online art classes

tink89

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Nov 13, 2017
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DD12 loves to lettering, sketching , drawing, painting. She has watched all of Bob Ross videos on Netflix and on You Tube just for fun 🙂
She is pretty good and she really enjoys it. She wants to get better at drawing faces and just overall learning different ways to use paints, pastels, shaded pencils and stuff.
She did not get the art gene from me or her dad so i have no idea how to help her. She doesn't want books because she says she can just look them up online.
Any recommendations for a good online class or program that she can work on independently and and on her own time to learn these things? Or any good you tube videos?

Do any stores have classes? Like Michaels and stuff?
 
I would start with Google and look for free classes online. Some of them are specific to one type of subject, such as portraits or landscapes, while others cover general drawing skills. Some are based on your level of experience and others are based on age. You don’t have anything to lose trying various free courses, and she might find one that really helps her expand her skills.

Michaels does have classes via Zoom. You can check out their website to see if there is anything that would interest her. They seem to divide their courses between adults (13+) or children (under 13).

As far as YouTube goes, you just have to do some searching by subject. I have found some very thorough photography classes on YouTube for free, so I am sure there are plenty of art courses as well. The only problem with going with YouTube is there isn’t any feedback, or ways to get additional help if you want it. But she could certainly get instruction and expand her skills that way.
 
I can help you. :wave2: A teen who loves art!!! And being able to get to them before "adulthood" and conforming and being bland and dull and colorless has set in. I love threads like this! :love: This is an exciting time for her. You are a great mom for encouraging her. There are many, many FREE projects online with great teachers.

I don't think there are in-person classes at Michael's now due to COVID. However DO use a 40% - 50% off coupon every time you shop for crafts & art supplies. You can just show the online coupon on your phone and they scan it. Have your DD make a separate purchase, using the coupon again for more savings.
https://www.michaels.com/coupons

Michaels, AC Moore & JoAnn's Fabric each take competitor coupons from each other if the other store happens to have better coupons that week instead. JoAnn's does have an art & craft section.
https://www.joann.com/coupon/
https://givingassistant.org/coupon-codes/acmoore.com

For online painting tutorials, I highly recommend these online painting teachers below. They also have corresponding Facebook groups for their students to share tips, paintings and enthusiastically support each other, if you feel comfortable with her joining in and chatting with fellow beginners, amateurs and artists, who also enjoy painting. MANY started out doing only the tutorials of these teachers and did so well that within a couple years or so were selling their paintings at little community art fairs and such. Their FB groups are well moderated, so she should be safe in the groups. Before the pandemic, many people used to do painting parties to these tutorials, with friends & family members all painting together while watching a specific project being cast on the TV:

Angela Anderson: (she has easy beginner paintings)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8XDBvQQ6bh_myqOgThGK7Q

Corresponding Thankful Art Facebook community group


The Art Sherpa: (also has beginner projects.)
https://www.youtube.com/user/HoneyBmama

Corresponding Art Sherpa Facebook community group


Painting with Jane:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW4Afe-CtYM5kp6FJEUPTFA

For great, yet inexpensive paintbrushes, my favorites are the Loew Cornell, synthetic, amber brown bristle, flat or round paintbrushes. (Assorted sizes, but a #6, #8 or #10 flat will work for most everything.) You can get them at Michaels. They work well without going limp when wet. They have a nice snap or spring to the bristles in coming back to a nice point, after being pressed down on paper or canvas, flattening out the bristles and then letting up on the pressure. That makes them so great for most techniques, especially scrubbing in colors or softly blending layers of adjoining colors together.


Flora Bowley does "intuitive painting," in which she does a combo of free-form doodling with cheapo foam brushes from Walmarts house paint dept, her FINGERS, (yes, tween/adult finger painting!) and stencils & sponges, feathers, etc. She basically gives permission to play and use a LOT of colors.

I LOVE watching this video of Flora's:



And there's these painting videos below for more free-form, no paintbrush techniques. They are really mesmerizing. :eek: All they need is a mix of acrylic paint and Elmer's glue. The technique is called: String pull acrylic pour. Also chain pull, if you have an old light bulb fixture that uses a ball chain to turn on & off.

String Pull/Chain Pull painting technique
 
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For mixed media techniques, I really like these two artists:

Alisa Burke

Traci Bautista's Doodles Unleashed

There's also Gelli Plate printing. Also known as monoprinting. You can make a simple, cheap, disposable gell plate from food gelatin, (directions online) for can be thrown away after a few uses. Or get a Gelli Plate from Michaels. Remember to use a 40% off coupon. :)

Gelli Plate printing / monoprinting

Joanne Sharpe does Whimsical Lettering

There is also Zentangles. It is doodling that is easy then gets more elaborate with the more doodles one does:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=zentangle+patterns+for+beginners

One of my favorite materials to work with is watercolor CRAYONS. DD can draw with them. Then take a Q-tip or a paintbrush dabbed in a little water. She goes over some of the areas she drew or colored and the lines turn into watercolor paint which she can blend together, layer, blend, overlap. Make sure you get Caran d'Ache Neocolor II. The TWO is important as the Neocolor I isn't the same thing.

 
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