Nuki News #26: Satisfy your Soul!

Omg lookin at this image makes me giggle with how Artie is all too pleased with those poor action figures, bahaha.

Previous Artie Asks Artists Post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40894370

Ooo, another lofty title for this one! We went from mental health to physical health in this mini-series of Artie-Asks-Artists, and one of the other points I think fit more in line with satisfying ourselves, doing something personal, for the sake of our own self: 

Always have a project you love and can work on outside of commissions. Maybe make a patreon surrounding this project. If you don’t pursue that, you will get burned out and let commissioned work consume you. 

This is something I noted, a fair amount of the 12 artists I gave the questionnaire mentioned they wished they could find time to work on the personal project or story they have inside in some form, or that their success has been from working on personal projects they love. It’s not an easy thing to do though, I’ve written about my own struggles with pursuing a personal project in previous Nuki News posts:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/36829907

https://www.patreon.com/posts/37599810

One of my reasons for hesitating on jumping out of the 9-5 day job life and into doing just art for my living has been this- while I do love doing commissions and find them fulfilling, right now I generally do them part of the time. Only about half of the month am I working on art commissions. But I could certainly see myself ending up in a situation where if I did only commissions month-in, month-out, I might find myself getting weary. Thankfully I trust myself that I wouldn’t do that. But when I make this jump I’d like to also have in mind what I’ll pursue for my self-fulfillment. Work for myself and tell the stories I want to tell. In a way I use this patreon to detail the week-to-week thoughts I have while I work on a personal project, it’s just that my current project is moving myself into doing art full time! 

I’d also want to make sure I can get to a point of support that I know I won’t have to 100% rely on commission work so I can make sure I pace myself and not risk burn-out. This patreon covers a good 10% of what I need every month. I’d still like to someday build it up to where patreon covers 50% and commissions handle the other half. I’ve also made my Ko-Fi account that could help in a pinch too- right now I estimate about another 10% if I do Ko-Fi request streams monthly or something similar. 

On that note, big THANK YOU for your support especially during these times. I really couldn’t be here without the support and I’m glad I pushed to start doing Patreon last year, and made the changes I have for this year. I like to think this can only go up since the ball is rolling, but I do need to make some more concerted efforts to keep it moving - like letting folks on FurAffinity and Twitter know I’m on Patreon in the first place! I hope you have a good start to September, all things considered! Fall is coming before we know it.