A massive catastrophe happened to me today, my tablet I do all of my art with broke!
I am beside myself because it is my only means of income here in Florida, without it I am completely dead in the water.
Mom isn't taking it seriously despite it is how I pay for storage and kept our last remaining items from getting taken from us but she is like, “I have my own problems, shut up or I will walk away!”
I am extremely upset because there is no way for me to replace it, like at all. Honestly I wanted to replace it for years but all of my money always gone to being responsible like paying for hotel rent, food and this stupid “fix your credit” thing mom pressured me into that turned out to be a massive scam. She bought discounted rolex watches, shoes, airplane pins and dinners at the cheese cake factory for her friends but she covered the “phone bill” and… Uh…
I feel depressed, I don't have any paper on me because it got locked up in storage because I don't have a means to scan it in.
Mom is acting like it is no big deal, and is mad that I am on the verge of breaking down completely.
I hope I can get a job soon, but it doesn't' feel like it will happen. Mom keeps telling me because I am 40 my life is basically over, and I am starting to believe her.

That's bad. Can you start a Patreon to earn money in some way or take donations?
-it could be as simple as video blogs about your life and situation. You can use youtube to upload the, it's all free.

BTW you don't need a scanner anymore if you have a phone you can “scan” with the camera.

If you're willing to downsize to a smaller form factor I'd suggest a Samsung Galaxy Note. I used to do some great art on mine.

Something like this:

Galaxy note 10 on ebay

It's second hand so very affordable. It wouldn't take long for donations to buy that for you.
It's a smaller screen than a tablet but you can work in very high resolutions easily with the right apps like artflow

Or you can get a cheap tablet:

wacom tablet on ebay

Thanks for the advice.
I don't think I can work on the comic at the moment (but I prepared for these moments by having a good size buffer), but I can share art via laptop camera and some pencils and paper I picked up.

Also I feel, icky, about asking for donations. It feels like begging to me and I hate to do that to people without giving something back.

Maybe I can do some physical commissions or something.

Finally that's not bad, I used my old phone for art before and enjoyed it, and that Samsung is a good price plus found out my tablet came down in price on ebay, so there is a dozens of ways to get a replacement.

Furwerk studio wrote:
Thanks for the advice.
I don't think I can work on the comic at the moment (but I prepared for these moments by having a good size buffer), but I can share art via laptop camera and some pencils and paper I picked up.

Also I feel, icky, about asking for donations. It feels like begging to me and I hate to do that to people without giving something back.

Maybe I can do some physical commissions or something.

Finally that's not bad, I used my old phone for art before and enjoyed it, and that Samsung is a good price plus found out my tablet came down in price on ebay, so there is a dozens of ways to get a replacement.

I hope you can get one!

Also, for Patreon it doesn't have to be about donations, it can just be that people pay to support you and see content you post- like videos about how you're making art in your conditions.

The thing about Patreon though is that you have to have a perk or incentive to send to your patrons in return for their donations . . . I don't believe Furwerk is in such a position to be able to provide anything in exchange for donations.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
The thing about Patreon though is that you have to have a perk or incentive to send to your patrons in return for their donations . . . I don't believe Furwerk is in such a position to be able to provide anything in exchange for donations.

It was a big problem I had with opening Patreon before my tablet broken, mainly do to not really being into those “ask my characters” things others do or have a lot of “production” art and want to focus mainly on the comic.

I do have one thing, I can offer an advance on the comic pages. Plus I just picked up a few physical media stuff like paper and pencils so I am not completely out of the game, that's a super plus.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
The thing about Patreon though is that you have to have a perk or incentive to send to your patrons in return for their donations . . . I don't believe Furwerk is in such a position to be able to provide anything in exchange for donations.

Of course he does, it's super easy ^_^

Perks can be anything- and like I say: just make videos about your art marking experience. People would be interested.

Perks can be art, writing, anything at all. But video is best because it's a rich format and they're simple to make if you have a webcam or especially a phone.

This has actually given me ideas about how to perhaps setup my own patreon. I could have perks that are videos filming myself talking about my worldbuilding process, finally putting my endless backstage tinkering to something useful, letting readers in on all of the background ideas, elements and concepts surrounding the comics and the setting.

That way it could be time saving and also that way I could avoid that Adult Only rating (all of my work being M or A rated stuff) and its whole bullshit age verification process that all Mastercard users are having pushed down their throats (I was informed by Hushicho who've I've supported through patreon that he's leaving the plattform because of this nonsense).

The idea is to make patreons feel like they are part of your own little special club, right? Where they get to either be let in on things people outside the club do not, or just get nick-nacks people outside the club do not.

What worries me a bit still is taxation, it is something I have to look into. Accounting is a bitch, but in these times I can do with some extra money even if it very likely will be peanuts at most. One thing for certain, if you dont ask for it, you don't get it.

Andreas_Helixfinger wrote:
…letting readers in on all of the background ideas, elements and concepts surrounding the comics and the setting.

Accounting is a bitch, but in these times I can do with some extra money even if it very likely will be peanuts at most. One thing for certain, if you dont ask for it, you don't get it.

I like the whole “fan club” feel. With all the extra pictures and background material I have there are all kinds of perks I could offer. And I definitely could use some peanuts. Money is very tight and there is nothing available (and hasn't been for years outside of the Amazon gift card I get for my birthday) for maintenance and updating any stuff and supporting others via patreon. Bugs me every day that I can't help others.

But videos? Eek. But then I do most of my thinking pacing back and forth talking to myself. Be funny as anything making a video of that.

I think I got some way to give back while “begging”, slapped together a small pixel art point and click game like I used to make and ask for donations.

Trust me, update vids would actually work better. People have more interest in “reality” rather than the stuff we work hard to create :(