Vanilla Beans: Ka Boom!

Jun 21

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WHAT’S NEW ‘ROUND HERE?

The Goz now have free roam of the entire backyard and we’ve seen so much spread-wing running this week.

They love herding the chickens straight into the barn wall. I’ve seen them do it three times now but haven’t caught it on camera yet. They gather the chickens into a single pod, then run up on the pod with wings out wide. Like lemmings, the chickens then run towards the barn with nowhere to go but bonk agains the wall.

Geese have a wicked sense of humor.

Shop for colored pencils and Copic Markers at DickBlick.com

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It’s a bit on the nose that we’re talking about learning here in Beans right now.

First, we talked about the four quadrants here.
Then last week, I made a point about the difference between demos and lessons here.

This week, let’s talk about how teaching businesses sometimes explode.

And not in a good way.

KA BOOM!

There I was, just minding my own business…

Literally. My business.

We’ve been under construction at VanillaArts.com and Vanilla-Workshops.com since February, improving the flow of the websites and streamlining the purchase process. And after years of falling behind, I’ve been making more classic classes available for purchase. More stuff for you to color, hooray!

But I’ve been doing so many businessy bits, I found myself having creative issues. It’s hard to let the creativity flow when you’ve got a list of 68 high priority tasks hanging over your head.

Like right now, I’m typing a newsletter while waiting for a DNS issue to magically resolve itself.

Here’s the problem— as an art teacher, if I don’t have time to be creative, I don’t have anything to teach.

This teaching stuff only works when I have space to dream and play.

See this?

Looks pretty, eh?

Except let your eye roam to the upper right corner and you start noticing areas that are just Copic…

And the truth is, this is only 1/5 of the full project. It’s the only area with any pencil on it.

This is an unfinished project because I couldn’t see what I was doing.

There’s nothing wrong with my eyes.

It’s my brain.

I hated how everything looked. I hated how my fixes made everything look worse. After erasing that darned yellow flower 14 times, I had no idea what what to try next.

Sometimes we just can’t see our way through a project— Now for you, you can pop that sucker into a drawer and pretend it doesn’t exist for the next three years…

But I had to teach this monster.

Teach it to other people.

And time was running out.*

Then I got the email.

Dear Valued Teacher,

We’re tripling the price of our course sites. Good luck raising your class prices enough to offset this $2K price hike.

Here’s a lovely coupon to make it seem like we care but it expires before your yearly subscription ends.

Thanks for sticking with us for 12 years, here’s to 12 more!

So when you combine my creeping creative block with Teachable Chernobylling my workshop site?

The one I just spent 3 months building sales pages, course directories, and updating?

It’s been a bad week, okay?

On Monday, I was honestly wondering if this was the end. Should I just close it all down and go back to illustration? Retire early? Run away with the circus?

But here’s the thing…

No matter what I do, every job I’ve ever had— from my first job scooping ice cream to my last illustration contract…

I always end up teaching somebody something.

I can’t help it. Someone asks me a question and there I go, drawing diagrams and explaining stuff.

Retirement won’t change that.

You’ll find me on some Reddit forum teaching trolls how to blend.

So I think I’m in it for the long haul.

But if I’m gonna do this, I’ll need more me-time… because as I said, more me-time leads to better you-time.

So Vanilla Arts is about to change.

And I know, I’ve tried changing things around the edges before but this time, I’ve lost my place to sell classes and courses so that right there tells you things are gonna be really, really different.

Bear with me here because I’ve only known about this mess 4 days more than you.

What I do know is that I can’t do everything I was doing before… and I can’t do it the way I was doing it before.

Changes are coming.

I’ll fill ya in when I know more.

Thanks for being patient with today’s article.

I just wanted people to know that different stuff is headed this way and that I didn’t just upend my teaching business on a lark.

Next week, we’ll get back to some final thoughts on learning.

*By the way, I never finished the darned wildflower project.

Instead, I taught an entire 2.5 hour class on how to handle the times when nothing you color looks good and tips for digging yourself out of creative doldrums. See, I told you— even total failure is a teaching opportunity.

I’d tell you this course will be available on Teachable soon but… nope.

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ATTENTION BEGINNERS

ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT!

My beginner marker and pencil courses have a 6 month enrollment window.

Marker season is January - June. Colored pencil season is July - December.

THESE COURSES ARE NOT AT TEACHABLE SO THEY ARE SAFE.

BLEND AND POINT NOT AFFECTED BY UPCOMING CHANGES!

Once enrolled, you have lifetime access and can work the lessons any time. When you’re in, you’re in forever. I simply block new students from joining the off-season course.

The Blend closes to new students on June 30th. The Blend will not reopen until 2026.

Blend and Point: More info here