Learn to paint and draw from the comfort of your own home with these online art and crafts classes and art schools.
If art is something that has always inspired you or is starting to pique your interest while you’re forced to spend the majority of your time indoors, there is a whole online world out there showing you the finer points of handicrafts, sketching or a new style of painting. We’ve found a few outlets that will maybe help to bring out your artistic side!
When it comes to online art classes and art schools, you get what you pay for. If you opt to pay for high-quality tuition delivered by leading professionals, you’ll soon find your ability as an artist improving by leaps and bounds. In the current climate and it’s the ideal time to enrol on a course.
How to Choose the Right Class
When deciding which the right art class is for you, take your current skill level into account. Are you a beginner, intermediate or advanced? Be sure to do your homework on who the tutor is and what their credentials are. Just because they have the right qualifications does not mean their classes are worth the money or vice versa. They may not have degrees or diplomas and still be a bona fide contender. That’s where you come in and Google is your friend, check the reviews and any testimonials, and do a bit of background investigation. If you can’t find anything, that should set alarm bells ringing.
Different areas of art require different media so make sure you’ve checked what tools and materials you’re likely to be using. This might have a significant bearing on how much you will spend when taking the course. You can see if there are any relevant downloadable videos, any coursework or the opportunity to talk individually to the tutor.
Will Kemp Art School
An online school started by professional artist Will Kemp. He will show you how to create astounding portraits, sketches, acrylic and oil paintings with online tutorials. Check out the free videos.
Paul Priestley
Paul’s videos are for anyone who wants to learn how to start drawing from scratch. There are so many videos for multiple styles of sketching and painting – from learning how to draw still-life objects to understanding how to use coloured pencils. There are all kinds of sketching techniques and art videos to keep you occupied for hours.
Jazza
Jazza spends most of his time creating content on his eponymous YouTube Channel. Here, he shows you how to try new things in the world of art and creativity. He also runs an online shop which has plenty of useful stuff for you to buy.
Jazza’s videos are for those who want to try doing things that are a little different. Learn how to draw with augmented reality or try your hand at creating comics. There is a lot that you can see on his channel, including the effervescent way in which he goes about things! You might also learn a lot about new tools to create art that you have never seen before.
Glenn Vilppu
Glenn is world-famous in the field of art education and his six-week drawing class is the best of the best. It drills down into the fundamentals you need to master before you can develop your skills and in a way that speaks to beginners and experienced artists alike.
Glenn teaches professionals at animation, game and film studios worldwide as well as universities, art schools and private art academies. The one problem he continually comes up against is that many students do not know the fundamentals, such as how to hold a pencil correctly! This course attempts to fill those gaps and is aimed at not just beginners, but any professionals who have never studied formally.
At US$600, it’s not cheap. Bear in mind, however, you won’t just be passively watching video lectures. The aim is to replicate the experience of attending a real-life art class so you get your work critiqued weekly. There are group discussions and the opportunities to get answers directly from Vilppu. You’ll also be able to see critiques of the other students as well as would happen in a regular live class.
Vilppu also offers some world-class figure drawing classes on his site. He strongly recommends you don’t jump ahead and take this class first, however knowledgeable you think you are.
Tŷ Pawb
Our last one is a little closer to home. As their galleries are temporarily closed, Tŷ Pawb are delivering an alternative programme for the time being. This is called ‘Tŷ Pawb Arts at Home’ and further details about everything we mention is available here.
They will be making aspects of their exhibition programme available online and will be working with artists to create projects for you to take part in at home. Tŷ Pawb want to help their audiences feel connected to them and to one another and they will be showcasing their creative output as part of an open exhibition at Tŷ Pawb later this year.
As part of their newly developing ‘at home’ programme, Tŷ Pawb are looking to commission six artists to design creative assignments for their audiences to undertake whilst they are self-isolating/social distancing at home. The brief for these commissions is broad: each assignment should be a guide for something meaningful to do that makes people feel connected to others, and part of a community, be that their street, their town, or the wider world.
They will also continue to deliver an adapted version of the Family Art Club each Saturday morning as part of the ‘Arts at Home’ programme. Their Family Art Club artists will create downloadable activities and these wil be made available via their website and Facebook page, each Saturday.
5-Minute Crafts
As the name suggests, this is a YouTube channel that helps you to produce creative crafts in just five minutes. With lots of crafty life-hack videos; this is a must-watch channel for these stay-at-home times.
For more Arts & Crafts, click here.
