One year ago, Koosje and Danny began to discuss a vision for a special kind of art school unlike anything else that existed. A place where different artists could share their experiences, their techniques, and their sketchbooks with students worldwide — using state-of-the-art technology, beautiful videos, and the vast reach of the Internet.
How Sketchbook Skool Started
We invited a few of our friends to join us, to teach on-camera, and share their love of recording the world in a sketchbook. Then we invited other friends —blog readers, Facebook pals, family, next-door neighbors— to join us in learning from these generous and talented artists and together form a rich, diverse creative community.
We decided to call it “Sketchbook Skool.” A name that’s not too serious and a little bit, well, unusual.
Our goal was simple: art for all. To encourage creative freedom. To help people everywhere to conquer old fears. To be supportive. To make the world a more beautiful place because we are all drawing and painting and sharing together.
A year later, Sketchbook Skool has exceeded our wildest imaginings. We have been joined by nearly two dozen teaching artists and thousands of students from every corner of the world. We have filmed klasses on four continents, from Stockholm to Sydney, Barcelona to Brooklyn. And together, we have started a movement that does much more than share drawings — we share our lives.
If you are reading this, you are already part of the Sketchbook Skool family. Whether you are in one of our klasses, on our Facebook group, reading this blog or just taking the leap by starting to believe you can be more creative, you are with us.
Our next big dream is to truly spread “art for all” and grow the Skool beyond just this community of our immediate friends. Starting today, we are going to invite the whole world to join us through conversations, online, radio, tv, magazines, blogs, you name it.
And we invite you to spread the word and to lend your voice to our story. To share the simple joy of putting a pen to paper and the way it can change how you see everything around you. It’s all beautiful and you helped make it so.
