I’d love to learn more about any challenges you’ve come across related to Patreon, creating, marketing, etc. and how you’ve approached those challenges.
Did you ask a friend for help? Search google? Or maybe you took a risk and tried some new things to see if that worked?
Thanks ahead of time for sharing your experiences!
Actually, doing patreon in general is a new thing for me. I’ve tried gofundme and just putting my art out there with sites like deviantart, but I felt like I had no supporters, barely any followers! But then, when I made my page, I actually had two of my friends become my patrons. It felt very rewarding, and they’re looking forward to my content.
The most challenging thing so far is my continual build of my page. Are the rewards good enough? What about my intro, not too long? I’ve looked at other creators and their set up. But I don’t want to copy them completely - as I shouldn’t anyways. The hardest part is finding a successful creator who makes similar content and how they ended up that way. Then I’m looking at every guide under the sun! I’ve been on Patreon almost 24/7 trying to make everything perfect.
Totally understand that need for external validation, @sybilestial! I might suggest sharing your page in the creator page feedback thread.
Oh, that’s an excellent idea, @ellie! Thanks!
My biggest challenge is always in my own head. I struggle with getting my work to a place of consistency and regular production. Most of the battle is just with myself in getting the work done. This isn’t just a challenge from last week, but a continuing challenge.
I have several approaches to try and break through this issue: I meet up with other artist friends once a month to discuss techniques and check in, I read a few pages of an inspiring book almost daily, and just this last week I went with one of my patrons to four different art museums and just soaked in all of the artwork and inspiration and talked with her at length about art from a patron’s point of view.
I would love to hear what anyone else does to get through art block.
One of my biggest challenges is how to explain what I’m creating, since it’s often very varied, and often also changes. It feels like I’m making a commitment to my patrons about what to expect, and then what happens if I don’t meet their expectations?!
I have the same challenge! I’m ever procrastinating the actual creation of new art. I’ve tried to reward myself for finishing artworks. Sometimes chocolate, sometimes with an outing, or lunch at a restaurant if I can afford to. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t - essentially it would mean I need self-discipline to start with, e.g. not to eat the chocolate before doing the work!
My procrastination is often about fear of failure, not wanting to mess up really nice paper. So I make sure that I have more paper than I actually need, and I tell myself that the artwork could go into my ‘scrapbook’ if I don’t like it, or if it’s on wood I can just rework it/cover it and start again.
My best strategy however is to get up a little earlier and make something without doing ANYTHING else first. No coffee yet, just jump right in. I’m fresh in the morning and my over-critical side seems to take a bit longer to kick in (around 10am if I’m not mistaken).
I had to give up food rewards for the same reason. I was more focused on the reward than the art and would rationalize eatin’ it first, binge on all the junk, and then feel too yucky to do art. Hahaha! I think we’ve all had someone we love or respect at some point tell us to quit playin’ around and/or be realistic. All the joy of just doing art becomes something like guilt and we try to work our guilt into motivation, but it doesn’t work quite as well as joy. All of that goes away in the process, but it can sometimes put the brakes on actually gettin’ started and it can make it extra difficult for me when I’m struggling with some technical aspect. At least, that’s how it is for me: the emotions are all wrong.
I try to focus on just the art and not the outcome. Earlier this year I worked over a month on something and was so excited about how it turned out, but uploaded it to a chorus of crickets. It took a lot out of me to put so much of myself into something and get virtually no response. For the next picture I didn’t upload it until I was well into the one following, so I was involved in the next one and didn’t pay as much attention to the response or lack thereof. It worked much better for me and I try to do that more now. So I use that as my incentive in a way, I can’t upload the last picture until I’ve started with the next.
What a brilliant approach! I know how it can take the wind out of your sails when nobody responds to a creation. Crushing! Your way of working makes a lot of sense in that regard!!
And I do know exactly what you’re talking about when referring to the emotions being wrong.