Open Studios Club

Open Studios Club is a casual virtual studio session where you can hang out with other artists, work on your own projects, and get feedback from our staff in real time on voice.

Emmet, Ava, SC, Elvera, Uma

This is an opportunity to learn and be inspired by a small group of artists in a safe, inclusive virtual space.

You’ll learn as much from seeing each other’s works in progress and ideas as you will from our staff!

“Anyone, of any ability level is welcome and treated the same as someone who’s been doing art for a long time, or even professionally.”

Watch a sample session

How it Works

Setup

• We require people to join our Discord to participate.
• If you have no experience with Discord, know that we have staff and moderators available assist you.
• Watch this 53 second tour of our Discord for a preview.

• We highly recommend joining the Discord at least a few days before your first session to prevent any headaches for you.
• You’ll need to troubleshoot any problems, and get any tech support you need from staff to ensure that the sessions run as smoothly as possible for you.

During the live session

• You’ll work on your projects and take occasional breaks to post your works in progress into the Discord text channel.
• Prof Lieu speaks to you on voice to critique your projects and/or discuss any topics that are on your mind.
• There is no requirement to speak on voice! We are happy to answer questions you type into the text channel.

Live session Days

• There are 2 sessions every week you can attend:
• Mondays, 12 – 2pm EST
• Thursdays, 6 – 8pm EST
• We record attendance at every session to track everyone’s membership.

In between sessions

• You’ll have continued access to the Open Studio Club channel.
• Everyone is welcome to have conversations, share artwork here.
• Note that staff will be available for tech support questions, but will not be active giving feedback in between sessions. (you can do this in the Patreon group)
• Staff will moderate the channel to be sure everyone stays safe.

“The real-time feedback and sense of community made this the closest I have come since the pandemic started of feeling like I am in a class led by master surrounded by dedicated students.“

How is this different from a workshop?

• A workshop is a focused learning environment on a specific subject and/or technique everyone can learn together, and which provides a concrete direction for people.
• Many people know they want to improve on something, but don’t know where to start. The workshops takes that out of your hands and provides concrete starting points.

• After a workshop, you receive written feedback in an email from Prof Lieu about your work in the workshop, and recommendations for moving forward.
• Workshops have many weeks of advance notice, making scheduling easier for many people.
• Open Studios Club does not provide long written critiques and support in the Discord channels outside of the live session. In a workshop, you receive this the week before, and the week after the workshop.

• Workshops each have a comprehensive workshop guide, which gives supply recommendations, prompts, and resources to target the subject of the workshop.
• The last hour of a workshop is a critique where we are focused on giving constructive critique.
• While you an ask for this in Open Studios Club, the conversations will be very loose and critiques won’t happen consistently.

How is this different from the Patreon Group?

• The Patreon Group voice sessions schedule does not have set days and times, we vary the schedule to accommodate various time zones, etc.
• Open Studios Club meets on Mondays and Thursdays at the same times.
• Open Studios Club voice sessions are 2 hours, Patreon group voice sessions are 1 hour.
• Patreon voice is only speaking, people are not working on their work. You can post artwork for to get a critique, but you aren’t actively working on it during the voice session.

• Open Studios Club doesn’t provide written feedback/support in between voice sessions.
• In the Patreon Group, there is tons of written feedback/support in between voice sessions.
• During an Open studios Club voice session, people are actively working on their work. Let’s say you start a portrait drawing, you can get feedback in the moment. You work on the drawing more, and get feedback again in real time.

• It’s much easier to make art friends and invest in long term relationships, many of you have been with us for several years now!
• There is continuity in watching each other grow within this small group.

• The Patreon group has a critique channel where you get substantial written critiques from our staff in between voice sessions.
• Open Studios Club does not have a critique channel.
• There is an #open-studios-chat channel where you can interact casually with other members. in between voice sessions.
• Staff are not active in the channels in between voice sessions, except to moderate and answer tech questions.

How is this different from a stage session after live streams?

• Stage sessions are free to the public.
• Some people prefer a smaller group learning environment, because with a larger audience it can be more intimidating to speak.
• Sessions are ~30 min. whereas Open Studios Club is 2 hours.
• We do not critique personal artwork in a stage session.
• If the live stream prior was a draw along, and you created work that followed the draw along, we will provide brief comments on voice.
• A stage session is great for speaking to staff on voice, but it’s not as easy to make art friends because attendance isn’t consistent and the group much larger.

Do I have to reserve a spot to attend a live session in advance?

• If you choose one of the monthly options, you can just show up!
• If you choose the one time option, you need to book with Prof Lieu at least 2 business days in advance to attend.

Contact

• Questions? Contact us.