
How I made Art Camp - noahbradley
https://medium.com/@noahbradley/how-i-made-art-camp-4cedd7bf9630
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theoh
This idea of "better artist" and even "better girlfriend" (seriously, the
linked article talks about a "better girlfriend"!) is very simplistic. So
artists change over time, sometimes improving, sometimes going off the boil.

It's far from inconceivable that a good, critically-applauded "naive" artist
would be turned into a pedestrian, cliché Dungeons & Dragons artist by this
kind of course.

I don't think anyone goes into this Art Camp with any illusions but it would
be good if Noah threw around the term artist a bit less and made it very
explicit which skills he is talking about.

(I'm not sure about the romantic ideal of the artist as a unique individual,
but I do feel the need to defend the idea that art should be personal and not
about conforming to conventions, aesthetic or capitalistic.)

And the issue of subscriptions? The Wikipedia page has this to say in favour
of the subscription model:

"The subscription model should align customer and vendor toward common goals,
as both stand to benefit if the customer receives value from the subscription.
The customer that receives value is more likely to renew the subscription and
possibly at an increased rate. The customer that does not receive value will,
in theory, return to the marketplace."

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noahbradley
I'm not teaching people to do art like mine--I'm teaching them
representational art as a whole. The fundamentals of those skills can be used
to take your work in just about any direction you'd like. If someone doesn't
want to do representational art, well they probably wouldn't sign up in the
first place.

I'm not sure if you have much experience with the course, but I talk for hours
during it on how to develop your own personal aesthetic and point of view in
your work.

I am a huge proponent in individualistic art. The last thing I want to see is
a bunch of people painting like me. Hell, I don't want that if only for the
reason that I don't need the competition.

But doing master studies, basic drawing studies, plein air work, self
portraits, photo studies, etc. will not sap the "individualism" out of
someone's work. It'll just improve their technical competence.

Just a few thoughts. :)

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yaworsk
Great story, glad to hear it worked out. Would be good to see/read a little
more detail on the analysis part - i.e., any email analytics, any refunds, how
many hours you put into it.

Also, did you ever consider a monthly subscription, working with artists to
release new lessons routinely?

 __Edit __Sorry - just thought of it - would recommend course referrals /
testimonials on your site...

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noahbradley
Thanks! And yeah, I considered many times to switch over to a subscription
model. But I wasn't convinced that the numbers would actually net higher than
what I was doing here. I've got a friend/"competitor" in the same space as me
on a subscription model and we've exchanged numbers before. I don't know that
one is better than the other.

And yes! It's on the list of things to do. Need to put those referrals on the
site sometimes soon.

