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Clip Studio Paint 2.0: So Many Bad Options for Long-Time Users

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I’ve been thinking about the changes in Clip Studio Paint’s business model, and it’s remarkable just how very shitty ALL of the options they offer are. It takes imagination to think of SEVERAL different ways to screw the people who bought perpetual licenses, and encourage them to NOT give you money. If you are someone who bought CSP 1.x, here are your options:

1) You can just stop upgrading when 2.0 comes out. Which means that when/if Celsys ever brings their lettering tools up to par… too bad.

2) You can buy 2.0 for full price. But when 2.1 comes out (not 3.0… but the very next any-new-features update)… you have to pay full price again. They typically release new features like this a couple times a year, which has been great… until now. Even if you only upgrade once a year, that’s $219 for the EX version. That’s EXPENSIVE for maybe a handful of features that are actually useful to you. It’s like they’re begging you to scrutinize upgrades judgmentally, and maybe wait until 2.8 or whatever when there are enough reasons to be worth $219. (Also, because I use CSP on multiple computers – a drawing tablet sucks for lettering, and a full-size tablet sucks for travel – multiply that out.)

3) You can buy annual “update passes” which (they promise) will be less expensive. These will allow you to install 2.0, then 2.1 when it comes out, and so on. But if you ever stop buying them: BAM! You have to go all the way back to VERSION 1 (assuming that still runs on your future OS). If any of your files depend on new features… Celsys says you’ll probably still be able to open them, but it’s hard to guess what will happen. Like, if they improve the lettering tools to allow distorted text… maybe it’ll go back to being straight? Who knows. This is, frankly, the most unethical option they’re offering: if you’ve paid for updates, you should be allowed to keep them.

4) You can switch to their software rental model (which is of course their preference). For example: one license of CSP EX is $72/year, and two is discounted a little at $99. This is effectively the same thing as option 3 (which has no multiple-seat discounts), so I’m not sure why they’re bothering with that one. If you stop subscribing, the software just stops working completely, but your version 1 license should still work, I assume.

There are also some details in this announcement about support periods and bug fixes. Those patches will still be free, and they’ve committed to fixing known bugs in version 1 until version 3 comes out, and version 2 will be supported until version 4. That’s all very reasonable. They can’t be expected to keep fixing old software indefinitely. Their policies about not supporting certain old versions of Windows and MacOS are also reasonable: they don’t promise it will work correctly, but they don’t stop you from trying.

Product update flowchart

Tom of Finland art contest options

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I’m going to enter some of my art into the 2022 Emerging Artists Competition put on by the Tom of Finland Foundation. This is something they do irregularly: the last two were in 2020 and 2014. There are some token prizes given, but the main thing they promise for the winners is exposure. Yeah. I know. But frankly, I feel like I could use some of that.

The criteria is basically “anything goes (except bestiality and kiddie porn)”. Oh, and it has to be erotica. More info here. There are several pages I’ve done for JAQrabbit Tales that I figure they might go for. They’re all a little fetishy, in part because… Tom of Finland, and in part because I think that inspires some of my sexiest work.

The catch is that I can’t submit more than two. So I’m looking for feedback. So… which one or two of the following do you think I should enter?

1: Come Together
22ComeTogether_001

2: Cufflinks
21Cufflinks_001

3: A Little Horse, page 8
22Horse_008

4. Obey
22Obey_001

5. Power Play
22PowerPlay_014

9/10,11,12

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I originally created this comic as part of my JAQrabbit Tales series, but finally decided that it didn’t really work well as part of that series, so I reworked it as a stand-alone story. As a commentary about how our society changed after 9/11, it’s an admittedly simplistic one, but… there it is.

9-10-11-12_001 9-10-11-12_002 9-10-11-12_003

#NUdecember

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Nudecember prompt list by ComeNozes on DeviantArtI found out about this #NUdecember challenge just as it was about to start, and intended to do it, but… haven’t. I had some time yesterday and worked on a few to catch up. I intend to do them all, and I’ll post each of them here with the appropriate date… which will make it look like I was doing them every day :) .