UniDragonMaid: A Sketch

One of my Patrons on Patreon, Pat, suggested I draw a UniDragonMaid. Little did she know that I would ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE.

Why a UniDragonMaid? Well, I was looking for ideas to draw for an upcoming art show in Columbus, OH themed around mythical creatures.

And… well, she was too cute of an idea to pass up.

I drew her with some colored Bombay India Inks a friend of mine gifted to me recently. The lines were drawn with a Kuretake Bimoji Fude Brush Pen I got from ArtSnacks.

Patrons on Patreon not only made the request to get her drawn, but they got to see her published before the general public. If you would like me to draw random things for you, consider supporting me on Patreon with a monthly subscription.

How Did the Patreon Pledge Drive Do?

patreon pledge drive patreon screencap

Last week I ran a pledge drive for Patreon.

If you don’t know what Patreon is, that’s ok: Patreon is an online subscription service that lets you support your favorite artists, often for as little as $1 a month.

To clarify: I have a Patreon page for the comics I write and illustrate under the Fantasyville Productions label. These comics include, but are not limited to:

  • Thoughtful Dinosaur
  • The Case of the Wendigo
  • and the upcoming The Legend of Jamie Roberts.

There’s a separate Patreon page for Validation and its related stories (including Mr. Dino & Friends, Roxie Comics, and Tiny Unicorn). That’s because the Validation comics are a collaborative effort with Christian Beranek and myself.

Funding for my Fantasyville Productions comics does not go to Validation, and Validation funding does not go to Fantasyville Productions comics.

I ran the Patreon pledge drive for my page (not Validation’s) because the comic shop I currently work at has cut my hours severely. Like, now I only work there 5 hours a week.

So I ran the Patreon pledge drive to see if a) I could get new patrons to b) help cover the lost income due to my hours getting cut.

The goal was to jump from $180 a month to $250 a month. My goal for the end of the year is to make $500 a month on Patreon alone, so to get to $250 by the half-year point would have gotten me closer to this goal.

By the end of the week, we went from $170 a month to $201 a month.

It didn’t make my goal, but it’s still not bad at all, especially for only having a pledge drive that lasted a week.

What surprised me more was the current patrons I had who increased their pledges – often by an extra $3 a month! That’s amazing!

We also got a new patron on board, which is marvelous, and so immensely helpful.

And so, with the combination of the new patron plus the increased pledges from current ones, we reached one of the Patreon goals listed on the page: at $200/month, I’m now going to draw a patron-exclusive The Case of the Wendigo desktop wallpaper!

Honestly, it’s just amazing that folks who love my comics were willing and able to chip in and help during this tough time. This will help make production of The Legend of Jamie Roberts go just that little bit smoother.

If you would like to pledge support, and help bring The Legend of Jamie Roberts to life, please check out my Patreon page. You can adjust or cancel your pledge at any time.

Even if you pledge $1 a month, you get to see behind-the-scenes development of the comics I do.

For example, here’s a post about Jamie and their two best friends; here’s another post about the dragon Norsa; and here’s a post about two gods in the Jamie Roberts universe, The Voice and The Messenger. These three posts were made free during the pledge drive, to give a taste of what rewards patrons can get for pledging support.

If you’re broke, that’s totally ok, because Patreon is optional. If you would rather make a one-time donation, there’s a Paypal donate button on the side of this website, or you can purchase a convention goody from my online store.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

These Updates Brought to You By Ukulele

(This video was recorded January 17, 2017)

All the relevant links I mentioned:

Validation

Validation‘s Patreon Page

The Case of the Wendigo

My Patreon Page (especially for The Case of the Wendigo)

Storenvy (to get my comics, minicomics, prints, miniprints, etc)

Thoughtful Dinosaur KickStarter Page

Sign up for my email newsletter to find out when I can do commissions for you

The Thomcast

WheezyWaiter

My Review of Heart of Darkmeat

The next vlog update will be after Feb 23rd. Any comics-related news from me will be on this here blog.

Thank you for watching!

You. Are. Awesome.

Thoughtful Dinosaur’s KickStarter Run is Done

thoughtful dinosaur comic panel promo

Oh. My. Holy. Banana. Pants.

Thoughtful Dinosaur has been fully funded for its first print run, and we got way over our initial goal! So now backers will get not only the books, but they’ll get KickStarter-exclusive postcards and buttons (or pins, if you prefer to call them that). Pretty. Darn. Sweet.

Further updates regarding Thoughtful Dinosaur will now be happening over on the KickStarter page, and the updates will be public – for the most part. Of course there will be backer-only updates with information that regards them in particular, but everything else will be available for the public. That means you’ll see updates on how the book printing is going, what the buttons will look like, and lots of other fun stuff!

Again, be sure to check the Thoughtful Dinosaur page for more updates.

In other news, I have a timeline in mind for leaving the day job (yes, I have one. If you want to know what’s going on, read this post). It’s not immediate, but the goal is to be able to leave there and get something new going by April 2017.

What’s the plan for work after the day job? Right now my mind’s on freelancing full-time, which means saving back money until I can make the leap, but nothing is set in stone (yet). I want to stay open for new possibilities!

One possibility is doing more gallery work – Patrons on Patreon know I’ve been working on some new illustrations and paintings, as they’ve been getting snapshots of my works-in-progress. There’s a local gallery looking for new artists, and the deadline to submit a portfolio is December… or possibly January. One of the members there told me it changes depending on the weather, literally.

PLUS! I’m getting The Case of the Wendigo ready for launch within the next two weeks! Stay tuned for more updates.

So there’s some excitement on the horizon! Be sure to check back again by Tuesday.

Thank you for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.