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Wednesday, February 12th
Online Art Lessons by Paint Basket is a site where people can hone in on their painting or drawing skills (not to be confused with their sister site, Paint Basket... very confusing). All of the classes are provided through online videos which aren't available for download or offline viewing. They're created by Nolan Clark, a professional artist and tutor with over 20 years of experience. You can view live replays or search specifically for whatever type of painting or drawing classes you're interested in.
A mix of styles and mediums
Online Art Lessons says their drawing and painting lessons are perfect for those just starting out. They cover all the basics and then help you reach intermediate level. The classes include a mix of acrylic, oil, watercolor, and soft pastel, pen and ink, and pencil drawing. The subjects range from realistic animal painting to portrait painting, water-soluble oil paint, and advanced watercolors.
Topics for everyone
Classes include topics like painting Monet's garden, pairing complementary colors, painting shadows, using abstract shapes, flower reflections, painting lace work, statue busts, and hundreds of other topics. Surely there are video lessons here that would get anyone excited about advancing their painting skills.
Confusing pricing
After we scrolled the home page for what felt like way too long, we found a button that said we could join for $5 to get instant access. We don't fully understand what this means since nowhere else on the website do they advertise that you can get anything for $5. In fact, pricing here is pretty confusing and by the end we still weren't confident in the cost of it all. On their "Join Now” page, you could sign up for a $9/month membership until you cancel or instead pay $50 upfront and get access for a year. This supposedly guarantees you access to all the courses, but some courses are advertised for Silver+ members and others for Platinum members, but it is unclear if these cost extra. In short, this company is in bad need of a pricing page that clearly lays out the cost for each level and what it includes.
Hundreds of freebies
There are quite a few free videos that are available to anyone, which is nice. Online Art Lessons has a "free classes” tab on their website with specific lessons like "Girl with the pearl earring”, "Painting rock formations”, "Flower reflections”, "Tuscany steps”, "Bluegums in forest”, and so many others. The length of these classes can be over 2 hours long and all of them are labeled with the skill level it takes to successfully complete and understand the instruction throughout the course.
Wish they had unfiltered customer reviews
There is no Better Business Bureau rating for Paint Basket or Online Art Lessons. There aren't many student reviews either, but it doesn't help that they have a very generic company name and it's hard to find third-party ratings because of it. Paint Basket itself seems to have overall good ratings from some students, but technically this is a sister site and they aren't the same thing. Online Art Lessons is probably not a first pick for many people who are just picking up a paintbrush for the first time and need step-by-step guidance through the process.
Just go for the free stuff
Truthfully if it were up to us, we would mostly just take advantage of the free classes on this site. They seem really similar to what you'd be paying for, so if you find some that you're interested in that fit your skill level, you might as well go ahead with them. If pricing and this website were more straightforward, we might be more excited about paying for courses here. Due to confusion and lack of straightforwardness, Online Art Lessons has not earned one of our highest ratings.
Painting is a beautiful, creative, artistic outlet. It gives you the ability to see a stunning nature scene and recreate it, use your own style to capture a moment in time, or pour your emotions into a project and make a visual representation of what is inside of you. It's one of the most calming and soothing hobbies you can take part in, leaving your mind and body grounded.
Finding someone who teaches painting in-person is much harder than finding a piano teacher or a dance class, so quite a few companies have created online programs for you to do from home. It's significantly less expensive than in-person lessons would be and you can go at your own pace, pause, or rewind different sections to hone in on a technique you're struggling with. You can do a few minutes at a time or spend hours on a masterpiece - it's up to you.
Painting is great for people of any age to take part in. Whether you've got a finger-painting toddler or you're a retired professional exploring new hobbies, painting suits everyone. If you're like most of us, the majority of your artistic "training” and painting experience came through the classes you took in school while you were growing up.
Some of these may have even been mandatory, so you might not have appreciated them at the time. Unless you took extra painting credits, dove deep into all the episodes of Bob Ross you could get your hands on, or found a private studio that teaches classes, you may have hit a dead end in your training and are wondering what your options are.
Online painting lessons are as convenient as it gets. The class you choose can reflect the style you're interested in learning. If you're wanting to learn to draw people rather than nature scenes, you could find a class for this. Maybe you're interested in acrylics, watercolor, or oils specifically. There's a class for that too. With our help here, you'll be able to match yourself to online painting lessons that fit your experience level within just minutes. Before getting started, you'll likely be given a list of materials you need so that you can get your own in-home studio set up and ready to go.
We've done a lot of the important research regarding some of the best online painting classes available to you and recommend keeping the following things in mind when you're looking around:
The experts at Top Consumer Reviews have researched the most popular online painting lessons available to you. We hope this information helps you find a company that accelerates your painting skills and gives you a relaxing, enjoyable experience!
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