Regarding Requests and Behavior

A journal like this might be long overdue, and not sure how effective it will be either since I know not everyone reads journals and exclusively look at art. Still, I feel I have to say a few things after I had to block a user for this. Before I start I want to make a huge disclaimer, I don't want you guys to be afraid to reach out to me or asking me questions in case it might bother me, don't worry, if I'm busy I'll respond when I can and if whatever I hear bothers me the worst thing I'll do is ignore it as long as it doesn't become aggressive. That said, onwards with the issue at hand. 

Requests, and specifically in the context of birthdays, isn't something I hand out except I expressively state that this is something I grant you. If you ask for a request, I'll either respond saying no and possibly give a reason for it if I'm in a good mood and ignore it if I'm not in the mood to deal with it. Do not, and this is important, do not ask for requests in the comment section of the pic, I feel it's disrespectful to focus on when you can get some free art when I've just uploaded a pic I've spent hours on wanting feedback and then I get a comment asking when I can give them something. Furthermore, if you do comment asking for such a thing, don't start arguing with me when I say no. The reason I had to ban a user recently was that I was met with nonsense and hate when I tried explaining why I wouldn't give him a request at the time. I tolerate a lot of stuff but that kind of behavior just won't fly. 

Also, to touch further upon the so called "birthday request", just don't. I get it, birthdays are fun occasions and you might see this as something the world ought to celebrate granting you special privileges, but alas, it doesn't magically give me extra hours to work on something just for you. To put it into perspective, on DeviantArt alone I have over 1000 watchers, I shouldn't have to spell it out that I can't give each and every one a free pic as a gift. It's just a ridiculous thing to expect and it's even more ridiculous to get mad at me for not being able to do it. 

Don't get me wrong, just like anyone else I like celebrating birthdays, and I do like giving gifts to friends and such. Now notice the key word in that sentence, "gifts", not requests. I'm working on on a birthday gift as I'm writing this journal, so it's not something that I oppose in itself. The main thing with that though is that it's something I only give to friends (with few exceptions being other artists I greatly respect) that I figure I know well enough to give a nice gift to. Naturally, I don't know all my watchers well enough to give each and every one a good gift, so don't expect that either if we've spoken only once or twice. Overall, I only make gift art when I'm inspired to do so and have a good idea, it's not a different word for "requests". 

This was a pretty serious journal, and I hope it doesn't scare anyone off from reaching out if there's something you wanna talk about. However I've had so many people asking for the same thing that I had figured would be pretty obvious that I can't offer. For better and for worse, I don't have a tiny audience anymore, I just don't have the time to grant everyone free art. Believe me, I'd love to be able to do more for you, I absolutely love seeing comments when I've made someone's day, but it's just not realistic to do that every day, for everyone. Hope you still manage to appreciate what I do, even if that can at times can feel like not enough. 

To finish off on a lighter note, here's a joke; I just broke up with my girlfriend, though my dad really helped me get through the break up. He said, "Would you forget about this girl already? She's no good in bed anyway!"