🎉🥳 We are now 1000+ readers!
🌟giveaways + 📢subscriptions + ⚡discord events
👋 Hello.
This week was Thanksgiving in Canada. Also this week the SneakyArt Post crossed 1000 readers! Let’s celebrate!
New readers, here are some of my most popular posts -
[#66] - A note from Whistler, in the mountains of British Columbia
[#64] - An observation of the private bubbles we keep in public spaces.
[#53] - Notes on existentialism and TinyPeople.
[#51] - Reasons to be sneaky in the pursuit of art.
[#27] - The strangeness of packing up one’s entire life before a move.If you like what you read, share it with a friend. My work relies on this kind of word-of-mouth publicity.
In this issue, I am sharing -
📢 access to the SneakyArt Discord server!
📚 a chance to win free copies of my other book of SneakyArt!
🔥 a one-time discount to become a SneakyArt Insider!
🔍 a sneak-peek into the latest Insider content!
Nothing has gone the way that I planned.
All my life I wanted to be a writer, but conventional ambitions along conventional paths pushed me towards an engineering education. In the evenings, after my studies were over and all the instruments of guilt put aside, I would write stories and draw comics. I would post them online and try to forget about them. I would dream of one day writing a big novel that would change the world. It took many years, too many degrees and half a PhD, before I decided to finally change the trajectory of my life and chase after the real goals I wanted to accomplish.
But I did not take this step only out of own effort. Brick by brick, the monument of my life is constructed upon the words and actions of people around me, aided by favorable circumstances that appeared out of nowhere, and catalyzed by instances of dumb luck.
Nothing has gone the way that I planned.
The big novel sits abandoned and unfinished, on its 5th draft in as many years. I am not the kind of writer I had planned to become - not as a teenager, nor on that spring morning when I told my professors I was leaving. If someone told me then that I would be an artist, I would have laughed. And podcasts were far, far away from anything I saw myself doing.
Nothing has gone the way that I planned. But life plays funny games, and improbable things can happen if you make space for them.
Nothing has gone the way that I planned. But here I am writing to one thousand readers. And you.
I need to give thanks, and that’s what this post is about.
🙏 I want to thank my wife…
… for encouraging me to follow my dreams.
🙏 I want to thank Urban-Sketchers…
… for coming into my life when I needed a sense of direction and a community to engage with.
📢 Giveaway #1
I am building a close-knit group of supporters, fans, and listeners on the SneakyArt Discord server. This month we are sharing Inktober sketches and talking about drawing with ink.
⚡⚡ Next week, I am doing a live hangout + virtual book tour for SneakyArt of Eau Claire. I will speak about my experience with independent publishing, and share what it took to successfully design, market and sell my own book. ⚡⚡
I am giving away a limited number of invites to the server. Tap the button to join our growing community!
🙏 I want to thank the city of Chicago…
… for making me want to draw cities.
🙏 I want to thank the people of Eau Claire, Wisconsin…
… for becoming my first customers and friends in a foreign part of the world.
📚 Giveaway #2
I’m giving away 5 copies of my other book - SneakyArt of 2019. This book was put together just before COVID!
For a chance to win a copy, leave a comment on this post telling me why you like this newsletter!
🙏 The rest of my thanks giving follows in this thread.
🥳 But I am also thankful for you, dear reader!
The knowledge that I have regular readers makes a huge impact on my writing. You make me more responsible, conscious, deliberate and meticulous.
I have been writing, editing, re-writing, and posting every week for over 14 months, and that’s because of you. If not for you, I would have fewer insights today about my own work. I am a classic over-thinker, but without a good sounding board, without the exercise to explicitly articulate my thoughts, I would be left with the same words reverberating between the walls of my mind.
So I am thankful for you, because every week you motivate me to do my best work. And that makes me a better writer, artist, and thinker.
🔥 Giveaway #3
I am offering a special discount on my subscription content. Here are three great reasons to become a SneakyArt Insider - (1) Access to exclusive bonus content that I work very hard on, (2) It’s the best way to support my work as an independent artist and writer, (3) You’re first in line for all future giveaways!
🔍 Giveaway #4
I am giving away free access to the most recent Insider posts!
In Insider #5, I share a bonus section of my extended conversation with art-director, sketcher, skateboarder Tomas Pajdlhauser.
In Insider #4, I share a passage from my current work-in-progress - SneakyArt of Vancouver.
Thank you for your time and attention. I am glad to have a place in your inbox. I’ll see you next week with some new art, and a new episode of the SneakyArt Podcast.
Congratulations on your 1000. You need a 1000 to sustain yourself as a full time artist and there you are! I enjoy your newsletter for its insights and the way it connects me to you. You share freely and that makes me feel like it's a letter from a friend who wants me to grow alongwith him. All the best!
Super awesome on reaching over 1000 subscribers!! Congrats!! Although your newsletter is about art, its contents are so relevant in our everyday life. The life struggles and doubts of an artist are also shared with those of us in other fields. Every time we use our eyes to see, to look at something, we are in essence creating and interpreting art in our mind. Art is life and life is art.