The flagship programme · H₂BA²
How To Become An Artist
The one thing the whole Creative Path 52 stack is built to deliver: a guided 52-week path from creative drive to a working, earning art career, with a whole business your own AI helps run. Two cohorts a year, ten places each. It's a real programme with real dates, and the waitlist is open now. The first two cohorts get the founding rate.
The promise
In 52 weeks, not 30 years — become a working, earning artist with a business behind you.
Not “one day”. Not “in three decades, if you’re lucky”. A guided year that takes you from creative drive to a real, paying practice: the skills, the identity, the platform and the business, built with you, one week at a time. It’s the road I walked the slow way, mapped so you can walk it in a year.
Apply · join the waitlistA real application with real dates, never a fake countdown. Free to apply; you only pay once you’re offered a place and accept it.
The name, decoded
A clever little formula: here’s how to read it
H₂BA² is “How To Become An Artist” written like a chemistry formula. Read it left to right:
- H2How To“To” → 2, as a subscript
- BBecome
- A2An Artisttwo A’s → A squared
= How To Become An Artist
Why a formula
Mastery is a formula, not a mystery.
Becoming a proficient artist (and then a tutor) isn’t a gift handed to a lucky few. It’s what happens when the right, deliberate effort is applied in the right places, by anyone with the passion, energy and love for the subject. If it can be built, it can be taught: mapped into a formula and walked in 52 weeks, not 30 years.
That thinking is grounded in Matthew Syed’s Bounce: his case that world-class ability grows far more from deep, purposeful practice than from innate talent: the idea behind the well-known “10,000 hours” question of whether mastery is myth or mystery. Our answer is neither — it’s a method.
The receipts
Built by someone who has actually done it: the craft and the business
This isn’t theory from a slide deck. It’s drawn from a real, busy teaching practice and three decades of starting, running and selling businesses.
With guest teaching alongside working artists Phil Dean and Lyndon Hayes.
Why 52 weeks, not 30 years? Because I did it the 30-year way first.
I spent three decades starting, running and selling twelve businesses across as many sectors (including a software company a global franchise group acquired) before I finally built the creative life I actually wanted. This programme is the shortcut I never had: the same road, mapped, so you can walk it in a year instead of learning it the hard way.
What you build
Four dimensions, built together across the year
Talent alone doesn’t make a career. What turns an artist into a working one is four things built in parallel, not one skill in isolation.
Skills
The craft itself: the techniques and consistent practice your work is built on.
Identity
Your creative voice, your body of work and the artist you’re becoming.
Platform
The audience and presence that put your work in front of the right people.
Business
The offers, pricing and systems that turn a practice into sustainable income.
The 52-week arc
Ten stages, and the CP52 tool wired into each
From first brushstroke to a business that runs itself. Every tool carries its honest build status, so you always know what’s live today and what you’re registering interest in.
Become an artist
Work through every course in the prefilled LMS: the craft, technique and consistent practice your work is built on.
Wired in: LMS + prefilled courses In test
Become a teacher
Learn to write lessons, with ready-made guides and full lesson plans supplied, so you teach with a structure that works.
Wired in: Lesson-plan library Programme content
Deliver with confidence
Run 1:1 Zoom sessions and group cohort classes: oversell-proof booking on your own site, not a third party’s.
Wired in: Events + 1:1 booking WP edition live
Get your own bespoke website
A lean, fast site you own, wired with Events, LMS, Mail marketing, eCommerce and CRM, payments straight to your own Stripe.
Wired in: CP52 Web Platform Bronze sellable now
Find your venues
Help sourcing the right places to teach: how to approach them, what to ask for, and how to make the numbers work.
Wired in: Venue-sourcing playbook Programme content
Stock a portable range
A materials range built to travel, easily transported for on-location teaching, so you can run a class anywhere.
Wired in: Portable materials range Register interest
Market it
How to run Facebook and Instagram ads that actually fill seats: the setup, the targeting, the numbers that matter.
Wired in: FB / Insta ads playbook Programme content
Write pages that sell
Build “million-dollar” pages: our salient points, reframed from the PipDecks approach into pages that convert.
Wired in: Sales-page playbook Programme content
Give your students an app
Wire in your own iPhone app for your students: their courses, community and prompts in their pocket, under your brand.
Wired in: LMS iPhone app In build
Let InkFox run the whole thing
Your own AI runs the pipeline and the business: tax returns, invoicing, calendar, social portfolio, and a drip-feed of posts and articles.
Wired in: InkFox Waitlist
Some of these run in our own business today; others are provisioned and set up with you as your cohort runs. The dates, the price and how to apply are all below.
What’s included · the value
£2,548 of tools you keep, plus a year beside Damian
You don’t rent the toolkit; you own it. Your InkFox and your web platform are set up with you as the programme runs, and stay yours long after it ends.
Founding cohort rate
£6,000£4,800/ yearStandard £6,000/year (≈ £500/month), paid in full or £1,600 quarterly. Founding £4,800 for the first two cohorts to sign up, in full or £1,250 quarterly. 6-month fast-track £8,500, on request.
Honest status: InkFox Signature and Web Platform Gold are opening as standalone products (currently waitlist / register-interest). Inside the Programme they’re provisioned and set up with you as your cohort runs: part of enrolment, not a vague promise.
Twenty places a year, worldwide. Two cohorts of ten, each place mentored personally, which is exactly why the doors open just twice. Cohort 1 runs 1 Oct 2026 → 30 Sep 2027; Cohort 2, 1 Apr 2027 → 30 Mar 2028. The founding £4,800 rate is only for the first two cohorts to sign up. The waitlist is open now; application processing begins 1 August. And twice a year, Cornish locals can apply to win a place at 40% off.
An application, not a checkout, and it works both ways
With only ten places, every one has to be the right fit, for you as much as for us. So you don’t buy a place, you apply for one: a short form and a friendly Zoom, free of charge. You’re only asked to pay once you’ve been offered a place and accepted it (payment due Wednesday 16 September). No fake countdown, no pressure: real dates, written in the open. If it isn’t right for you, we’ll say so.
Best fit, both ways
How to apply
Ten places, mentored personally, so every place needs to be the right fit. Here’s how it works.
Join the waitlist
Open now: add your name today to register interest. Application processing begins 1 August.
Apply & interview
A short application form and a Zoom interview, so we’re both sure it’s the right fit.
Places awarded
Offers go out and successful applicants are notified by 14 September.
Secure your place
Payment is due by Wednesday 16 September to confirm, before your place is offered to the waitlist.
The waitlist is open today, and the first two cohorts to sign up pay £4,800, not £6,000.
Straight answers
Questions, answered honestly
Is the programme actually running yet, or am I just registering interest?
It’s a real programme with real dates: Cohort 1 begins 1 October 2026. The waitlist and application are open now (processing from 1 August), so you’re applying for a genuine place, not signing up to a vague list.
The tools (InkFox, the web platform) — are they finished?
We keep this honest. Today: the Web Platform (Bronze) is sellable now and the Events + booking edition is live on WordPress; the LMS is in test; the iPhone app is in build; InkFox and the portable materials range are on the waitlist / register-interest. Inside the programme, InkFox Full and the full web platform are provisioned and set up with you as your cohort runs: part of enrolment.
What does it cost, and can I spread it?
Standard is £6,000 for the year (≈ £500/month), paid in full or as £1,600 quarterly. The founding rate for the first two cohorts is £4,800, in full or £1,250 quarterly. A 6-month fast-track is £8,500, on request. Every place includes the £2,548 of tools you keep.
Do I pay to apply?
No. You apply with a short form and a Zoom interview, free of charge. Payment is only due once you’ve been offered a place and accepted it, by Wednesday 16 September.
I’m a Cornish local — is there help with the cost?
Yes. Twice a year we run a competition for Cornish locals to win a place on the programme at 40% off: our way of investing back into the community that shaped this work.
Do I need to be good already?
No. The year starts with foundations (skills and habits) and builds from there. It’s for people with the drive who want the map, not only those already established.
What are the cohort dates?
Cohort 1: 1 October 2026 → 30 September 2027. Cohort 2: 1 April 2027 → 30 March 2028. Ten places each.
This is the creative career programme I wish had existed when I was starting out. No fluff, no shortcuts — just a clear, honest path I’d have given anything to follow.
Two cohorts a year · ten places each
Apply for your place
The waitlist is open now. The first two cohorts to sign up secure the founding rate: £4,800 for the year, the £2,548 of tools you keep included. Apply, meet us on a short Zoom, and start your 52 weeks.
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