The Next Thousand Drawings
By Kevin McGillivray • April 9, 2026
Appleton Drawing Club turns two this month! It feels like I just sharpened my pencils after the first year, and now it’s time again. It felt like the blink of an eye, but looking back it’s been a busy and inspiring year. Let’s look at some stats!
32 sessions
9 workshops
30 models (19 humans and 11 birds)
129 unique artists
300+ registrations
Thousands of drawings!
Workshops and wonderful teachers
The biggest change in the past year has been expanding our sessions to include workshops taught by local professional artists, all centered around drawing from life. This has included guided life drawing seasons, deep dive workshops into specific mediums like charcoal and drawing skills like gesture drawing, as well as special themed workshops focused on applying life drawing to character design and illustration.
Carli Ihde brought us a kid-friendly fantasy life drawing class exploring visual development, character design, storytelling, and lots of swords (provided by our friends at Badger’s Den Sword Academy). We also enjoyed wonderful workshops taught by Bobbi Martin that expanded the way students approach both drawing processes and mediums in a pastel and charcoal masterclass. Finally, we went on field trips to collaborate with local organizations like the Paine Art Center in Oshkosh to host classes on floral and landscape sketching.
This year’s workshops revealed how drawing from life is essential to a huge range of art practices, from personal visual journaling to tattoo design, visual development, and contemporary art. There is a remarkable diversity of reasons people come to life drawing, and an endless world of drawing skills and approaches to study. Through our open sessions and workshops, the drawing club has become a resource where any artist can make life drawing a core part of their creative practice.
Wild and winged
Our first wildlife session was a highlight of the first year, and we were lucky to host two sessions in year two in collaboration with regional bird rescue and conservation organizations, Raptor Education Group and River Valley Raptors. Over 80 artists attended these sessions, raising over $1000 for bird rescue and environment protection efforts.
The energy in the studio with owls, hawks, and corvids is charged with focus and fascination, a heightened awareness of each moment. When we draw from life, we gain a better perspective on the world and the complex relationships we have with our environment and our more-than-human neighbors. All we need to do is practice noticing, and it’s a lot easier when we do it together.
More curious and kind
Appleton Drawing Club started with the simple goal to host a regular, high quality life drawing session once a month. The first sessions were attended by a few curious but tentative folks in the area who were neighbors but largely strangers, not yet a closely connected community. Nearly everyone who came to a session had either never had an opportunity to try life drawing before, or hadn’t had access to a regular session for years. Similarly, the vast majority of models have been first time art models, or had only posed for friends or informal sessions.
After two years, the drawing club has transformed in ways I couldn’t have predicted and for which I am inexpressibly grateful. The sessions are now attended by a community that supports and encourages each other both personally and creatively, and welcomes new faces warmly. Artists and models have grown from uncertain newbies into seasoned practitioners. Alongside our regular classic life drawing sessions, we enjoy a full calendar of special events and workshops supported by local teachers and organizations. The drawing club is a place where people practice creativity of all kinds, and go deep on practicing observational drawing skills and the creative expression of modeling.
I like to say that making art involves skills of the head, eyes, hand, and heart. With our minds, we build our knowledge of anatomy, materials, and design. With our eyes, we develop our sensitivity to noticing and observing with care and attention. With our hands, we become fluent in notating and expressing our response to what we notice in the world and inside ourselves. With our hearts, we practice our capacity for curiosity and kindness toward ourselves and others. Whether you’re an artist, writer, model, or any kind of creative practitioner, life drawing is a way to practice these creative skills, and to co-create a world more curious and kind.
Acknowledgements & neighbors
I’m so grateful for the artists who have taken time to assist with or lead sessions—Chris, Mikey, Bobbi, Emmalie, Cat, Julia, Alex. Without their leadership and support, we wouldn’t be able to sustain sessions and continue trying our endlessly growing backlog of ideas.
Photo Opp has continued to be an essential supporting partner, sharing their space, time, and resources every month. John, Brandi, Char, Amy, Graham—thank you!
We’ve been lucky to connect with a thriving network of local arts organizations and businesses who have lended their support and collaboration to our programs. Thank you to Valerie (Trout Museum of Art), Nathan (Richeson School of Art), Kyla (Paine Art Center), Cristian (fsm arts journal), Ally (Commodore Club), Emily (Hang Up Gallery), and George (Hearthstone Historic House Museum)!
The next thousand drawings
I can’t predict what might be next in year three, because I could never have expected what has happened over the last two. But I do know we’ll be making thousands more drawings together! We’ll be continuing our calendar of open sessions, special events, and new workshops, and exploring new ideas to support artists, models, and creative life of all kinds in our community.
Appleton Drawing Club would not exist without the hundreds of artists who have joined in for a session, the dozens of models who have shared their creativity and thoughtfulness, and the many individuals and local organizations who have contributed directly to help plan and host sessions. I’m grateful to be part of this creative community.
Pencils sharp - see you in year 3!
–Kevin McGillivray, Appleton Drawing Club Organizer
Let us know what you think!
Have you attended an Appleton Drawing Club session as an artist or a model? We'd love to know what you think! What did you enjoy? Any ideas or feedback to share? Let us know below.
About the organizer
I'm Kevin McGillivray, host and organizer of Appleton Drawing Club! I'm an oil painter and charcoal artist—I started studying drawing through a practice of drawing and painting from life. A few years ago, I went to my first figure drawing session and became enchanted with the challenge and thrill of figure and portrait drawing. I haven't stopped since!