How I Study Art WITHOUT Art School ✎ self taught artist plan

Studying art without art school has its obstacles, like the lack of accountability and a dedicated curriculum, but the main advantage of being self taught is that you can laser-focus your studies on what you *actually* want to learn.

In this video, I share my entire self-taught artist study plan, walking you through how I've broken down everything I need to learn into four modules. One of the main resources I'm going to be trying out along the way is New Master's Academy, an online, on-demand art academy that I'll be doing a dedicated review video on soon!

This is going to be an ongoing series on the channel as I build up my art skills, so feel free to leave any questions or related video ideas in the comments!

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[yumebloom]

im not even done with the video but i already agree with the intro. studying properly with/without art school is tricky. ive learned myself that no one can really tell you upfront what to do, step by step, so you have to push yourself to do it yourself, in your own way. this video is pretty motivational, ive just realised i havent drawn in a week lol. ill pick up my pen now

[conchesodan]

Just a few tips as a sel-taught artist who dropped "official" art education:
-Constance in practice but patience with the results
-This is going to take time... like more than a year I calculate.
-Don´t overdue yourself but don´t procrastinate.

[Lacroix]

Composition, perspective, color theory and learning how to REALLY SEE what you’re looking at, is pretty much all you need to learn for art. Other than this, all you have to learn is your desired medium. You master this and you can save yourself hundreds of thousands on an art degree and that’s coming from someone who actually went to school for art and benefited far more from being self taught after I left doing so because it definitely wasn’t worth what I paid-and am still paying for!

[angelawatson]

Thank you - this is what I needed - EXACTLY!! I put my pencils and brushes down over 45 years ago. I didnt study art because my parents were against me going down that road. Guess what it is my passion, I am teary just talking about the feeling I get from creating. I am so thankful for you and the path you are sharing.

[newtonwinsor]

I am already in my 50's. I love art but friends and fam laugh at what I do. In as much as I want to enroll in art school during my younger years, but financial difficulties hindered it from doing so 🥺. I continue to practice whenever time permits. Thanks for this video, it boosted my low morale 🙂

[MoFace]

When you said the things that hold you back the most are the boring bits...I felt that to my coreee. Wanna be an artist, but I hate drawing 3d shapes to practice volume. Want to be an animator but keep skipping over the bouncing ball and sack of flour exercises lol. You've definitely inspired me to try creating my own modules and mixing up those boring exercises with something fun. Thank you!

[daniellecox]

As someone who went through art school (printmaking/ lithography and also a degree in art history) I watched lots of people come in and out of classes and programs frustrated and confused and it was often because they didn’t take their early drawing and drafting classes seriously because they just wanted to get to the “good stuff”. I think printmaking and especially lithography students might be built different in that all we do is practice the fundamentals in lengthy processes over and over and over again. To be a decent printmaker you have to be a competent draftsmen and so the craft itself forces you to become one. A lot of my friends who were painters told me they felt very lost, or as if the professors weren’t helping them in the ways they needed to be helped, and it could be the luck of the draw with teachers and it could be the ego of both student and teacher that get in the way. The problem with art school is that you often just start to make breAkthroughs when it’s time to graduate. I truly wish there was more of a trade/apprenticeship program when it comes to artists. I wish we could apply to be under the practice of a master for years like it was in the old old days. It sounds like your going about it in the right way, the only thing I’d say to try and find is a little community of life drawing class or something. Being around another artists once a week and asking other people who are more advanced some questions and critiques can be so so helpful.

[Colordripd]

I so agree with you, it is so tricky to learn art regardless with or without school. I studied art in community college I loved the art classes but as for learning and grasping things like I didn’t really get anything out of it. After I graduated with visual fine arts degree I went to textile design school, was so excited to study textiles but I didn’t really learn anything new. I was pretty much bored after a while. Due to language barrier (My Professor spoke Korean). And the way he taught I felt like it was more about me paying than learning unfortunately. I spent so much money for that school. I think I get more out of by teaching my self and learning from other artists that are self taught. Thank you for this video!

[BarknoorZ]

This video popped up at just the right time. I was just feeling so frustrated with a bunch of art projects I was trying to work on- I always thought of myself as someone who can't draw and I get easily frustrated with myself for not being able to do the simplest things in art when it comes so easily to people around me.

[haleychampion]

I love the blend between structure and fluidity you struck here! As artists I feel it’s assumed we lack discipline or focus, but in reality we all know we have to put in the hours mastering our craft and without any kind of intention we end up spinning our wheels.

Random unsolicited advice:
For simplifying your structures, I’ve found that studying artists who create characters for video games is incredibly helpful. They talk about shape breakdown and show you how even the most intricate characters in video games are just made up of a bunch of foundational shapes like cubes and spheres. Hope that helps and thank you again for this! 💛

[JaredCullum]

I am self taught as well through online subscription schools- I got a lot out of New Masters Academy. It’s worth it if you can stay motivated :) your journey is really inspiring- excited to see your thoughts

[nene]

As someone 30+ with ADHD, this is inspirational. I've always wanted to learn to draw, but I often feel too old to start... Not to mention my attention span simply cannot follow a school program/art school/ even art courses I fail cause I just can't give it that dedication! But maybe I could do it like you, separate what I want to learn into tiny bits and try to make it fun by creating my own curriculum! Also an amazing way to track one's progress I'm sure!
Thank you for giving me motivation and inspiration!

[gailgasper]

Not only have you motivated me to make up my own learning path, you've given me excellent ideas for making my own courses to teach & possibly vids. Thank you!!

[synaestheticstudios]

I'm so glad to have your channel. I had a horrible experience getting a degree in art (one particular teacher with an agenda/vendetta was the worst part, the flourescent lights combined with my autism being the other) and I'm just now at 30 deciding - screw it, that experience didn't define me and that I am an artist regardless of what anyone else in a position of academic power says to me.

[andrewmaldonado]

Hi Kelsey, after 20 years of not doing my art (!!!) I'm finally getting back to it and taking it seriously. Your video really encouraged me to pursue a more strategic path towards leveling up quicker (as I mentioned I have tons of time to make up for lol). Thank you so much for posting!

[francinemaile]

Thank you for this! I'm self-taught also and related to this video so much. I really drag my feet with all the art "practice" - especially of fundamentals. I love how you're breaking down your modules. What I've been doing so far is trying to do fundamental practice/aspects and turning that into a project/piece to make it more fun. So each piece goes through a bunch of different phases and fundamentals, so I learn and research new things during each phase which takes a really long time, but I like that I'm able to practice multiple things within a single illustration. Looking forward to the follow-up video(s)!

[kianna]

you dont understand how much this video saved my life. I've been feeling so lost for so long on how exactly I should go about studying art and you've pretty much made this so much less intimidating for me. Thank you and I definitely put your template to use!

[Kaylan]

I absolutely LOVE THIS!! Ive been trying to figure out a plan for studying art more thoroughly without art school and I feel like my prayers have been answered. This video was amazing and you explained everything perfectly! Thank you! Thank you! Thank I will be using your Notion template to help me on my journey :)

[themishening]

As a fellow self taught artist, this has helped me so much! I've been feeling so lost and overwhelmed recently. I wanted to do everything all at once. Perspective, anatomy, value. Thanks to this video I figured that I'll have to tackle only one at a time. I also need to make my own curriculum too. Thank you for this! I subscribed!

[tohnnyclaydon]

I love how in-depth you were able to be in creating your curriculum. I think one of the things you DID gain from art school is the ability to know language for, and to be able to identify, the things you want/need improvement on. This process overwhelms me I think because I wouldn't know where to start in my self-education.