Our plans for Draw (Patreon)

Thank you to everybody who gave feedback in the recent survey, it has helped us shape a clear plan for the future of Draw - this will include a strong online presence for the next year or more to support the vulnerable members of the community who are in isolation and our new friends from outside of Brighton who have joined our community through this Patreon! We also have a plan for re-opening classes in real life, but we will be doing that cautiously, informed by the best scientific advice and not just acting inline with politically motivated government advice. Our priority is always the health of the most vulnerable among us; as a social enterprise we do not make a profit and exist only to promote drawing and support people in our community - all of our plans are led by those intentions.  Below, you'll find listed the weekly programme that will be continue until September and under that, a summary of our future plans. 

Wednesday

• Blog Post released (All tiers)
• Weekly life drawing / 7-8pm, link sent out at 6pm on the Patreon (Life drawing tier+)
• Monthly life drawing / 7-8pm, link sent out at 6pm on the Patreon (All tiers, last Wednesday of the month)

Thursday 

• Portrait club / 7-8pm, link always the same (Portrait tier+)

Friday

• Weekly Photoset released / Drawing Circus Photo-set (All tiers, 1st Friday)
• Weekly Photoset released / Portrait Photo-set (Portrait tier, 1st & 3rd Friday)
• Weekly Photoset released / Life Photo-set (Life drawing tier, 2nd & 4th Friday)
• Weekly Photoset released / Clothed Figure Photo-set (Life drawing tier, last Friday)

Sunday

• Blog Post released (All tiers)

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From September

• New online classes: We'll be adding extra sessions to the weekly online programme, including tutored life drawing & portrait drawing classes on Zoom. 
• New blog series: I will be adding my own blog posts to Lance & Shelley's; we'll be publishing a programme of what you can expect in September so that you can either keep them as a library of resources or use the blogs like an online course, practicing them as they are released each week. 
• New reference images: Taking all of your wonderful suggestions into account we'll be commissioning new sets of reference photos from another 8 models, including 360 views of full figure poses, expanded resources for sculptors, moving poses and expressive portraits. We plan to make the photo library a substantial resource and will be publishing blogs to help you get the most out of them. 

Reliant on continued Patreon support, we hope to add the following over the year:

• Youtube tutorial videos
• ETC online pannel discussions
• Facilities for 1:1 tutorials & group cit sessions

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When it is safe

We have been making plans for safely reopening in-person painting and drawing classes in the future - although infections have remained low in Brighton we do not want to risk the health of anybody in the community and stand behind our decision to close before lockdown was enforced. To make sure we are as prepared as possible we are taking on a larger, better ventilated studio in New England House and will be giving up our existing studios.  When it is safe to re-open classes we will do so with a full range of compulsory safety measures in place and with very limited class numbers. Initially classes would only be open to our Patreon supporters. The new studio will be ready in the autumn, but pending a second wave of the pandemic in the colder months we are prepared to wait until 2021 for it to be safe to open. 

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Where the money goes

25% of the monthly income is distributed as a royalty to the 16 models who posed for our photo sets, helping with their near-complete loss of income during the pandemic. 

65% is currently paid to our team at Draw for writing blogs, producing artwork and writing articles for the soon-to-be-released journal. From now on it will go towards preparing classes and blogs for the September online term, commissioning  new photo-sets from the  Brighton Studio, preparing our new studio to make sure we are resilient in the future and covering our new software subscription overheads. 

10% goes into a community fund to help life models buy equipment to allow them to work remotely, to help with rent and food payments before their universal credit payments came through and to assist with other hardships. 

I am a volunteer and do not take any money from Draw or from the Draw Patreon - my paid work comes from writing books about drawing. 

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Community 

We are anticipating further struggles for the community and are planning to provide as much support as possible, maintaining a hub for people to draw together, providing work for models & tutors and continuing to promote discussion, support and collaboration in the arts. Over the next year we'll be looking at what we can do to support teachers with some of our online resources, build better networks for tutors & models and provide subsidised access to our resources for those on lower incomes. If you are struggling to pay your monthly contributions to the Patreon alongside your living costs, but don't want to lose connection to the community please send me a message at any time and we will help in every way we can. 

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Thank you all for your support, this Patreon is not just helping Draw to survive this crisis, but it has been providing support for dozens of models, tutors and artists during a very difficult time. It has been testament to the resilience and generosity of our community - I hope you all feel very proud to be part of it. 

Warmest wishes, 

Jake