Last week, I opened a new Sketching Adventure Community on Patreon, creating a place for us to share our everyday sketching explorations. A wonderful group is already forming inside the community. 

Patreon was founded in May 2013 and is widely used by artists, musicians, and other creators to interact directly with their communities.

Thanks to everyone who has already joined – I’m loving reading all your comments in the chats and seeing some of your recent sketches!

Why a community?

For some time now, I’ve wanted a place where I could more easily share my everyday sketches and ongoing experiments. 

And a place where I could share ideas about 

• how I keep myself motivated to sketch regularly and build habits so sketching becomes effortless, 
• how I experiment in order to be inspired while sketching the same themes over and over,
• how I think about my own work and positively critique my sketches, 
• how I decide what areas to develop and what to do next. 

Over the years I’ve touched on these themes here on my blog, and as a result, it’s become an amazing record of my creative journey. But these days, I create more than I’m able to post, so I looked for a way to share my sketching adventures more directly.

I’ve been having so much fun with my everyday sketching lately, frequently mixing media and trying new combos. I’m increasingly taking risks and trying new things. The more experimental work needs a degree of explanation and context that is difficult to give in the format of a blog. 

So basically… I want an easier and more interactive way to share my work!

Important Note: Don’t worry – I’m still going to publish articles here on the blog and I will continue to create free content but I want to go deeper – and a community is the way to do that.

I’ve been asked a lot about creating a SketchingNow Mixed Media online course, but my techniques evolve so quickly that it would be impossible for me to codify them into a systematic series of videos. The magic of mixed media comes from trying new things based on conversations and ideas gleaned from others. So a community will allow us to experiment and explore new things together!

Why Patreon?

I’ve chosen to host this new community on Patreon. It’s a popular membership platform used by many creatives. Patreon offers an easy monthly subscription, so you can join for as long as you want. 

My hope is that it will be an ongoing place of inspiration for you because I’ll be constantly sharing new ideas that I’m exploring in my own work. 

Note: A yearly subscription (with a discount) will be available in a few month’s time and if you are a founding member, you’ll be the first to hear about this.

What will happen each month in the Sketching Adventure Community?

Each month, you’ll be able to participate in an exclusive livestream in this new community (with a replay afterwards). In the live session, I will give you a special tour of my current sketchbook, explaining all the work I have done in the past month. I’ll then talk about the concepts I’ve explored and the materials used and I’ll redo one of my sketches. You’ll also be able to ask me questions during this livestream and hang out with the community. The first livestream occurs later this week!

In each livestream I’ll announce a theme that I want to explore in my own work during the coming month – you might like to do this as well. These monthly themes will explore an aspect of creating art (such as line, shape, value, and composition) rather than a specific subject matter. Having a more conceptual theme for each month will make it easier for us all to incorporate them into our existing sketching practice. They will be themes that we can work on without going out of our way to find subjects.

Over time, the monthly themes will help you expand your artistic horizons, and the community will be your safe space to explore and share what you discover along the way.

The community aspect of this new Patreon is something that I’m especially looking forward to. There will be a monthly chat thread so that you can share your own work and discuss materials. These chats are already active!

Sketching Adventure Community will be a safe place to share our everyday sketches (often containing commonplace subjects) without the perfection pressure of social media. A place to inspire each other to capture more moments from our life and to find beauty in the commonplace.

How this new community relates to SketchingNow courses

This community perfectly complements my SketchingNow courses (which will remain exactly as they are). I’m absolutely loving hosting a Live Version of Foundations on SketchingNow at the moment, and will continue to organise group events for my courses. 

This Sketching Adventure Community is additional – for ongoing work and exploration.

SketchingNow courses are all about systematic learning and building skills, while this new Sketching Adventure Community on Patreon is all about inspiration and trying new ideas. 

My SketchingNow courses are the online equivalent of a live workshop with me. I develop a careful curriculum and serve as the teacher, explaining concepts in-depth, and in systematic order. I then share carefully designed exercises so that you can learn the concepts and develop your skills in a specific way. An amazing community forms inside my SketchingNow courses during the group events, with everyone doing the same exercises and building skills together.

By contrast, this new Sketching Adventure Community on Patreon will be like hanging out together in a cafe. We’re having a cup of tea or coffee and talking about art. As you flip through my sketchbook I’ll tell you all about what I was sketching, why I used certain media, which pages I really like and which sketches were not so successful. I’ll then look at your work and be inspired and get new ideas of things to sketch and ways to sketch them! Our conversation will be wide-ranging, spontaneous and very motivating!

Join my Sketching Adventure Community

$9USD per month (plus taxes) on Patreon
(Patreon will adjust to your currency & local taxes on signup)

Any questions? 

Please email us using the contact form here.

I’m so excited about this community. It’s a new way for me to connect with you and for us to share our creative journeys!