And time is your most valuable asset. <\/strong><\/p>\n Evolve is an online art school dedicated to finding the fastest, most effective ways to learn realistic oil painting. We\u2019re breaking down three reasons why it\u2019s so hard to learn how to paint on YouTube and what you need to break through.<\/p>\n Time is our most valuable asset. Is learning how to paint on YouTube the best use of your precious time? (The Persistence of Time, 1931. Salvador Dali)<\/p>\n We know how incredible YouTube is. It has tons of information, and many different voices, and perspectives. We post our own tutorials on the Evolve YouTube channel<\/a> to help artists learn more about what it takes to upgrade their art skills. <\/p>\n Much of what makes it so great is what makes it so hard for learning. There’s so much information and there are so many voices that there’s no clear path. <\/strong>Even our tutorials on YouTube – while they are really helpful (if we do say so ourselves), don\u2019t offer that clear path. Only a complete and good education can do that. <\/p>\n With YouTube, you carve your own path. <\/strong>You decide what you need to learn and when. <\/p>\n Is that such a bad thing? Unfortunately, it is. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n Without a clear path, you suffer from serious information overload<\/strong>. Before you even type in the search bar, you’ll see suggestions.<\/p>\n How to paint eyes, how to paint ears, use this palette for your flesh tones, or don\u2019t use this, don’t forget about perspective.<\/em> <\/p>\n The autocomplete suggestions on YouTube are less than helpful when they lead to information overload.<\/p>\n All of these ideas are competing for space in your brain. They’re cluttering your mind and they’re pulling you in different directions. When you type in a question, you get five different answers. How do you know which answer is best<\/strong><\/p>\n YouTube isn\u2019t interested in giving you the content you need in an organized way. YouTube is designed to keep you watching videos. They make money from ads. So the algorithm is promoting content that’s enticing but not necessarily the information that you need to take the next step in the right direction. <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>YouTube is great once you have a command over the fundamentals. But if you aren\u2019t there yet, you have to sort through all this information by yourself, which takes a lot of time. Learning how to paint on YouTube can mean you\u2019re served content based on what you want to watch, rather than what you need to learn.<\/p>\n Without a clear path, you end up watching quick-fix videos, which can make you really good at copying but doesn\u2019t give you the skills you need to become your own original artist<\/strong>. <\/p>\n Entertaining or quick-fix videos get more views than educational videos. Most truly educational videos are not popular, so content creators respond in kind. <\/p>\n They are teaching you their style, but not necessarily the skills you need to create your own art.<\/p>\n What you get are tutorials and \u2018Paint With Me\u2019 videos that seem educational but give only a vague, process for making your own paintings, if they give you a process at all.<\/p>\n Professional artists have built their unique style through a command of the fundamentals and years of experience. They are teaching you their style, but not necessarily the skills you need to create your own art. <\/p>\n That’s why when you follow a tutorial to create the painting seen in the video, even if it does come out beautifully, you still can’t make your own paintings. You’re not developing the skills to become your own artist. <\/p>\n Ultimately, carving your own path to creating art is a painful and time-consuming road.<\/strong> You\u2019re learning from trial and error because you’re a student. You don’t know what you don’t know. You could be going in circles!<\/p>\n Why blaze your own hard-fought path when a good education in art provides the path for you?<\/p>\n What’s the fastest way to get from point A to point B? A straight line. If you veer off course, it is time-consuming to course-correct without a clear path<\/p>\n Every step, every decision you make that leads you just a little off course saps your time. A big part of what you pay for in art school is a curriculum<\/strong>. <\/p>\n It’s the path that arranges the information in a specific order so that you can build your skills with every step. It’s already laid out for you, set by people with experience who consistently lead their students to success. You just have to patiently follow and trust in someone who has the experience and knows the path ahead. <\/p>\n At Evolve, we show you every painting assignment you take in the Foundation Program. You can see how a complete beginner can start by painting squares and make steady progress with each lesson. <\/p>\n There’s no massive leap between projects. The path is clear and straight. <\/strong><\/p>\n On YouTube, you’re constantly changing course as you browse through the list of videos to watch. It’s like driving without a map and only relying on the signs in front of you.<\/p>\n Let’s imagine you say, \u201cI hear what you’re saying, so I’m going to choose one instructor on YouTube to trust in, one voice, one method.\u201d Now you’re driving with a map and directions, but it’s not the same as GPS. <\/p>\n A GPS knows your location at all times. If you take a wrong turn, you can check your phone and immediately see how many minutes you\u2019ve lost and reroute. <\/p>\n Let\u2019s think about learning art in the same way. Imagine you\u2019ve watched a 10-minute video and realized it\u2019s a wrong turn. Without a GPS, you don’t know how long it will take to get back on track or even how to get back on track.<\/p>\n There’s no feedback on YouTube. There’s no GPS. <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s up to you to self-assess your skill and decide the next step to improve. You have to keep yourself on the path. <\/p>\n You could be receiving the right information, but how do you know if you are applying the information in the right way? You could veer off course and never come back, develop bad habits, and waste more time. You might come to think you don\u2019t have the talent for this work. But what you actually need is dedicated feedback through a real education.<\/p>\n \u2026 we all fall back on this fear \u2018I don’t have a talent for this. I’ve reached the limits of my talent.\u2019 Let me tell you, there’s no such thing as talent. There’s a solid education and there’s hard work. <\/p>\n Evolve Founder and Master Portrait Painter<\/p>\n A proper education includes an expert assessing your work to tell you exactly where you need to improve, just like a GPS.<\/p>\n Think about the time that saves you. When you take a wrong turn, you\u2019re less concerned about the wrong turn because you know that the GPS will get you back on track to the quickest route possible. <\/p>\n That looks like having someone over your shoulder saying, \u2018Hey, this is what you need to focus on right now.\u2019 or \u2018Hey, I see you following the lesson, but when I said this, you did this. I meant for you to do it like this.\u2019 \u2018Okay, now that you have this, this next part makes so much more sense.\u2019 And you immediately find yourself progressing.<\/p>\n Good feedback gets you back on track without wasting too much time and effort.<\/p>\n Evolve Founder and Master Portrait Painter Kevin Murphy has personal experience of what it\u2019s like to be self-taught without any feedback.<\/p>\n This is his story<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Many, many, years ago when I was first learning how to make art, there was a book done by Boris Vallejo on fantasy art techniques. In the book, he explains his entire process, like with YouTube. He’s even had pictures. <\/em><\/p>\n I misinterpreted something.<\/em><\/p>\n He was taking Polaroid photographs for reference. I did the same thing. My Polaroid camera was $19, and Boris\u2019 camera was probably $2,000. It was a professional Polaroid camera taking high-end photographs. <\/em><\/p>\n I didn’t know the difference and he didn’t specify, \u2018This is the camera I use because anything less is going to give you terrible reference you can’t paint from.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was taking terrible photographs. He was using professional lighting. I was taking photographs in my bedroom with a tungsten light bulb overhead.<\/em><\/p>\n Bad photographs, terrible color, bad lighting, everything. Then I tried to make paintings from these references. I would do what I saw him do in the book.<\/em><\/p>\n I’d blow the image up, just like he said, do a transfer, and get it on the board. <\/em><\/p>\n The book had shown he had taped the photographs on the board where he was painting. I’d throw the photographs away and then paint from my imagination. <\/em><\/p>\n I just assumed that the photographs were taped up on the painting as he was working just to show us how close the paintings were to the photographs. It didn’t occur to me that I needed to keep the photograph and work side by side and maintain it as a reference.<\/em> <\/p>\n The artwork of Boris Vallejo was Kevin\u2019s early inspiration. While he tried to emulate Boris\u2019 work, without feedback, the journey was filled with misinterpretation. (Flight of the Pegasus, Boris Vallejo)<\/p>\n I’m not dumb, but I misinterpreted. <\/em><\/p>\n And that’s the huge problem with things like YouTube and other programs without a teacher. I mean someone who really knows what they’re doing and is invested in your success. They watch every step you take to make sure that your feet stay on the path. Unless you’re in a program that’s doing that, you are eventually going to find yourself misinterpreting and finding yourself off in the weeds, struggling to figure out why you can\u2019t make it work. <\/em><\/p>\n And we all fall back on this fear \u2018I don’t have a talent for this. I’ve reached the limits of my talent.\u2019 Let me tell you, there’s no such thing as talent. There’s a solid education and there’s hard work. <\/em><\/p>\n *edited for brevity<\/em><\/p>\n With Evolve, you have coaches committed to your success. You get constructive feedback on every painting assignment within 24 hours of submitting your work. <\/p>\n This feedback is objective. It has no opinions attached. The feedback shows you exactly where you need to improve and what you’re doing well so that we can reinforce good habits. <\/p>\n After giving feedback, the instructor will be the one to move you on to the next painting. This is huge because it means that you can’t rush through the program developing bad habits and blind spots.<\/p>\n At Evolve you get constructive feedback on every painting assignment within 24 hours of submitting work.<\/p>\n If we see that you’re struggling with something, we reach out to you for a one-on-one meeting to keep you on the right path before moving you on to the next thing. <\/p>\n We also have weekly live classes where you can ask specific questions and more. <\/p>\n Hopefully, this gives you an idea of the guidance that you should be getting in art school.<\/p>\n On YouTube, you’re on your own. No one is looking out for you. There’s no one committed to making sure that you reach your goals. Think about that. <\/p>\n YouTube offers no promises. <\/strong>You don’t know when you’ll arrive at your goal. Your journey is constantly uncertain. <\/p>\n It all comes down to time and money. YouTube is free, but it will take a lot of your time, with no guarantees. <\/p>\n If you\u2019re receiving an education, it will likely require an investment, but the time needed is defined, and there should be an expectation of the kinds of skills you will have developed in that time.<\/p>\n In a good art school, you know when you’ll arrive at your goal based on how much time and effort you put in. <\/p>\n At Evolve, we believe in this so much that we put a calculator on our website<\/a> that shows where you’ll be in our program based on the average number of hours you put in each week. The calculator on our website shows what results you can expect for the time you put in.<\/p>\n Your time is as much of a resource as your money, and you know should know what you get for what you put in.<\/strong> There’s peace of mind that comes with knowing that other people have taken this path and arrived. You can be confident that if you just focus on what’s put in front of you, you will reach your goal.<\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s take out the time component, let\u2019s talk about the money. <\/p>\n We encourage you to view your learning journey as an investment. Weigh the cost of your resources against the value that you get in return. <\/p>\n If you do, you\u2019ll find that YouTube is one of the longest paths to reaching pro art skills. It’s like driving without a map and following signs. There’s no clear path, there’s no way to assess where you are in relation to the path, and there’s no promise that you’ll ever arrive. <\/p>\n Are you content to spend years trying to self-direct your growth with the very real possibility of never getting anywhere closer to your dreams? Or are you willing to invest to ensure that by this time next year, you’ll be making art that you love, the art that you’ve always dreamed of making?<\/p>\n YouTube might be free, but without a clear path, no feedback, and no promises, the road to becoming the artist you want to be will be hard.<\/p>\n As of right now, we estimate Evolve is over 100x cheaper than your average art school and gets artists to pro-level skills in 12 months part-time or three months full-time.* As we are always looking for ways to improve, these numbers might change, so I’d encourage you to see the data for yourself on our website<\/a>. <\/p>\n Don\u2019t waste another year of your life not making any real progress toward your dreams. This is the time to stop suffocating your art with stagnation. We are in the business of making people’s dreams come true.<\/p>\n We know lots of people have learned how to paint on YouTube. <\/p>\n We also know that not everyone has the resources to afford art school or quality online programs. It\u2019s not impossible to learn how to paint on YouTube – it can just be really hard and time-consuming. <\/p>\n If you\u2019re sick of wasting time going in circles, and you have the resources to do, it\u2019s worth investing in a quality art program. Because your time and money are so valuable, you want to ensure it\u2019s the best program that has the best clearest path to the art skills you want.<\/p>\n When compared with what you get for your time and money at most art schools and YouTube, it\u2019s easy to see how Evolve provides the best value for money for guaranteed results.<\/p>\n Many students have come to us with terrible stories where they’ve been let down by art teachers in the past. <\/p>\n Once they’ve joined the program, we have watched their skills just explode. It’s beautiful. People who never thought that they could become artists, becoming artists – people who never thought they could paint like those they were inspired by, are now painting. <\/p>\n Evolve students have achieved amazing results, as seen above.<\/p>\n Kevin has this awesome masterclass showing you the path to making professional work. If you haven’t seen it, CLICK HERE<\/a>. <\/p>\n If you\u2019re ready to start your journey towards making pro-level art, join Evolve Artist HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n Happy painting everyone!<\/p>\n * How did we estimate that Evolve is over 100x cheaper than your average art school? We averaged the costs of a full education (four years of tuition, room, board and other fees) across four different art schools (<\/em>Pratt Institute<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>RISD<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>SVA<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Ringling<\/em><\/a>). This came to ~$300,000. At $2500 for a full year (how long it takes to reach pro-level art skills through our program), Evolve is 138 times cheaper. This was based on publicly available information at the time of this blog’s publication. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learning how to paint on YouTube is free, but it still costs something. Here are the 3 reasons why it’s so hard to learn how to paint on YouTube. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":13939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,8],"tags":[75,81,104],"class_list":["post-13894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-methodology","category-mindset","tag-learn-how-to-paint","tag-oil-painting-for-beginners","tag-youtube","post_format-post-format-video","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13894"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13934,"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13894\/revisions\/13934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Time](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Dali-Persistence-of-Time.png\" "\\"Dali")
<\/span><\/p>\n1. <\/span>There\u2019s No Clear Path When Learning How to Paint on YouTube<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/googleautocomplete.gif\" "\\"googleautocomplete\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Learning](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/youtubevidalgo.gif\" "\\"youtubevidalgo\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\nWhat You Need Instead – A Clear Path (AKA a Curriculum)<\/h4>\n
![\"What's](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2023-05-18-at-12.46.19-PM.png\" "\\"PointAtoB\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\n2. <\/span>YouTube Can\u2019t Give You Personalised Feedback<\/h2>\n
Kevin Murphy<\/h4>\n
What You Need Instead – Dedicated Feedback <\/h4>\n
![\"Good](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2023-05-12-at-12.00.00-PM.png\" "\\"AtoBFeedback\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Boris-Vallejo_Painting_thegallerist.art_-26.jpg\" "\\"Boris-Vallejo_Painting_thegallerist.art_-26\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"At](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2023-05-12-at-11.52.59-AM.png\" "\\"Customefeedback\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\n3. <\/span>There are No Guarantees When Learning How to Paint on YouTube <\/h2>\n
What You Need Instead – A Program with Proven Results<\/h4>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/timescale.gif\" "\\"timescale\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2023-05-12-at-11.55.49-AM.png\" "\\"Screen")
<\/span><\/p>\nBringing it All Together<\/h2>\n
![\"When](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2023-05-12-at-11.59.14-AM.png\" "\\"Screen")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Evolve](\"https:\/\/evolveartist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeforeAfter.gif\" "\\"BeforeAfter\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\n