Heart explosions
In only the best of ways in this week's newsletter
A few days ago I posted a survey; every few years I like to survey my community to see what’s shifting in interests, types of people and art, etc. Keeping to that practice has helped me keep this little business of mine going all these years!
While I haven’t gone deeply into the data yet, I peeked at a little of it on my phone; I can’t see everything there, but it’s looking like lots of love for art, mediums, and growing in creativity!
Seeing excited responses from those who are happy in their art journey just makes my heart burst! It means I’m surrounded by people who are in a good and growing place, and that’s a very healthy community.
Some have expressed a concern that by polling people, they worry I’ll be changing what I do to possibly something I don’t love—and that I should just ignore the results if data points in a direction I don’t want to go. But I think that misunderstands what I look for in the information collected. I want to find out where the convergence is between what I love and what the community loves.
I can see the community moving and shifting between mediums, subject matter, and more, just in a quick perusal. Some of that is caused by people following my whims, as well as more people following because of my whims. Some though is just the natural progression of the wider art community. I’ve seen those shifts and it’s always just fascinating!
This week I’ll be poking at other parts of my community through YouTube to request more folks’ participation in the survey, and in a couple weeks I’ll settle down with the spreadsheet of data and see what I can suss out. Stay tuned!
Art contest you can enter
Hahnemule is running a contest for calendar art you might want to enter - read the brief here….it’s called Hidden Details, and it appears any medium can be used. (No AI, of course.) You need to use one of their papers, though the brief doesn’t say so, but they’ll be promoting their own product so I’d recommend getting some. This is Bamboo paper, a pad they either no longer sell or have changed the cover on—but I’m entering it anyway. Deadline is May 31st so get busy!
Notes from the studio
Good news for Ohuhu users: the Copic/Ohuhu Combo Hex Chart has been updated with the new numbers. Just re-download it from your account. You’re welcome!
This week I’ll be making some important announcements about what’s coming up in June, so stay tuned Wednesday (Tuesday’s tutorial is moved to Weds due to that announcement.)
For those who would like targeted news about art-classes.com (announcements are included in the emails here, but sometimes you can miss them)…..there’s now a way to subscribe over there for things that just affect classes, charts, printables, etc on that site. Visit for more info.
Tutorials this week
Tuesday’s video got shafted by the algorithm! Boo hiss, algorithm:
Saturday’s tutorial was my first airbrushed background…
Dad jokes
About the coastline, since that was today’s subject…I need to find a way to tell #4 to someone…
What did the letter B say in the summertime?
“I do love to be beside the C”.What did the ocean say to the shore?
Nothing, it just waved.Why don’t seagulls fly over the bay?
Because then they would be ba-gels.Why was the beach wet?
Because the sea weed.What did one tide-pool say to the other?
Show me your mussels.Why do fish swim in schools?
Because they can’t walk.How do you cut the ocean in half?
With a sea-saw.