Right, this one may be a long one,
I limit the budget that I allocate to patreon and as much as I would love to support you. at this time I cant afford the tier that would actually seem worthwhile as it stands,

(all of the following are my opinion only)

Your foal tier is all well and good, the main draw being the occasional sketch's but the brushes would only really interest me if I was a budding artist.

The mare tier is great, I think the rewards are quite well balanced, with the outlay, however I would probably add Occasional patreon only alt versions of art that you post that are usually reserved fir the next tier. Unfortunately I don't have much interest/ability to afford a full on comm from you so priority would be of little use to me.

The stallion tier. Voting is good, discount is good, but as I said above adding patreon exclusive versions or heavily time delayed release versions would be good here. like a SFW version for FA and the NSFW one on patreon, (personal art only and at your discretion of course.)

The top tiers I'm not sure on. but perhaps adding the ability to have more of a say during voting or being able to have their characters be used in your personal arts at your discretion as well. (those of this tier would have little say as to the use of their character apart from saying yes/no to the theme of it, this tier would be for those who are dedicated and trust your vision for the art.)

My budget per artist on patreon is about $5. I know this may not seem much but for artists that I truly connect with I do up it. hence why the 5 and 10 dollar tiers should be your main focus with the 1/2 dollar one being more of a tips tin or as is with the sketches or wips.

I hope all that makes sense and im always open to Notes if you would like to discuss this further,
many thanks,
Apollo

First of all, thank you very much for taking the time for detailed feedback! :) Also there is no reason to be apologetic about who do you support and with how much, it's not an expectation and shouldn't be. People do with their own hard earned money whatever they want, it's not anyone's place to judge.

"I would probably add Occasional patreon only alt versions of art that you post"
- The reason I'm not doing Patreon exclusive alt versions it that I don't want to restrict finished artworks from anyone, even if I could get more money from Patreon by doing that. My motivation and reason to do art is to share it with everyone, so I don't want to "paywall" it. The sketches on the other hand are something that I just almost never posted before having a Patreon.

And this is my dilemma really, that obviously I would love to get more patronage but there are certain compromises I'm just not willing to make, so it's hard to find alternatives.

"or heavily time delayed release versions"
- I was considering that, but it makes much more sense for comics than individual artworks. Plus, since I obviously can't delay commissioned art, it's a bit of a chicken-egg problem that I would need to be able to produce personal pieces more consistently.

And the top tiers are pretty much placeholders for now. And I think for the moment it's more reasonable to focus on gaining more people for the lower tiers.

"being able to have their characters be used in your personal arts at your discretion"
- That's something I was planning, but again for that I need to reach a stage where I can regularly create and upload larger personal pieces with background character spots that can be filled this way. And I actually want to make art like that, I have several ideas for slice of life, cultural, mythological and other scenes with several characters. I'm really in love with orientalist bazaar scenes, for example (partially inspired by my travels in India, I really loved the bazaars!).

" hence why the 5 and 10 dollar tiers should be your main focus"
- Yeah I think that's a good aim.

There are some other ideas I have in store that need other things to happen first. For example, once I have an online print/merch store I could give out coupon codes to patrons for special offers.

Anyway, thank you very much once again for taking your time to reply at length! :)

What makes me support people on patreon is if I enjoy seeing their content across the board. However, these artists also communicate frequently with their fanbase and supporters, and create content fairly frequently (not necessarily big pieces, even sketches and rough pieces).

So their is a subject "If I just like their work" part to it, but also how often do I see their work in my feed to begin with.

Thank you for your feedback!

Indeed, regular activity is my biggest shortcoming right now, and is definitely something I need to work on a lot.