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.

For those of you who are interested in receiving feedback from myself and my teaching assistants (who work under my supervision), that is an option we offer through our Patreon (starting at $5/month), but these "official critiques" are subject to a number of strict requirements.

• Our students are required to start receiving their official feedback from Lesson 1, and are only allowed to move onto the next set of work once they've had the previous lesson's work marked "officially" as complete. No jumping in mid-course, and getting completion via un-official, "community" critique unfortunately does not count towards this.

• All the recommendations made in the lessons (prerequisites, tools, etc.) are now hard requirements for those submitting for official critique.

• All submissions for official critique must include all assigned homework for a given lesson. Some lessons have multiple sections (like Lesson 1 has Lines, Ellipses and Boxes) - all the sections must be included in the submission.

• There is a 2 week waiting period between homework submissions in order to ensure that students are not being encouraged to rush through their work.

Our goal with these official critiques is to both provide those looking for more structured training a way to receive it, as well as to be able to provide the community with more appropriately trained individuals who can then help others. We want to provide this at as accessible a price as we can. By sticking to these strict requirements, we can help as many people as possible, because each requirement helps simplify the critiquing process. The more time and effort we save, the more people we can provide with feedback with the resources we currently have.

If you're on the fence about whether you want to participate in this 'official critique' program, you have until the completion of Lesson 1's homework to decide. If you choose not to, you can still take advantage of the free community feedback (via the community platform on this website, our subreddit, and on our Discord Chat Server), where the requirements are not quite so strict. Just keep in mind that if you do change your mind, you will have to start over - this is not necessarily a waste of time, as many people have gone through this course multiple times (either in part or in full), and have benefitted from it, but it is something you may want to keep in mind.

All official critiques are done through the community platform on this website. Signing up on the Patreon (in the future we hope to offer other methods such as Paypal) will get you "credits" which are then spent on your submissions. On the submission form you'll just be sure to select "Submit for Official Critique" and you'll be shown the credit cost of the given lesson, along with the various requirements you must meet. Your first couple submissions will cost 1 credit, but later ones increase in cost based on how much more effort is involved in critiquing them. Currently the critiques cost between 1 and 2 credits each.

Just keep in mind that Patreon charges up-front, and on the first of the next month. You'll get your credits for each charge, but if it's the end of the month and you don't want to get charged twice so close together, you may want to wait until the first of the next month. Patreon tells you when you're going to be charged next during the check-out process, but not a lot of people notice it.

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.