A few weeks ago I was invited to become a teacher on Skillshare, and today I published my first class: ‘Get Started with Stippling | Pen & Ink Techniques’
For anyone who doesn't know what Skillshare is: it's an interactive, online learning community for anyone that wants to learn real-world skills through educational videos. You’re encouraged to network with other people taking the same classes and share your own project based on the skills you gained in the class. There are Skillshare classes on a tonne of creative skills (art, crafts, film making, photography, animation), as well as business, marketing, technology and more.
To celebrate publishing my first class I’m able to give away 2 months free Skillshare membership to everyone who signs up using this link: https://skl.sh/2IP6s95
I’ve used Skillshare frequently over the past few months:
To learn some basic photoshop skills. I’d never used photoshop at all before, but when I invested in my own flatbed scanner to save a bit of money getting my artwork scanned and prepared for printing, I realised that I needed some help to navigate the tools and tidy up my artwork. Initially I watched some Youtube videos that gave me a bit of general know-how, but when a fellow artist recommended Skillshare, I found Cat Coquillette’s class ‘From Paper to Screen: Digitally Editing Your Artwork in Photoshop’, and Nic Squirrell’s ‘Print On Demand for Artists: Painting to Pattern to Product, The Complete Process’ - exactly what I was looking for!
To learn new arts and crafts skills. I never had any formal art training after my GCSEs so I’m very much a self-taught artist, but some techniques are much harder to learn on your own. Skillshare classes in block printing (e.g. Jon Brommet’s ‘Block Printing: Design & Create Your First Print’) and pottery techniques (like this class by Cindy Guajardo) for example, have made these skills much more easily accessible to even a complete beginner like myself. In-depth demonstrations with insightful tips and advice from professionals makes learning accessible to those (like myself) who can’t afford to fork out for expensive courses and tuition.
My setup for filming the stippling demonstration.
To learn the skills necessary to teach my own Skillshare class. I took part in Skillshare’s monthly Teach Challenge, which helped to guide me through the whole process. In addition to super useful classes such as ‘How to Make a Great Talking Head Video (even when camera shy)’ by Lucy Lambriex, video production & lighting on a budget, and video editing with iMovie, the Skillshare staff were incredibly helpful and encouraging and were always happy to check my progress.
My first Skillshare class is on stippling - a simple pen and ink technique that uses dots to add depth and dimension to illustrations - the perfect skill to learn for #Inktober!
If you’re interested in producing your own stippled illustration, or just want to learn some new skills, click the link: https://skl.sh/2IP6s95 for 2 months FREE Skillshare Premium which will give you unlimited access to all classes on Skillshare. You can cancel anytime so you don’t have to pay anything if you don’t want to, but if you’re anything like me then you’ll keep finding new interesting skills that will make you want to stay!
Please watch my class and leave some feedback if you can, I’d love to know what you think. And if you have any suggestions for future classes do let me know.
Alice x
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means that I get a small commission if you decide to sign up to Skillshare. However, I love using Skillshare as both a learner and a teacher and would not recommend it otherwise.