Ace painting with the help of these online platforms

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July is celebrated as World Watercolour Month across the globe. Established to promote art education and creativity, the designated month is marked by various art-themed events. While many of us might have taken to hobbies like painting during the lockdown to pass the time and indulge a little, research shows that a creative hobby is beneficial for mental health across all ages. Such hobbies not only relieve stress but also contribute to personal growth. If you're an enthusiast who enjoys the process but wants to learn more, we have rounded up a list of online platforms that offer painting tutorials, across skill levels.

Fundamentals to comic illustration

Udemy offers over 100,000 on-demand online courses on a range of subjects for educational, professional, and personal development. You will be spoilt for choice browsing through the wide variety of specialised painting courses, from Discovering How to Draw and Paint Comics to Art Fundamentals: Foundations of Painting and Drawing. As is evident, these courses are suited to varying skill levels and interests. Courses on the platform are taught by industry experts and include explanatory tutorial videos that facilitate a seamless learning experience.

Painting recipes

If you prefer detailed written instructions over video or audio tutorials, The Spruce Crafts is the website for art enthusiasts like you. Featuring over a thousand detailed articles and blog posts on a vast number of crafts as well as hobbies, the website offers plenty of how-to articles on painting. Due to the step-by-step instructions given, the process becomes easy to follow. Readers will come across a range of topics from How to Decide What Paint to Use to How to Paint like Monet¸ effectively catering not just to beginners, but also to those who are advanced.

Family friendly

Craftsy is a one-stop website for anything creative, especially for kids. If you want to take a family art class, start with comprehensive beginner-level class, Startup Library: Painting with Watercolor and then maybe move on to fun classes like Pet Portraits in Watercolor. A number of advanced-level online classes including Narrative Portraiture: Painting in Acrylic can be a fun thing to do with your partner as well.

Get a technical upgrade

Domestika also offers courses on a range of creative areas, from painting to animation, taught by international experts. If you are looking at sharpening your watercolour painting skills, the Modern Watercolor Techniques course will be helpful to you. With over 3 hours of video content, students get access to a step-by-step guide that will cover essential skills for all beginners and helps them go beyond the traditional watercolour painting practices by with a focus on experimentation. Other popular painting courses on the platform include Acrylic Techniques for Creative Illustration, Oil Painting Techniques: Still Life on Paper, and Natural Landscapes in Watercolour.

Instant art class

YouTube might not come to your mind at first, but we often make the mistake of ignoring the global platform as an effective resource for visual guides. Regardless of your preferences, there's a plethora of expert-run channels full of relevant tutorials for you. You can browse through endlessly to select which format suits you or which trainer's style you like. The Art Sherpa and Watercolor Misfit are two exciting channels, with over 150,000 subscribers, that are dedicated to acrylic and oil painting respectively and feature a range of lessons for beginner as well as advanced artists.