Thank you for 10 years of Patreon Love!

Hello everyone! As of this past April, I have officially been on Patreon for 10 years! I can’t at all believe that is the case, and I had no idea when I began that I would have been able to keep expressing and creating my work for this long. Please know that whenever I say thank you, I mean THANK YOU!

The financial support I’ve been granted from each of you has my eternal gratitude and is something I take seriously. It is a massive privilege to be able to make the art that I make, and to this point, have the means to continue to do so. For years I’ve had a sense of responsibility to keep making the art and scenes and characters I authentically want to make, and always with an effort to keep building my skills, or push my creativity. That may sound odd, but as someone that is only able to pursue my art because of the attention and support you each grant me, I feel driven to try and make the best stuff that I possibly can, so, again, thank you.

I have been ruminating a lot about this 10 year marker of my time and work, and while my journey so far has led me to make some of my closest friends to date, streams where I can’t stop smiling or laughing and singing, and art that would make the me of ten years ago explode from disbelief and joy, there are many things I wish I had done differently.

I don’t think you’d need to be a patron of 10 years to know that I have had many “eras” with my work. Many seasons, some lasting longer than others with the sort of characters or scenes I focus on. Mountains of wips and other projects either on hiatus indefinitely or revisited after 3 years. If this frustrates you, I am right there with you. I think much of my growth as an artist comes from how critical I am of myself, and that is a double edged sword that cuts me more than it helps. I have spent years thinking my work wasn’t good enough for professional work, or I wasn’t accurate enough to make comics, or skilled enough to make visual novels, yadda yadda. If you are an artist, you’re well familiar with this process.

When I think about the last ten years, I wish I could say the good parts are what stand out the most, but I am plagued by all of the things I wanted to do, still want to do, that I have not done. Crown’s is something I’ve been building at a glacial pace, and is incredibly difficult to juggle alongside the other art and content I must make that will hopefully ensure a steady patronage for the month. It’s something I feel so strongly called to do and I am sad that I haven’t released anything tangible of this story, world and cast that I’m crawling out of my skin to share with everyone. Thank you to everyone that enjoys the bits of the world and characters of Crown’s Reverie that I’ve shared so far, I am trying my best!

With that being said, there are changes I need to make with how I operate if I am to continue for another 10 years, so that I may create and release the projects I truly want to share. While I’ve been able to grow my skills and make a few hits here and there, I have yet to reach a point where I have the financial means to hire the help that would make Crown’s come a lot faster. Until I do, I will be hoping between making the art, writing, making the backgrounds, UI, coding, catching up on other projects such as Batman and Shaggy, Bride of Thanos, and making pieces that will help with finances month to month.

I don’t mean to end this on a sour note, despite what I previously stated, I am quite emboldened and excited about what I am making, and even more excited to see what I make next month and the month after. I am going to keep trying my best, and I hope ten years from now I’ll be writing another note about how grateful I am that Crown’s Reverie II just dropped.

Thank you again for the love and support, whether you’ve been here since day one or yesterday, I hope you stick around!

<3 diz / Chris