Last night the ShooRaynerDrawing Channel on YouTube, achieved a new and amazing goal, when the counter clicked over the 100,000 Subscribers mark.

I’d like to thanks all my subscribers and everyone who has helped me along the way so far. It has been an extraordinary journey. I have to admit that it has required, a sometimes crazy, level of commitment. I think my family have sometimes wondered why I put quite so much work into the channel.

My very first video took over a year to gain a thousand views, until I realised that one video on its own was not going to change the world, especially as it was technically inept and the lighting rig up collapsed half way through!

In 2011, the channel won the prestigious YouTube NextUp Europe competition giving me an incredible week at YouTube headquarters in London, being mentored, with 25 others from around Europe. Some have gone on to major success. The wonderfully affable Marcus Butler now has 3.5 million subscribers!

I learned so many skills that week – almost too many – I wanted to try out everything. I was bit like a kid in a sweet shop.

I started other channels – DrawStuffRealEasy now has over 56,000 subscribers in its own right! – some had nothing to do with drawing at all, but I learned a lot about editing through them.

I’m now committed to the ShooRaynerDrawing channel, showing that drawing is for everyone and is no more difficult than writing your own name.

In 2012 I was awarded the Hewlett-Packard Smart Business prize for Use of Social Media for all the work I had done building up the site. Approaching my 100,000th subscriber has made me refocus.

I am building a proper drawing course on this site and a homeschool high school half credit version of the course on highschooldrawing.com

I’m also preparing to start a club/school/academy – I can’t decide what to call it – on this channel, which I see as being almost an online Art School for drawing and the illustrative arts, for those who didn’t or can’t get to University, but would like to build the skills they might feel they missed out on.

A lot of work to do! So, I shall enjoy the glow for a moment today, before getting on with the next phase of the ShooRaynerDrawing Channel,

Again many thanks to everyone who has ever watched a video and subscribed to the channel.