Draw Summer Programme (Patreon)

As we move into the Draw summer term I wanted to update you on our plans for the Draw Patreon this summer. We recently invited everybody to contribute to a questionnaire about our programme and we've used those answers to plan the programme. Lots of people asked for some time to catch up on the Life Drawing Tier video tutorials, so we're giving you all of June to get ahead on any videos you might have missed before releasing more - based on feedback we'll be releasing pre-recorded videos this summer and returning to live tutored sessions in the autumn. When those live sessions return, they will be at a slightly different time to allow our supporters in Canada, the USA & South America to attend as well as all of you here in Europe. Here is a summary of what you'll be able to access as a Draw Patreon supporter this summer, and how your contribution will be helping to fund what we do.

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Draw Figure Drawing resources

The Draw Patreon contains a growing library of videos, blogs and reference photos to help you become more confident and competent in your figure drawing - all of these resources will be available on the Patreon indefinitely. To access them, make sure you are logged into Patreon, then click on relevant link on the Draw Navigator. Portrait and Supporter Tier users can upgrade to the Life/Student Tier at any time to access the full archive. 

• Tutored Life Drawing Course - 34 videos (Life & Student tier supporters)
• Tutorial blogs & interviews - 85+ blog posts (all supporters)
• ETC interview series - 7 videos (public)
• Photo-sets - 3000+ reference photos (varying access for different tiers)

Weekly Programme 

Here is the weekly Patreon timetable for June, July, August & September. In July we'll be adding new recorded tutorial videos and provide an overview of the tutored timetable for summer & autumn. (All times are UK times)

Mondays

• 10am Tutorial Blog released (all supporters)
• 6-8pm [Live] Online Portrait Drawing - 10min interview pose / 2 x 45 min portrait poses (Portrait, Life & Student Tiers)

Tuesday

• by 10am [Recording] Online Portrait Drawing  (Portrait, Life & Student Tiers)

Wednesday

• 1-2pm [Live] Online Life Drawing - 5x1 min poses / 5x3 min poses / 1x30min pose  (Life & Student Tiers weekly / all supporters on the last Wednesday of the month)
• 7-8pm [Live] Online Life Drawing - 5x3 min poses / 1x10min portrait / 1x20min pose, (Life & Student Tiers weekly / all supporters on the last Wednesday of the month)

Thursday

• 7-8pm [Live] Online Portrait Club (Portrait, Life & Student Tiers)

Friday

• 10am New photo-set (Monthly for Supporter Tier / Weekly for Life & Student Tier / 3 per month for Portrait Tier)

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Improvements

Over the summer we're going to focus on making improvements to everything we have here on the Patreon. We'll be adding 600 extra photos to the existing photo reference sets, re-recording the early tutored life drawing videos at a higher resolution and making improvements to the Draw Navigator. We'll also be moving our Tutored Life Drawing Feedback Group off of Facebook and onto a dedicated site (Slack) to create a substantial, long term learning community - we'll accompany the move with plenty of tutorials on how to use the platform. Feel free to let us know on info@draw-brighton.co.uk if you have any suggested improvements - we can't always reply right away but we read everything that is sent in. 

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In-person classes

For all you lovely people supporting the Patreon to make sure Draw can re-open in person, we've raised the money we need for a new studio and have begun preparing the space in New England House. We'll be running outdoor figure drawing classes in Brighton over the summer and plan to open indoor life classes in September. As we'll still be operating at a reduced capacity in the autumn those session will be subsidised by the Patreon for at least another year; in recognition of that all Patreon supporters will receive a substantial discount on all in-person classes. 

Photo by Mary Martin from a Drawing Circus at the Phoenix Studio

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How Patreon funds (minus fees) will be used over the summer:

• 25% of the Patreon income is divided equally between the 35 models featured in our photosets (28 already released, 7 more yet to come!) as a royalty for their use - in a recent survey 90% of those models reported that they relying on that monthly income to contribute towards their rent, food and basic living costs. 
• 20% of the Patreon income is used to pay Lance & Laura to write our tutored videos, blogs and interviews and to pay the artists who make work for the Patreon of the Arts tier - over the summer Lance will be preparing new videos to be aired in September. 
• 20% will be used to pay our weekly online life models, with modelling work divided fairly between our 35 core models and 10 guest models. Any remaining money each month is put into our model hardship fund. 
• 10% is will be used to subsidise our in-person sessions, guaranteeing a fair hourly rate and sick pay for the models who pose for the classes, regardless of attendance. 
• 10% will be put towards commissioning new photoshoots for the Draw Patreon - Jade will be directing our next artist-led photo-set. 
• 15% of the Patreon income goes towards Draw online running costs, paying Megan to keep our website & social media running and covering our monthly software costs. 
• (Draw is a social enterprise and I volunteer at Draw 2-4 days a week - I make my living from writing books about drawing and don't take any money out of Draw)

Thank you so much for all of your support and for sustaining and being a part of our wonderful drawing community. If you need any help with anything here on the Patreon just pop me and Megan a message on here on by emailing info@draw-brighton.co.uk.

All the best,

Jake