Learn how to draw
I have more illustrations I want to do for tomorrow. So I’ve decided to post up some preview drawings today.
Instead of posting them one by one, I’ve combined them into one file, so that you don’t have to click a thousand times just to view a few pictures 
These drawings are meant to teach something, and they are made that way for a very specific reason.
Check them out.
For the past few days, I’ve totally shut myself in to work on Vol.2 of the home study course. I’m not even half way through this volume and I’ve already filled over 40 pages.
I’ve expanded this volume from 10 chapters to 13 chapters. 10 chapters is just not enough given the amount of material that I’d like to include! So what’s new?
Let’s see…
First, I completely missed the chapter on Goucahe paints. I’ve already planned for this chapter but I didn’t remember it until I was taking photographs of the different types of paints.
The next new chapter is one that would come as a surprise. I’ve decided to include a chapter on oil painting as well. Now that’s A LOT to take on. I hope I don’t kill myself doing this…
Finally, I’m going to include a workshop style case study of working with mixed medias. I think this will give me the perfect opportunity to demostrate the application of the many different theories that I’ve included in this volume.
Other than adding a whole bunch of new chapters to burn myself out, I think the vol.2 is turning out pretty well. I’m pushing very hard to make sure that vol.2 launches in time (end Feb). That looks like a long time away, but given the demands of vol.2, I think it’s a reasonable time frame.
I want to thank you for being patient, and I promise you, it’s going to be worth the wait.
I better sign off soon…I’m doing the “night time” blogging thing again. So I better stop before I start typing gibberish. I think it’s starting soon…
Have a great week ahead!
Oh, before I go, I hopeeeeeee (cross fingers, cross toes, cross hair) that I’ll be able to leak some illustrations out in my next post, but no promises though.
And if there’s anything in particular you’d like me to elaborate on, now is the time to leave some comments!
I’ve had the chance to sit down and ponder over the contents that I want to include in Vol.2. Once I complete this volume, MyArtPassion Home Study Course would be one of the most complete drawing resource on the Internet.
And I’m not saying that to put a feather on my cap…I’m saying that because I’ve done my research and have seen the products out there there are being offered by other websites. They are practically screaming, “What is in it FOR ME?” What do I mean? Let me explain.
The goal of MyArtPassion Home Study Course has always been to build and strengthen the foundation of any aspiring artist. So the focus and emphasis will be on sound drawing techniques and principles that all artists can use in their drawings and paintings.
When I was developing Vol.1 of the course, that was exactly what I had in mind. I didn’t think about how much I’m going to charge for the course, or how much profit I’m going to make and all that nonsense. Those are valid business considerations to run a successful site but it’s not the right time to think about that when I’m developing products.
When product developers lose their focus and start thinking about their bottom line, the inevitable happens. Not enough value is created, and the product cost more than the actual value delivered. We see this happening all around us more often than we know.
Think about the last time you bought a crappy book or some substandard materials that you paid good money for. How did that made you feel? Not too good, I believe. So if you’re going to make any purchase, choose to buy from a vendor who cares about your goals, and understands the meaning of value. That’ll save you a ton of money.
On the other hand, how do you feel if you’ve purchased a product that’s worth every penny that you’ve spent? That vendor automatically becomes your trusted source for valuable information.
That’s the primary aim of MyArtPassion.com. That’s why I always immerse myself completely into the process when I’m developing a product. If I’m going to launch something, it has to be a killer product.
Having said that, I want to put my neck out on the chopping board, and just say that I want MyArtPassion Home Study Course Vol.2 to be EVEN BETTER than vol.1.
I carry with me the experience and the momentum from launching vol.1, and am definitely confident of doing a good job and delivering valuable and useful information.
For the past 2 weeks, I’ve taken some time in between my marketing activities to ponder over what I want to include in vol.2.
Most of the chapters you see below are a manifestation of the most challenging problems faced by artists like myself. Some ideas sprouted from my own research, and others just came from my own experience as an artist. So here they are…
Table of Contents for Vol.2: Drawing in Color
Chapter 1: Understanding Colors
This is the perfect chapter to start of vol.2. Without a deep understanding of the physical characteristics of colors, the artist will find it hard to express himself or herself well in a color drawing or painting.
Chapter 2: Coloring tools
Unlike vol.1, which teaches drawing in monochrome, vol.2 allows us to explore a wide range of options. It’s easy to get lost in the wide range of tools available in the market, so this chapter aims to provide some clear guiding principles when it comes to choosing which tools to work with.
Chapter 3: Planning and decision making
There are some key issues that the artist will have to take the bull by the horn and make some sound decisions. These decisions have a strong impact on the final outcome of the painting, so care and wisdom is required when considering these matters.
Chapter 4: Application of basic drawing techniques
This chapter displays the basic drawing techniques when using different drawing tools and coloring mediums.
Chapter 5: Key color challenges
This chapter will discuss some of the most common subjects that the artist will encounter when drawing in color. Key subjects include drawing skies, drawing foliages, painting portraits, painting metallic textures, and creating flesh tones.
Chapter 6: Working with color pencils
Chapter 7: Working with oil pastels
Chapter 8: Working with watercolors
From chapter 6 to 8, we’ll be examining each type of drawing medium in greater detail. These drawing tools have different characteristics and behave differently, so we’ll need to spend some time tackling those issues. In each chapter, we’ll explore how to use these drawing mediums to overcome challenges discussed in chapter 4.
So chapters 5-8 will be the highlights of this volume.
Chapter 9: Moods and atmosphere EXPANDED!
Vol.1 touched on the theoretical aspects of moods and atmosphere. It’s now time to put them into practice and see what comes out! This is going to be an interesting chapter.
Chapter 10: Finishing off with style
Finishing has always been an important stage in the drawing process. In this chapter, we’ll explore the different ways to finish up a painting with style.
Bonus chapter: What a colorful world
I’ll play the “secret” card for the bonus chapter and not reveal too much at this stage.
Workbook for Volume 2.
And yes, there’s a workbook for volume 2 as well. But my idea for this workbook is that it’ll not be as hands on as the one in vol.1. Instead, it’ll be a workbook filled with fun mental exercises that you can complete to sharpen your thinking skills. These activities will arm you with the appropriate knowledge to work (very) comfortably with colors. The answers will be at the end of the workbook.
Remember that the above is not something that’s cast in stone. In this early stage of development, anything can be changed.
So I welcome all IDEAS and COMMENTS that’ll help make this product into a killer product. Comments anyone?
All the juicy, never seen before news on the development of MyArtPassion Home Study Course Vol.1.
I’ve compiled it into a free report, and it contains some interesting lessons and entertaining stuff. Here’s the full scoop of what really happened behind the scenes that very few people know about…
http://www.myartpassion.com/download/behind-scenes.PDF
It’s like watching a mini movie…enjoy!
Darren Chow
I’ve been thinking about what to draw for the next series of free reports…
Then I thought, “why not ask the members?” I think it’s going to be fun.
It’s like those song requests we hear so often on radio, except that this is going to be a drawing request.
So, let me know what you’d like to learn to draw, and I’ll draw (or paint) it for you.
- Darren
On 6th Dec, 2007, I launched the first premium product of MyArtPassion.com. When the launch email was broadcasted to all the 236 members, I knew I had to wait 2-3 days for the members to open the emails and visit the website.
What makes the launch so exciting is this…if you’ve been following the progress of myartpassion.com, you know that the site cannot move forward if no one wants the premium products that we put up.
An unsuccessful launch would mean the site would come to a standstill. It cannot move forward until someone actually takes action and support the site by purchasing the Home Study Course during the launch.
So I sent out the email, and had to hold my breath for 2 whole days to see if the launch is going to be a total train wreck, or if there’s going to be some results.
I was very jittery the whole time, not know what to expect. Whenever I checked my inbox, there was nothing. As time passed, the wait got more gruelling. But I think some higher being has already decided for me the outcome…
On the second day, I switched on my computer as usual and fire up my usual programs…i.e. Firefox web browser and Microsoft Outlook. I told myself not to have too high hopes so that I wouldn’t get too disappointed if the product launch failed.
I watched Outlook starting to download the emails…it went “Receiving messages 4 of 5″ until the download completed. I thought the emails were just the usual email alerts that I get whenever a new member joins the site.
But when I looked at the subject lines, there it was: “Notification of Payment Received”! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I was sooooo happy and excited that I immediately called my wife and told her about it.
It didn’t matter if it was just $19.95. It didn’t matter that the premium product took weeks to create. It didn’t matter that I had to be patient for a full month before launching the product.
What really mattered at that moment was that I knew there was someone on my list who cared enough about HIS own goals as well as MINE to take some form of action to support the site. Made me felt as if every bit of time and energy that I’ve invested in the project is well worth it.
Well, that was the first sale. I want to sincerely thank everyone who has shown their support and making the product launch a successful one (you know who you are).
MyArtPassion.com is surging forward with new free reports and new bonuses to strengthen the offer, so look out for more killer content in your inbox!
Once that’s done, I can finally finally work on setting up the affiliate program for the site.
Again, thank you sooooooooooooo much for your kind support.
Talk soon!
My greatest fear I have when executing a product launch like this is the fear of screwing up the sales letter.
I think my eyeballs are becoming swollen (if that’s even possible) from editing and proofreading the sales letter for the 100th time.
Again, I find myself awake in the middle of the night typing, typing, typing. If anyone cares about what I’m doing or what I’ve done…here’s a whole list of activities:
1) Polished the couple of free PDF reports available for download.
2) Set up the download page for the Home Study Course, complete with the email communications program for members to receive free udpates.
3) Edited and proofread the sales letter for the 101th time.
4) Started working on NOT ONE BUT TWO new reports for the members of this site (not sure if I want to give both away for free)
5) Created a brand new list of 28 different ways that I can market MyArtPassion.com
6) Blog about all the above.
Actually, I think I’m losing sleep because I’m TOO excited about the upcoming launch, which is going to go live in about…let’s see…less than 12 hours.
The site now has 236 active members. Out of these, maybe only 10% are loyal subscribers. That means 23.6 loyal subscribers. Question is, out of these 23.6 subscribers, how many will actually TAKE ACTION and support this site by investing in the Home Study Course?
Maybe zilch, maybe 1…I don’t know. Is it going to be a complete train wreck? Or have I created enough value for somebody to WANT to support this site?
We’ll find out soon enough…stay tuned…
Throughout the production process, the single most important lesson that I’ve learnt is to GET ORGANIZED. That means breaking up all the nitty gritty details into specific tasks and putting a deadline on them.
Well, even though I did have an organized plan, I find it kind of hard to stick to it. As I work, I realized that the plan is not something that’s cast in stone…even though it’s very very important to have one. Does that make sense?
In other words, the plan is kind of like a guide, but we can give or take a little bit here and there to zig zag towards our goals.
The goal of the home study course is to provide the drawing techniques that’ll allow you to draw almost everything. In order to illustrate what I have to say, I have to spend hours creating the drawings for the course.
In a hurry to get my point across, I completely screwed up the first batch of drawings, and had to redraw 70% of them. Yikes!
But once I gained momentum in my drawings, I just kept going and added more and more and more…all for the goal of illustrating that the techniques would work. Check out a brand new drawing of a car:
I’ve added new illustrations for the drawing of eyes, ears, mouth, hands, and hair. And I’ve also added a drawing of an imaginary character.
To date, the home study course fills over 80 pages. And I intend to add more. Read on…
Before I went for my short break a few days ago, I wrote a blog post to all the members (that’s you) whether I should include a chapter on landscape. Those who wanted that chapter should post a comment, which counts as a “vote”.
But when I came back from the trip, I didn’t find a single comment on the blog post. So should I take that as an unimportant chapter and simply ignore the chapter?
After some consideration, I finally decided to include a chapter on landscape despite the no-show response. The reason(s)?
First, I think if there’s going to be a volume 2 on colors for the home study course, landscape would definitely be in it. So it helps to learn how to draw landscape in monochrome before moving on to colors.
Second, it’d make the home study course more complete. I promise that you’d be able to draw anything if you apply the techniques in the home study course,…and that definitely includes landscape drawing.
I initially wanted to do a soft launch for the home study course by the end of this week. Looks like that’s not going to happen if I have to include one more chapter. So you see, it’s kind of hard to follow even the most detailed plan to its death…
Now the decision to include an additional chapter will likely push back the launch of the home study course by at least a week. But at least now the home study course is starting to look really good…
I’m going to go ahead and post an official launch date to keep the momentum going. A week from now, I should be able to complete the home study course and launch it. So I’m going to fix the launch date of the home study course on:
6th Dec, 2007 (Thursday)
Mark that date on your calendar, and be prepared to receive an email from me when the home study course officially launches. That marks an important mile stone for myartpassion.com. We’re going to finally have our very first premium product!! Yippeee!
I hope you feel as excited about this as I do. I’ve worked hard on this project, hoping to deliver more value to you. And I certainly hope you’ll show your full support for this project.
Do look out for the email,…for I have a very pleasant surprise for you.
See you on launch day!
After over 160 hours, 100 pages and over 16k words later, I’m pleased to announce that the first premium product for myartpassion.com is close to completion.
For those of you who have just joined this site (the site has about 200 members now), it’s important for you to know why we need to have premium products on this site.
To paint a clearer picture, I’ll have to reveal bits and pieces of the plans for myartpassion.com. I treat all members as partners for this site, so I have no problems sharing my plans with everyone.
The ultimate goal is to gather enough members so that when we launch the free community site, there’s enough momentum to push the site towards greater heights.
The community site will allow you to create your own blogs, post pictures, customize your own profile pages, make friends, and do all the cool stuff that you see on community networks. And the best part is, it’s going to be free.
But there’s no point launching a community site that’ll probably be dead 6 months later. So at the heart of this site are the premium products. Don’t worry, I’ll continue to give out free resources as the site grows, but the premium products will be the main driving force that’s going to help this site to grow.
How? Well, first, let’s take at look at what I have in store for our premium products…
The first product, which is almost complete, will be named “MyArtPassion Drawing Method. Volume 1: Drawing in Monochrome”
This is an important course to have. Now I know there are members on this site who are pretty advanced but bear in mind that there are those who require more sound instruction to help them build a solid drawing foundation.
I’ve said this before and I’m going to say it again. Without a strong foundation, it’s going to be difficult for us to move forward as a community when we move on to the more advanced stuff. So this course is for them, ok?
This home study course is a 100pg course that’ll teach you the techniques to draw anything you want. I’ve focused more heavily on the tricky areas, like drawing portraits and creating moods, so that this becomes one of the most valuable home study course on the Internet.
Now, let’s take a look at what I have in store for you in the pipeline.
Premium products being planned:
1) MyArtPassion Drawing Method Volume 2: Drawing in Colors
2) Drawing with paints
3) Creating Art that sells and how to sell more Art
4) Online drawing videos (if anybody wants them)
There are more, but I try not to think too far ahead. I definitely hope this site can succeed with your continued support. But I also like to take things one step at a time and make sure that I overcome them before moving on…
So how are all these premium products going to help fuel the growth of this site? Well, from day 1, I’ve planned for myartpassion.com to have its very own affiliate program.
An affiliate program is a program that allows us to recruit partners to market our products for us. In return for their efforts, they get paid a commission.
And while we’re on the topic of money, I want to say this upfront and get it over with. Let’s face it, money makes the world go round. Without a fresh injection of funds, this site would be dead in 6 months. I’ve built enough sites to know that this will happen.
So I make it my responsibility to find all kinds of different ways to keep the site funded so that it will continue to grow…and having premium products is one of those ways. Besides, money plays another MAJOR role here.
With the affiliate program, money becomes a strong motivator for our affiliates to promote this site. Which is why our premium products are so important to the growth of myartpassion.com.
I hope I’m not getting too far ahead of myself here. Having an affiliate program is great, but I won’t be asking anyone to sell anything that I myself can’t sell. So whether we’re going to move to the next step, i.e. having an affiliate program, DEPENDS heavily on YOU.
If you need any of our premium products, and want to see this site reach its fullest potential, I certainly hope that you can give your FULLEST support to this site by taking action.
I definitely put in my fair share of work by starting this blog, keeping it active with weekly blog posts, developing the free content AND the premium products, and putting up the resources for marketing this site…then put in SOME MORE hours to perfect the products etc…
With so much going on, when I say I put in a conservative estimate of 60 hours work weeks, you know I’m not kidding. And I certainly hope you’re going to take this site as seriously as me. But we’re not done talking about money here.
I want to take this opportunity to reveal in this blog post some research that I did over the past couple of weeks, before I even started this site. If you take the time to go over the research that I did, you’ll find that most of the drawing materials out there are either too shabby, or they are too expensive.
There’s no excuse for shabby materials…you know, the kind that put up 10-15 page reports and try to sell it for $19.95. Heck, I wouldn’t pay a single cent for any shabby materials, that’s for sure.
The more expensive materials are geared towards the semi-pros and the pros. One 3 hour DVDs costing $150. These materials are obviously not for everyone. And besides, they are out of reach for many people.
The Home Study Course is meant for ANYONE who wants to learn how to draw, and you can be sure that when you follow the step by step instructions in the course, you’ll be well on your way to drawing beautiful pictures in no time. I guarantee it.
Now if you have been following my blog, you know that I’m a big fan of creating value. If you’re going to attend any drawing lessons, you’ll find yourself paying about $50 per lesson, maybe more.
But you know what, I can really prove to you that you don’t need to attend expensive drawing lessons to learn how to draw. Have you tried out the techniques given out in my free report, “The ABCs of Sketching”? If you have, you know that the techniques work.
Not only will you save boatloads of money when you invest in the home study course, you’ll also save boatloads of time. Imagine saving the hours of commuting time travelling to and fro the learning center. Plus, there’s no guarantee that the information you’re getting will be as valuable as what I have in store for you.
Armed with all the above information, how would you choose to invest your hard earned money if you want to learn how to draw?
Option A: In a shabby report that costs $19.95….nah, I don’t think that’s for you.
Option B: In a DVD 3 hour lesson that costs $150.00…wrong fit here and too costly!
Option C: Attend drawing lessons at $50.00 per lesson….doesn’t sound too cheap here, and a major waste of time commuting.
Option D: MyArtPassion Home Study Course Vol 1 at $xx amount…heee, that’s my course.
I put the value $xx there because that’s what I’m going to talk about next, and I want you to fully understand how I arrive at that pricing. Since my goal is to get them into the hands of as many people as possible, rest assured that I’ll try to keep the price as low as I can.
You know I’m not going to try something outrageous and charge you $97 for a home study course, though I firmly believe that it’s definitely worth that amount. Heck, I’m not even going to charge you $67 for it. What I’m going to try to do is to do the opposite of what my competitors are doing.
I’m going to price the home study course based on the LOWEST viable pricing point that I can go. What do I mean? Take a look at some of the products around. Some will cost as cheap as $9.95. Quality aside, I certainly don’t think that’s a viable price point for the product in the long run.
That’s because there’s a cost to promoting any product, even online. And at $9.95, the site is going to find that it’ll have a hard time getting enough resources to continue growing the site.
Without growth, you and I both know what’s going to happen. SPLAT! Dead in 6 months or less.
Now I mentioned that this site will have its own affiliate program. So I’m going to have to take the affiliate commissions into consideration. My plan is to pay out a maximum of $20 for each copy of the home study course the an affiliate sells.
An affiliate can also recruit sub-affiliates. If their sub-affiliates sell a copy, they get an additional $5. That makes a potential commission of $25 being paid to an affiliate for every copy sold.
Why $25 commission and not less? We already know that money motivates affiliates. So if they find it unprofitable to promote the products, they’re not going to do it. And down goes myartpassion.com like a rock.
So now we know the cut that our affiliates are going to get. That leaves the cut for me. When I try to sell my own products, I pretty much function like my own affiliate, except that I have to do A LOT more work.
So I figured if they’re going to get $25 for their efforts, and they get to keep all the profits, doesn’t it sound reasonable that I get the same?
But you know what. I’m not going to pay myself $25. I promised that I’ll try my best to keep the price as low as possible. I’m just going to take a $20 cut (whether at a profit or loss,…whatever). That’s it. No more than $20.
And at this stage, you know what happens to the $20 if I happen to sell anything? That’s right, it’s going to right back into growing this site…but that’s just my personal choice.
So $25 (affiliate commissions) + $20 (mycut) gives $45. I add a couple of dollars for transaction fees and refunds to make it $47. That’s what I mean by the LOWEST viable price. It’s going to be beneficial to the site in the long run, and it’s going to be affordable to most people, and the affiliates get some generous commissions. Everybody wins.
I think $47 sounds more than fair, considering the amount of content that I’ve included in the home study course. You’ll see the highlights of each chapter in the free sample chapter that I’ve included in this blog post.
This chapter is yours to keep, no matter what. There’s no obligation whatsoever to buy anything, so just download it and enjoy what I’ve put together for you.
But before I give you the link to the free chapter, I want to take up a minute of your time to help me decide on something very important.
You see, over the past week, in the course of developing the home study course, I remembered reading 3 requests for a chapter on landscape drawing. Now the home study course is close to completion, and I’ve achieved what I’d initially set out to achieve. But the chapter on landscape drawing is still not in yet.
My plan was to send out the free sample chapter by the end of this week, and release the home study course next week, but if I’m going to include the chapter on Landscape drawing, I’m going to have to delay the release date by another week, to give myself more time to work on it.
Now I really don’t mind working on the chapter that 3 people have requested but to be honest, if I’m going to put in the work to write the chapter, come up with the illustrations etc., I want to know if you guys REALLY REALLY want it. (And no, don’t worry about the price. The additional chapter won’t change anything.)
I’m going on a short getaway trip for the next few days (I really need this break),…and will be back next Tuesday, 27th Nov…which is why I’m posting this blog post today.
I certainly hope you can help me out here by voting on this blog. If you really really really want me to include the chapter on landscape drawing, just post a comment and tell me you want it.
I’ll be consolidating the responses and let you know the decision when I come back.
Here’s the free chapter: Download Free Sample Chapter (PDF)
As a final note, I sincerely hope that everyone can play a part and contribute in some way or another and push in unison towards the same direction so that myartpassion.com becomes a huge success as soon as possible.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this longggg post. Have a great weekend.
-Darren Chow
P.S. Oh one more thing. I know I initially wanted this to be a physical product where I can ship to you. But after serious consideration and weighing the pros and cons, I’ve decided to make it a digital product,…at least for now. If you’re going to print out the home study course, it’s going to be this thick:
So let’s just stick with the digital format for now. Have fun!
The week is drawing to a close and I have to say, the development of the home study course is reeeaaaallllyyyy making progress.
I’ve added in the illustrations and it’s at over 65 pages now, without the workbook, and that’s just the unpolished version. I also haven’t added in the chapter on Landscape, and I’m still pondering over whether I should add it in.
You know, I had a strict timeline that I would like to stick to. And when I fell sick last week, it totally threw me off the timeline. When I recovered, I made sure that I put in the extra hours just to catch up.
But as development progresses, I realize that I have grossly underestimated the amount of work and time required to put together a home study course.
Before the project started, I put together a little plan and thought about what I wanted to include in the home study course. It came up to be about 10 chapters.
Coming up with the content and texts happen to be the easy part. But when I started working on the illustrations and examples, I spent wayyyyy too much time on them. I’d draw, be dissatisfied with some of them, and redraw again.
Each illustration could take hours to draw. I had to constantly think about what I want to highlight in the home study course and put that focus in my drawings.
When they are done, I have to scan them in, fire up my photoshop and make the edits. I then copy and paste them in my manuscript and hope they turn out fine. If not, I’ll have to re-edit again. Happened about three times so far. I combined the pics together and they didn’t look right, and I had to rearrange the images again.
Looking back at the number of hours I put in per day, I think I’d easily clock over 60 hours per week. No kidding.
After all that effort, I’m pleased to say that AT LEAST I have the first unpolished draft, complete with illustrations. I could add more, but I still have the work book to work on.
My plan was to have the polished version ready by end of this week. I have one more day before the week is finished. So technically speaking, I’m still meeting the deadlines that I’ve set for myself.
So what’s going to stop me from meeting the deadline? Well, the chapter on landscape drawing is not in yet. If I include that chapter, I’ll have to give myself one more week.
I’ll let everyone decide whether they want the chapter on landscape painting or not. I’ll email everybody within the next couple of days to find out.
Signing off,
Darren
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