Hi there! I'm Uncomfortable, and I run Drawabox. That includes the website (drawabox.com), the subreddit where it all began (/r/ArtFundamentals) and the YouTube channel. All of the resources are completely free. You can even submit your completed work on the subreddit or in the discord server to have other members of the community look over your work.

Using these platforms, I try to help those new to drawing, those who are primarily self-taught and those who are even vaguely interested in diving in. I do so by providing structured, exercise-based lessons that start with the very basics of how to make confident, smooth marks, explore the mechanics of drawing solid forms and ultimately build up to being able to construct complex objects by first breaking them down into their simpler components.

I stress the importance of skill developed through hard work over talent, and give students the resources to get started. My lessons aren't for the faint of heart - I'll admit right now, especially at the beginning there's a lot of tedious work, and you are made to walk a road paved with mistakes and failures. Failure is important - no, it's necessary. While our successes show us how far we've come, it is through our failures that we continue to move forwards.

So if the resources are completely free, what's the patreon for?

Donations to support the community. I keep refining the lessons and creating new content to help explain the material. The income from the patreon campaign helps make up for the time I invest into the project.
Those who prefer to have me review their work directly can do so by pledging to the various tiers.

The Origins of Drawabox

When I started this community in 2014, there was no patreon. I'd recently learned a whole lot of stuff that blowed my mind while studying at the Concept Design Academy in Pasadena, California under fantastic instructors like Peter Han and Kevin Chen. When I got back home to Canada, I wanted to share what I'd learned with others - so I started the subreddit, and wrote some very informal explanations of some of the basics that were covered.

Over time, the community grew and people wanted to donate. That's when the website and this patreon campaign were first created. I formalized the lessons and used patreon as a donation drive. I reviewed students' work on the subreddit, and in doing so, I gradually started to get a better grasp of what I was teaching. The lessons evolved over time, and my own goals in terms of what I wanted to teach solidified. I moved away from just regurgitating what I'd learned in class.

By the time October 2016 came around, I wasn't able to keep up with the workload, alongside my full time job (I'm an illustrator/concept artist at a game studio) and other projects, so the free critiques had to come to a close. At the same time, I made significant changes to the community to encourage others to start critiquing each other.

By using patreon as a paywall, I strive to balance a manageable workload while also keeping my services accessible to those who can't afford the more expensive mentorships and lessons.

At the end of the day, I'm still a mediocre artist myself - but I've gotten quite good at pinpointing the areas where my students struggle, and identifying a way forward. Where other online drawing courses will easily run you hundreds of dollars, drawabox fills a rather wide gap for those who can't invest quite so much.

Of course, I want to reiterate - drawabox is just a starting point. If you find that this kind of drawing is something you'd like to turn into a career, I strongly encourage you to look into investing in more professionally-oriented instructors.

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