♡ 2025 Update ♥

Happy new year, everyone!

I hope you all had some nice gifts and celebrations for the holidays, I myself had a pretty good time even if i was a little squnched between art ideas i wanted to do and general art responsibilities. I still can't believe we're already into the new year; 2024 felt like a blitz of time.

Bare with me, there's a handful i want to talk on right around now. First off uhhh...Pretty good year in general? I'd say so at least. I moved to a better spot than our old place, got some new roommates; it's been pretty solid. Shit's obviously a bit more expensive but me and my folks are happy; i've been getting more inspired and experimental with how i go about art even if october did hand me a random mysterious injury and changes how i gotta do a handful of things now. It's not too debilitating but is defninitely an annoying little concern i often think about- hopefully it'll be settled in february.

I suppose the main thing i want to talk on here is that uhh...Some things are gonna change 'round here. ('again?', i know). Not TOO drastic but let me put out the non-definite change i got in mind first, or rather where i personally would like to steer. You might have noticed a sharp uptick in me drawing/making characters dubbed "The Originals" over maybeeeeee the latter half of this year? If not the whole year. If Ambercream Avenue is any indication, you know i like making characters and stuff!! I like puttin my head to the stone and seeing what comes out, and naturally from that i like drawing them more than just the once for design reveal like i used to. I dont know if this is going to be a HUGE issue but i dunno, i'd like to do that more. I've been in this game for nearly a decade, i've drawn so many characters out there already and some of such multiple times over, enough so to fill a whole folder full of em and sell it in packs! So mind me wanting to try looking at another path. Obvi disclaimer that this doesn't mean you aren't going to see fandom balls anymore, that would be crazy- i need my RoshiEggmanFreddyMario fix as much as anyone else; but rather just know that you're gonna be seeing faces unique to this studio wandering around- y'know?

Side-Tangentially: Ambercream Avenue. I'm happy that i got episode 2 done this year but holy SHIT that took an entire year- maybe it wasn't wise for me to shoot for nearly 20 pages on just my second outing but i definitely need to pick up the pace on making episodes in general- i'm pretty proud of myself for making the holiday 'minisode' in time for december. (calls it a minisode - it's longer than the first episode). Despite all that, i feel really good and i can see where i want to go with this more now than ever. I just need to figure out how to go about it in a more efficient way n all. I probably said it before or you caught it but i've come to enjoy these guys a lot and i want to be able to share with yall and people en masse what makes me like 'em so much, y'dig? 'S how makin' characters n worlds work. Yall already knew you were gonna be seeing their faces more but yeah here's double confirmation for that.

Back to the point of 'changes', here's a definite and kind of 'big' one?

I'm going to be dropping the Sponsor tier entirely for an indefinite amount of time, and instead raising the price of Bigwig to cover that.

Huge apologies first and foremost to all my sponsor tier patrons, you guys are incredibly helpful and i really do appreciate it all; but i have to admit that it's become probably my most dreaded part of the month as time goes on- it's part of the reason the style changed in big and small ways, so i could figure out how to go about it in a fluid way that doesn't make me so anxious about it; therefore delaying when i actually go about working on it. I know i can put out big heaping scoops of work but think about it- it's like 8 pieces near the end of the month every month, y'know? ideally 4 for the requests, then 6 lighter pieces, then 2 big super high effort ones; all while i'm trying to figure out commissions and squeeze in ACA/personal work. After the 15th-20th it becomes like, mental lockdown time; where i focus all my attention on getting this done and end up psyching myself out often- therefore getting NOTHING done until it's either the darkest hour or it all ends up kinda late. Plus, on the topic of Bigwig- it'ssss....Looking at the work i put forth monthly it is generally pretty underpriced; especially with all i'm trying to do and want to do. Again, i'm sorry to land this on yall but i've been thinking about it for a good while and figure how is a good a time as any. New Year and all that.

Now, some extra bits and information about this!
1. All sponsors can of course instead hop onto the investor tier (requests), and alongside that i'm thinking about bringing back smaller versions of request sheets, just to get more peoples' characters n choices they like up. It's something i'll try to see if it sits right with me because i've definitely gotten quicker/better with art, plus it's a consolation for losing out on the big reward- y'dig? (*And to bring up a previous point. I've actually seen some people request some stuff with the Originals over time, and honestly? I'm extremely flattered and might take some of that up every now and again for real now.)

2. This drop/change for sponsor tier isn't active until the end of February, just to be fair to the remaining cycle of people; so March will be the actual cut-off / change date. Feel free to drop out of this tier whenever you feel it makes sense; no need to stay in a cycle that's stopped turning!

So that's a big weight on my head i let out to you all. I suppose i could say that the Jotdown Hotline is always open for you guys to get something like it at pretty much any time, depending on my workload. If i have less impending guaranteed work then i have more time to work on these, y'dig? It's been pretty fun tbh, it's like a little fast food order. I realized the styles are nigh identical anyway so, yeah.

As some supplemental stuff: I've been thinking like...a lot about doing YCH stuff (you saw the poll last year), it seems not too intensive but pretty fun to go about; i have no issues at all throwing the Originals in them but yes of course i'd also go for actually established characters. Who knows, maybe if i do go about hosting 'em i'll do both ends at the same time. After all, everything's better in two's.

Next year's going to be really weird for a lot of reasons inside the studio and definitely outside of it, i hope you all manage alright and i hope i can keep making work y'all enjoy that i also enjoy. I say it all the time to the point that it loses it's effect but i mean it when i say that i really appreciate your guys' support- it allows me to do a lot for myself and the people i hold close. Frustration and exasperation comes with any line of work but hey, if i didn't want to do this anymore str8 up i wouldn't be! Most of my pieces i like the most happened because of y'all guys' ideas this year anyhow. So, even if we're uncertain about all that's about to happen in this ugly looking year, let's steel ourselves and leap in with our eyes open and minds ready.

 -Pesky & “G★”