A while back I posted a link to a survey in the hopes of understanding how to make things more awesome for those of you supporting me on various patronage platforms. Some of the results were surprising, but I think I got a pretty clear picture based on the responses. Here are some of the takeaways:
• Most people are subscribing just to tip me, not for access to locked content.
• Most people are using platform-generated email to read my updates (instead of an app or the platform website).
• Surprisingly, just over half of you don’t read the content unless you remember to.
• 85% of you either don’t care about the community aspect, don’t have time to participate, or can take or leave it (!)
The responses as to preferred platforms yielded some interesting insights. The major ones:
• People like the Locals app/website better than Patreon’s, citing easier-to-use comment sections, more interaction, and better user experience and organization/layout.
• But most people, while reporting a dislike of Patreon, prefer to continue using it over dealing with multiple sites.
The latter was a drumbeat in response after response. ‘I don’t like Patreon, but I’m supporting multiple artists with a single payment a month and it’s just not worth the hassle to move/add another site.’
Patreon has years of inertia behind it, and I don’t think that’s going to change.
I continue to think Locals has potential, and am curious to see what they’re evolving toward, and as inconvenient as it is to have multiple sites to manage (for me, in terms of posting), I like to have diversified revenue streams. When I had all my eggs in the Patreon basket, Patreon going down, kicking me off, or changing its terms and conditions to something untenable was a major worry. Having my patrons split across Patreon and Locals has relieved some of those concerns (and it is nearly half split: 212 people on Locals vs 150 people on Patreon).
But given that the people on Patreon aren’t going to move, I’ve decided to standardize my content (as much as possible) across both platforms. There are some things that will only be on Locals because of the technology, like the livestreams and the better comment sections. But going forward, all free content will be posted to both platforms, and all locked Locals content that can be cross-posted will be available to Patreon patrons paying at least $5 a month (since Locals doesn’t allow me to set a lower membership price). I already have a $5 tier on Patreon, so that makes things easier; I’m debating removing the $1 tier to avoid confusion, but I’m going to wait on that decision to see how things work out first.
This is my intention, but since I have to do it manually I can’t guarantee I’ll catch every post.
The tl;dr version: I am sticking with two major patron platforms, Locals and Patreon. Locked content will be available on both platforms at the $5+ a month level. Content will be cross-posted unless the technology prevents it; Locals has some features Patreon doesn’t.
Here I mention that both Patreon and Locals have yearly as well as month-to-month payment options, so if you want to lump-sum things and get it over with, you can with both sites. And for those of you curious about Locals, here’s a promo code for a free couple of months: https://studiomcah.locals.com/support/promo/FEBCOFFEE
Thanks to all of you for participating in the survey! I really appreciate the window into your interests and pain points. I’m going to use that data to serve you better!
Questions, comments, and suggestions, as always, welcome!
Or at least, I intend it to be relaxing. Hopefully it delivers.
4:22 minutes
Materials:
- Pen: Moonman Starry Glass dip pen, Mars: https://www.jetpens.com/Moonman-Starry-Sky-Glass-Dip-Pen-Mars/pd/31536
- Paper: Strathmore Writing Series 500, lined: https://www.jetpens.com/Strathmore-500-Series-Writing-Pad-8.5-x-11-Lined-50-Sheets/pd/15322
- Ink: Robert Oster, Rose Gilt Tynte: https://www.jetpens.com/Robert-Oster-Rose-Gilt-Tynte-Fountain-Pen-Ink-Shake-N-Shimmy-50-ml-Bottle/pd/25170
In which I talk about the paper, the paint, and the experience of oils versus gouache. Fun stuff, will do more.
Thank you Locals supporters! Your contribution to my art war chest here is what's powering these experiments and videos. For now I'm keeping them public but I may start doing some subscriber-only videos if you all are interested.💖
Thanks for your comments yesterday on the business post... all very provocative, in a good way. I'll try to respond to all of them today.
Some Alysha misc now, since I'm gearing up for the results of the Kickstarter!
Petrov is giving away coupon codes for every book in the Alysha series (and has some leftover coupons for Marda and the business book). You can pick those up here (and please do! The books are bought already, someone should use them!) https://twitter.com/PetrovNeutrino/status/1457344535843987461
Our own @JudasComplex sent along a sample of the Faith in the Service audiobook, which I've attached for your delight! I... haven't had a chance to listen to it. Don't ask me about my past week and a half or so. Putting it here will guarantee I get to it.
After hearing the amused comments during the livestream, I went ahead and added all the ship type illustrations I have inked from the 90s to the wiki. Glory in the rampant adorableness of their anthropomorphic stylings! See those ...
A little comedy today, at least in the link. Transcript follows.
Hi, all. Welcome to this episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
A while back I was introduced to a comedy sketch about Cuban coffee by a Mexican comedian, Gabriel Iglesias. ( The sketch begins with him greeting all his fellow Latinos and then backing up to say ‘but we’re all different, aren’t we’ which is a segue into a demonstration of how different Hispanics speak Spanish.
It is hilarious. First, because I am a Spanish speaker and a linguistics hobbyist, and his portrayal of various accents resonated with my experiences in trying to make sense of them myself… Not always easy, since from culture to culture, slang and accent are often totally different (and sometimes grammar! Spaniards use a grammatical construct that has died out in many other Spanish-speaking countries, the plural “you.”)
I also loved it because the Cuban coffee part is real. I grew up with Cubans. I know how we are....
One of the most common things I hear (and say) right now is "the asymmetry is the story." Here's one about how none of us are innocent of the sins we hate in others.
Hi, all. Welcome to this week’s episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
It’s been weeks since the Baen’s Bar incident and I’m still thinking about it... because the longer I do, the more I feel, overwhelmingly, that it’s obvious that the problem is deeper than “this forum was saying stuff that offended us.” We have to back up to the glaring fact that people on opposite sides no longer consider each other human. Nothing I say will matter because the people disagreeing with me don’t think I’m human. They have denied my humanity; they have not bothered to listen to my beliefs, or have fake-listened to them in that way that people do when they’re so ready to prove you wrong that they’re only using your speech to provide talking points for their own ideas.
We have forgotten how to listen.
Increasingly, we have also ...
What if I told you that, after years of requests for the return of my Stardancer.org gallery, I was in the process of recreating it?
Because I am…! RIGHT NOW. flail
CHALLENGES
First, let me tell you why I haven’t had an online art gallery since stardancer went down:
I did not want to put thousands of images on free gallery sites (like DA) because it would be a ton of work, and I wouldn’t have any control over the site (“what if they go down one day”, “what if they start charging per-upload fees”, “what if they have copyright policy changes I don’t like”, “what if they start using their corpus to train AI”, etc, etc, etc). Can you imagine dumping hundreds of hours into uploading stuff only to lose it because the site owners made questionable decisions? Ugh.
I wasn’t capable of coding my own gallery and I didn’t like the gallery plugins for various content management systems. I could have installed a package on my hosting service, but none of the ones I saw were customizable enough, or did ...
I'm just about done collecting all my notes to begin "Red Honey", a lot of which involves looking for sketches... and this one, I overlooked until just now, is of Kediil and Serel. I love toned sketchbooks! They are so satisfying.
Anyway, next week, we begin!
We’re just about at the midpoint of 2025, so I thought today would be a good day to do a Jaguar check-in! What a weird year it’s been. Very busy, family-wise, with lots of both good and challenging changes; I am using up a lot of time on that, but how is that news? You know how it goes.
My current major project is finishing up the second Jokka collection and mailing all the Kickstarter prizes. That should be wrapped up next month sometime, when we start the Red Honey serialization. I tell you, it’s a wild to be scanning old sketchbooks, only to find sketches of the Red Honey characters from the 2000s! This story has been on the backburner a long time! I also unearthed a lot of sketches from the development of the jokka.org website, which I used the wayback machine to archive (as much as possible). I’m thinking of restoring some amount of it to my current website, which is my other major project right now: my website. I feel like ...
We once allowed our neuters to rule us; they raised up a glittering kingdom, one that rotted from its core the longer we permitted that offense against nature to continue. When we refused to address that imbalance, the Brightness and the Void Themselves smote the World, so powerfully that nothing was left of that time save fearful rumors, whispered across generations.
To this day, the World suffers from the blow Its divine siblings struck against It. We should be more careful of our virtue… or we may not survive the second lesson.
