Written in the words of Jake Spicer, King of Draw:
“It has been a really difficult week for the whole life drawing community, where coronavirus concerns have killed all classes overnight. Never wanting to be pessimistic we have our positive faces forward and we have a plan! We have joined the community patronage platform Patreon and we are launching our campaign to keep the studio afloat today, offering a new set of online resources to help you keep drawing at home in exchange for a small monthly contribution. You can view our page here:
CLICK HERE TO VISIT DRAWS PATREON PAGE
Without new income we run out of money in two weeks and reach the limit of our borrowing in a month, at which point we would need to close. However, we are really confident that we will receive enough support from our community to make it through this difficult period and come out the other side even stronger than before, resuming a life drawing programme in around six weeks time. Take a look at the monthly support tiers and think about what you might be able to contribute – can you afford to buy a life model a coffee, or contribute the price of a weekly life class? We will be releasing photos from our Drawing Circus events like the one above for our paid subscribers to draw from in the next two days and releasing our first sets of specially-commissioned drawing reference this weekend – the money we raise this month will go towards the following:
* Paying life models – we have budgeted to pay our booked life models for the next two weeks, but our bookings run 6 weeks ahead and models rely on that income – we will need to cancel their work and would ideally like to pay them for the cancelation, but we will need to raise more money for that. We have stopped making future bookings, but we are replacing the work that Brighton’s full time models have lost by commissioning photographs for our patron rewards.
* Commissioning online resources from our tutors – we’re commissioning online articles and images from our core tutors, replacing their lost teaching work like-for-like and making some great stuff for you to read in the process!
* Keeping Draw running – we are paying Megan to post on social media to keep you entertained and inspired, alongside our general admin ticking over. We are not prioritising paying our rent right now (sorry Brighton & Hove City Council!) in the hope of further government action to protect small businesses from closure.
(Incase you wanted to know, I am a volunteer at Draw and will not be taking any money from Draw, or from the Patreon earnings. I make my living from writing books about drawing, and as I am writing one right now, I enough have work to see me through the next six weeks)
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If you’re able to offer support to keep us going, take a look at what we are offering in the support tiers – even shares of this page will make a huge difference to us.
*UPDATE* People have been very generous in their support – thank you!. With model & tutor pay Draw’s overheads are around £6000 per month, and the money currently pledged is going to make a significant dent in the month ahead – THANK YOU. Although we don’t expect to make an excess, once we have waylaid closure we would like to use some of the extra money to support the wider national community – we have reached out to other classes in the UK and are setting up an additional fund to help other classes pay their life models for lost bookings, added as a new goal.
Warmest wishes,
Jake”
You see why I said “King”!? I’d like to add a little footnote here in the absolute praise of Jake, he has pushed the boundaries on how much he has done and the limits he has gone to to help all that work with and for Draw; Models, Tutors and Students alike. He has gone above and beyond to work with the situation that has arisen so us self-employed creatives, can continue for as long as we can to be just that. He has not taken anything for his own well-being, yet, he has been bashing out the emails, blogs, social media posts, everything to do the best he can to keep us all afloat, and we are so appreciative of it all. Please support this community of creatives and maybe pick up a new hobby whilst in isolation! Check out the Patreon page, there’s lots of goodies for all who contribute. Oh and be sure to check out some work that has already been done by artists who have signed up by following the hashtag #drawbrighton and @draw_brighton on Instagram. Keep up to date with all that Draw is doing on there website.
Illustration of myself done by Laura Ryan – artist and Draw Tutor with photo from Draws Patreon
Jade Hylton 