As September 2018 draws to a close, I have a few announcements to make. Firstly, with the low demand for Your Character Here pieces, I regret to inform you that I’ll be discontinuing this line of commissions. Until there is enough demand, I will not submit any additional Your Character Here offerings. Those that have not sold will remain open. If anyone’s interested in those that still remain open, please send me a private note to discuss.

In spite of my closing the Your Character Here (YCH) commission offerings, I am considering three new offerings in its place. These three new commission offerings are:

• Digital Sketch: a quick digital piece with a rough sketch feel
  • rough sketch only
  • $10 per character
  • 20% off on RaccoonPioneer characters
  • 2 character max
    
• Comic Page: a single or multiple panel comic page w/ your choice of line art only, black-and-white, or Technicolor
  • Line Art only: $30 per panel
  • Black-and-white or Technicolor: $40 per panel
  • 20% off on RaccoonPioneer characters
    
• Digital Painting: detailed lineless digital piece with a choice of black-and-white or Technicolor
  • Black-and-White: $50 per character
  • Technicolor: $80 per character
  • 20% off on RaccoonPioneer characters

PLEASE NOTE - the Digital Painting option will only be open on a limited basis; I will only take one Digital Painting order at a time. Please check my profile often for the statuses of all my commission offerings. At this present time, however, the Digital Painting option will not be open.

While expanding the commission offers to include Digital Sketches and Digital Paintings, there will be an effort, on my part, to add a greater variety of finishes. Most projects completed over the last few months have been Flat Color or Shaded Color pieces, with a few random exceptions here and there. Digital sketching won’t be too difficult though - it’s getting into digital painting that will prove a challenge, but I’m willing to take the challenge with an open mind. It will require practice and patience on my part, and constructive criticism from you guys; without feedback, I won’t know if I’m going about my projects incorrectly or otherwise. Your help and feedback is greatly appreciated.

Out of appreciation for my followers on Picarto, I may consider a special offer during the last week and a half of December 2018, a Follower Appreciation Month special. What’s in store for this event? During the final week and a half of December 2018 only, I will be hosting an art raffle, where followers on Picarto could win a chance to a free line art request. To participate, however, you must meet the following criteria:

• Starting October 17th, you must follow my Picarto art channel
• You must be present 70% of the streaming time between October 17th and December 21st
• You will not demand for free art between now and December 21st; multiple offenses will result in a permanent ban

The last point must be taken seriously, if I’m to host this raffle in December. If I get too many demanding for free art between now and then, I will not host the raffle at all. And to keep track of who’s been following my art channel, and how long followers have been watching every stream, I will be keeping a log of screen caps as a visual roll call. This is nothing against anyone in particular, but I need to take these measures to prevent a repeat of a previous disaster…

Beyond commissions, the potential art raffle, and expanding on my artistic style, I am also considering further expansion to additional online art galleries. This comes after I’ve received a few comments suggesting that I return to, of all art community sites, DeviantArt. To reinforce my stance on that community, I am through with DeviantArt, forever. I didn’t have much respect as an artist during my time there - random freeloaders would show up and demand for free art, and if I told them no, they’d whine and complain about it. And so, as a consequence, I refuse to rejoin DA.

While DA is out of the question, I have contemplated rejoining Patreon. I was a member there for a few months, before abandoning them due to low traffic, but if there’s enough demand from you guys, I may rejoin. If I’m to join though, do you guys have any recommendations on how to improve the experience there?

There is one more option of expansion that I have previously considered many times over, yet never went beyond the planning stages: a personal website. While I’d have more control with this option, it also comes with greater risks. This also requires knowledge in several web design and development technologies; regrettably, I only know HTML5, CSS3, and intermediate level PHP and WordPress. A website that meets my own needs, however, would require JavaScript or Java, in addition to several other technologies that I lack experience with; might commission a web developer to take care of the technical side, while I take care of the user experience side - not sure about that yet.

In the interim, I have started up a new Discord server to serve as an alternative to some of my less visited galleries, such as Weasyl and Tumblr. You may join here at RaccoonPioneer Studios. By joining the server, you will have a chance to see works-in-progress, finished pieces, up-to-date commission statuses, chat with the artist, share your own works, and more.