For a while now, I’ve been considering phasing out the Creature Collector tier. It’s been increasingly difficult/stressful for me to keep up with making posts/benefits for that tier. Of course, I appreciate the support from the people who have been on that tier, it has meant a lot to me over the years! Even though it’s not a lot, it does help keep the art afloat on the business side.

Unfortunately, a lot of creators find this out, that Patreon takes much more time to upkeep than we expect. I’ve never had a huge audience, but it’s become increasingly financially unreasonable to keep the higher tiers going. It’s been a labor of love, doing the art journal style of posts, where I show people my process, give people sneak peeks into future ideas, and talk about what it’s like being an artist. It just doesn’t pay a living wage, and I need to consider that when it takes time away from actually doing art.

Being my first try at setting up a Patreon, I feel like there was a sharp learning curve for understanding what people would actually be interested in and how much should be offered. A higher tier membership system on Patreon isn’t something I want to scrap all together, but would need to see a bigger audience turnout to justify spending time on it.

In turn, I'm sad to announce that I’m retiring the “Creature Collector” tier, so that I can take a break from pushing out those more in-depth posts. On the plus side, in addition to relieving some time crunch stress off my shoulders, phasing out this tier would give me more options in the future, if I do ever grow a more viable audience. Setting it up to where I’m not locked into the old setup would be super helpful.

Art Ally Tier

The Art Ally tier ($1) will stay open. If you want to continue supporting the art, it’s essentially early access when new art drops/an ongoing tip jar (whereas Ko-fi functions as a one time tip jar for whatever amount you want). Being a free member here on Patreon is appreciated too! I’m still posting art updates and longer form art thoughts here, it’s just the extensive art process/behind the scenes type posts that I want to step back from for now.

How to Still Access Behind the Scenes Posts

Some art process, behind the scenes, and project sketch posts are still be accessible in the Patreon shop! https://www.patreon.com/wintersoul/shop

The posts which were previously Creature Collector tier and above are offered for a one time purchase. That way it stays fair to those who originally supported the work that goes into creating those posts, while still allowing new people access (without having to keep the higher tiers ongoing). Doing it this way also takes off the pressure to do a monthly subscription to something - you can just get the posts that perk your interest.

For those who are really curious about my process and want to learn, I am also offering collections. Think of it as a digital "how the art is made" guide! The aim of the collections are to be educational, it's always helped me to see artists' thoughts as they problem solve through projects, and they're written a journal style to give people insight into how I'm thinking about problem solving. For those new to my Patreon, I put a TON of work into the process posts, showing step by step stages, thoughts, and photos. Also in the collections, are WIPs which don't have as much journaling with them, but are useful to compare to the final pieces.

Since the subscription thing just hasn't been working for a while, I'm really excited to offer this new set-up as a way of supporting my art. I've written all of the behind the scenes posts in hopes that people will pull something from them, so I truly hope this set-up gets those posts out to more people!

Previous Members of Higher Tiers

And of course, anyone who was previously on the higher tiers keep their shop discount. The code is still functional and I’m happy to offer that for all the support you all have given (please message me if you need me to resend the code). Also, I believe you all should still have access to that section of the discord. On occasion I post things related to the art that are interesting.

This will be a bit of a tough transition, but a necessary one! Any purchases via the Patreon shop would go a long way to helping make up for what I’m losing by discontinuing the higher tiers. You’re getting in depth insights into the making of the art, and tons of gratitude from me for helping to support the art.

Starting with good news, excited to say that the Treasure Whisps are officially on a journey to their new home! It's so much fun to pack these auctions and see them with their final character sheets/pouches, it really makes the character feel all tied together.

In more frustrating news, apparently January is not a good luck month for me. Started the month with minor (but disruptive) finger injuries. Then this week I was bitten by a dog at work. Generally, I try to keep anything that bleeds out of the path of an angry dog, but one of 'em snuck in where I couldn't see, and got me by accident. (It was an accident on both ends, hand was in the wrong place at the wrong time).

Luckily the wound itself, while it looks nasty/gross, is actually pretty ok. Initially I was worried about infection due to the way the skin was sitting when I got home, (plus it's a nightmare scenario for me to lose my drawing hand), but now the antibiotics are the worst part.

Unfortunately, it also means delays in plans I had for art this year. Gotta deal with doctors appointments, insurance, not feeling well, forms, reports, etc., one whoopsie injury really does disrupt so much.

On top of that, I had scheduled an appointment next week for the bizarre eye disease. Every appointment with this place has been an insurance authorization nightmare, so even though I'd like to make sure it's not progressing, I might not be able to advocate enough for myself to push it through. Either way, more disruptions!

Long story short, I do still intend to get a post out to the Creature Collectors this month, it just won't be the art that I thought I was going to share.

Hope everyone else's start to the year has been going more smoothly! A friend pointed out that it's easy to get excited about making plans and sticking to them this time of the year, but it might be a good idea to be gentle with ourselves. Reality is messy!

Final reminder, only about one day left on this sale, thank you to those who ordered so far! Once more, here’s the info:

*Sale runs until Fri, DEC 6.
*NO CODES needed. Art included in the sale will have the festival banner, and info on savings will be on the listing.
*Shop: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/

It’s also getting close to the USPS shipping deadlines for the holidays, make sure to check on those if you want your order in time for the holidays.

Also, in light of the new GPSR regulations, it’s no longer going to be possible for me to sell to the EU. This sale will be the last chance for EU people to grab something. After the sale, I’ll be removing the option for EU shipping. Sorry for any inconvenience!

It’s that time of year - time for the big Season of Gratitude sale!

Quick Sale Info:
*Sale runs from Thurs, NOV 21 - Fri, DEC 6, 2024.
*NO CODES needed. Art included in the sale will have the festival banner, and info on savings will be on the listing.
*From NOV 29 - DEC 2, there will be bonus Small Business Saturday deals.
*Shop: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/

Detailed Sale Info:
For those new to my work, I enjoy doing a big sale at the end of the year, which I call Season of Gratitude. As a thank you to everyone who has been supporting my art, I like to give you all some extra deals so that you can grab that piece of art you’ve wanted, or maybe even find a loved one a gift!

This year, some of the deals you’ll find are kinda wild. This is partly a push to prepare for the coming years, they’re going to be rough, and all sales from this will go to helping me prepare.

Bonus sale - this year I want to try something new. I love the idea of reminding people how much it means to small businesses when you pickup gifts in our shops, but I usually hold the sale right on top of Small Business Saturday, so it kind of ends up all lumped together. To try and highlight it a little better, for a handful of days, I’ll have additional savings. During those days you’ll get TWO bonus stickers with your orders. One will be the current bonus sticker (black hole cat), and our holiday bonus sticker (white dwarf cat). After that the bonus sticky will be switched over to the white cat. (Ooh, liminal space cats AND a sale within a sale!)

Hope you come join us, to help us meet our financial goal for the end of the year, and get some fancy art gifts in the process!

Visit our online shop for the sale: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/

Website link page has been updated: https://wintersoulstudios.com/links.html

There are going to be some changes around where I’m active online. Unfortunately, due to harmful AI policies on Twitter and FB, I’m going to phase out use of these platforms. I’ll be trying to delete as much of my artwork from them as I can, and from now on, these sites will be announcements only (ie - “shop is having a sale”). Of course, I’ll be sharing/supporting artists who aren’t able to make that transition on those sites as well. But if you want to see new artwork from me (or the artwork in general), follow me on BlueSky, Discord, and gallery websites (as in, FA/DA/Cara).

In a way, I’m relieved to take Twitter/FB off of the obligatory post list. It’s exhausting to keep up with so much social media, and quite frankly is taking too much time away from the art. Going to do my best to make BlueSky the main place I do art related social media! https://bsky.app/profile/wintersoulart.bsky.social

In other news, coming up I’ll be doing the yearly “gratitude sale”! It’ll run a bit longer than usual, and have a mini flash sale in the middle of the main festival. It’s something new from what I usually do, should be fun! Hope to see you all there. :)

Hey all, I’m trying out a new site called Sapling!

You can find my Sapling page here: https://shopsapling.com/shop/winter-soul-studios

This website perked my interest for a few reasons. From the artist standpoint - I’m interested in having a place that’s focused on making announcements for specifically my shop. Obviously, I’m also interested in trying to get around the nasty social media algorithms, and from what I’m seeing, this has the potential to connect art collectors to artists in a more direct way, which is great for both parties.

I’ve talked to a handful of my art collecting friends as well, and they agree. They’re excited that there’s an effort to make a place where they know for sure that the art they’re seeing is human made, not AI or drop shipping!

Likely I’ll be adding this to my website links in the future! Just wanted to give people a heads up now, if you see my profile, yep, that’s really me! I’ll still be posting shop updates on the various sites I update, but I appreciate any new followers there, since I’ll be posting and exploring the different features there as well. :)

First, I wanted to send my condolences to the family, friends, and people who worked closely with Dragoneer. The news was shocking, I’m sure to a lot of people. I didn’t know him, but seeing what he went through with healthcare in those final days was heartbreaking. There are too many similar stories right now, it definitely weighs on the emotions.

Of course, I want to be respectful of the people grieving right now. At the same time, like many artists who still depend on this site to put their work out there, the future of this site is on my mind as well. Right now, I can’t imagine people just letting this site vanish. My experience of the furry community is a supportive one, which does their best to keep the community together, even in dark times. You all are awesome people, and I hope this place sticks around!

Still, just in case, I wanted to remind people of the places you can find me, so we don’t loose touch. I keep these links updated on my profile, and my main website will always be the most important one, (barring some kind of financial or health catastrophe, of course).

Also, we still have three Whisps to introduce this year. Right now, I’m standing by my decision to keep the main public bidding thread here on FA. I’ll be watching news closely, and if we need to adapt, we will. But the art is still coming along, I wanted to let anyone who follows know that!

Where you can find me:
Main Website: https://www.wintersoulstudios.com/
Online Shop: https://www.wintersoulstudios.com/shop.html
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wintersoul
Tip Jar: https://ko-fi.com/wintersoulart
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/wintersoulart.bsky.social
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WinterSoulArt
Cara: https://cara.app/wintersoulart
DA: https://www.deviantart.com/wintersoulstudios
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WinterSoulStudios
Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/ZjAMMS7

Yesterday, we found ourselves at the emergency vet due to Shia getting a third UTI in the last several months. The bill was insane, considering they didn’t examine her, (let's save that rant for another day…) The financial burden is starting to weigh, especially since the last several months I’ve also been having a ton of doctor’s appointments for my various illnesses, and my own doc bills are starting to come in too. I dread making “please help” posts so much… but it’s needed.

Currently I can’t take on time/energy consuming work (ie - more hours at work, commissions, etc.), because I need to be present for my sick kitty, plus need to balance time between doc appointments & finishing current art/meeting the deadlines for the auctions, (really want to make the release of these auctions fun for people). Worst case, in the future I may need to take on the larger work, but right now I’m hoping to make ends meet this way!

Right now, I feel like I have the spoons to take on more shop sales, so this would be an excellent way to support! I’m offering 20% off all orders until July 19th (during the first Whisp auction this year), with the code STUDIOCATLOVE. https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/

Another way to support Shia & the art is via Patreon. Even through all the crazy medical drama over the past year, I have been making an effort to make monthly posts. So much is offered there, I love writing for it, sharing my process, and intend to continue posting! When you sign up, you get every post that tier has to offer from the past, as well as future posts. https://www.patreon.com/wintersoul

I do have a Ko-fi as well for a tip jar. While I appreciate tips, I actually prefer that you get something in return! At the end of the day, I’m sure you all came here to enjoy art and animals with me, and I value being able to share that. My hope is to encourage the people who have been wanting a piece of art for a while, now is a good time! https://ko-fi.com/wintersoulart

Again, signal boosts are appreciated and are super helpful! Even if just for the emotional support, it’s difficult for me to talk about personal life, and you all have shown such kindness over the years. All that said, she has an appointment on Fri. I’m worried sick, but hopefully this appointment will give us answers on why this keeps happening.

On Patreon, I’ve made a free to the public post about artists getting non-art jobs to help ends meet! A lot of artists struggle with this (or at least, I have before), so I wanted to share my experience. Since I’m starting to use Patreon as kind of my “artist’s journal”/blog, I’ll do a summary here, then offer the links for those who enjoy reading long format posts.

In the first part, it’s been two years since becoming a professional dog bouncer at club doggo! (Ahem, becoming a Kennel Tech, I mean. Bouncer sounds so cool though, haha). Even though I’ve always done small jobs on the side, like pet-sitting, working for someone in a very official manner was a huge mental hurdle.

There’s a pattern I’ve noticed, where we look at someone else’s job set-up and think, “If only ___, then I would be happy!” Let’s be real, comparing one’s life to another is an unfair thing to do to yourself. Yet, I don’t believe the feeling to be “bad”, so in part 2, I talk about how I’ve used that feeling as a guide to better my life.

For those who want to read the longer format, here are the posts!

Part 1 - Fear & Non-Art Jobs: https://www.patreon.com/posts/revis.....ig-1-102289052

Part 2 - Deception of A Curated Vision: https://www.patreon.com/posts/revis.....ig-2-102292875

Happy Spring Equinox! (Well, almost at the time of posting). This year I’m doing my usual spring-y cleaning sale, in prep for future art to be added to the shop. Know that all sales from this not only help make room, but help to fund future projects!

*When: Friday, March 15th - Friday, March 29th
*Online Shop: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/
*No codes needed! Just look for the “Spring Sale” banner, it will have the percent off and the listings already have the updated sale price.

The sale is already up and running, so hop over to see if any of your favorite pieces are included: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/

Just wrote up a just-for-fun post on Patreon, which is open for anyone to read. I thought it might be of interest to anyone who has adopted a sculpture, ornament, or pendant from me!

Happy Friday, let's meet the marbles that one can find in my art. :)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/meet-.....rbles-97268529

Welcome to 2024! Hope all of you had a smooth start to your year. Mine so far has carried over the theme of a rocky road - as most of my time has been struggling to sort out insurance, going to doctors appointments (mostly for my hand), and getting some kind of virus straight out of the gate.

Yet, I’m hopeful for the year! On the outside, last year it seemed like the art side of life was quiet. But in reality, I’ve actually been making progress on my overdue commission list. Still some ways to go, due to one of the projects being far bigger than I had anticipated, but oh man I’m so excited to be finally working on the final sculpture! I need to do better at staying visible while I work behind the scenes. At the same time, I know I only had enough spoons to work quietly, as I’ve also been hit with a lot of difficulties this year. I’m proud that I stayed determined!

In my other job, also proud of how much I learned! My work paid for me to take a canine first aid certification class, and I met some amazing co-workers who are great with canine behavior, who I have learned a lot from. I feel so much more confident in the yard, and am really enjoying trying to figure out behaviors of all our dogs. I’m so thankful to have work that I can lean on while the art world is going through so many difficulties with AI, destruction of our usual avenues of advertising, and overall a rough year for many artists. And of course, I’m thankful for any support from all of you during this time!

Anyone have any big dreams this year? I want to hear about them!

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the last altar cat has opened up for availability! This is the last one in the series to be painted. She’s the “Queen” design, cast #4, deep blue orb with blue/white swirls.

Early next year, I’m hoping to begin painting with the next batch of sculpts (ooh, could it be dragons?). Again, this is the final altar cat, all others have been painted. I can’t wait to put them all together in a compilation!

If interested, the listing is up and running now: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.....t-queen-blue-4

Would you like to support a small artist for the holidays while getting cool gifts for your loved ones? Well, I’ll be running my usual “thank you” sale for all of you who support! I love it when people gift my art to others, it feels extra special, so hopefully you find a deal on something you know a loved one will enjoy.

When: Wedn November 22nd- Fri December 1st
Where: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/
Code: TY2023
Discount: 20% on your entire order

Reminders:
-I only have three Loaf Tarot books remaining, I had lost track of how much they were selling! Once the books and decks are gone, that’s all I will have, so just wanted to give a heads up to the people who were still thinking of ordering one from me.

-In the coming days, I’ll try and remember to post a reminder on socials about when to ship if you want items to get to you before the holidays. Please keep in mind when ordering from my shop, I cannot ship Sun-Tues. Wednesdays are usually my bulk shipping days, but this time of year I try to get stuff out as orders come in.

-You do need to use the code at checkout to receive the discount for this particular sale, don’t forget!

-Current bonus sticker is White Dwarf, she will be sneaking into all of your orders. ;)

I’m grateful for any support! This fall has been crazy difficult, due to a long line of rough medical related events outside of my control. It’s likely going to continue being rough for the rest of the year, so sharing, boosts, and such are helpful towards keeping me afloat!

Hey all, just realized that I have four Bluesky invites just sitting around! I know there has been lots of people sharing lately, but if you’ve been missing out and want to join, send me a message so that we can get you in. :D

Also, brief reminder that today is the last day for the Fall Festival sale! Last call, I’ll be taking it down tonight or tomorrow to prep for holiday fun. https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/

This year, I’m in the mood for an Autumn sale! This time I’ll be putting select items with darker/seasonal themes, up to 20% off. This includes some of my more popular prints, and the more recent color shifting bats!

*When: Friday, Oct 13th - Friday, Nov 3rd
*Online Shop: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/
*No codes needed! Just look for the “Fall Festival” banner on your favorite spooky season art.

In other shop news: New print - Mystery’s Study has now also been added to the shop! May his feline goodness always be in the world <3

Another heads up, new art is on its way! I’m relieved to say that I got all the casting for an upcoming dragon done just in time. We also have are usual gratitude sale coming up later this fall, so my online silence should be broken up pretty soon here. Thank you all for your patience.

Guess what? Thanks to a kind friend, my art is now at that place where the sky is blue! https://bsky.app/profile/wintersoulart.bsky.social

Since I’m still focusing on a casting deadline, it’ll be a bit slow filling out posts and re-following mutuals who already migrated there. But it exists, and will be one of the places I update! It should be fun exploring a new social media, since I’ve heard good things about this space. Hope to see some of you there!

Greetings! Now that we’re in June, I wanted to give some updates.

Right now in art, I have the “Art in progress - do not disturb” sign up. Which means I might be a bit quiet on the face of things, but don’t worry, I am working behind the scenes! I hate seeming silent, since I'm always afraid people are going to forget that my art exists, yet I know distractions from posting and social media are going to slow the actual art down. So ehh, it's necessary.

The project I’m working on is a longtime one. It was derailed by the crazy events during the last few years, but I’m determined to finish it up this year. Which means, I MUST get this sculpture cast by the end of the casting season!

Over on Patreon, I am still active. The usual twice monthly posts are going up. Some of them are sketches, some of them are behind the scenes work on this surprise sculpture, and some are a new type of post that I’m trying. While spring cleaning, I found a bunch of old artwork that I never released online for whatever reason, so those will be under “throwback thursday” posts.

Also, I will be updating the commission list soon! I only have a few people left, so we are moving on through the list, (in fact, one of those is the commissioner of the upcoming sculpt!).

Life outside of art has been super busy too. Spring/summer tends to be a hectic time for petsitting, which means the doggy daycare work has been keeping me on my toes. Doing my best to keep up with all of it though!

Thanks for your patience, can't wait to show you all what's in store. :)

Working on shop updates! https://www.wintersoulstudios.com/shop.html

*Tarot/book bundle: Since I finally have extra space, I’ve set this up as a separate listing instead of an awkward discount code. You can view it here: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.....companion-book

*New Listings! Was able to add the glimmering bettas.

*Shipping Updates: I’m finding it very difficult to work with Bigcartel’s shipping profiles. For shops like mine, which have a huge range of product sizes/weights/packaging, there’s no good way of setting it up. I’m trying to be as fair with shipping as I can though!

There are some items I may need to ship separately due to these differences. Checkout does let you know which items those are. Whenever possible, I do my best to combine all items into one big package. If I am able to combine shipping, I will refund you for however much I do not use! I cannot guarantee that I can combine the items, people are welcome to email me before purchasing to ask about combining shipping, and to get an estimate of how much shipping will actually be. Apologies for any inconvenience, right now this is the most fair/easiest way to set up shipping with what I have!

On shipping internationally: I am still setting up various countries for each shipping profile. Once again, the platform isn’t making this easy. I’m having to estimate each potential package for every country, and set them up manually. It’s a huge time sink, and it’s taking forever. So, as mentioned in the past, if you don’t see shipping to your country, please email or note me so that I can set it up, and you can get an estimate. Hopefully in the near future the shipping estimates will be more filled out!

Thank you all for your patience while I get used to a new shop platform, and for making the last sale way more successful than I had expected! I appreciate you all so much <3

It’s time for our yearly Spring Equinox Sale!

Quick Sale Info:
*Sale runs until March 31st 2023
*NO CODES needed. Look for the Spring Sale banner to find out which pieces are included, info on savings will be on the listing.
*Remaining stock on select items will retire to the Patreon “Winter Classics” shop.
*Visit Our Shop: https://www.wintersoulstudios.com/shop.html

Detailed Sale Info:
The theme of this Spring Equinox Sale is spring cleaning! Previously, the place I hosted my shop allowed for as many listings as I was willing to pay for. Sure, that sounds lovely, but one issue is that I became lazy with keeping my shop fresh by rotating old art out. With this new shop, I only have 50 listings to work with. Which means I for sure need to be rotating out old art!

This is probably going to be one of the larger sales of the year, so get ready folks! Much of the art that’s a part of the sale has only one left. Some of those pieces I’m looking at “retiring” (I’ll explain that in a minute). Meanwhile others I have an abundance of, so I simply want to share the wealth of shiny things! NO CODES are needed this time. All of the listings taking part in this sale will have a “spring sale” banner along with the savings, simply add to your cart to snag the deal.

As mentioned, select pieces will slowly be retired into what I’m calling my “Winter Classics” collection. Patrons of all tiers can look forward to access to this collection in April. I have not yet figured out how to make a super secret shop for Patrons, so for now I’ll just list items in groups via posts, which will be properly tagged as “Winter Classics” for easy searching. Eventually I will be going back to conventions, I think? When I do, I will bring the Winter Classics with me, so those who don’t want to sign up with Patreon can have a chance in person to pick up retired items they may have missed out on.

Along with rotating items out periodically, I’m also planning to rotate a free sticker with every order! It used to be super haphazard as to how I added freebies to orders. This should keep things fresh while not breaking my brain, trying to recall who got what bonus. For this sale, all orders will receive the “brain storm” sticker!

*Visit Our Shop: https://www.wintersoulstudios.com/shop.html

This year is already shaping up to be a busy one, but I don’t want to forget to let people know about some of the deals going on in the art shop! First, Shia’s Valentine Discount! This year is slipping by quickly, and I almost forgot about the sale I usually like to do. Luckily, Shia remembers all of you, and made sure to remind me. <3

Dates: Feb 3rd - Feb 14th
Discount: 15% off
Code: LOVEY23

The Tarot bundle is still going on until April! This is for those interested in getting both the Loaf tarot deck & the book. When ordering both, use the code TAROTBUNDLE at checkout to receive $10 off of your order. The code also works with the last Evolution tarot deck I have, so feel free to mix and match the decks/book, in case anyone missed out!

And a friendly reminder, that late last year we moved! Make sure to visit here for all of the shiny goodies :) https://www.wintersoulstudios.com/shop.html

It’s time, Shia has been non-stop pestering me to reveal what we got in a Super Special Art package. Drumroll please, the Loaf Tarot decks & books are finally here! (Taking a moment to enjoy that feeling of seeing a large project take its physical form… yeah, that’s a good feeling).

This means that decks & books are now available in the online shop! Obviously, the deck itself is wonderful for tarot lovers. I’m a big fan of how the companion book came out as well! It’s not only a great guide for the deck, since the artists were able to contribute their thought process behind the card, but it also serves as a gorgeous stand-alone art book. In addition, we also have Backerkit preorders open. All things Loaf, such as pins, originals, and more, will be available for a time there as well. The support for this project has been wonderful, we all appreciate everyone for making this such a successful endeavor! <3

In other shop news, the remaining Halloween themed bats are up in the shop. “Glimmering Bettas” will be added as soon as extra space is open for them. Which means this year I will definitely need to do a spring cleaning sale, oh the woes of no longer having unlimited space, haha!

Relevant Links:
Loaf Tarot Deck: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.....oaf-tarot-deck
Art Companion Book: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.....tarot-art-book
The Hermit’s Path Print: https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.....e-hermits-path
Backerkit Preorders (extra goodies! Pins, originals, etc.): https://loaftarot.backerkit.com/hos.....eorders/442324

Greetings all!

What an odd year 2022 has been. If anyone follows happenings in the art world closely, this year was not kind to artists across the board, from iffy conventions, to shifting art platforms, to AI bros actively trying to end art as a profession. I won’t go into too much about those subjects, since I’ve commented on these topics in the past. Plus, these were things which weighed heavily on the art field as a whole, I’m certainly not alone in the stresses that came from these challenges.

For myself long term, I’m hoping that I’ll look back at these challenges and be thankful about how these forced me to change. The art world is significantly shifting, and all I can hope is that I’m adaptable and hardy enough to weather the storm.

The biggest change for me this year was to focus on my pet care career. Art has really taken a back seat. Yet, the new focus has given me a chance at financial stability. It’s incredible how many artists sell themselves short, when this is a skill which takes years of difficult work to hone. It’s part of the reason I’m so proud and happy that we, as an art community, stood up to big tech and are fighting for our rights: https://www.gofundme.com/f/protecti.....i-technologies

On a personal level, I’m making it a New Year’s goal to not sell myself short, and it’s my hope that working both of my chosen careers will give me the means to make better art. Going into the New Year, I already have announcements and work to show everyone. After commissions are cleared, I’m going to be reconnecting with why I love art, so there will be a lot more focus on art with themes that I have been longing to work with, but was always too booked up to work on.

Even though I’m slowly shifting focus, I hope that the people who have supported in the past will stay. Whether it be that you trusted me with a commission, or cheered me on through comments, or quietly gave a like on a post, I appreciate you all for the support over the years. It would be amazing if we all stayed connected while I’m going through this enormous life shift!

Wishing all of you good fortune, kindness, and lots of love in the coming year. See you soon!

It’s that time of year again! I enjoy doing this sale every year, as a thank you to all of you for supporting me throughout the year. It of course coincides with usual holiday deals, because it’s so much fun finding gifts for everyone! Here’s the info you need to know:

When: Fri November 25th- Fri December 2nd
Where: https://www.wintersoulstudios.com/shop.html
Code: TY2022
Discount: 20% on your entire order

Reminder: This is taking place in my new shop! You’ll need the code at checkout to activate the deal. Happy shopping!

https://www.wintersoulstudios.com/shop.html

Today is the day, the new online shop is officially open!

Later this month, I’ll do my usual holiday sales. For now, it’s just a huge relief to have my little art shop open again. Thank you to all who have been patiently waiting!

Also, just so people know, both of these links lead to the same shop:
https://www.wintersoulstudios.com/shop.html
https://wintersoulstudios.bigcartel.com/

The first link, connected to my main website, will always lead to the official shop. This is a big, positive change for me, since platforms have been shaky at best for artists lately. Regardless of shifts in websites, my main site will be the main hub for all updated links related to my work!