field and I find myself more and more having to try to find answers to this question.
So here are a few:
First off, you would be helping a small independent artist/business.
I’m not affiliated with any large name company, and the few companies I do work for it’s all on a work-for-hire/project to project basis. I’m just a clown living in CA trying to do art and help other artists thrive!
In fact, this website is wholly part of my attempt to separate myself from big-business and corporate art practices by doing it all on my own, and stop letting companies exploit me for my work!
Second, with the advent of AI image generators, it’s become more important than ever for artists to actually be supported by the people who love what they do.
If people don’t give back to the human artists they know and love, many of us are going to be forced to stop doing art, and go back to feeding the big corporations; You supporting me in this endeavor may not seem like it directly helps artists as a whole, but the more I am able to fund and build my business, the more opportunities I’m going to be able to give other small artists like myself space to shine, both on my website and in an upcoming e-zine project I’m working on starting up based on the now-defunct magazine, Heavy Metal, aimed at showcasing art and artists around the world, with a staunch anti-AI morality.
Third: This discount is an absolutely massive event that you will most likely NEVER see from me again!
In an attempt to make sure to value myself, I set a limit on how much I offer as adiscount; In early 2023 I decided the largest discount I would offer is 33% off, for special occassions and for emergency situations. I’ve been doing everything in my power not to compromise on that fact, so this fundraiser event is a massive risk I’m taking, to be able to not only fund my work and business but to also give people who have been wanting art from me but haven’t really been able to get it due to funds, the opportunity to change that!
I’m giving the entire month of September so that people don’t miss out on the sale; You don’t have just 2-3 days of the discount running to plan for your art, now you have four entire weeks!
And fourth, and the one I feel is the most important reason you could have to support me in this endeavor;
You just want to see me specifically, keep creating art. What I do is incredibly time consuming, and I find myself weighing whether I should keep going or give up every couple months.
Because I am independent, only YOU can help make sure I keep doing what I do best! So go ahead and drop me an order, or a tip!
How to order a commission:
The process is fairly easy!
First off you just have to fill out this order form.
Once your request is submitted, I’ll respond via email with a quote, breaking down how much your project will cost. Once we have landed on a project and price that you agree with, including the fundraiser discount, you just head over to this page to submit your payment (or deposit, for projects over $100 after the discount)
Once your order has been placed, I’ll ask you for any references or other assets I need to get started, and then add you to my commission waitlist!
Tipping and Donations
To send a tip, you can either send a one-time or recurring tip directly through my payments page here
OR
You can send me a tip via Paypal, Cashapp, or Venmo!
You can find me on those platforms with the following usernames:
Paypal: @AshSomething
Venmo: @AshSomething
Cashapp: @AshSomethingArt
If you want to send a tip a different way, just drop me an email at info@ashsomethingart to figure it out with me!
And finally: Here’s everything you need to know about my VIP Funpass Membership, and how it helps me!
You can find all the info about the membership, inlcuding the sign-up form, on this page!
But for those of you who don’t want to click a link without knowing some info, here’s a quick look at it:
How does supporting me via my VIP Funpass help?
Well, the long and short of it is, this membership is a subscription option that I offer people that was made by me, and is hosted by me, to replace Patreon. Unfortunately because I am an adult-oriented artist, platforms such as Patreon tend to really make life difficult for me, forcing me to find my own path as it were.
What that means is that this subscription helps me in the same way that services like Patreon would; By giving me a base amount of income every month based on the total amount of my members’ subscription fees. Currently I only have a handful of members, and my goal is to get to a point where my subscribers cover all my monthly necessities (rent, bills, food) before thinking about what comes next with the subscription.
What it means for you:
Signing up gives you a discount to any commissions you may order from me, in return for helping me build my base monthly income up, and being a part of what I do!
On top of that, every dollar you spend on monthly or yearly membership fees counts as commission credit; Meaning if you have a project you want me to do, instead of paying for it all at once, you can pay for it in $5, $10, $25 or $50 increments while being a VIP Funpass Member, AND get the discount I mentioned above!
Now, since I do have everything you need to know about the VIP Funpass already laid out on its own dedicated page, go head and check it out for more information!
With all of that, I’m going to wrap this up! Please consider supporting and getting the word out about this awesome Fundraiser event! I look forward to all the new and returning faces joining my slowly-growing community of
Ash Something’s Art Lovers!
Ash Something Art 