But you recommended a lemon!

On Social media, someone recently voiced their concern about recommending courses. A valid concern. Some require students to invest large sums of money in their education. Illustration and design courses can run into the thousands – as much as $14,000! The larger the fee the larger the risk of people returning to blame you for their financial loss if it doesn’t suit them.

Learning is subjective. All you can offer is your personal experience and state it as such. I always like to begin with something like, For me the benefits where x,y,z ….and I was glad I took the X class but you will have to decide if it fits your needs. Or, this X classes wasn’t a good fit for me but read up on it, it may totally suit you.

Swallow the lemon and spit out a strawberry

I shudder when people bag out tutors on social media (I do see it too often). Most people who teach genuinely want to help others but have to make a living as well. Student concerns are fine, but sarcasm is unwarranted. There are the exceptions to warnings. For example, I was watching a particular video introduction webinar recently to see what other tutors are offering in a particular area I will be teaching soon. I didn’t want mine to duplicate anyone else. I don’t mind amateur video but this was really challenging to watch. Her voice was constantly dropping out. If I were a student I would have been terribly frustrated by this. To add to this there was error in the information as she was sidetracked. These were not edited later – an oversight that could confuse the students. It is always a good idea to share your concern with the tutor or school and give them a chance to respond.

If I were a student and someone asked my opinion, I would respond privately if there were negative concerns. Having contacted the tutor, I’d be equipped with a fair response too.

Remember when recommending others that a starting approach like …In MY experience, or for ME personally may be the clearest way to express your joy or disappointment but in all responses please be kind.

A few design courses I’ve done…

Firstly, none of the following 2 courses where associated to any negative comments I refer to. Both are more affordable than many classes also.

Bonnie Christine on Creative Live

One of the best pattern design courses I have taken was Bonnie Christine’s Creative Live course, Design Surface Patterns From Scratch. The regular price is under $79. It was meaty learning and worth every cent because I had limited experience in several of the areas she taught.

Creative Live has live courses running all the time. You can watch for free or buy to watch as your leisure. The production of the videos are exceptional. https://www.creativelive.com

Image credit Bonnie Christine: http://www.bonniechristine.com/

Elizabeth Olwen on Skillshare

The very first class I took for pattern design was Elizabeth Olwen’s Pattern Design: Creating Inspiring Repeats. http://www.skillshare.com/classes/design/Pattern-Design-Creating-Inspiring-Repeats/1356401580/projects on Skillshare.

I benefited from seeing the blob tool used as a main tool in a pattern design. As I like to freehand and draw, this tool is appealing. The easy to understand instruction on repeat patterns and exporting a tile was valuable to me too.

Elizabeth’s beautiful work can be seen here: http://www.elizabetholwen.com/

The fishy result: new patterns for licensing!

As a result of the classes and the videos I’ve watched over the past few months I have produced many designs. This is one of my most recent below. Please someone license this for lamps!

I loved seeing all the great projects submitted after the class today. You can see them here: http://skl.sh/16xq5xt

I just haven’t wanted to stop long enough since this journey started! This class was the first pattern class I took and in a few short months I have totally immersed myself in surface pattern design, trying to learn as much as I can. I LOVE learning and watching videos but better still is implementing the learning. The blog brush was a breakthrough moment for me – love that brush! I found the repeat pattern teaching in this video easy to follow – thanks Elizabeth!

Until then I had been working in Photoshop, Illustrator was a bit of a mystery to me. I have learned so much through great resources like this and hungry for more!

This is one of three fish designs I have been working on. One has hugs and kisses on it and why I named the collection, Fishy Hugs & Kisses. I wanted to challenge myself to mix the pen tool objects with the contrasting soft blob brush shapes and lines. I am pretty happy with the result.

Mock ups are also new to me. I had to test this design out on a lamp shade for a children’s room. The only issue I have now is….I want these on lampshades for real!

My new creative courses – strawberries welcome!

If you want to get in the front of the queue for information packs on my new courses in Children’s illustration, drawing or creative inspiration (coming soon) click the image below.