A Path with Paint: A Jumpstart with Sketchbook Skool

A Jumpstart with Sketchbook Skool

Dock at Mozart's

While doing occasional art projects and sketches over the years, in 2014 with the launch of Sketchbook Skool, I got a big jumpstart. Co-founded by LA/NYC artist Danny Gregory and Amsterdam-based artist Koosje Koene, Sketchbook Skool is an online school open to anyone who wants to learn or brush up on their sketching skills. There are a variety of classes to choose from and, -- the best part -- the faculty are accomplished artists from around the world. Once you sign up for a class, you get weekly videos of the instructor sharing everything from their personal bio, their favorite sketching tools, to tours of their sketchbooks and step-by-step instruction on the techniques they use. You're given fun homework assignments along the way, and there's an opportunity to post your work in "galleries" with the work of other students.

Sitting at Mozart's

The photos here are of drawings and paintings I did in 2014 while enrolled in Sketchbook Skool. Looking at these now I can see some of the areas where I struggled back then. Some paintings I like quite a bit (in particular, the two above which capture a feeling of being at Mozart's Coffee Roasters), while others make me cringe a little, like the drawing of my right hand below. (Eeek!)

Mozart's 2014

Barnes and Noble

Hand

I've taken several Sketchbook Skool classes and can't say enough good things about them! The teachers are inspiring, and the tone of the videos is playful and accepting, inviting all skill levels. Beginners as well as experienced artists are valued for their own unique styles. Through taking these classes I became acquainted with an international community of artists who are now part of my life. Both in Austin and in other cities I've visited I've encountered other folks who are, or have been, students of Sketchbook Skool. I get a warm feeling of kinship when I find the person I've just met for the first time at a sketchcrawl in Austin or at a collage workshop in Phoenix is a fellow Sketchbook Skool student.