You've all seen me posting a bunch of stuff from my Patreon, like chibis and exams, but I wanted to write a journal proper that explains what how I use it specifically.

Every month, I pick a goal or topic, and I spend the month studying it. The more funding I get on my Patreon, the more time and effort I can afford to put into studying, plain and simple. When it comes to paid commissions for other people, it's not a very smart place to experiment with art techniques or new tools and styles. And the more time I spend researching something for a specific commission, the lower my "hourly" wage on it becomes. So I generally use the knowledge I already have to complete commissions, rather than looking for new ideas. When I do personal art, it's usually to relax and have fun, so using that as my study guinea pig isn't very productive either, in its own way. That's why having time set aside thanks to my patrons is a huge help for me!

I revise my Patreon tiers and goals a lot, because I'm always trying to get a good balance of something that benefits me and you. I benefit by having money I can rely on to cushion me while I study the craft I love most. You benefit by having my increased knowledge reflected in future commissions and comics. I also provide links and explanations of everything I've learned each month, so that people on the lowest tier ($1) can cash in on the resources I've gathered, too.

It also serves as a tip jar, as all Patreon accounts do. I put a lot of effort into maintaining my various galleries, making them easy to read, scanning and editing art, going to stores for supplies; all sorts of things that don't actually get paid for directly, but that I still spend a decent amount of time on so I can look like a cool professional. If my monthly Patreon funds go super high for some awesome reason, I'm obviously not going to spend my entire month studying to the fullest capacity and ignoring everything else. So instead, that money goes towards all the little unpaid things I do.

As for the exam pieces, those are basically my workaround for having a raffle in my tiers >w> But pretty much, whatever I was focusing on all month, at the end of the month I do four images as a "final exam" on the topic, and make the topic central to the pictures. Two of them are black and white, two are in color. Two are from the waist up, two are full body. Other than that, they could contain anything, depending on the month!

Hopefully that's concise and clear for everybody! If any of you have questions or concerns about how I use it or why, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me. I know Patreon has a bit of a stigma as a paywall, or grabbing for money for free, or what have you, and I'm open to polite discussion about that.

Thanks for reading!
https://www.patreon.com/malachyte