2025 Plans
Added 2024-11-16 20:37:01 +0000 UTCHey everyone! I wanted to type up a post outlining my plans for 2025. I'll try to keep this post short and to the point. I've learned so much over the last year regarding creating a class, launching my own course platform, and everything to do with becoming a self-sustainable artist/art business. All-in-all, my strategies were far from perfect but I learned a whole lot and want to make some changes for the upcoming year and get your thoughts on the matter!
The Masterclass and Mentorship
One thing that I've learned since the launch of the fall masterclass and mentorship is that I love teaching and mentoring. I also learned that packaging a course and a mentorship together might not be the best approach if I want to make the educational content accessible to a wider audience. Including the mentorship raises the price of the class significantly, making it less affordable. I've been listening to feedback and I think there are better ways to make this information available to a wider audience.
My tentative strategy starting in January would be to bring all the educational content (recorded weekly lessons and exercises) to this current tier on Patreon and add a new mentorship tier that people can apply to if they're interested in extra 1-on-1 feedback and guided practice. In this case, the winter session for my masterclass would be canceled. See the tentative curriculum in the PDF attached below!
With this shift to becoming an art education platform, the discord server could be a place for people to post their exercises and give each other feedback. The curriculum would be built in a way that presents new subjects every few weeks. This allows for a week-long break between major subjects (maybe time for people to catch up) and an opportunity for me to Livestream a review of all the student work, exercises, and provide general feedback (specific feedback would be reserved for the mentorships).
I would essentially be turning this tier on Patreon into a super affordable online art school with a year-long curriculum covering everything from the fundamentals (perspective, value, structure, gesture, color harmony, etc.) to advanced character design techniques (drawing from imagination, design philosophy, etc.) The idea is that if I can reach a larger audience, it would compensate for the low cost of the educational content (supply and demand). I would raise the cost of this current 12.50$ tier to 15.00$.
New Patreon Mentorship Tier (550$/Month - Limited to 10 people)
1-on-1 time with a professional mentor is invaluable but understandably expensive for some, which is why I want to separate it from the other lessons and educational content on this platform through the creation of a new Patreon tier. Students interested in a mentorship could apply by contacting me through the Patreon Discord channel. The format of weekly 30min calls has been working very well with my current students, so I will plan on continuing this format. Mentorship meetings will be scheduled on an individual basis through Google Calendar/Meets.
Weekly Livestreams
For the most part, I've really enjoyed the weekly patron-only livestreams. You have all brought interesting questions and conversations to the streams, and I really appreciate the regulars who show up every week! With that said, I'm thinking of making the weekly livestreams public on YouTube starting in January. Since Patreon will be much more focused on educational content, I think my personal-illustration-work-in-progress live streams would be a better opportunity for me to communicate with a larger audience about my projects, what's happening on Patreon, etc. As mentioned above, I would also take that opportunity to livestream a review and general feedback on the latest lessons every few weeks.
Closing Thoughts
Other Patreon perks like free brushes, WIP images, high-rez images for all my illustrations, PSDs, etc will continue to be made available for Patrons, so nothing changes there!
I hope this brings more value to you in the long run and I can't understate how much I appreciate your ongoing support. I am always striving to improve my methods, I deeply value your opinions, and I would greatly appreciate it if you leave your thoughts below. Thanks for reading till the end haha
Sincelery,
Christophe Y.
Comments
Touché. I was under the impression that the $550 was for a single session. Upon re-reading it, I see that is not the case. My apologies. In that case, expect to see me on that list soon :)
JamFilledJars
2024-11-18 07:26:59 +0000 UTCI want to tell you that if you can think of a more accessible plan for students from Latin America that would be great... I think something that costs approximately $25 (American Dollar) per month with homework and a one especific review would be excellent.
Esneider Cardona Montoya
2024-11-17 16:33:42 +0000 UTCThe nice thing about a monthly payment is that you aren't forced to pay for a whole semester or a whole year. Maybe just 1-2 month (4-8 mentorship meetings) is enough to give you guidance and insight on what to practice and work on for the rest of the year!
Christophe Young
2024-11-17 14:40:08 +0000 UTCI will set up a simple application process through Patreon or Discord. I would like to see a few art pieces from applicants to get a sense of their skill level and understand their background and goals. I am happy to mentor people of different skill levels! It would just be a screening process to make sure it's a good match and prevent overbooking.
Christophe Young
2024-11-17 14:34:13 +0000 UTCThis sounds awesome! What would the mentorshipapplication process entail? Would you be looking for students of a certain skill level?
Jarrett van den Bergh
2024-11-17 02:01:23 +0000 UTCAs someone who just finished a course (diploma) and is actively looking for work in this field as a character artist, I think this would be of great benefit. Unfortunately for me, however, $550 would still be a rather steep expense every month, unless I manage to snag a position soon. Regardless, I am extremely interested in being mentored by you. Truly.
JamFilledJars
2024-11-17 01:30:49 +0000 UTCFor me it's perfect. I'm in i was thinking that you should raise the membership, and thats you think. I happy and grateful with this change.
Zoro.co
2024-11-16 21:22:11 +0000 UTCAll the extra educational content from the curriculum would be added to this current membership, but I would raise the 12.50$/month to 15$/month which I still think would still offer incredible value!
Christophe Young
2024-11-16 20:54:46 +0000 UTCThe actual membership if is converted un a one year curriculum? And If You want a mentorship You play the 550 in a month for this. But all the academic content weekly is with the actual membership or this will change? Or it's only for the 550 subs? I don't understood that part.
Zoro.co
2024-11-16 20:47:57 +0000 UTC
