The Virtual Art Academy Review

Costs:

Free membership (receive guest newsletter each month for one year)
Full membership is $19.95 per quarter (you may cancel at any time)
Private Tuition is available at $75 per hour

Prices are subject to change. For the most up to date information, please refer to the actual website.

Features:

FREE MEMBERSHIP
- Monthly newsletter with a free lesson taken from various course units in the FULL MEMBERSHIP course
- Information on interesting museum exhibitions, art competition, recommended art books and videos, and special offers on other courses

FULL MEMBERSHIP includes full course of 250 assignments

Learning programme guide
Art Reference Library made up of:
- 56 course units
- 9 basic Course Building Blocks
- Instant download e-book format
Online campus community
- Meet other students from all over the world
Highly structured
Comprehensive
Easy to understand
Beginners or Intermediate course options
Course elements are:
- Process
- Drawing
- Form
- Observation
- Notan
- Color
- Design and composition
- Brushwork
- Visual music and poetry (concept)
Additional live workshops and Europe and China
Workshop video lectures
Course updates at no extra cost supplied by newsletter
No course instruction, keeping costs down. Extra private tuition available for $75 per hour. Includes:
- Detailed critique of your painting
- Suggest course units for further study
- Follow up e-mails

Editor's Verdict:

Requiring four years of self-study, this painting and drawing course created for the serious amateur by Barry John Raybould, MA, is one of the more comprehensive products in this category. The cost is divided into neat quarterly payments of $19.95 making this good value for money. The total cost over four years would be $319.20. Compare this with the instructor-led Famous Artists School Master course costing $1050 by instalment plan. Because this product is not instructor led, the cost is much lower. Learn and Master Painting DVD/text book course is $249 full price, and does include some instructor feedback but not regular assignments as such. The one advantage of The Virtual Art Academy over our no.1 rated product is that you may cancel your subscription at any time. That said, there is a 60 day money back guarantee on Learn and Master Painting. Barry John offers private tuition at an additional $75 per hour. This works by sending him a copy of your painting by e-mail. He will then send you a detailed written critique and a list of Virtual Art Academy course units you need to work on to improve. He can only take on a limited number of private students at a time, so it is best to contact him first.

So, what will you be doing for those four years? The course is based on studying the masters in a classical educational style. Raybould offers this advice when choosing a course:

The Plan
- Make a plan - chart your progress over the long term, even if it is just a little each month.
The Programme
- Build your foundation of basic skills - process, realism
- Find the music - rhythms and patterns of shapes in your painting
- Create the art, poetry - how to put emotion and feeling into your work
The Painter
- Find an instructor
  - do you like their paintings?
  - have they won awards?
  - are they a full time professional painter?
  - has their work been exhibited in a museum exhibition?

The course is based on these educational principles. The media covered are oil, water color and drawing. There is an excellent balance placed on both technique and individual artistic expression. The course begins with an emphasis on technique and you are taught a good foundation of technical skills before you are expected to be able to create "poetry" in your work. Plenty of examples of inspirational painters and their work are given, and you are encouraged to go out and see real art to help inspire you along your learning journey. Here is what you actually get delivered to your inbox each month:

56 course units supplied in PDF format over a period of four years
- a step-by-step series of lessons and assignments to gradually build your skills in painting
- information gathered from the author's personal library gathered over many years
- a lifetime's worth of tips and tricks learned by the author himself
250 assignments to help you practice and assimilate the information - 4-10 per course unit
Online Campus - access for six months, where you can upload your assignments and discuss with other students
Free monthly course updates

This instructor is a professional working artist and the course reflects a high standard of teaching. The difference here between the other more comprehensive products is the way that you pay, and how much is instructor led. This is no paint by numbers course, it is based on serious development of skills and experience. The author's enthusiasm shows through, making the learning experience fun as well as rewarding.

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The Virtual Art Academy Reviews