Thinking of a new art schedule

Sorry for the super long post, but I wanted to be sure I was making this proposal clear. If you'd just like the TLDR:

I'm thinking of changing my current art schedule to focus exclusively on continuously updating 2-3 comics at a time and working page to page instead of month to month. You'll still be getting as much art as before (both the SFW and 18+ kind) and there will be no change to pricing. The shift would be somewhat gradual, to give myself time to finish up some other projects first.

For more of an explanation...

Over the last year, I've made it no secret that I'd like to do more story-driven projects. I often find myself expanding a single page mini-comic into 2 or even 3 pages because I feel like one page isn't enough to get the story right (even if that story is just about horny people doing the thing). Even then, I still often feel like 2-3 pages isn't enough, and I wish I could expand on the idea of a particular comic even more, but my current monthly-based art schedule kind of prevents me from doing that.

Just to summarize, the current schedule is (generally) as follows:

1) One 18+ illustration or mini-comic voted on by you

2) One SFW illustration or mini-comic voted on by you

3) One page of an ongoing 18+ comic

4) One SFW illustration, mini-comic or page of an ongoing comic chosen by me

I might deviate from it a little here and there, but that is the art schedule I've been following for the last couple of years. While it's allowed me to explore a lot of different ideas, it does mean long form comics like Korra Sandwich or Peacekeeper take a while to finish, and I can't quite explore certain shorter stories as much as I'd like because I need to be able to finish them within a single month.

I've also mentioned a few times now that I've slowly been chipping away at an OC comic. It's still currently in the planning phase, but I hope to start making the actual comic sometime next year. I've been trying to figure out how to integrate it into my current art schedule so I can make steady progress on it, but it's proven tricky.

So, lately I've been thinking a lot about changing that art schedule to give myself the time to explore more long form storytelling. The plan would be to dump the current "monthly" schedule and focus exclusively on continuously updating multiple comics that are running at the same time. I would be alternating between three comics: a SFW one, an 18+ one, and my OC comic.

What the new schedule would look like

In order to keep producing 18+ art at a steady pace, I'd keep alternating between SFW and 18+ projects like I always have. So, the new schedule would look like this:

1) One page of an ongoing SFW comic

2) One page of an ongoing 18+ comic

3) One page of my OC comic (while It's still in the planning phase, I'd be sharing concept art and such instead of pages until I'm ready to get it off the ground)

4) One page of an ongoing 18+ comic

While I wouldn't be following a monthly schedule like I was before, at my current working speed, you can probably still expect the same amount of posts every month (so around 4-5 finished pages per month, with the usual WIP updates and HD files). It's just that I'll now be working from page to page instead of month to month. So for example, if I were to start in November, I could end up producing:

November...

1) One page of Anniversary (SFW comic)

2) One page of Korra Sandwich (18+ comic)

3) Some concept art for my OC comic

4) One page of Korra Sandwich (18+ comic)

5) One page of Anniversary (SFW comic)

December...

6) One page of Korra Sandwich (18+ comic)

7) Some concept art for my OC comic

and so on...

Again, this is just an example. I have no plans to throw everything out and instantly jump to the new schedule should you guys be in favor of it. It would be a more gradual change so I can take the time to adjust and make sure I have all my ducks in a row before I fully shift to the new schedule. It would also give me a chance to prioritize some of the projects I currently have in the pipeline, like the CaitVi 18+ comic I promised for November, and some of the SFW comics in this month's poll. I would also want to finish up both the Anniversary and Peacekeeper comics.

This also doesn't mean I'd only be doing comics that are 10-20 pages long, of course. I could still end up doing a lot of comics with only 2-3 pages, but this schedule would allow me to give every comic however many pages I feel they need, rather than try to cram everything into as few pages as possible so I can get them out within a couple of weeks, which is what I often find myself doing right now.

Tier pricing would remain the same as it is now, and you would still get the same amount of art you've always been getting.

It's just that that art would now be almost exclusively in the form of updates to ongoing comics rather than one-off minicomics or illustrations. Each tier would still get access to their respective WIPs and HD files, too.

18+ comics would also still be hosted on Patreon until a full month after completion, at which point they'd be moved to Gumroad. The only difference here is the move wouldn't necessarily happen on the 2nd day of a month, but exactly one month after the comic is complete (so if I put out the last page of a comic on the 15th of January, the full comic would get moved to Gumroad on the 15th of February).

Pros and Cons

This new schedule would have both its benefits and drawbacks, of course, and here's a quick rundown of what came to mind:

Pros

• Higher quality comics (I hope 🤣 )
  With more flexibility in how I approach making these comics, I'll be able to put more thought into each page and how everything flows together. I may also be more comfortable with including fewer panels per page, which means much of the art would be bigger and clearer.

• More engaging stories (including the naughty kind)
  If I don't have to worry about length, I could now more freely tackle some of the more complex comics I've been thinking of over the years, like action focused comics or stories that explore subjects that I've felt I couldn't really do properly in only 1-2 pages (I've been wanting to do something that focuses on Korra and Asami's different traumas, for example). 18+ comics could also have more context and/or emotion to go with all the naughty fun times.

• Faster completion of full comics
  Focusing exclusively on long form comics means comics like Korra Sandwich or Peacekeeper get finished faster. Simple as that.

Cons

• Polls would no longer be on a monthly basis
  With this change, the monthly SFW and 18+ polls wouldn't be necessary anymore. However, every time I finish a comic, I'd put up a poll to let you guys decide what the next one should be, similarly to what I've been doing with the current ongoing 18+ comics. So you guys would still have a say in what I make, but it wouldn't be at the start of every month. Iron patrons and above would be able to vote on SFW comics, and Mythril patrons for 18+ comics.

• Less variety in subject matter
  Focusing my attention on ongoing comics means I'd be sticking to the same 1-2 subjects for several months in a row, so there'd be less variety in the fanart I make. Buuuut given that Korra and Asami already make up like 80% of the art I put out these days, this change might not be all that noticeable 🤣

• Potential for burnout
  Comics are a lot of work, and when I've been working on them for a while I start to get a little burned out, especially if it's a particularly long comic. So far I've been able to avoid the worst of it by giving myself little breaks here and there by switching to standalone illustrations, pinups, or quick minicomics for a while. I plan to keep doing that whenever I feel I need it, but given that long form comics would now be my primary focus, the potential for burnout could be a little higher.

Let me know what you think!

So that's about it! Please vote below to let me know what you think of this possible change, and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions, concerns or just an affirming word or two.

A "win" in either direction won't necessarily mean I'll go with that decision. But what you guys want matters a lot to me, so I still want to know what you think of my proposal so I can think on it and be sure I'm taking the right course of action for the Patreon and my art overall.

Thank you!