Category: SBS

Hungry Tim and other news

dannygregory9 Comments

I know I promised to eschew advertising on my blog but, come on, people, it’s in my blood! I can’t help it. So here’re a few announcements, updates and, yes, ads about things I’m doing that you might like. to know about.

• First, a mini film about an innovation at Sketchbook Skool.

The gist: Sketchbook Skool kourses are now available on-demand rather than by semester. Sign up and plunge in any day of the year. We’re like Orange is the New Black — but with a full palette of colors.

open-monkey-books
Coming in late fall.

• Next, an exciting announcement: we have just completed the final nips and tucks to the design of Shut Your Monkey: How to control your inner critic and get more done and it heads to the printer next Tuesday! You can preorder your copy today, however.

 

inside-abbworkbook
Coming next year!

• My other new book, the Art Before Breakfast Workbook has just come back from my editor and I am ready to continue work on the design phase of the book. It looks quite gorgeous already, I must say.

• On Saturday night, I will strap myself into a Lufthansa flight to Switzerland to  work with the students, teachers and parents of the International School of Basel. I have been working on lots of little films and projects to inspire them and can’t wait to see the art we make together during my artist-in-residency.

TobleroneI am also excited to see Basel which I hear is brimming with dozens of amazing museums. I also plan to eat chocolate. I’ll post news of my trip here, maybe even before I get back.

Jack draws in rome
A younger, beardless Jack Tea draws the Colliseum.

• Next, I will RyanAir to Rome to spend a few days with Jack who has just begun his semester abroad (he’s in Abruzzo today). He has promised he will take me to his favorite places to draw. We also plan to eat pasta.

 

Ciao!

Not too late!

dannygregory4 Comments

Sketchbook Skool‘s new semester starts today. Two kourses. I teach in both of them. If you haven’t joined us yet, it’s not too late. Click here to learn more.

Here’s what some of our students say about the experience they had last semester:

Jen Farrant: I cannot tell you the difference that SBS has made to my life, suddenly having permission to draw has made me so happy. I love sketching – even though I am a true, true beginner, having hardly lifted up a pen since school-school. I suddenly feel free, and it doesn’t matter if some of my sketches are totally rubbish, some are ok, some are good, but more importantly I am enjoying myself and feel like my creativity has been unleashed. That has made me whole again as a person in a way that I haven’t been for a very, very long time. I will be signing up to semester 2 as soon as it is live.

 

Chris Willis: OMG – Sketchbook School makes me feel like I died and went to Art School Heaven, where instead of being bullied because we’re weirdos, the artist’s are the cool kids … and I get to hang with them

 

Anna Morales Puigcerver:  Danny, Thank you very much for all the work, effort and energy you have put into this skool. I am really amazed at the bulk of inspirational material you have provided us, not to mention your encouraging and positive attitude that has boosted hundreds of us to believe in our potential. Thank you to the whole staff that makes this possible. Let’s keep drawing.  See you in klass 🙂

 

Linda Tennant: I am loving this. I am having so much fun that there’s just no place to stand for the comparing mind that usually puts a pretty serious damper on my fun. The ideas that particularly fired me up…that I can just draw and draw and draw, and feel what I feel while I’m drawing. I’m beginning to get a sense of how my personal style will emerge and evolve at the same time I am learning to draw. I have an absolutely new trust that I will learn what I need to learn and I will grow into whatever is needed for my continued creative growth.

 

Carolyn Egerszegi: I have been spending an equal amount of time on Facebook as I have with my Sketchbook, which is to say, A LOT. It’s been amazing and I am learning SO much from both the Klass and all of the students here. However… I am a little sleep deprived! I have wanted to “be an artist” my whole life, but never had the confidence or ability to do it seriously. Sketchbook Skool has been an enormous awakening for me. I am sketching every day and learning as much as I can about the “technical” aspects of painting and sketching so I can translate my vision onto paper. This is a wonderful group of kind, generous and talented artists. I am very lucky to have found Sketchbook Skool. Thank you Danny & Koosje!

 

Darlene Campbell:
This skool has been like unlocking the attic door and finding forgotten treasures. LOVE IT…ALL ASPECTS!

I have taken many, many on-line classes and this is so refreshing. I think because it’s not about a long list of supplies you have to buy to participate, it’s not just about techniques and a how-to format…but it has given me the freedom to create in my own spirited energy and hang out with other creative artists and see how they work. All of that gets me creating.  I have been inspired to widen opportunities such as sketching in public.

Outta site!

dannygregory11 Comments

new-site-on-laptop
Koosje and I are both the type of people who tend to do everything ourselves. But as Sketchbook Skool has expanded, we have worked to wean ourselves of this habit. We hired Morgan Green, our wonderful Dean of Students and then we retained the LA design firm, Third Thing, to design a new website and a proper identity system for us. It’s ironic that I have been on the other side of the table for thirty years but now I am the client of smart, talented creative people. They have been extraordinary to work with and I have learned so much from them. Our site just went live. Please check it out and, if you haven’t already, sign up for the next semester of Sketchbook Skool, starting next week!

Six weeks that changed my world

dannygregory21 Comments
DOG portrait by SBS student, Annika Sylte

We just finished the first semester of Sketchbook Skool.  It has been phenomenal and beyond my wildest imaginings. One student captured it so well:

“The last six weeks have been a roller coaster ride.

When I was debating whether to sign up for SBS or not, I wondered if the course was really for me. I’m not a beginner but I do know there’s always something new to learn. And as for “Beginnings” – well I have had a number of those in my life: when I opened a retail shop after training as a teacher; when I started over as a single person after divorce; and when I immigrated to Australia three and a half years ago to earn my living as an artist and teacher. (Yep crazy I know!)

And I figured, the blurb said “Beginning” not “Beginner” so what did I have to lose. Then when I listened to Danny talk about creativity and repression and starting the practise of daily drawing, I knew why I signed up. I wanted to draw every day. I wanted to draw my life.

The course has been fast paced. The warm up – an admonishment from Danny to use only pen, Koosje’s urging to draw outside and to try coloured pencils (still not my best) Then enjoying Prashant’s lyrical approach to journals and his dreamy watercolours had many struggling with the medium — more due to incorrect choice of paper than any lack of ability. Jane’s approach to page layout and the freedom to pick up a pencil again made many sigh with relief. By the time Roz Stendhal wowed us with her journals and her ever generous comments and links to reviews, we were all addicted to SBS. she showed us that drawing animals and birds isn’t as scary as it seems. Her compilation of answers at the end of the week is almost a book. I have only scratched the surface of information it contains.

As more and more of us escaped the klass room and hung out in the playground, we discovered that this wasn’t just a Skool with boring lessons and strict teachers but a very kool place filled with funny talented friends. We found kindred spirits to lift us when we felt down, to support our efforts to lock the monkeys in the cupboard, to praise our drawings and most of all to share a laugh.

Then, this last week and Tommy Kane, the Kross-hatch King set us an assignment that had many running for cover. Slowly the results of hours and hours of careful, painstaking drawing started to go up on the FB page. What an amazing assortment of wonderful drawings! And how appreciative we all were when Tommy congratulated us on our efforts. Like kids we jumped up and down with joy because our teacher liked our work!! Yay! Certainly there are no more “Beginners” in this klassroom.

Thank you for the best six weeks. Ever. I can’t wait for the next semester.

           — Carol Lee Beckx, Brisbane, Australia

If you’d like to experience what Carol and thousands others have, join us for the next semester of Sketchbook Skool, starting July 4th.

 

Welkome to Sketchbook Skool

dannygregory37 Comments

This may sound selfish but I don’t care.

Art makes my life richer and happier. And I want share that discovery with as many people as I can. The more people I meet who make art and are crazy about it, the more inspired I get to make stuff too.

On Wednesday, I spoke to a group of eighty people in Scottsdale, most of whom had never drawn since grade school. Now, a good number of them have caught the fever to keep an illustrated journal too. It was a day well spent.

I want more days like that. And I want to infect a lot more people with the passion for making art. I can travel around and give workshops and talks and speeches. And I can write more books. I plan to continue doing all those things. But I want more….

I’ve been blogging here for a decade. And I’ve been part of several great Everyday Matters communities, on Yahoo, Facebook, and Flickr. I’ve met hundreds of amazing artists and collaborated with many of them on my books.

And now, finally, thanks to an email exchange with my friend Koosje Koene, I get to be part of one of the most exciting online experiences anyone can have.

Koosje and I have been working with a group of insanely talented sketchbook artists to create an amazing project called Sketchbook Skool.  It’s sort of a high-quality online/video art school dedicated to illustrated journaling — to recording everyday life in a little sketchbook, to discovering how beautiful the world is, to getting a deeper sense of meaning and of creative confidence.

Here’s a film about it.  You can learn a lot more at the Skool’s website.

Our dream is to bring together people who love to draw and paint and record their lives into one large community and together to discover new habits, techniques, opportunities, friendships, and adventures. It starts today as we open our doors with our first online semester of klasses, taught by six artists who love to teach and share what they know. Hopefully you will join us and deepen your skills and passion, whatever your level of experience so far.

At the beginning of the summer, another group of artists will join us and we will begin the second semester of Sketchbook Skool. We already have  commitments from an amazing group, enough to fill the fakulty bench of Term Two. We plan to have four such semesters in the next year — more teachers with more stories, ideas, inspiration to get us all filling a library full of sketchbooks. And we have even bigger dreams beyond….

I know it’s selfish. It’s rare that you get to build a school just so you can take klasses in it with amazing teachers you idolize. Koosje and I think we’ve done just that. We’re lucky . And so are you. You get to join us.

Find out more about Sketchbook Skool.

In production.

dannygregory13 Comments
dog-on-transformers
FIlming an action sequence on ink spatter.

Teaching used to be a fairly simple business. You get some chalk, a dunce cap, a book with all the answers at the back and you’re in business. In 2014, it seems to be a little more complex.

tom-and-guests
Tommy Kane and special guests on the set.
lord-of-the-rings
In production with “Lord of the Pens”

When I first started thinking about doing online classes, I wanted to make sure they were as exciting and interesting as possible. So, being me and living a couple of miles from Hollywood, I immediately started to go overboard. I started to talk to my friends, many of whom you know and who are among the best sketchbook artists in the world. We decided that it wasn’t enough to just slap together some recycled lessons, a couple of PDFs and some poorly lit snapshots. We wanted to make sumptuous, hilarious, inspirational, instructional films that would get you so fired up you’d have to start drawing night and day. Our inspiration was first of all, Bob Ross, then the Cooking Channel, then National Geographic, and now we’re thinking Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

beam-me-up
Our mission: To boldly go where no man has drawn before.

So while everyone else was drinking eggnog, we have been deep into production.

DOG demo 2
Warming up some ink.

Tommy and I spent several days in the depths of Brooklyn in production on his klass. Then we turned around and finished up filming my workshop. Meanwhile, Prashant is heading to India to rendezvous with a production team that will capture his insights about watercolors. Koosje is setting up lights and camera in Amsterdam.

kane-on-set-1
In the kitchen set, Tom gets his head into a drawing

Deep in a Minnesota snow bank, Roz is furiously pecking out epic scripts about paper and pens. And next week, I’ll be heading to San Diego to collaborate with Jane on her films.

Meanwhile, an elite team of even more amazing teachers are arrayed around the world, beavering away on the next wave of klasses. More on them soon.

If you want to know more about all of this flurry of activity when it is ready to launch, do sign up for our mailing list. Meanwhile, scrape together your pennies and polish your 3D glasses.

Happy New Year!

.