When studying art, one may feel pressured to attend a university or other similar institution in order to become great at the craft. However, this isn’t true by a long shot, and going to school for art is actually the last thing you should consider.

In today’s age, many free resources can be found online. There are many video courses available as well, for little to no cost at all, other than the occasional spam message in your inbox about other courses to take. These courses are often curated by professional illustrators, directors, or any other general higher up in the field you’re interested in. These people are often passionate about the sharing of creativity and will hold very little information. Whatever they do hold, though, is usually revealed later in the course, once the student is able to understand the fundamentals much better.

Attending a university, on the other hand, is expensive. Very expensive. These art programs are often very rigorous and are notorious for killing passion in their students. Many report that their drive to create and share dissipates as dead lines, costs, and critiques weigh them down on a daily basis. Unlike online courses, professors have no way of helping each individual student in their studies at their own paces, so the ones behind the curve (which is often a majority of the class) will snowball into being behind on all of their assignments. In an effort to catch up, they may spend hours upon hours recovering, ruining their sleep schedule and leading to possible injuries, such as cramped hands or aching wrists.

Online courses offer specific lessons on certain subjects that can be returned to however many times are needed in order to grasp the subject matter. This is incredibly helpful, and alleviates the issues stated previously. In addition, assignments are only suggested, as many courses have no actual way of grading the many millions that sign up or purchase the course. This is a benefit, as artists that have many of the fundamental skills down but require teaching in certain subject matters don’t have to waste their time on assignments such as practicing drawing the horizon line or composition, if they already have knowledge of these subjects.

All in all, the most effective and efficient way of handling one’s artistic education is to take it online. Ignore the constant harassment of others as they push you to pursue a ‘higher’ education, and instead study at your own pace into subjects that actually matter to you for limited costs online.