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Do You Need An Art Degree To Be An Artist
You do not need a college degree to become an artist.
College is a must if you are interested in becoming an elementary or high school art teacher. However, if you are interested in learning how to create and sell art, there are more cost-efficient ways.
Art is a form of expression and a skill that can be learned with practice.
There are many different ways an artist can express themselves on a canvas.
Learning the fundamentals of drawing, like proportions, elements of light, shapes, and forms, can be done in the comfort of your home and at your own pace.
NFAM is going to highlight some online resources that can help you become a better artist faster and without college’s high costs.
How To Be An Artist Without Going To Art School
Below are some popular online video courses and books that will teach you the basics of art and different art techniques to develop your unique artistic style that people will admire.
Online Drawing Art Courses
Drawing And Sketching For Beginners
By Robin Slee (Udemy)
Drawing And Sketching For Beginners is a popular drawing course with over 6,500 students and 4.2 stars.
In this course, you will learn:
- How to draw simple objects
- How to draw more complicated objects with simple shapes
- The best way to practice to enhance your skills quicker
- How to use sketching as a means of communicating your message
What you will need for this course:
- No previous knowledge or drawing experience
- Pens or pencils
- Sketchbook
The Ultimate Drawing Course – Beginner To Advanced
Created by Jaysen Batchelor and Quinton Batchelor (Udemy)
The Bestseller Ultimate Drawing Course shows you the essential building block of all art.
This course has over 405,000 students and a rating of 4.5 stars.
What you will learn:
- How to draw objects out of your head
- Understand the fundamentals of art
- How to draw a human face and figure
- How to draw realistic light and shadow
- How to draw perspective drawings
What you will need for this course:
Character Art School: Complete Character Drawing Course
Scott Harris shows you how to draw people and character designs professionally.
Udemy’s Best Seller with over 230,000 students and a rating of 4.5 stars.
What you will learn:
- How to draw characters well
- How to draw in 3D
- How to draw like a professional artist
- How to draw with pencils and paper or digital art tools
- How to draw out of your head fast
- How to draw faces, bodies, and hands
- How to draw characters for games, films. Animation, manga, comics, and more
What you will need:
Online Digital Painting Courses
The Ultimate Digital Painting Course – Beginner To Advanced
Jaysen Batchelor and Austin Batchelor teach you everything from drawing fundamentals to professional digital painting techniques.
This best-selling Udemy course has over 40,000 students and a 4.5-star rating.
What you will learn:
- Digital painting techniques
- How to create concept art
- Character design
- Perspective
- Drawing fundamentals
- Color theory
- Photorealistic painting
What you will need:
The Digital Painting MEGA Course: Beginner To Advanced
Austin Batchelor teaches you the most important skill for digital artists in this course.
What you will learn:
- Digitally paint in a variety of styles
What you need:
Online Oil Painting Course
How To Paint From Beginner To Master
Created by Joseph Patric Daniels
What you will learn:
- A process and structure to creating a painting from start to finish
- How to mix a 10 value grayscale, and shading, and how to make a gradient in every value with paint
- How painting in layers works starting with an underpainting, including varnishing
- The difference between chroma, color, and values and how to control them
- The perfect combination of colors to get a beautiful, glowing flesh tone
- The best supplies mediums and cleaners to buy and how to use them
- An easy system for drawing anything you want
- A new kind of color chart for mixing colors
What you will need:
- Oil paints
- Turpenoid
- Palette knife
- Materson palette
- Golden acrylic gesso
- Demar varnish
- Excel blades hand-held scraper with blades
- Tracing paper
- Illustration board
- Acrylic medium
- Ruler
- x-Acto knife
- Brushes
Drawing Books Every Artist Must Have
- Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
- Art Fundamentals
- Keys to Drawing
- Drawing for the Absolute Beginner
Final Thoughts On How To Be An Artist Without Going To Art School
Anyone can learn how to be an artist and make money. All you need is to learn the basics of drawing, the art rules, and self-motivation to practice daily.
Online courses have become more popular over the years, and they are an inexpensive way to enhance your artistic skills at your own pace in the comfort of your home.
Stay away from cheap art supplies if you want to learn how to become a better artist. Working with quality products will help you to learn more quickly.
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