Drawing and Painting – Learning Online or In-Person?
The question of the best way to learn painting and drawing is one that concerns not only aspiring art students. Even more advanced learners might find themselves wondering at some point in their studies if there might be a better or easier teaching method. Thoughts like "I can teach myself this" and "Five minutes on YouTube is enough to understand this" may have crossed some minds.
But can online instruction truly replace actual lessons?
What Online Courses Are Available?
Anyone looking into online offerings should first inform themselves about their options. Various types of courses naturally offer different extents of knowledge transfer, so it's essential to understand your own expectations for instruction and choose accordingly:
Tutorials:
Tutorials can be found in practically unlimited quantities on the internet (e.g., on YouTube or Instagram) and are the simplest form of online courses. Because there are so many, you can find contributions on almost any topic, whether traditional drawing and painting or digital work – though finding specific contributions can often be challenging for the same reason. Generally, most tutorials are brief and very general, with low qualitative standards.
Of course, there are exceptions: many professional artists and schools also create tutorials to demonstrate their work or teaching methods. If you aim for a particular style, you might find what you need here. Tutorials are also perfectly suitable for teaching essential basics. Even if someone looking for a challenge quickly reaches the limits of free online courses, any beginner can learn a lot with minimal effort.
Free Courses:
Free but professional courses can often be found online as parts or samples of paid courses. These, like tutorials, usually convey basics for their respective areas but are often better structured or delve deeper into individual aspects.
So, if you put in a bit more effort to find a professional course that matches the area you want to learn more about, you'll likely learn more than from a tutorial. This can be worthwhile for those with prior experience in painting and drawing.
Paid Courses:
Paid online courses are usually focused on a specific direction or subset of art – this could be based on the medium (pencil, chalk, and charcoal drawings, oil and acrylic painting, digital art...) or the subject (portrait, landscape, human, animals, etc.). These courses often cover their specialty areas as thoroughly as possible, with all the details, tips, and tricks. Usually, you have the chance to learn directly from experienced masters of their field.
The learning offerings of paid courses are often divided into different difficulty or experience levels, starting with beginner aids, making them suitable for people with or without prior knowledge.
Online Courses from Schools and Universities (Distance Learning):
Even though you may not find online courses directly from the art schools and universities that also teach in-person, there are platforms specifically for distance learning that include drawing or painting in their offerings (such as ILS or SGD). Most of these distance learning programs require some prior experience, but this should not deter interested individuals – if you're interested, you can usually assume you already possess this level of artistic skill.
However, note that these courses are typically intended as further education and may not convey the full content of an in-person degree or training. The final certificate usually serves as proof of participation but does not constitute a recognized degree.
Advantages and Disadvantages Compared to In-Person Instruction
The content and techniques taught in online courses can, of course, also be found in in-person lessons at art schools and universities. However, there are some significant differences between such courses and in-person instruction that can have both advantages and disadvantages:
Time Management:
Most of the above-mentioned online courses have the significant advantage over in-person instruction of being available anytime. This allows the learner a great deal of time flexibility, enabling learning alongside a job or another study without the need to travel, and it is also not a problem to postpone learning due to an appointment. This is, of course, not possible with an in-person course.
In digital courses at an art school or a distance learning program, there may be fixed times for lectures, and it might be necessary to attend seminars in person.
Location:
The existing online offerings today also allow those who do not have a corresponding art school or university within reach and cannot relocate to learn drawing and painting skills – even extensively and at a high level.
Costs:
Generally, an online course is associated with reduced costs, as necessary teaching materials, such as books, often do not have to be purchased by the learner but are provided as downloads. Those learning solely from tutorials incur no such costs as they can decide whether or not to follow any recommendations for further reading. Any travel costs are also saved for the online course attendee – except for the possible need to attend seminars as part of a distance learning program.
The materials used for drawing and painting, whether traditional or digital, must of course be acquired for an online course just as for in-person study at an art school or university (where you might more frequently benefit from relevant advice or recommendations). Only the potential need to purchase additional technology or software for an online course could slightly increase the costs.
Certificate:
As mentioned earlier, recognition of certification is a significant disadvantage of online courses. While you may receive a completion certificate from paid courses and distance learning programs, these are not universally recognized or sufficient to certify training of a sufficient scope (e.g., for a specific profession). Such a course is a good opportunity for further education or personal interest, but an in-person study or training is a safer choice for starting a career in art.
Learning Ability:
The diverse selection of online offerings allows everyone to find the learning path that suits them best, whether in the form of many short tutorials or a few long course contributions. Unless bound by a fixed schedule like a degree program, each person can progress at their own pace, deciding when and how often to engage with a lesson.
However, the use of digital media can also negatively impact learning ability as it often comes with many distractions.
Feedback:
A significant advantage of in-person study over most online courses is personal feedback. While in a university or academy, the student receives tips and support from teachers, it can be very difficult to get individual help online. In a distance learning program or paid course with instructors, you might still get some feedback on your work – though possibly slowed by email exchanges. In contrast, with tutorials, you can only ask questions in the comments or seek feedback on another platform (e.g., asking acquaintances for their opinion on your work), which does not necessarily provide a professional or objective viewpoint.
Social Relationships:
Similarly, in-person learning offers the benefits of direct contact with teachers and fellow students, which is conducive to exchanging views on one's art and making new acquaintances. A good social environment at an art school can also positively affect the working atmosphere and, thus, indirectly, the student's learning outcomes.
Duration:
Depending on the type of course chosen and individual goals, online learning can either significantly shorten or lengthen the learning process:
If tutorials meet your learning goals, you can reach the desired artistic proficiency much faster due to immediate availability. However, if you are only satisfied with your work at the end of an extensive distance learning program, you might take much longer than at an in-person art school because the number of instruction hours per week can be very low.
Lack of concentration and especially the absence of feedback can also significantly slow down your learning process in online courses.
Ultimately, the weighing of these advantages and disadvantages still lies with the learners themselves, as everyone assigns different importance to each point. Whether it is more important to comfortably create art at home or to engage directly with others is ultimately a matter of personal preference.
In the end, the most important thing is to find an offering that challenges you enough to keep learning without losing the joy of your art.