Back to the grind.

 I'd like to thank my Patreon and Subscribstar supporters for as long as I continue to have them. Lord knows the credit companies will be coming down on those platforms increasingly over the next few months in the same way they're presumably doing to Etsy now. Still, it's deeply appreciated. Whether you're an old hand or a new member, your support means the world to me.

PARISHIONERS

Sir FancySwank

Unformed

Ver min

Dr.Portal 455

FluffyWolf117

Vulpinator

JustCallMeFaux

DuskyLycanroc

Karakuri

BovineMage

The Fool

AmanCalledDominik

Sypher597

C. Archive

Warwolf416

FOLLOWERS

Mariusz Lewandowski

Martin Nilsson

EkhonACT9

Eric Johnson

Let's start out with a deeper explanation of where I've been for the past few weeks. As I said in "Where the heck are you?", I was on a bit of a forced vacation. Really I needed it, both for the purely social contact, and my own mental health. Honestly, I should have announced it before it happened as it wasn't a 'surprise visit'. But I spent the week before the 13th making sure the house was as spic and span as I could get it, which ended up getting in the way of some pending stuff I wanted to get out right before KarakuriCentral arrived. I have a full-color pic I was writing a mini story for, and I didn't have time to finish it. I'll be clearing that out in the next few days. It'll be going up 'as is', so there will be no editing but my own. I'd rather Kara edit my bigger projects than spare time on this one.

I've also got a few sketchbook things I'll be tossing up on Patreon that were done during the vacation. A lot of which was just getting down character designs for some long-standing OCs I had ideas for (Mostly Pokegals), as well as some cell-shaded stuff that is nearly finished. One is a commission from Kara that I'm waiting on final approval on before it goes up on Patreon and Substar. The other is at the flats stage, and is an original thing you've already all seen the sketch of. These all go up on Patreon and Substar a month before public release, so if you're interested in 'in-progress updates' and early releases, consider becoming a member. The five-dollar tier includes Discord access which gets the most 'play-by-play' of WIP and other projects in progress. So please consider it.

Before moving on, I will say I had a great time on my forced vacation, and I miss Kara already. He's a great guy, and it was nice to get away from everything...well, maybe not fully, but mostly. Some things in life you...just can't get away from fully.

Next, Etsy. Big shock, Etsy rolled out new, more restrictive rules on 'adult art'. It went into effect today, and I've already seen some work delisted. It seems...unless I've read this wrong, nudity is still okay, but not sexually suggestive posing? That's vague enough to get everything ripped down. I'm just going to leave what is up...well, up. At least until Etsy takes it down.

As for where to go? Well, I'll still sell clean stuff on Etsy. Kofi seems to let you sell adult merch, so I'll probably move the adult stuff there. Also, I'm going to fall back on private sales like I had done previously. By that I mean I'll be offering my prints and stickers on my art pages. You can DM me and we can set up a 'vaguely labeled' PayPal transaction. Of course, this means I won't get nearly as much engagement, and I'll have to go back to calculating shipping on my own. But that's the way it is I guess...until this crusade by payment providers ends, or a new NSFW-friendly payment provider manages to break through the duopoly and gain a foothold, I'm just going to be skittering from safe haven to safe haven like a roach caught in the light and waiting for whatever new site to get popular enough for Payment Processors to crack down on it and fleeing to the next niche site.

It's nice to have reoccurring income, something you can lean on a bit when commissions are scarce or you need downtime (Which with my health can be often). And I get the fear of minors easily being able to find your stuff and buy it, which believe me I don't want. But fuck, it's hard enough to make a living as is, and I stupidly chose to be a starving artist. As much as I love my work, I'd also love to be doing well enough with it to survive comfortably. But I suppose that's part of the goal of my art schooling, to get good enough to not only at least...sort of satisfy the insanely high standards I place upon myself, and to encourage more folks to seek out me and my work.

Incidentally, I'm also still working on balancing out my daily art school lessons to the best of my abilities. With Kara's visit here and gone, I'm hoping I'll be able to slip into a pretty regular schedule soon enough, so I can still give enough time to commissions, story work, and personal projects while studying and improving.

I guess to wrap up, I'll talk about the fact I'll be opening commissions soon. I'm preparing a revised cost sheet with a lovely selection of previews, catagories, rules, restrictions and so on. Something easier to access than Furaffinities 'Commission tab', along with being able to post it on multiple sites. I may see myself overwhelmed due to it...but I guess we'll see...as long as people are willing to wait on my queue, (Since I won't take payment until I get close to working on that person's piece), I should be able to handle it.

That's all for now. Once again, special thanks to all my awesome backers! And thank you to my general fans!

-WT

My Etsy Shop

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

My Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wastedtimeee

My Substar

https://subscribestar.adult/wastedtimeee

My Newgrounds

https://wastedtimeee.newgrounds.com/

PS! For you ask blog readers I intend to start answering some more asks soon. Very soon! This upcoming month soon!

A Breathless Summer Semester

 I don't think I need to tell you by now what's first on the agenda, so without further ado let's get to those thank yous! Thanks so much to everyone who continues to support me, especially you Parishioners! It means the world.

PARISHIONERS

Ver min

The Fool

Karakuri

AmanCalledDominik

Sypher597

BovineMage

Warwolf416

JustCallMeFaux

Unformed

DuskyLycanroc

Dr.Portal 455

Vulpinator

FluffyWolf117

C. Archive

FOLLOWERS

EkhonACT9

Eric Johnson

Mariusz Lewandowski

Martin Nilsson

So, let's get started with health first. As it turns out, my blood oxygen levels while sleeping dip into the danger zone. And so, because of this I need to be hooked up to oxygen as I sleep. I dunno if it's Sleep Apnea, or whatever...my heart doc didn't specify. She just wants me on an oxygen machine while sleeping. Hopefully, this will give me a better quality of sleep, and lead to further improving feeling up and awake when I'm...not sleeping.

I'd say I just live at too high an altitude at this point, but my heart doc said my POTS was the result of a vaccine injury. Then there was also the fire and god knows what other factors that could have made things worse. I don't know. It's evident we really should move to a lower altitude, but it's only gotten harder to find housing...pretty much anywhere. And if we had to move out of state we'd have to change a bunch of things over and...it's already giving me a headache just thinking about it.

As for work log stuff...I'm finally pretty much clear. The spring holidays are behind me, the summer lies ahead, and with it, I'm gonna be hitting the art studies hard. Specifically Cubebrush Art School, which I signed up for a lifetime pass in January and have been waiting to jump into. 2 hours a day, 3 days a week. With the other 2 days set aside for studying Toon Boom and Blender. I need the first few weeks of this aggressive study period to kinda...roll into the schedule. And once I'm used to it, I'm hoping I'll be able to squeeze in more and more free-form work around it. I figure, if the guy who made Indigo Park can learn to make a basic game in a week, I can vastly improve my art and reach a serviceable level with Toon Boom and Blender in a month. Well...fingers crossed anyway.

Now, I've got a few pieces that just went live to Patreon, and they'll go public in a week or so. My study sabbatical doesn't mean that all the work is going to completely dry up. My art program missives have...unscored the importance of having wind down time after lessons to draw whatever. I'm just not expecting to make anything I'd call a 'big project'...at least during June and July. (As I have a friend visiting mid-July.)

So yeah, short update, but a mostly hopeful one...save for the breather machine. Hopefully, a much better artist and animator will emerge from the other side of this sabbatical. God, I hope so.

Thanks to my Patreon backers again!

My Etsy Shop

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

My Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wastedtimeee

My Substar

https://subscribestar.adult/wastedtimeee

My Newgrounds

https://wastedtimeee.newgrounds.com/

-Wasty

As slow as Summer Arriving in Colorado

 As always, I'm going to start out by thanking my Patreon and Subscribestar members...even if I don't have any substar followers yet. Again, not a huge concern as it's largely a backup plan. Still, thanks to all my backers who care enough to throw money at me. It's very much appreciated!

PARISHIONERS

Ver min

The Fool

Karakuri

AmanCalledDominik

Sypher597

BovineMage

Warwolf416

JustCallMeFaux

Unformed

DuskyLycanroc

Dr.Portal 455

Vulpinator

FluffyWolf117

_YFC_

C. Archive

FOLLOWERS

EkhonACT9

Eric Johnson

Mariusz Lewandowski

Martin Nilsson

So...I'm looking to keep this short. I don't want to get lost in the weeds, especially since I'm coming up on an artistic... semi-sabbatical. Basically, come June, I'm gonna be taking a bulk of the time to...well, I'll be throwing myself at my Online Art School Courses full force. Granted this doesn't mean my art output will cease entirely. It's been reiterated to me again and again that while doing the course you have to take some time away from each lesson to draw for yourself. Basically, 2 hours of daily study, and one hour or more freeform work to unwind and prevent burnout. Naturally, I'm going to need a grace period to 'feel' this whole thing out and adjust accordingly. Eventually...Ideally, I'll be able to juggle both the studies and freeform stuff like commissions and so on. That said, I'm not sure how keen everyone will be to see 'practice work' that doesn't have ass and tits in it. But hey, if you want to, I'll be happy to share my journey on my patreon and substar. I'll even make that stuff viewable to free members if there's enough interest.

That said, as the title implies, I'm still a bit behind content output-wise. I'm still wrapping one final desktop commission (Bioshock 2 sea scene), as well as a 'Spring/Summer' cell-shaded desktop full of sheep ladies before I table my output. I did manage to craft, and extend the number of my May/Mother's Day stickers before the end of the month (It was supposed to just be Vanilla, but expanded to include Lanolin's Mother, The Conductor's Wife, and Longclaw the Owl), and finish and upload the Gus and Melly side fic...even if it's been in editing for a month...but hey, that's a win in my book. I did have a Bluey Print planned featuring Trixie and Chili, but I probably don't have time to get that out and honor my other responsibilities. At the very least I can get the sketch done, and maybe I can revisit it in the future.

So...that's the plan. Pretty much the outline for the whole of summer. Initially, I also wanted to head back to Denfur as a table seller...but with my health leading up to a month ago, my Mom's ongoing health, and making zero headway with keychains and standees, I think that opportunity is out the window until next year. Even if I got some stuff off the ground, I don't think I'd have enough of a 'diverse inventory' of merch to offer by August at the current rate. Let alone it's questionable as to whether I'd be able to leave my Mother home alone all day for three days back to back in her condition. So that's...two failed New Year's goals in one shot.

So yeah, that's all there is to really say. A mercifully short update that's easy to read for once. The only thing I can add is that my Newgrounds has art on it now. So there's that. Thanks again to my Patreon folks for their continued support and for providing me with a lifeline. And thanks to the fans in general for digging my stuff...

My Etsy Shop

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

My Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wastedtimeee

My Substar

https://subscribestar.adult/wastedtimeee

My Newgrounds

https://wastedtimeee.newgrounds.com/

-Wasty

Tales From The BellHunterverse; Something Old; Something New

Summary: Set during the events of aLaW, this one-shot fic follows the end of Gus and Melly's night in the North Meadowland's shortly after the tithe and reception of Gus' dear friend Vernon Hunter to the controversial figure Dawn Bellwether. Well, Dawn Hunter-Bellwether now. It's been a crazy night, made all the more chaotic thanks to a drinking contest between Ada and Melanie ending with both mammals completely smashed. Now it's up to Gus to help his mate settle down for the night, which is never easy when it comes to a very drunk and ornery Melly. After all, they've got a life together to get back to early tomorrow morning, and Gus knows Melly's going to pay for this pissing contest. But as Melly resists Gus' attempts to calm her down and hydrate her, the vulnerable conversation from earlier in the evening is revisited, and it forces Gus to face some serious facts. Melly isn't the only one 'evading' things, and it's time for Gus to stop being indecisive and take a bold step forward for both their sakes. Story features sexual themes and lurid descriptions, but is mostly slice of life/drama/comedy fluff.

I gotta say, this was a struggle to write. Not for lack of inspiration or a proper outline. It was more a struggle against feeling like hot garbage during the bulk of the writing. I actually got new heart medicine just after finishing it that really helped me feel almost normal, but the work was done by then. That said, for all of the struggle, I think it turned out pretty well. It’s been a while since I added an entry to this series. I had the idea for the Gus and Melly fic a few months ago, and my desire to add something to this series pushed me to take a small break from tFV to add this in. Consider it...optional supplementary reading for one of the B-plots in the other fic. Plus you get some tender, heartwarming moments from my two resident goat nerds, and some added foibles from the Hunter pack members. For those on Fanfic (The Website) You know where to find my other stuff. Furaff, Etsy, Sofurry, A03, Patreon and Substar. I also recently added Newgrounds to my posting queue. And hey, I still have my ask blog, Askthebellhunters. It’s a com domain. I know Fanfic hates ‘URLs’, so I can’t just out an out post links. Expect more tFV and other fics in the future. Special thanks to my Editor KarakuriCentral! Your help is always appreciated!

Read the fic at any of the links below!

Fanfiction Link

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13350557/3/Tales-from-the-BellHunterVerse

Ao3 Link

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20036254/chapters/142917484

Furaffinity Link

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56808882/

Sofurry Link

https://www.sofurry.com/view/2140138