Build the creative practice your art deserves.
Tidepost is a 90-day course for artists with day jobs who keep meaning to make work and keep not getting to it. A lesson a day, built on cognitive behavioral therapy and on how working artists keep going. Then you close the app and go make the work.
Tidepost is in testing on iPhone and Android. To hear when it’s out, email hello@cadmiumdev.com.
You’re an artist. It’s been three weeks.
Most artists who stall aren’t short on talent or materials. The day job takes the evening, the inner critic takes the morning, and the phone takes what’s left. After enough weeks of that, the question changes from “when will I get to it” to “am I still an artist.”
Tidepost works on that second question, because it’s the one that keeps you away. The lessons deal with the thoughts and habits between you and the work, one at a time, in plain language. When you’re stuck between the couch and the studio, the Creative Reset is a short visual exercise made for the way artists look at things.
Ninety days, and one small finished thing
In the best-known study of habit formation, a new routine took a median of 66 days to run on its own. The course gives it ninety, and the second half builds toward something you can point at.
- Day 1First lesson
- Day 14Last free lesson
- Day 40Choose the project
- Day 75Invite one person
- Day 87The showing
Days 1 to 30
Tools
Why showing up is hard, what the inner critic is actually saying, how to start on a tired evening, and how to come back after a week away.
- Day 1 First lesson
- Day 14 Last free lesson
Days 31 to 60
A small project
You pick something small enough to finish and work on it, with a lesson beside each session for the parts that stall.
- Day 40 Choose the project
Days 61 to 90
Finishing it
Lesson days alternate with studio days. You show the work to one person you chose, then write the plan for what comes after.
- Day 75 Invite one person
- Day 87 The showing
What you won’t find
Nothing resets
Miss a week and the next lesson is where you left it. Your count of Artist Days only goes up.
No ads, and your data is not for sale
Tidepost is paid for by artists who buy the course. Analytics are anonymous.
No AI features
No generated images, no chatbot. The artwork comes from museum collections, and what you make is never used to train anything. The lesson text is drafted with AI assistance, checked against its sources and edited line by line by a working artist.
No feed
Every screen has an end, and the main buttons point away from the app and back to your work.
What it costs
You see the price on Day 1, so Day 15 is never a surprise.
- FreeDays 1 to 14
- The first two weeks of lessons, the Creative Reset, Need a Minute and the book Library. They stay free after Day 14.
- $49, onceDays 15 to 90
- A single purchase, not a subscription. It doesn't expire, so you can stop at Day 40 and pick up months later. Check-ins after Day 90 are included.
- Free for youIf you can't afford it
- One tap in the app gives you the full 90 days. No form, no proof, and nothing in the app marks the difference.