Teacher Pack Rant - Overall Goals

Hey, everyone!
I'm just reminding those who wanted to or missed the announcement of the Teacher pack coming out. Also I have to disclose some things about the pack and the situation with my audience.



This Teacher Pack was a free time project I did in the last few years. I'm admittedly not fantastic at making bundles like this since its my first, but wanted to try something new for a change of pace. I wanted to see if I can pull it off and make newer, higher quality bundles in the future if it does well.

So I need to be real with you all about my plans involving art packs. Basically if its not successful I'll try something different. Maybe go back to Donate to Continues but make it based on sequences.

=Why an Exclusive Pack?=
Exclusive packs obviously have stigma to them. Especially if there are people out there with real vitriol towards the artist. There's the positive, dedicated followers with real criticisms about why I hold myself back. There's the tiny, anonymous minority who hate my art, no matter how well done it is, simply because its drawn in MS Paint. But there's a group that's created from releasing exclusives. The followers who feel betrayed when I hide art behind a pay wall.

This is the group I want to talk about.

The reality of it is, artists drawing solely what they want can't sustain themselves without making money off it in some way. Without donations or some kind of purchase system, I'd be doing exclusively commissions and my own ideas and characters will get rarely drawn. Even rarer than what I upload outside of DtCs.

Basically total dedication to commissions means no more regular uploads.

I wanted to avoid this as much as possible, hoping that I can sustain myself from DtCs and donations while posting all my art publicly with an occasional commission. But this just doesn't work without a large support from my audience. There are a lot of people who love my work but won't/can't afford regular financial support. So when it came to DtCs and donations I was being funded by the same 3-5 people every time. I might as well be doing commissions for them personally at that point, which I'd rather do, and have them pay full commission price that they are more than happy to pay.

The conclusion is make an art pack for the few who want to spend money on me who just want to see what I've worked on and support me directly for it. Or at least try it.

= Pack Success or Failure as of this Date? *Specific numbers* =
I made a poll for the pricing of the pack. If all 32 who voted bought it, it would make $320 gross. I know people bought it that didn't vote so there is an outlier. If I were to calculate the production value of this pack in terms for how I price commissions, it would need to make about $520.

=Overall=
I'll wait and see what comes of this and keep trying new things. I just felt like being open about the art pack situation and hope that more people get interested in purchasing it to help continue supporting me.

I appreciate every pledge, donation and purchase from the few who do, as well as any comments and verbal support I get. Not everyone can afford to support the artists they love. I know this all too well. I personally would love to commission others too. I'm just grateful that I get what I can from those willing to send what little they are willing to part with to help keep me going.

Its just that in order to go forward I have to go this route.