Online Classes Can Give You a Boost

Are you really tired of winter? Bored with being stuck in the house? I am, so I explored online classes. Drawing is not my strong medium nor have I had training in it. I discovered that there are many websites that offer thousands of online art, photography, digital design, and graphics classes. Do some exploring.

There are some terrific websites that offer free classes in various mediums and techniques.

Check out Jerry's Artarama, for example. You could start there to get some basic techniques. On some websites, you pay by the month for unlimited access to classes. Craftsy.com, Skillshare.com, Shaw Academy, and Lynda.com are some examples of this. On craftsy.com, you can have unlimited access to classes for $15 per month and there is an option for a free trial. That's really reasonable. There are many other sites on which you pay per class. Creative Live is one that has great photography classes.

I decided to start with craftsy.com and sketchbook/journal classes. In a class taught by Steven Reddy, I learned about sketching on location, sometimes known as "Urban Sketching". We first had to set up a still life and draw it. No rulers or perspective lines. Just have fun. We then shaded it with ink washes for depth and 3 dimension. Optional ink details next. Finally, we added watercolor washes for color and fun!

He stressed that this should be fun. If lines are "wonky" or mistakes are made, that's OK. It's your hand that made the marks that day, so it's a record of your life -- like your signature. What a great philosophy!

So, what are you waiting for? Try your hand at something new and fun in the privacy of your home.... while you are dreaming of spring.