Lesson 0: Getting Started

To keep it short, I made Drawabox because when I was trying to learn how to draw, all the resources I could access on the internet seemed to focus on the fun stuff, and all of it assumed I had this wealth of knowledge under my belt. It was easy to mistake that for a lack of "talent" (a nonsense concept we'll get into later), but it wasn't until much later, when I invested the time and money into learning from excellent instructors, that I learned I had been playing with my hands tied behind my back. Unfortunately, not everyone has the opportunity nor the flexibility to move across the continent for six months, as I did - and as a result, we can't really know just how many people decide art is not a reasonable pursuit for them without giving it a shot.

So, Drawabox was my attempt at making the "boring basics" as accessible as possible. The best way to do that, of course, is to release it for free.

Now, several years down the road, it is a lot of work. Between keeping the website and lessons up-to-date, doing homework critiques, and managing the community as a whole, it's grown to be a huge chunk of my life. Fortunately, I haven't been doing it unpaid. Contrary to what some people may assume, I don't believe offering material for free and getting paid for it are mutually exclusive. I've been able to do both.

Drawabox is supported in the following ways:

• Patreon. This is the biggest source of funding, and it's a mixture of people looking to have their homework reviewed by me and my teaching assistants, and those who just want to give back and show their gratitude in the form of regular monthly donations towards the project. This latter group helps keep the prices for critiques very low (as the cost is spread out), allowing us to keep it all as accessible as possible.

• Ad revenue from the banners on the website, the ads on the YouTube channels, and the Amazon affiliate links in the recommendations at the bottom of each web page.

• More recently, we've been importing and selling fineliners. We noticed that students were sometimes having a hard time finding packs of just one size, or packs that were reasonably priced, so by sourcing high-quality pens ourselves, we've been able to sell them for far cheaper than comparable pens, while still making some additional revenue.

I've found that when you give something for free, people tend to gather around it, and a community forms. With community come support systems, and with support, the community as a whole thrives.

On the next page, let's look at just how a lot of students tend to think about drawing, what they are and aren't ready for, and what keeps holding them back.