It's hard for me to believe that I graduated college 4 years ago already (!!!). While I didn't care too much for my foundation classes (English, Math, etc), I really loved all of the creative courses I was able to take during my 4 years in art school. Even still today, I really miss the freedom to learn and create at the same time. I love teaching myself how to do things, but I also really crave a certain amount of structure and guidance when trying to pick up something new. Rather than resort to Googling everything under the sun, I often find myself perusing the class listings over at Skillshare. Both Mike and I have taken classes on Skillshare and we've really loved our respective experiences. I thought I'd round up a few of my current favorite classes to share with y'all, just in case you're looking to learn something new, too!
Just a quick note on the class fees: You can sign up for these classes one of two ways... A monthly Skillshare membership fee of $9.95 (cancel anytime), or pay-per-class. I always did pay-per-class in the past since that used to be the only option, but now you really can't beat the <$10/month option. Many of the classes are around $20, but some are $49 or more. It's totally worth skipping a coffee or two each month to have access to these awesome classes! (Psst! If you use my referral link, you'll get a free month to try out Skillshare! And I'll get a free month, if you decide to stick with it, too! Win/win!)
THE FIRST STEPS OF HAND LETTERING
This class has been on my radar for a while now as I'm a huge fan of Mary Kate's handlettering work. I own a few journals and books with her work on/in them, and I'm constantly inspired by the new projects she takes on. I had hesitated on enrolling in this class simply because I thought it'd be took time consuming and "mathematical" (not to mention the fact I'm not overly confident in my lettering skills), but I was pleasantly surprised (and inspired!) by the student project gallery. Seeing so many great projects makes me feel like it's probably not as intimidating as I've made it out to be. /////////////////////////// $20 (Try it for free!)
GET STUFF DONE LIKE A BOSS:
Design Your Workflow + Double Your Productivity in 21 Days
This class is exactly what I need right now. Trying to juggle so much while working at home... I'm starting to get a bit drained! I'm always looking for ways to be more efficient with my time and this is just the ticket. Tiago uses some pretty in-depth strategies for showing you how to plan and implement these time-saving tips. He puts it better than I ever could: "In this class, I will show you how to adopt productivity behaviors that bring you automatically, day by day, toward your goals. Grand, heroic efforts are great for the movies, but in real life it is the small habits you've built into your life that make the biggest difference in the end." /////////////////////////// $49 (Try it for free!)
BASICS OF PHOTOSHOP:
Fundamentals for Beginners
When I design layouts for fellow bloggers, many of them are stumped on how to create matching graphics to help strengthen their personal brand. Whether you're a blogger, photographer, or small business owner, Photoshop knowledge is so incredibly valuable. You could pay $750+ to learn it in 2 days at a workshop, or you could try this Skillshare class and have lifetime access to it, with the ability to learn at your own pace. Just pop over to the class page and watch Meg's introductory video because I promise you'll fall in love with her and want to take the class immediately! /////////////////////////// $29 (Try it for free!)
THE ART OF MODERN CALLIGRAPHY
Calligraphy is one of the biggest trends in the design world right now, and who doesn't want to know how to write with such style?! Molly's Skillshare class promises to help you understand things like letterforms, flourishes, pens and nibs, just to name a few. This is definitely one of the classes I'm most excited about! /////////////////////////// $20 (Try it for free!)
BECOME A BETTER BLOGGER:
Content Planning
I will sing the praises of an editorial calendar until the end of time. I am so much more on otp of things when I have it all written out, even if I change things up fifteen times before the end of the month. I use an editorial calendar every single day and I plan it out around one month in advance. Andrea's class will help you plan three months out in order to meet your goals and create the best content you can. I'm excited to see what she has to say! /////////////////////////// (Try it for free!)
BUILD AN HTML + CSS WEBSITE FROM SCRATCH
Mike took this class last year and loved it. It's very "no frills" but he learned skills that he's been able to use in the real world. He's actually taken over the coding and development of all the websites I've worked on since. (Thank goodness, because it's my least favorite part!) There is over 11 hours worth of video content in this class so it's not for the faint of heart. Luckily it's easy to digest since he walks you through each and every step. Mike learned things in this Skillshare class that I didn't even learn in two years of web classes in college! Seriously. /////////////////////////// $40 (Try it for free!)
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These are only six of the hundreds (!!!) of class options on the Skillshare site. There's everything from illustration classes or entrepreneurship courses, as well as technology, film and video, marketing, and blogging classes. Feel free to take advantage of the free month and see if any of the classes tickle your fancy. I'm going to try and carve out some time in my own schedule and get in on that calligraphy class ASAP!
Have you ever taken any Skillshare classes?
If so, which ones and what did you think?
If not, do they appeal to you at all? xo
Ah, thanks for sharing! I've always wondered how people could just do that hand lettering like that, and I'm glad that there's a photoshop for beginners! There's been a few things I've wondered how to do but couldn't figure them out. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this!!! I've been looking for online creative classes and now I can try them all :D
ReplyDeleteAnna
Cinnamon Girl ♥
This is the class Mike took? Wow, that really is affordable. Hm... I may need to sign up for that. I'd love to be able to do my own redesign.
ReplyDeleteThe Art of Modern Calligraphy is a great class! You will really enjoy it! I have horrible penmanship and can still do halfway decent calligraphy because of that class!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this!! I was looking for courses to get better at Calligraphy and I think the one you listed might just be what I'm looking for! :)
ReplyDeleteI love Mary Kate McD's work! I'm actually enrolled in that class. But other things have taken priority so its taking along time to work through it but I guess thats the beauty of skillshare, you can do things at your own pace :)
ReplyDeleteI need to revisit the one class I bought on Skillshare, especially with some of the projects I'm working on. Now that they have a monthly subscription, I might have to check out more of them! (My want list was quite a bit bigger than my wallet)
ReplyDeleteI've always been interested in learning more about hand lettering/brush writing/calligraphy! I've never heard of Skillshare before, but now I really want to check it out!
ReplyDeleteOh man! I want to take ALL of these classes. Looking forward to trying the free month! :)
ReplyDeleteHow have I never heard of this?!?! I constantly miss being in school and expanding my knowledge and this tickles me to no end
ReplyDeleteyour handwriting and hand drawn stuff is amazing!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a brilliant idea. I'm definitely going to check out the calligraphy and hand-lettering classes. Thanks for sharing, Kaelah!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely put the free month to good use :)
I've taken the first & the final steps of hand lettering, I also took an illustration class and a class on how to write blog tutorials. I loved them all! I've all bought them, because I want to be able to acces my classes at all time and I'm very slow at taking them.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a perpetual student, I recently enrolled a online course of content marketing, several free courses from google... I like to learn new things. This 10$/month fee it's great! But how does it work, you pay a month and can access to as much classes as you want? (even if you take 5 classes from 20$ each?!)
ReplyDeleteI love taking online classes! I will have to look into subscribing to Skillshare. Thanks for alerting me to their subscription service!
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