cementing commission changes going into 2024
Posted 4 months agoThis is a followup journal to the one from a bit over a year ago about commission adjustments. Not of any interest to most of you but I'd just like to document this change for my own reference. Its helpful wrapping my head around years and years of work if I leave little reminders of where my mindset was around.
The October 2022 to April 2023 planned six month span of reduced workload was extended another six months. From October 2022 to October 2023 I reduced my normal workload of 5 pictures per 4 days to 3 pictures per 4 days. But this wasn't really a break. There were surrounding circumstances that meant I had around 25 hours a week committed to other things, so I was still just as busy overall.
Since then, with those prior surrounding circumstances finished with, I increased the rate for the last two months to 4 pictures per 4 days, mainly because I was sick a few times and that on top of holiday vacation time meant I was losing a lot of workdays so I wanted to increase the pace a bit.
But now, provided finances don't become desperate one way or another, I'm cementing the reduced 3 pictures per 4 days schedule. consistent break-less 4 day cycles like that with 5 pictures was really too much work in retrospect. I'm still not leaving gaps between batches (for now! who knows to what degree my lust for free time might degenerate!) but I think if its 3 pictures its going to be hugely different. I have grand ambitions of making comics and finally gassing up the long neglected engine of actually trying to improve my art with this new free time, but odds are I'll probably just be playing a lot more videogames. But really, after a decade (wow!) of pretty consistent and intense commission work, the idea of easing up a little sounds really nice.
As we enter 2024, I am going to do a final price bump. Mainly because I was in another country for a year and was seriously shocked upon getting home at how much prices for everything have gone up. I thought I'd never change my prices again but I'm really hoping this will be the last adjustment for years to come. Still thinking about how I want to change it, but it shouldn't be too dramatic.
Thats it, this should be the last journal for a long time. happy new year everyone!
The October 2022 to April 2023 planned six month span of reduced workload was extended another six months. From October 2022 to October 2023 I reduced my normal workload of 5 pictures per 4 days to 3 pictures per 4 days. But this wasn't really a break. There were surrounding circumstances that meant I had around 25 hours a week committed to other things, so I was still just as busy overall.
Since then, with those prior surrounding circumstances finished with, I increased the rate for the last two months to 4 pictures per 4 days, mainly because I was sick a few times and that on top of holiday vacation time meant I was losing a lot of workdays so I wanted to increase the pace a bit.
But now, provided finances don't become desperate one way or another, I'm cementing the reduced 3 pictures per 4 days schedule. consistent break-less 4 day cycles like that with 5 pictures was really too much work in retrospect. I'm still not leaving gaps between batches (for now! who knows to what degree my lust for free time might degenerate!) but I think if its 3 pictures its going to be hugely different. I have grand ambitions of making comics and finally gassing up the long neglected engine of actually trying to improve my art with this new free time, but odds are I'll probably just be playing a lot more videogames. But really, after a decade (wow!) of pretty consistent and intense commission work, the idea of easing up a little sounds really nice.
As we enter 2024, I am going to do a final price bump. Mainly because I was in another country for a year and was seriously shocked upon getting home at how much prices for everything have gone up. I thought I'd never change my prices again but I'm really hoping this will be the last adjustment for years to come. Still thinking about how I want to change it, but it shouldn't be too dramatic.
Thats it, this should be the last journal for a long time. happy new year everyone!
Upcoming break
Posted a year agoJust letting people know I'm taking for sure the first half of March off, and from there potentially the entire month, depending on a couple things. Rare occurrence for me, last time I took a month off was a couple years ago. Gonna enjoy it!!
adjusting the commission process
Posted a year agoHi everyone, rare update from me. I've been doing commissions for about a decade, most of that full time, and I've been interested in pulling away from the rather intense work schedule I set up for myself for awhile now. So I'm going to try and be clear and concise and put down the timeframe I've thought up:
from today to October:
-max panels on commissions from 3 to 2
-max commission slots from 25 to 15 in order to prepare for the upcoming workload decrease
from October to April 2023:
-Massive drop in workload. from 5 pictures per 4 days to 2/3
-likely even with the smaller commission list, there will be larger waits than the typical ~1 month between subsequent commissions
April 2023 onwards:
-work load raised to 3/4 pictures per 5 days.
-max commission slots likely from 15 to 20
-price readjustments based on demand
So thats the tentative plan, what I think will be the ideal approach. But things could change. I'll probably never fully stop taking commissions, despite what grand claims I might have made on twitter here and there, but I would like to be able to create more room to study and explore art, which is very difficult to do with my current schedule. thats all thank you.
from today to October:
-max panels on commissions from 3 to 2
-max commission slots from 25 to 15 in order to prepare for the upcoming workload decrease
from October to April 2023:
-Massive drop in workload. from 5 pictures per 4 days to 2/3
-likely even with the smaller commission list, there will be larger waits than the typical ~1 month between subsequent commissions
April 2023 onwards:
-work load raised to 3/4 pictures per 5 days.
-max commission slots likely from 15 to 20
-price readjustments based on demand
So thats the tentative plan, what I think will be the ideal approach. But things could change. I'll probably never fully stop taking commissions, despite what grand claims I might have made on twitter here and there, but I would like to be able to create more room to study and explore art, which is very difficult to do with my current schedule. thats all thank you.
patreon reminder!
Posted 7 years agoA lot of people don't even know I have a patreon, and for good reason too! Since I made it a year ago I've only put out the one announcement journal about it, and pretty quickly stopped mentioning it in my submissions. It's a very much on the side thing. I understand that artists promoting their patreons constantly is pretty annoying, but its been a year so I figure its okay.
The posts on the patreon are all 5 picture 'batches', which include the full resolution image and the .psd. Though recently I haven't been doing this, I've decided to start posting all my sketch pages I did during the week again too. Sometimes there won't be any of these and sometimes there will be a lot, who knows!
also, I'm uploading one batch as a sample so people can see what they'd get. So check that out! If you're interested in about 5 or 6 of those monthly, then give me a try. Anyways, thanks for bearing with me, I won't mention it again for another year haha.
https://www.patreon.com/jmgn
The posts on the patreon are all 5 picture 'batches', which include the full resolution image and the .psd. Though recently I haven't been doing this, I've decided to start posting all my sketch pages I did during the week again too. Sometimes there won't be any of these and sometimes there will be a lot, who knows!
also, I'm uploading one batch as a sample so people can see what they'd get. So check that out! If you're interested in about 5 or 6 of those monthly, then give me a try. Anyways, thanks for bearing with me, I won't mention it again for another year haha.
https://www.patreon.com/jmgn
AHH!!! PATREON!!!!!
Posted 8 years agohttps://www.patreon.com/jmgn?ty=h
alright don't bite my head off just yet. Let me explain myself and what this means for people who have no interest in donating, which is most of you.
It doesn't change anything at all. No content is going to be locked behind a paywall. This is all supplemental stuff to what I'm already posting. The most annoying thing about this is I'm going to start adding a little blurb to the bottom of upload descriptions linking it. Which is actually pretty annoying I admit, but the important thing is that things will continue as is. Thank you for not crucifying me god bless.
For those whoare interested, or even considering, lets break it completely down right here.
full-res images: These will be pngs at resolutions 2500+. I resize everything I post on the net down to meet FA's image reqs (and also because being blasted in the face with a 3k res picture is generally offputting), so I'm squatting on very high res images for pretty much everything. All of those will be posted.
.psd/.sai: For people looking to pick apart my stuff and use it to learn themselves, this is particularly helpful. Pretty self explanatory - it contains all the separate layers that make up the final piece. Like if you just want to see the lineart or anything like that its easily extracted.
sketchdumps!: Alright so I draw like all day. Sketchy sketchy sketchy. When I'm not doing commissions I'm drawing other stuff. When I like a sketch I'll ink and color it and upload it but that is a tiny fraction of all the shit I'm sketching all the time. So all of that shit will go on there.
Heres some screencapped examples of what sketchdumps look like:
http://i.gyazo.com/6f2d5336f503eacd.....277c3f13fa.png
http://i.gyazo.com/f9431f1c94cf863e.....280b142ab5.png
http://i.gyazo.com/48983bbddc16663e.....c2c14f7ab7.png
so thats about it, tl;dr is I made a very much side patreon in case anyone wants a more complete jmgn experience. I'm not expecting much and everything else will continue as normal. Thanks!
alright don't bite my head off just yet. Let me explain myself and what this means for people who have no interest in donating, which is most of you.
It doesn't change anything at all. No content is going to be locked behind a paywall. This is all supplemental stuff to what I'm already posting. The most annoying thing about this is I'm going to start adding a little blurb to the bottom of upload descriptions linking it. Which is actually pretty annoying I admit, but the important thing is that things will continue as is. Thank you for not crucifying me god bless.
For those whoare interested, or even considering, lets break it completely down right here.
full-res images: These will be pngs at resolutions 2500+. I resize everything I post on the net down to meet FA's image reqs (and also because being blasted in the face with a 3k res picture is generally offputting), so I'm squatting on very high res images for pretty much everything. All of those will be posted.
.psd/.sai: For people looking to pick apart my stuff and use it to learn themselves, this is particularly helpful. Pretty self explanatory - it contains all the separate layers that make up the final piece. Like if you just want to see the lineart or anything like that its easily extracted.
sketchdumps!: Alright so I draw like all day. Sketchy sketchy sketchy. When I'm not doing commissions I'm drawing other stuff. When I like a sketch I'll ink and color it and upload it but that is a tiny fraction of all the shit I'm sketching all the time. So all of that shit will go on there.
Heres some screencapped examples of what sketchdumps look like:
http://i.gyazo.com/6f2d5336f503eacd.....277c3f13fa.png
http://i.gyazo.com/f9431f1c94cf863e.....280b142ab5.png
http://i.gyazo.com/48983bbddc16663e.....c2c14f7ab7.png
so thats about it, tl;dr is I made a very much side patreon in case anyone wants a more complete jmgn experience. I'm not expecting much and everything else will continue as normal. Thanks!