Digitally networked distance learning strategies in the virtual learning environment (VLE) have been increasingly mandated in studio drawing courses in the COVID-19 era. This phenomenon of studio teaching in absence of the studio is referred to in this analysis as an ‘ex-studio’ model. This article posits an alternative and a corrective to the failures and limitations of digital ex-studio learning and teaching through the understudied, underappreciated and largely defunct strategy of correspondence teaching via postal networks. A critique of online studio teaching experiences in the field of drawing is contrasted with the potential for correspondence courses, informed by mail art practices, to re-engage distance learning with community building, material knowledge, skill formation, effective formative assessment, coherent workload allocation and teacher–learner rapport.