My Adventure with Pencil Kings
Hello Fellow Arters and welcome back to Draw Daily!
There was a time that I did not know what Pencil Kings was.
I found Pencil Kings in 2014 when I was trying to redirect my drawing efforts towards the goal of improving. I found an ad for Pencil Kings on DeviantArt, and I liked what I saw. When I went over to the site they had a really interesting offer, which was that I could take one of their classes for free.
At the time I was given access to one of the classes Sycra Yasin made (if you don’t know who this is, a simple google search will help you find him, but he’s a really great artist and teacher; check out his YouTube channel - and if you like what you see, you can join PK to experience the classes he mad just for us!) This class was a 5 part series which was Understanding Face Drawing Proportions and it remains to be one of my favorite classes available in our course library.
This one class had not only taught me more than I was able to learn on my own up until this point, it also helped me understand that there was so much more that I didn’t know. But that’s sort of the thing about learning something new, you have no idea what you don’t know. This can be really confusing but once I finally did join, I was able to put two and two together and create a mental map on how to move forward.
What Pencil Kings Lacked
Look, I’m not afraid to admit that there were certain things that Pencil Kings just wasn’t able to do at the time, and one of the main things was there really was no community. It existed in the shape of an old school forum, but there was little to no activity and this was disappointing. It was one of the main things I wanted out of the site and it was lack luster to be sure. One or two people posted each week, but it was rarely the same person from week to week. It got to the point that I would lurk in the forum and when someone posted something - I made an effort to instantly reply in the hopes that they would be around to see the response. And low key, my efforts weren’t doing so bad, it was around this time I actually did end up finding friends that I still talk to to this day!
Getting Noticed
This was an exciting moment in my journey because not only had my efforts been minimally paying off and I started to find people to talk to, I was noticed by Mitch Bowler, the Pencil King’s founder. He reached out to me, seeing that I was a frequent poster, and asked me to review a new community platform that he was considering switching to. I was the very first person, other than Pencil Kings staff, to use and post to the brand new community and you can still find those posts today.
The Switch
After, I don’t know how many months, I was really dedicated to the Pencil Kings community and I would always have the community tab open on my computer so I could stalk and interact with anyone who was posting. My efforts did not go unrewarded and soon I was brought on to be the community manager… basically getting paid to just keep doing what I was already doing. At first my role was small, just talk to people and try and keep people active in the community.
There were a few other benefits to this such as having full and complete access to everything Pencil Kings had to offer, plus some extra time on my hands to actually focus on learning and growing as an artist. One of my favorite things about this job, to this day, are all the learning and growing opportunities that I’ve been given.
My Role
Over the next couple of years I was able to learn, explore, and grow by going through our own course library and the 30-Day Drawing Challenges Bundle, as well as other online, and physical resources. I came to a point where I was able to start providing other services to Pencil Kings as well. I could provide a bit of feedback in situations where I felt I could, but this quickly grew to providing more in depth critiques that could really help other artists grow.
From there I was asked to start creating content which was a roll I was easily able to fill. This is where the Pencil King’s monthly challenges came from. I worked through most of 2017 to create these challenges that are still hosted each month. This evolved into more targeted classes which we are calling “Skill Check” and you can find all kinds of hands on classes and exercises which can all be accessed right now inside of the Pencil Kings community.
Everything Pencil Kings Offers
So at this point I have mentioned quite a few offers. We have our Course Library with hundreds of hours worth of content that you have access to when you subscribe to Pencil Kings These classes were created through the hard work of so many amazingly talented artists such as Sycra Yasin, Ahmed Aldori, and Lois Van Baarle; just to name a few.
Membership includes access to Pencil Kings’ growing community, where you’ll be able to talk with all of our other active members, post your work, as well as give and get feedback. Plus, you get me; I am there to help provide you with anything and everything you need, detailed feedback, support, advice - I’m the on-site mentor.
You’ll have access to each of our monthly challenges, as well as the Skill Check classes which are all available for you to view right now, as soon as you sign up. We also have a Discord Chatroom where you can talk to other artists from all around the globe, where there is always someone to talk to. We also have member-only hangouts three times a week where you can chat, draw, and ask questions (which, I’m usually there to help provide you with answers).
We also offer 3 30-Day Challenges; the Perspective Drawing Challenge, the Shade Drawing Challenge, and the Figure Drawing Challenge (I suggest doing them in this order.) These are amazing and taught me so much when I was just starting out. There is more content than you’ll know what to do with, plus the added bonus of a whole group of like minded artists.
FIN
If any of this sounds interesting to you, I suggest checking it out. If you aren’t completely satisfied and wish to cancel before your first month is over, we’ll provide a 100% no questions asked refund. But with all these benefits, along with a wholesome and helpful community - you really can’t go wrong. I honestly hope to see you on the inside!
That’s it for today, thanks for reading!
I’m MK and this is Draw Daily!