What does it cost to pursue a passion?

What does it cost to pursue a passion and learn something new?

Personal Trainer: $50 - $70 per hour     Dance Lessons: $60 - $120 per hour

Singing Lessons: $60 - $90 per hour     Golf Lessons:  $80 - $120 per hour

Jigsaw Puzzles...

Not often, but now and then I hear a comment that our kits cost too much... I took a look today at artsy projects you can do at home.  Jigsaw puzzles, for example.  Seems you'll pay around  $12 - $14 for a decent puzzle.  I love a challenging jigsaw puzzle and enjoy the hours of fun I'll have putting it together.  Will I learn anything?  No...but I'll spend a few pleasant hours enjoying a challenge, so for me, the price seems reasonable.

Little Pots of Paint

I also found knitting kits for $24, a million cross-stitch kits that range from $10 to $99, depending on what's included, and a nice paint-by-number kits seem to run about $15.  Of course, teensy pots of paint comes with those.  But they're also mass-produced and have a market of about, oh, a zillion people!  You won't learn much, but they're definitely enjoyable.  At least I loved them when I was a kid!

Colored Pencils are Awesome

But we colored pencil enthusiasts are a tiny band - a "niche market".  That's why there are so many more books on watercolor than on colored pencil. If North Light can't sell 15,000 copies of a book in two years, they won't publish it, which is why the Best of Colored Pencil book series sadly went away.  (But thank goodness, our CP Treasures books are picking up where they left off!)

But just because we're a tiny sub-set of the small number of artists in the world, we shouldn't be left out when it comes to quality books and instruction. Too many of you live in "colored pencil deserts" -  with no local colored pencil classes and no colored pencil teachers within hours of you. Even if you live in an area with a bevy of colored pencil artists, busy lives make it hard to make that Saturday morning class, that Tuesday evening demo...And workshops can be expensive.

In your PJ's

But what if you asked Nicole Caulfield to give you lessons at home and she said "Yes!"?  Her award-winning work is amazing, she's a pro at handling pencil on sanded surfaces, and she knows how to teach.  What if she agreed to show you all her secrets, and she doesn't even care if you're in your jammies, or if you don't pick up the house first?  What if she even agrees to come by at 9:30 pm, when it's convenient for you? 

Or what if Gemma Gylling said she'd be happy to show you, in step-by-step fashion, how she creates her adorable critters?  Or what if Pat Averill agreed to come by and show you, in a clear, step-by-step way, how she handles light and landscapes, telling you which colors, how much pressure to use, and even gave you a line-drawing to trace to get started? Or what if I stopped by to get you started on creating glowing skin tones?

Way back in 2001, when a movie still cost $8 and a postage stamp was 34 cents, we introduced our very first Colored Pencil Kits for $15.  We take some pride in the fact that although costs for materials and labor are quite a bit higher, our prices have barely gone up.

We have the best colored pencil instruction anywhere...of that I am a hundred percent certain.  And our In-Depth Kits take instruction up even another notch, to an almost incredible degree. You get hours of enjoyment pursuing your passion, you learn something new and you end up with a beautiful finished product. And once you're done, you can do it all over again, if you want to...

You know, I can't help but feel...our Colored Pencil Kits are a real steal!