***The NTies 3rd Anniversary [summary+the patreon's future]***

(Please don't skip this post, especially the part about the upcoming changes. It's very important!) 

Hello dear patrons, it's NT!

Thank you very much for all the support everyone, current and former patrons included! This patreon wouldn't be working without all of you and we have nothing but gratitude for you!

**Summary of the third year:

It's the third year in a row that I managed to not miss a single deadline!(The first update of March 2019 was completed in time but delayed because of an exceptional payment processing issue) I'm still somewhat proud of my consistency even though it doesn't come as a surprise at this point. 

While I'm not fully satisfied by every single artwork I produced through the years, I surprised myself on many occasions and I think it was worth all the efforts in the end.

Similarly to the previous years, I've only drawn 1 short comic and it's one of my biggest regrets. I've made few animations as well but I feel like a weekly deadline isn't appropriate anymore if I want to diversify my activity.

Followers on social networks keep increasing, going from approximately 4000 to 8000 in a year! I know some of my patrons always like and retweet so thank you guys! 

The support remains somewhat stable but dropped a bit around the end of 2018 and didn't recovered much since then. The support I get every month still helps a lot but doesn't cover all of my expenses and I'm not sure it's wise to keep going like this.

Overall I think there's positive things to say about my activity on Patreon. My artworks are consistent in quality and I have a strong work ethic. However, I almost exclusively produce illustrations while I'd love to make more comics and animations. Unfortunately, they don't work well with a weekly deadline.

This is why I'm planning to switch The NTies from a per update to a monthly payment system.

I think it's going to be at the advantage of everyone. Without a weekly deadline to follow I can choose to invest my time on projects like: 

-illustrations with several characters and backgrounds similar to my Onsen picture but on a smaller scale.
-sketch and fullcolor animations
-Comics of various types like 4 pannel, short, long and even divided in chapters.(believe me when I say that I have many ideas stored for years and that it would take a lifetime to make all of them!)

I'm going to have full control on which project I'll be working on but I'll also regularly draw warmup sketches based on patrons suggestions. A high tier reward will be a fullcolor sketch of any character chosen by the patron(following patreon tos).

The quantity of artworks produced will vary but my intention is to come close to the productivity I always had as soon as I get enough support to be commited fulltime.(around $1000 a month) For now I can only promise to draw weekly sketches batches and the equivalent of 2-3 illustrations a month.

I think I wrote everything I have in mind, a post will come later to describe how the tiers will change and the nature of the rewards.

I invite everybody to share their opinion about it(in PM if needed) or ask anything. I'm open for suggestions as well!
(and encouragements too, I'm under pressure right now (>_<))

From now on The NTies is paused.
I'm planning to transition to the new system at July 1st, leaving you the whole June month to discuss and properly prepare for the changes. I'll be working on the visual revamp in the meantime, updating the page presentation and setting up some future projects.

Sincerely grateful to all of you,
NT

P.S. I wanted to write about the anniversary reward but this message is already cramped so I'll leave it for a later post. I'm sure you will see my most famous artwork differently! (^3^)