A More Robust Ten Minute Artist Community and other updates.

Streamlined improvements to the newsletter to improve the depth and quality of the experience. Let me Explain…

Personal Blog to Ten Minute Artist

Do you know I love working on this newsletter?

I started writing this thing like a blog - sharing my minute-to-minute experience of becoming a picture-book illustrator. Over time this has evolved to serve the needs of the community that has been forming around the newsletter. I found that the one thing we all can benefit from is a daily sketchbook practice.

So I’ve shifted the main topic of this newsletter from my Personal Journey to Ten Minutes of daily sketching.

The increased focused resulted in a growing readership

Focusing on the ten minute practice has doubled the readership in 6 months from 1600 readers to 3200 readers.

This growth is encouraging, and is prompting me to streamline even further. I’ve always been writing about the same topics:

• Beginning a creative practice.

• Moving towards a professional creative goal.

• Staying on track with the help of the broader creative community.

The packaging of the newsletter evolves, but the content has always centred around the same topics. I’m evolving the packaging again. The goal being to deliver the most value that I can towards each of these 3 topics.

So what’s new?!

I’m renaming the 3 Sections of the Newsletter to:

1. Start Sketching Daily

2. Illustrator Dispatch

3. Sketchbook Club

Start Sketching Daily

This is the home of the flagship free weekly Ten Minute Artist newsletter.

Every week you get a new Micro-Lesson and Sketchbook Project. Instead of sending this out at the start of the week I’m moving this to a Friday/Saturday post. This will let you get started during the weekend to create some momentum for the week.

Today is a new day, and the focus of this newsletter is to get you to start sketching today!

Illustrator Dispatch

I zig and zag between writing more general guides and sharing a personal experience.

My own journey has led me to see that there is more value in sharing my personal point of view and perspective rather than trying to be definitive. Because, for a lot of topics that I cover there isn’t a definitive path or answer. However my perspective has been the thing that many of you have found valuable.

So the illustrator dispatch will contain my unapologetic perspective on the lessons I’m learning from being a picture-book illustrator starting out in my forties.

Take it or leave it.

(And because of the nature of the content, this will only be for paid subscribers and will go out once a month on the 7th)

Sketchbook Club

I never expected us to grow into a community, I thought I would just be shouting into a void, instead thousands of people open the emails weekly.

When they do this … I want them to see you too!

And that is the idea behind the Ten Minute Artist Sketchbook Club Creative Community Digest. (Sketchbook Club for short)

This monthly digest will contain both free and paid content in some combination of the following:

1. Your Upcoming Events

2. Your stand out comments

3. Links to Articles you wrote

4. Tours of your Sketchbooks

5. Your Recent Portfolio Pieces

6. Great finds from the internet

7. Events we should know about

8. News about your books coming out

9. Questions about the publishing industry

10. Live Meet-ups & Recordings of Creative Career Conversations and Drawing Workshops or Demos

The idea is put you the reader in the thick of the creative action every month and shine a light on the things you’re doing and noticing.

Which change or improvement excites you the most?

What the changes do is it helps me focus on a few key activities/jobs when making this newsletter.

1. Writing and leading 4-5 Sketchbook Projects a month

2. Writing one Illustrator Dispatch a month

3. Curating Sketchbook Club : Creative Community Digest

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This is going to take me a week out of each month to do. A day for each of the 6 or 7 newsletters that goes out. If you would like to contribute to the community you can do so financially by subscribing.

You could also share this newsletter, recommend this newsletter, or gift this newsletter to a friend. (I write it as the thing I wish I had as a kid coming out of art school - 20 years before my debut book came out, I’m hoping it saves people some time.)

Thank you for being a part of this growing community!

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👋 PS: If you take an annual subscription before the 1st of July. You will be given bonus access to 6 New Drawing Workshops from July through December. While also unlocking all the previous Workshops and Recordings.

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If this newsletter brightens your day in anyway, or has helped you towards a creative goal, I would love for you to leave a comment, to encourage others to subscribe.

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