A new way for the DT Grown-Ups Table to share art & chat
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new way for the DT GUT community to connect, and I'm feeling good.
Hi all! I will rarely send you extra messages during the week but today is special.
A big part of DrawTogether has always been sharing our artwork with each other. By no means is it required, but many of us, young and old, get a big boost from the connection (and accountability) that comes along with sharing drawings.
We’ve been continuing this at the DT Grown-Ups Table on Instagram and the conversation and mutual support is off the charts. But Instagram has presented some challenges (stories disappearing, no way to keep subject matter together, no organization, not wanting to share so publicly, FACEBOOK is blargh, etc.) But! I have some good news!
Substack is including the GUT in a pilot program to test a new feature where we can share images and chat with each other in a thread the Substack app. That means we can post artwork and comments in a single unified thread, with GUT members only! We can also find all our images and comments in one place, keep organized, all that good stuff.
I see this as the digital version of the GUT sitting around a big round table in a room sharing artwork with each other. I’m really excited about it, and hope you are, too.
How to get started:
Download the free Substack app by clicking the button below. The iamge sharing feature we’re using is iOS-only for now (that means iPhones/ipads) but Android is coming very soon!
Open the app and tap the “Chat” icon. That’s where you’ll find our threads - one for each new assignment. That’s where we can upload our art, comment and hit the little encouranging heart icon for one another.
That’s it!
I just started a new thread for our last assignment “Shadow Drawings.” If you want to share your latest work in that thread (or your One Thing a Day drawing in the thread before), I know we would all love to each other’s work and cheer each other on. (Note: I will be moderating, so supportive, constructive comments only. I am not afraid to use the delete button!)
The app is pretty intuitive, but if you have any questions you can ask me in the chat or here in the comments.
And, for every new assignment i’ll post a new thread, so we can keep organized and focused. Sound good?
Finally, for folks who want to stay on Instagram for now and Android users who can’t access the image sharing yet, I’m going to continue posting/interacting on Instagram for a little bit. This is a transition and it might take a few weeks. But I hope this works for everyone, because as I see it, one of the biggest upsides to moving our drawing-sharing and commenting over the Substack app is LESS TIME ON INSTAGRAM and LESS EMAILS!
If you haven’t joined the Grown-Ups Table and want in on the fun, you can subscribe here. I will (almost) never sent a GUT specific email to the whole DT community. But this is exciting and I’m feeling good.
Holler with any comments/questions below.
Can’t wait to see your drawings in the chat.
xoxo
w
I’m thrilled that this sharing option is available. I don’t love having every insta-friend looking at every tentative, weird, experimental drawing I want to share with my new GUT friends. I’ve felt it holding me back. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day! 🙌🏼
I am glad to get this out of Instagram. I like looking at the work, but I am barraged by ads and other crud I don't want to see, and end up going down a rabbit hole. Also, it may encourage more sharing since it's a subscription space. I hope the community will give it a go.