Perpetually Behind At All Times

 Little late with this one, but not over the line that were into April so were good to go. I'd like to start by thanking my Patreon backers. As always, you guys really help me out, and I only hope that I'm proving to be worth the investment.

 PARISHIONERS

Unformed

AmanCalledDominik

Vulpinator

FluffyWolf117

Sypher597

Dr.Portal 455

YFC

BovineMage

JustCallMeFaux

Ver min

Karakuri

Warwolf416

DuskyLycanroc

C. Archive

FOLLOWERS

EkhonACT9

Eric Johnson

Martin Nilsson

Mariusz Lewandowski

So let's start with the controversial stuff. By that I mean the aggressive crackdown by payment processors of NSFW content. Between Gumroad and Pixvi flat-out banning all NSFW content, and Patreon instituting that ridiculous 'visual confirmed consent' rule, things are looking dicey for sticking around on Patreon. I mean, it's insane to have, (And correct me if I've misinterpreted this), but to need to go as far as having something like text bubbles above characters who are clearly of age and into what's going on stating 'they consent'. Next thing you know the characters will be required to be holding up driver's licenses too. This isn't Patreon's first stupid kowtow to payment processors being puritanical, but unlike Gumroad they've clearly been taking the 'slow boil' approach instead of pulling the rug out from under everyone with little warning. More than likely to avoid the uproar and mass exodus places like Tumblr and Onlyfans (Although Onlyfans backtracked hard) suffered when they pulled the same blanket ban tactic.

That said, I set up a substar a long while back as sort of a backup should Patreon become too much of a pain in the ass. While I won't be closing my Patreon at present, I will be opening my substar back up alongside it for exit strategy purposes in preparation for whatever stupid shit Patreon pulls next. It's not a long-term solution I guess, seeing as this is coming down from payment processors, they'd eventually come for substar too...but at least that would more than likely prolong things. I can get a few more breaths of oxygen in while they continue to slowly strangle a good chunk of online artists' livelihoods to death. And here I thought AI was the biggest threat to the art community. Anyway, the substar will be functioning in a few weeks, probably mid-April. Although god knows I'm always about a week behind my estimates. When it does go live I will post an announcement along with the active link to it.

Moving away from the looming gloom and doom for the artistic community, let's talk about my current work schedule.

Right now I'm having sort of a slow week. By that, I mean my focus is purely on getting the rough draft of my Gus and Melly side-fic done and ready to send off to my editor. As with the previous fics, I'll be sharing about two pages of the rough for backers once it's finished. Of course, this puts me behind in wanting to get more asks done as well as work on an Easter/Spring project for everyone to enjoy (spoilers; it's sheep-themed). Ideally, I'll also be getting my last commission on deck done and can spend a little time preparing a public pricing sheet to post around before I've got to get a Mother's Day picture or sticker set out for Etsy.

After that, things finally start to loosen up, and I can get back to some long pending projects. Character sheets, Savage Love Pages, that Ellie and Cameron comic, and whatever else I can think of to toy around with until fall starts closing in. Might come back to some of my OCs who've only gone as far as the sketch stage. Might make some new ones. The skies the limit really. At least, fingers crossed on that anyway. I'm still sitting on my 'Art School' program I've been waiting to start, and I'd like to before next year. I can't afford to stagnate especially with AI breathing down everyone's necks like a hypersonic missile.

Lastly, life stuff. There's not much to say here as not too much has changed. I had to postpone my heart doctor appointment for another month due to a surprise storm. So I'm basically just doing my best to press on while I wait for my appointment. Hopefully, there won't be another storm in mid-April, but I live in the high Rockies, so the chances are higher than most places. My mother has been doing well with physical therapy, and fingers crossed she'll be walking unassisted by June. Which will take a decent-sized portion of weight off my back. Even thinking about that possibility feels like such a relief, at least before I remind myself we aren't there yet.

I think that's about all I have to say for now. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to supply you all with a mini-update!

Thanks again to my Patreon backers! As well as all the folks following, faving, and commenting on my works. (And buying stuff in my Etsy store) It's always appreciated.

My Etsy Shop

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WastedTimesArtShoppe

My Patreon

https://patreon.com/wastedtimeee?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

-Wasty

Marching forward with Baby Steps

 Hey all, hope you guys are all doing well, both backers and fans alike. As always, I'd like to start this post with my usual thank yous to Patreon Backers for their continued support. Love you guys!

PARISHIONERS

KarakuriCentral

JustCallMeFaux

Luposong

FluffyWolf117

Sypher597

Vulpinator

JustCallMeFaux

BatDuskyLycanroc3blr

Unformed

VulpinatorAmanCalledDominik

Alexander Eckhart

Warwolf416

Ver min

BovineMage

_YFC_

Dr.Portal 455

FOLLOWER

Carbyne Canine

Eric Johnson

Martin Nilsson

Phew...so we got a lot to cover I guess. Even if I'm not confident as to how much I can get rolling in March alone. But let's start this off with a review of February.

Those who are frequenters of my Ask Blog "AsktheBellHunters.com", may have noticed a sudden vast uptick in answers at the start of February. This is because I wanted to clear up the backlog of Asks I had preceding the new year and didn't want to drag that out any longer, as well as I felt it was a good use of the time I had left at the start of February before one of my backers visited me from the 11th to 17th. That said, it wasn't all Netflix and chill when my good friend came to visit, and I did get some additional work done while they were here. Somehow despite all the museums and art installations, I also managed to squeeze in not one, but two sticker sets, one of which my good friend was given as a freebie to take home for putting up with me dragging ass around Colorado trying to keep up with them.

These sticker sets, "Spring Delilah" and "Secretary Ewe Emoji Head" should already be live on Patreon by the time I post this. Both sets will be five bucks a sticker, with the usual discounts per multiple buys. You can DM me directly as per usual if that's what you'd prefer. However, as for the future of public sale of these stickers, I'm going to be taking a stab at running my stickers on Etsy. I feel like they may get more eyes on them there based on... well my own experience scouring Etsy to be honest. That said, I'll still take sales outside of Etsy, as that's fairly easy to manage. Plus, I'll be able to manage the 'discounts' easier. Still, these new stickers won't be going live publically until I've got Etsy pages running alongside them. The old sale sheets also have to be 'future proofed' by removing the sales price so they can be adjusted on listings easier. I'll add a link to the store page to this post once it's live.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WastedTimesArtShoppe?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Another thing I'll be starting this month, and hopefully be able to keep running for the foreseeable future is....*Dramatic Pause*, a monthly raffle for a 1-2 character sketch piece for a random five-dollar tier backer! Basically, every month I'll be punching all the five-dollar tier backers into a randomizer, and whoever I roll gets offered a free 1-2 character sketch piece. I will announce the winner in either my monthly post, or a short individual post should I take too long to get the 'Thank you status update' post rolling, and contact them directly to begin the work. If they don't want a sketch or don't contact me back within three days, I'll re-roll the randomizer and move on the next person.

Winners will be removed from the randomizer for a total of six months to allow for a cool-down period and give others a chance at winning a sketch.

This month's winner is...

_YFC_!

So I'll be messaging YFC as soon as this post goes live to make sure they want to move forward with a sketch. Should it not work out, in three days or so you'll see a new winner announced!

Edit: The Raffle Poll has been postponed as It has been pointed out to me that 'raffles' aren't a thing I can do on Patreon. That said, I'll need some time to reassess what I can offer.

Okay, what next, what next? Oh right! So I'm also going to be dipping my toes into the whole 'adoptables' pool with the release of my first slew of adoptable gals. This time around it's 'Oops, all otters!', where we'll have four otter gals up for sale. Bidding will start at 50 bucks each, and I'll run it for about three days. Winners will receive the base drawing of the girl they bid on, isolated from the others with the 'color samples' cleaned up. If the winner wants a mini character sheet done of them after securing the bag so to speak, we can discuss creating one at a discounted rate. This would be a very basic 3 full body, one expression deal, and the original winning pinup would also be tacked onto the sheet. Anything more elaborate would have to be discussed further and charged accordingly.

This auction will be run exclusively on furaffinity, and should be live at the time of this post. The sheet featuring the girls will probably be posted to Patreon before this. I have linked the live auction page below.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51225868/

Lastly...let's talk about upcoming work on the queue.

After all this clerical work today, the next thing I'm doing is writing up about 5-6 chapter outlines for 'The Family Vulpes', Basically to organize my thoughts and key bits I want to hit in each of the upcoming chapters so that I can start on the next entries. I also want to write up a rough outline for a new entry in the "Tales of the Bellhunterverse" series featuring Gus and Melly. After that, the next week will be focused entirely on drawing the next page of "Burrowed into my Heart" and "Savage love". I'd also love to have them done by the end of the week, but I can't make any promises there. Then after that, it's back to actually writing "The Family Vulpes" Chapters...

I've also got two little things I'd like to work on over the next few weeks...one simpler, and one more advanced, that I'll see where I can squeeze in health and workload allows. This would be an Inui from Aggretsuko sticker set, and a character sheet for Deirdre Black, my loch ness monster gal.

Lastly, life stuff...yeah, still dealing with extreme exhaustion and heart issues. Have an appointment in Denver at the end of March for a POTs specialist that will... hopefully lead to something. Also aiming to make some diet changes I'm hoping will contribute, seeing as the amount of exercise I'm doing doesn't seem to make a difference. We'll see how things shake out, and I'll try my best to keep you all updated.

Once again, thanks to everyone who's continued to support me, fans and backers alike. Fingers crossed things go smoothly for this month, and at the very least I can meet most of the above goals...Love you guys.

-Wasty

My Etsy Shop

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WastedTimesArtShoppe?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

My Gumroad Store

https://wastedtimeee.gumroad.com/

My Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wastedtimeee

An April Update (Future Stuff)

First and foremost I'd like to thank my backers, both Parishioners and Donators in general for the continued support. It's been a really...rocky late winter in terms of health stuff, so thanks to you guys for continuing to stick it out with me. Especially being just about two months late with this whole 'shout out' and 'general update' post. But for once, I'll say the time hasn't been....well, wasted. Anyway, before we dig on in, here are the shoutouts! Freshly audited and pruned for the month of April.

PARISHIONERS

Warwolf416

FluffyWolf117

O.C.R.

KarakuriCentral

AmanCalledDominik

Toonophile

Sypher597

Unformed

Ver min

Luposong

BovineMage

BatDuskyLycanroc3blr

Alexander Eckhart

Kei Fox

FOLLOWER

RandomGamer24

Reddawn7744

Martin Nilsson

So lets roll up our sleeves and dig into this with a sizeably large truncheon. But where to start?

I guess it would be best to start out with the status of the ask blog, which is still running. It's not on some sort of temporary Hiatus or anything of that nature. And I have no intention of ending it in the foreseeable future. all though it's no real secret that I've lapsed with quite a few posts on 'AskTheBellhunters" Last month. The bulk of that was related to my health issues being...well all over the place if I'm being honest, and that's both mentally and physically. I'm going to spare you the gritty details, for both our sakes. But it got into the way of...all of my plans which I should have come to expect by now.

Initially, I had planned to take a vacation from the start of March into the first half of April. I had dubbed the idea as more of a sabbatical when I came up with it. The idea was that I'd close commissions, finish up some pending project work, and then take the next month and a half to work on personal projects and study tutorials that would be boring to watch me stumble through with an audience. So it wasn't so much of a 'vacation' as it was...well more like a personal retreat.

When we were coming up to it, I had two key things I wanted to finish up before I declared my official leave. There was the second Page of 'Savage Love', which I posted earlier in the week, and the next chapter of "The Family Vulpes" That was the last two pieces of work I needed to finish before I could delve into the sabbatical proper. Needless to say, that didn't happen as planned.

My health knocked me off of my very flimsy and clumsy legs, making it so I could barely get anything done for multiple weeks. It dragged me ankle-deep into the mud, and I had to claw my way through to get these specific projects wrapped so I could take my sabbatical proper. This overlapped into me skipping asks, and other stuff just so I could focus on Savage and Vulpes. And while this was easier in terms of working on Savage Love's second page, as I had already planned it out, and it was merely a matter of putting pen to paper. The new Family Vuples Chapter is still only half-finished. Writing is, and always has been tricky for me, especially because when it comes to writing stories, I'm always waited for the 'muse' to take me away. The words refuse to come unless it's under just the right conditions. So feeling nauseated, dizzy, and having no appetite for three solid weeks was....well there was no way I was getting into that head space during that time.

So while I was aiming to finish it up in early March, it's now the cusp of April and I'm only halfway through the chapter. That's where I'm at, and with that being the only thing on my plate at the moment, I'm going to use this week to focus on hammering that out. No promises on progress, but ideally...with my health growing increasingly more manageable, I'm hoping to get a few good days in where my fingers don't stumble all over themselves across the keyboard and something coherent comes out of it.

In terms of asks, I'm planning to resume them on Monday-Tuesday, but the jar has been getting pretty low in terms of written only replies I've got stockpiled. I tend to use those to fluff out my post days, because...well, just not every ask is going to make for a good mini-comic or sketch, and my arm needs to rest. To be frank, I've got a lot of cool asks building up that I'd love to draw in comic form. It's just a matter of picking a nice balance of written asks to supplement it. I could...technically go all in and just bang out some drawn asks back to back within the same week...but the whole purpose of the asks were to be...well the last priority on my list in terms of workload. A way to keep folks interested in The bellhunterverse while I work on the fics, or do commissions so I can...eat another day. It was not meant to ever play the sole focus of my workload in favor of projects like improving style and techniques and growing as an artist and a creator, as well as...be the thing I push hardest to get to when dealing with my health setbacks. I've...tried and tried to push through so often..and only now...I've come to terms with the fact that you can't always just...push through physical limitations, and I'm hoping I can...better learn to live around that now.

As I mentioned above, Savage love page 2 is done for now and out. so that's all set. Don't expect a page three till like...May I guess? I've got the scripts plotted for the next three pages ahead of time, so it's just the matter of putting it to page and arranging it all in a visually interesting way. After that, I'll work on condensing the next several pages of the script (With the help of Karakuri Central, thanks bud.) into scenes and dialogue...although I expect the overall dialogue to drop off to some degree once the clothes come off.

When it comes to "The Family Vulpes chapter six'...or five...hold on...yes five, Id love to have that done by the end of the week, but more realistically I'm shooting for end of April overall. When I began the fic, I had plotted out a giant missive planner for it, with all sorts of key plot details and important significant moments that would come up as each of the four major characters journeyed from one side of the narrative to the other, and I went on to sort of break those down into arcs from there. The first four chapters were meant to center around Val, her Dad, and her family, to show you how they got to where they are pre-and post-rehab...without spilling the entirety of the beans on every aspect of them. It explores their family dynamic in contemporary Zoot and how they got there, and to get you familiar with them. That became the focus, and because it's me...and I can't help but always go long in the tooth that stretched into five chapters.

When this chapter is over, we'll essentially be shifting into the second act which will go on to establish both Clover and Kodi, the outsiders in this story, and their respective social dynamics. So I'll need to take a small break to drum up the next five or six chapter briefs about them before I go into writing them proper as I did with Cameron and Val. That shouldn't take too long as I'm merely condensing more of the bits and pieces I've already got set up for them into easier to manage bites. I hope guys will look forward to it...and manage to keep up some degree of investment and interest despite how long it takes me to get chapters out now.  I wish I could turn out a new chapter every week like I used to, but...that's just how it's going to be I guess...and I hope it still reaches folks regardless.

Over the next few months, I'm aiming to get back into animating, 3d stuff, and maybe a little voice acting. I actually used to....do that when I was younger...not to brag. It was fun, although I've always been too shy of my own voice to act along with anyone. So I was thinking this might be a good opportunity to well...sort of start my own audiobook project with Rehab and Law. Maybe a motion comic thing of the old story sometime. but that's still a way at this point. right now I'd like to focus on getting some simple stuff together...maybe a few models are actually suitable for use in something like Misfit or Wasty Cuttlfish. We're a long way off from Misfit V-tubering it around. Maybe some dry tuns in VR chat, that sort of thing.

So...I think I've said...oh wait...yeah! So Before I sign off, I also wanted to use this time on my sabbatical to work on what my patreon offers, and the prices overall. I'm going to need to restructure a lot of things soon. The chat, the perks...and I want to reach out to other artists that...well know what they are doing in terms of merch and prints and see what I can learn from them. It's easier said than done at this point, as I've always been terrible at networking....and I don't want to get ahead of myself here. But I'm formulating some big plans for this patreon and well...I hope those of you who've stuck with this long throughout my modest career in art will be excited to see what's coming.

Thanks for everything, and sorry for the delays, I love you all...

Wasty

Patreon Shouts and the Future!?

 

Patreon Shouts and the Future!?

First, let me apologize for not doing the last month's Patreon shout out. I kinda lost track of things trying to solve the whole “AskDawnAndVern” Tumblr lock out fiasco, but it's not really an excuse. All I can do is promise to do better from here on out in keeping my shout outs ready for post Patreon billing day to make sure no one feels under appreciated. I know I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it's because of you guys I'm able to keep up with what I can at present, and I appreciate every little bit of support you've given. Not just the fininancial aspects, but the words of encouragement and just being there. So without further ado, let's run off the list of my special lads and lasses.

PARISHONER

TheLastShogun

BatDuskyLycanroc3blr

Reddawn7744

Ross C.

Toonophile

Sypher597

FluffWolf117

Kei Fox

KarakuriCentral

Unformed

HyenaFur

AmanCalledDominik

Warwolf416

Bjerken Badger

Luposong

The Racc In Black

FOLLOWER

BovineMage

The General 501

    Of course, if you aren't a patreon, but still support my blog/fics/other works, seriously thank you. You are also supremely appreciated.

    So now for the news. First, for what is probably on the top of most readers/watchers notes, “What was the ultimate outcome for AskDawnAndVern? Well, the tumblr is dead. I can't really tell anyone following me on tumblr anymore than I have already. (Leaving a comment on the last ask to explain what happened.) However, thankfully patreons and other fans have spread the word around a bit. Elite Shade, author of the “Found AU” even made sure to notify people on his fic, and I will be doing the same when the next chapter of “The Family Vulpes” Goes up. That said, thanks to those who have spread around the news of the death of “Ask Dawn And Vern” And the new blog home “Ask the BellHunters”

    I do believe I've already mentioned ask the BellHunters, but it should be viewable to everyone now at.

Www.AsktheBellHunters.com

    But if that one doesn't work, I'm pretty sure there's also a blogspot address that should work as an alternate.

Www.askthebellhunters.blogspot.com

    It's been a slower start than I would like as my health has been doing a bit worse since the tail end of June. But we've got some new asks up, and a way better archival system than tumblr ever had. That said, I still have to finish cataloging the old Tumblr entries while I can. Though I probably have another three-hundred plus comics to retrofit to a non-tumblr format.

    Onto the fic front, the newest chapter (or chapters) of “The Family Vulpes” are done, save for editing, and I plan to spend Sunday and Monday (depending on if it's needed) doing to edits and revisions and it should be ready to go live after that. It is roughly sixty-five pages and is going to be split up into two chapters and released two weeks apart from one another. So yeah, there's what I've been sitting on in terms of fic. Had I known I was going to have to split it up earlier, we might have seen release the previous month.

    Now onto art. Despite raising prices, I am still being inundated with commission work. I currently have a queue that realistically is filled up until the tail end of September. That said, I've also had to make sure I planned in that queue some personal projects so that content wouldn't all be commissions for other people. So, the next big art piece to expect that's not comm'd content will be a Dawn and Vern pregnancy pic. Beyond that, I'll be taking the queued comms slowly so I can allow for personal projects to get in there regularly. I also still intend to do the voted monthly polls, so I have to account for them as well. That said, since I'm unsure as to what to them this month, I'm simply going to post a list of ladies I would like to draw at some point or another and have you guys pick who I should draw for August. No alliteration, no theme, just randoms.

    Lastly, health. I really, really hate talking about it because...I don't like to share, and people's patience tends to wear thin when your health is generally bad. But because I owe it to fans and patreon members alike to let them know what could get in the way of things, I have to talk about it. Health's been a little worse than usual. Apparently, something is wrong with my hormones, and I'm meant to see a specialist later in the month. So, I'll keep you posted as that develops I suppose. But the battle against miserable exhaustion getting in the way of every aspect of my life continues wages on.

    So all that said, once again, thanks for all the support, and I hope you all continue to look forward to what I put out. Thanks everyone.

-WT