(Nov 22,23) Seeing and hearing Nathan this weekend almost brought me to tears. He reminded so much of what I 'lost' when I left the US. Being in Asia so long, I forgot my 'identity'. I forgot about the hungry, ambitious and driven artist I was in L.A. Soaking up knowledge daily, immersed in craft, aesthetics and culture. He reminded me of so many valuable lessons I forgot. Lessons that were just a normal part of my day in L.A. I need to write them down soon. Luckily we still have next weekend.

Chris suggested I try a master copy of one of my favorite artists so here is the start of Eric's painting 'This Land Is Your Land'. His original is 40x40 and mine is half that size. Acrylic burnt sienna wash, ultramarine blue and burnt umber oil with turpentine for the shadow lay in.

This week I am applying for a new Thailand Visa. I have to fly tomorrow and leave the country ✈️ but will still be able to do crit videos this week. Next week our usual meeting will resume at the usual time. See you then.🎒📺

I am going to cancel my Adobe sub. I am in the process of cutting ALL of my unnecessary business expensive and I honestly don't really use Photoshop that much. Not $20/mo worth. Besides Photoshop, what photo/digital paint app do you use or recommend? I heard Affinity is free now. I like that price!😎 I purchased Procreate a while ago, but it does have photo editing limitations. What do you think?

Hi all, a bit of a bombshell announcement. I will be retiring from online teaching. We have 15 active members now and you guys will be my last. The online art education business is incredibly difficult, expensive and not sustainable. (BTW I knew about domestika 2 years ago. More and more will fall soon). So I am bowing out. I will now teach by writing articles on my site and books (I already have a kickstarter for my first book, announcement coming soon). Books and articles are scalable and sustainable so I will focus my efforts there. I will still teach live, in person classes, on the ground in Bangkok. Next year (around Nov 26) I will have my first 5-7 day artists retreat (basically a 5 day intensive workshop). So if you want to learn from me, you have to come to me. Luckily, Thailand is a gorgeous (and inexpensive) place to visit 😎 🏝️. To those enrolled now, don't worry I will see you through. I will continue to be your mentor here until the end of your current membership. Takeshi is #15, so our Atelier will operate as usual until Nov 26. In this video we had a brief chat about this and the state of the online teaching industry. Please look forward to my upcoming Kickstarter and future book launches. Much love and thank you for the support throughout the years 🤝❤️