The ColorByFeliks Mission

I am extremely blessed that you all have stuck with me over the years, and to anyone new: welcome! Thanks to your support, I’ve gone from dreaming of making art my living and not knowing where my next paycheck was going to come from, to being supported by a global community of passionate and encouraging artists and art lovers. 

My wife Andrea and I have seen huge growth in our community and reach in that time, but our mission has never changed. I would like to use this week’s blog post to reaffirm what it is we stand for at ColorByFeliks, and how we’re putting that into action.

First and foremost, our mission has always been to encourage, inspire, and promote creativity. Whether you simply do art as a hobby, you’re an aspiring professional who wants to make a career out of art, or you’re already making a living off your art, I want my social media pages to energize you and make you feel at home. 

I’ve always tried to make my content about what you as an artist can learn from it, or how I can simply encourage you to “keep creating” and be inspired. There’s a reason “keep creating” was my first slogan: the world can sometimes be judgmental or simply unsupportive of artists. We are told that art is not a viable career path, or maybe even told by people in our lives that our art does not meet some standard. I think art is a spiritual necessity: it is God giving us the power and joy of creation, and I think everyone, regardless of their backstory, should be able to experience that joy.

With that being said, I’ve always tried to do everything in a spirit of community and encouragement. It’s the reason I started the @colorbyfeliks.community Instagram page, where I showcase my followers’ artwork and they can receive the attention, support, and encouragement they deserve. 

I want to share every blessing I’m given, so if my platform gets bigger, that is an opportunity to help others grow their platforms too. Please continue to tag my community page in your artwork, as I repost there regularly. I’ve also recently become more active on Twitter @colorbyfeliks, and will be using that platform not only to share inspiration and sketches, but to look for more great artists’ work that I can shout out and share.

To me, teaching is also a big part of encouraging others and giving back as an artist. For a long time, I was doing weekly in-depth tutorials on YouTube and people loved those. The problem was, they were so time-intensive to produce that it was basically all I was doing with my life for about 2 years straight. 

If you’ve read my previous blog posts, you’ll know that it became too routine and I found myself in a creative rut. I was exhausted all the time, mentally and physically, and no longer felt passion for my art. I had become a tutorial factory and had no time left over to actually try new things and do the paintings that made me feel joy as an artist. It was a tough decision since those tutorials were so beloved, but I knew I had to scale back for my own sanity and in order to keep art something fun. 

I left those tutorials up for free on YouTube, so you still have access to over 100 hours of free learning content. I still record new in-depth tutorials here and there (about 1 per month), which I’m now calling masterclasses, and those are available for a very reasonable price on my website https://learn.colorbyfeliks.com/store. 

I also regularly post short-form free lessons on YouTube, and have started my CBF Presents series, where I feature other incredible artists who teach you how to recreate their best works-if you’re an artist and would like to share a lesson let me know in the comments or send an email to info@colorbyfeliks.com to be considered. 

I thank you all for your patience and understanding with this change; it was simply not sustainable for my mental health or my love of art to continue pumping out an in-depth tutorial weekly, but I still want to provide you with as much free learning content as possible.

That brings me to what’s happening next in the CBF world. As I mentioned, I see all of our community growth as an opportunity to do bigger things for other artists. The CBF Presents series is not just about sharing my audience with other artists; those artists who are featured in the series get compensated for their time and efforts in creating lessons. 

I don’t believe in the practice of paying artists in “exposure”, since I had the same thing done to me and I believe artists deserve to be paid. If you’re making art, my goal is for you to get paid for it. 

Going forward, I also plan on including other artists in my masterclass series so they can start making money off of creating lessons. When I eat, I want as many people as possible to be at the table eating with me. 

Ultimately, I am a person before I am a brand. I am so blessed that your support has allowed my family to build a life around art, but none of that means anything if we're not able to give back to the community that supports us. 

Andrea and I have other plans in the works to continue to create an environment where we celebrate both art and artists, but I’d also love to hear from you in the comments about any suggestions or questions you may have. 

Until then, we will continue to strive every day to provide more free content, more artist features, and more positive encouragement. I love all of you and the community we’ve built. 

It brings tears to my eyes to read some of the comments from people who decided to pick up a brush for the first time, or to keep going with their art through times of doubt, all thanks to the positivity and support of people in this community. 

I love you all, and thank you for being a part of this thing I never could have imagined or accomplished without your support and God’s daily provision.

Many blessings,

Feliks K.