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Thank you Ciara 🙇🏻‍♀️

It really depends on what you can afford, what you value, what you're capable of on your own. I am in the 2 year program and they are really taking care of each student, there is a lot of value in the extra sessions they have. For the course part, it's the same material every NMA subscriber has access to. If you have the discipline to go through the material on your own, and can afford feedback on assignments, this is an excellent art education. You can get certificates for the courses you complete interactively. I know you've been hesitating for a long time, just get started on the first course 😊 The basic subscription is enough to start!

@ Thank you, I’m studying fashion design but I miss art so may dedicate one day a week to NMA

Merci beaucoup ! Ça devient de plus en plus facile en tout cas 😊 Je suis contente que ces vidéos te plaisent aussi 🙇🏻‍♀️

No problem! I believe it's called Danube, I don't remember the brand, but it's called a desk easel, this is a size A2, a variety of brands make them. Good luck!

Yes French is my first language 🙂

Thank you so much Rino! I'm glad that's motivating, you'll also love my Intro to Inking review 😊

I don't necessarily recommend going through the courses one by one, you could have 2 or 3 at a time, as long as you stay close to the course guide (or 2 that are in the course guide, and a third that maybe is more advanced but suits your interests and keeps you engaged). I have often taken 2 at a time... For me, I don't like doing too many classes at once, 3 is my limit to take the most out of the classes, but don't limit yourself to 1 ! Especially if you wait for feedback before moving on to the next lesson, it's good to have at least another class to work on meanwhile. I hope you don't get bored, these are basic concepts yes, but that doesn't mean they're easy or dull, they apply to everything and it's up to you to find interest and joy in the assignments. Enjoy the classes!

@ Thank you so much for the reply! I already commited myself to do at least a year of nma. And I'm enjoying the classes even if practicing the basics is a bit of a drag, I can tell I really needed to do it. But yeah, I was finding it a bit difficult to stick to just the one class before moving to the next one. Its a relief to hear its not needed from someone who has "peeked" ahead and knows the CV. Again, thank you SO much for sharing your journey!

Thank you, that means a lot to me and that's really encouraging to keep creating this kind of content 🙇🏻‍♀️ I'm so happy you joined, this is the best place for a beginner, in many cases not having too much experience helps you "accept the teaching" better 😂 Now that I give a class I am noticing this with my students. Enjoy the classes!

Thank you 🙇🏻‍♀️

Thank you!

Thank you ☺️

Today feedback is offered for 1 NMA token. You can purchase tokens through the website, then under each lesson under the Assignments tab there is a button "submit for feedback", and you have the option to submit your assignment for written feedback (1 token) or video tutoring (2 tokens). They currently offer feedback for the entire Drawing Foundations module as well as the Figure Drawing I module. If you can't afford feedback you can also head to the Discord in the Studdy Buddy Club section and join a group of people who are taking the same class and give mutual feedback to each other - that's not the same thing at all of course, but being with other people who take the same class is also important. I hope that helps ☺️

That's great, I'm so happy about it! I hope you enjoy the classes as much as I did!

How long are each videos? Is it boring and drawn out or is it long but fun?

@@Peter-wl3tm it depends on the kind of video, if its a demostration or lecture! i usually watch them in 1.25 speed tbh.

I would say that I dedicated an average of 20 hours a week to NMA, it includes watching lessons and doing assignments, but also general organisation, coaching sessions... I don't think there's a more efficient way to learn than what they offer, so no matter how much time you have, I would give it a try, but also manage your expectations on how fast you "should" complete a class. There's no such thing, assingmnents take the time they take and rushing never helps. I know students who have full time jobs and a family and I don't know how they achieve what they do 😅 I hope you find what you're looking for!

@ oh my! Ok. I’ll give it a go during the holidays since I’ll have a bit more time to dedicate to it. Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. ❤️

Thank you Nadia!

Thank you! No it's not, what made you think that? Is it because I'm wearing the same clothes as a few videos ago or because of the content? 😄

@Julie.Miette I believe I watched one of your videos and it has a link to this video. A few weeks ago. Anyways. Always valuable.content. loving it so far

@@ignacionava2460 Yes this video was planned, I uploaded it on TH-cam and scheduled it for later, and setup the links between videos. When you do that for a video that isn't published yet, TH-cam will choose the "best for viewer" video until the one you chose you goes live, and then it's updated when it goes live. That's probably why! Thank you!

Thank you 🙇🏻‍♀️ There isn't a books library that I know of, there is a Reference Image Library and a 3D Model Library, can you see those? You should be able to access them through the left bar on the website.

@Julie.Miette yes, thank you. I had understood they had pdf or a pdf viewer of old art books fallen in public domain.

Thank you, I'm glad it was inspiring! I have been doing a lot of what I "should" do for the past year and a half (and I enjoyed most of it), but now I feel like it's time to move towards doing my own thing more. It takes some mental recalibrating 😊

Thank you Rino! I feel so grateful to be part of this cohort!

Thank you! 🙇🏻‍♀️ Oh that's interesting. Maybe I'll come to this as well, interests can come and go, it's a lot to ask to one genre to fulfil you forever. But I can see a lot of overlap between plants and the figure, one thing I love about plants is the gesture they have. The difference is that figure gestures speak our human language, whereas botanicals are somewhat alien to us, they can do all sorts of "crazy" things, but the idea of gesture and life, moving towards something, is still there. I hope you enjoy figure drawing!

Thank you and welcome 😊 I'm so glad my videos can be useful! It's great that you're coming back to your passion after so long, I can relate to being disconnected from what you loved after an attempt at high education (that was literature for me). I find that it's different to study on your own and as an adult, and for me, I don't regret not going to art school, I have access to incredible resources today, and I know why I'm doing it instead of just following a schedule. Everything that happened in between has been useful for me and I hope you're feeling the same. I hope you keep drawing, and let me know how it goes!

Thank you! This book is a treasure. You can also find "La plante et ses applications ornementales" or "Plant and its application to ornament" (English translation) by Eugène Grasset on Internet Archive. This book works on the same model: naturalistic plates of plants followed by ornaments. This one is in color and has a different style. I hope you enjoy the review next week 😊

@Julie.Miette Thank you so much! I'm definitely going to give them a look.

Thank you Ciara!

This is still a young channel, I hope it keeps growing but I'm already very happy about the community here 😊 Thank you for your message, I'm glad that it can be encouraging for other aspiring artists and that's always very nice to hear. All the best for you too!

I'm so glad it was, I hope you have a great time with the classes!

I'm glad, let me know how it goes! Since recording this one I discovered that stone paper also makes a good ground for egg tempera. It's very different from watercolour paper, as stone paper doesn't absorb water drying times are longer and you have to be mindful of it, but it's worth a try to compare. Enjoy!

@@Julie.Miette I tried it out and I'm in love! I'm researching ground options right now other than traditional gesso, I've never heard of stone paper but I'll look into it. I'm likely going to experiment with watercolour ground (the kind you paint onto a surface) on masonite and see how it works. I loved the absorbency of the paper, so smooth to paint on.

From what I understand stone paper is close to traditional gesso, as it's made of calcium (don't quote me on this, I'm not a specialist). I haven't looked into watercolour ground! If you want an extensive resource I highly recommend Koo Schadler's book, she's partial to true gesso on panel, but her book is a gold mine of information. You can also get Clayboard panels from Ampersand (an US company, but I was able to get them in France through Jackson's art website) that are supposed to perform well with egg tempera.

@@Julie.Miette Koo Schadler’s book is on my reading list for sure! The stone paper is a really interesting idea too. I actually just ordered a few small claybord panels to play around with, once I find some dry pigments. Have you tried yours yet?

I have a few square ones but I haven't tried yet!

I'm very glad these are encouraging for you, what you describe is exactly how I have felt for a long time. In a way, being good at copying can be a trap, because you're used and you get attached to a certain result, which makes it harder to go out of your comfort zone and learn to use different tools that will be more powerful in the long run, but you'll make a mess before you can master them... I hope you can find pleasure in learning, that's what makes the biggest difference, it doesn't have to be a chore or difficult, it should be enjoyable, especially when you know why you're doing it. What looks like more effort upfront is sometimes less effort in the long run. If you're really lazy, you can use it to your advantage, doing things right takes less effort to get a good result than trying to wing it.

@ that last sentence makes a lot of sense 😁 that’s what I want. To be able to make the things I have in my mind without it being a big daunting task just to work out how to draw things every time. I didn’t draw for about 15 years and then started up a few years ago and now I find a lot of pleasure in learning. It’s just sitting down to actually do things I find most hard, though I’ve been trying to do some art related thing most days lately.

Avec plaisir ! Pour les blocs d'aquarelle il faudra les tenir sur le StablO avec des pinces, ce ne sera pas possible de le glisser dans la fente comme on peut le faire avec la couverture des carnets :)

Hi! The most basic monthly subscription gives you unlimited access to all the pre recorded classes, which includes all the classes of the Drawing Foundations module. There is a higher tier that also gives you access to the recordings of previous live classes. And you may have to pay extra to access live classes. I think it's good to start with the cheapest subscription and focus on the Drawing Foundations module to start!

@Julie.Miette Thank you so much, I had been binging your vids and looking into starting this form of online classes. Excited to start, and i appreciate your info!

It worked but I have to say that the pans are small, so if you're using dried gouache a lot you might find that you need to refill them often. If you go for this one, I would use the largest pans as much as possible!

@Julie.Miette thanks for the tip, I'll keep that in mind 🙂

For now I'm following the Figure Painting track but I will add some courses about portrait drawing, and I might skip the oil painting... I'm choosing my courses more than I did during the Drawing Foundations module now :)

Thank you for your comment! To reply on my laptop, it's a macbook pro from a few years ago, and I bought it because I do video editing and it's a professional tool for me, I absolutely don't recommend it if you need to manage your spendings, you probably don't need as professional a laptop for university, even if you want to start using some softwares. Drawabox is an excellent ressource but it's a very different approach from what you'll find at NMA. Everything you learn with DaB will be useful but it's not like it's "level 1" and NMA is "level 2", they're two different things and you could do both at the same time. What I would do if time and money are limited is join the NMA Discord, and use the free resources that are on the Discord (there's a class called Drawing 1) while finishing DaB. For NMA you don't need an expensive subscription to start learning, you can take their entry level subscription and have access to all the courses. If you can't afford to get feedback on all your assignments, at least save them and organise them in folders somewhere so you can access them in the future, and you can join the Study Buddy club on Discord to take the courses along others :) I hope all that helps!

Thank you Jessica! I think the smartest is to make this decision depending on what you want to do next, take a look at what's in the rest of the Drawing Foundations module and beyond, some courses are going to have a prerequisite. All Russian classes will require you having taken FoOD, and all Sight-Size classes will require you having taken the first Sight-Size course. What I would do is watch the trailers of courses from both methods, watch a bit of the videos, take a look at the assignments, and try to assess which one is best for you and / or is the most attractive to you. Both will teach you academic observational drawing, how to be accurate, refine your perception of values. Sight-size is purely observational whereas the Russian method incorporates some constructive notions as well (on top of observing your subject, you also draw what you understand about it, its volume and the effect of light on it). I didn't have to choose when I was at this point, FoOD was mandatory and I haven't taken Sight-Size. I hope that helps. Don't hesitate to come in the Discord and ask people who have taken both, or at least Sight-Size!

Thank you! No, I didn't add any egg to the pigment paste in my jars if that's your question, the point is to keep pigments in a less volatile form than in powder. Then you take a little bit of the paste and mix it with egg yolk on your palette to make paint that you can dilute with water and mix however you want. I hope that helps!

@ Thank you! That helps!

Glad it was helpful!

It varies a lot, lessons span from 45 minutes of video to 4 hours of video. Some of them require you to follow along the instructor (for example in Perspective I you draw all the diagrams along the instructor, and that's part of the assignment), for other you can just take regular notes... So I spend anywhere between 2 hours and one full day on a lesson. Some assignments even require more than that, because they need to be put away and seen on the next day with fresh eyes to make all the necessary adjustment. I hope that helps, if you want to know about a specific class or week I can give you a more precise answer :)

@@Julie.Miette Thank you so much, all your videos on nma have been very helpful. ☺️

Thank you Ciara!

Thank you! I don't have his book but I'm enjoying Constructive Figure Drawing at the moment. I don't know yet if I'll get into oil painting. Right now I have no interest in it, so I'll see when I get there; maybe I will change my mind and really want to get into it, maybe I'll want to do the classes to learn what oils can teach me and then keep another medium in my own practice, maybe I'll try to do the courses with another medium... Maybe I'll skip them. I'm taking it one module at a time, and in the Figure Drawing I module there's only a little bit of oil painting in the final class. Then I could move on to portrait drawing, if they have opened the track, or take Renaissance Head Drawing, and I won't have to make a choice about oils yet.

@@Julie.Miette I took the Renaissance Head drawing live class a couple of years ago, Joshua taught it. Great class.

Thank you for putting this here! I don't share the prices in the video because those are subject to change and discounts happens, and my video is likely to outlive current prices. You should subscribe to their newsletter to take advantage of discounts that happen through the year, I believe there was one on tokens recently.

@@Julie.Miette Hi, Julie. I am currently a student/member at NMA. Have been so for 6 months now. I clicked on your video to hear what you had to say out of curiosity. And yes, prices are definitely subject to change (increases, to be sure) and there are discounts for new members from time to time. I think it's pretty pricey, yet worth the expense for me and perhaps for those wanting to follow a well organized curriculum. NMA is awesome for guided instruction as it has a host of amazing instructors.

I haven't tried Watts Atelier so I can't speak about it :)

@@Julie.Miette ook

Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoy my videos 😊 I hope you take as much out of NMA as I do when you have the time to start!

It does sound like a good mix, it's important to keep practicing working on your own thing and also keep being inspired. You're not going slower, these are important things too. And it's good to take your time with Drawing Foundations, it's really packed with concepts!

Hi Julia! For most of my journey at NMA feedback was offered on Discord, they changed the formula some months ago, and since they did I tried both feedback options they offer with tokens: written feedback and video tutoring. It's been great on many levels: as a motivation to keep submitting and not skip assignments (when I started with the way it worked I had to submit in order), to validate that I was doing and understanding the right thing from the lessons, to deepen my understanding and highlight minor errors when I was mostly doing well, and to help me navigate more difficult assignments. When I started feedback was on Discord, so I have read a lot of feedback the team gave to many students and it's always well thought and constructive, no matter the level of the student, it's never about judging an assignment but always "how can I help them get further?". It's nothing like community critiques. It's good to listen to critiques from peers, but they're just peers, and you don't have any way to evaluate how qualified they are... The TAs giving critiques at NMA are qualified and trained on the course material, so you can really put your ego aside when you submit and trust them. Another student can give you an excellent critique, of course, but you don't have any way to differentiate it from a bad advice. I haven't made a video about interactive specifically but I talk about it in my latest video: th-cam.com/video/PvVFxbKe0z0/w-d-xo.html If you want a look at the feedback I'm happy to share some of the written critiques I have received with you in DM. You can write to me on Instagram, Discord, or even email me. I can't share the video tutoring sessions though, but I can show you the notes I take from these critiques.

@ Hey Julie, thanks so much for the detailed answer ❤️ Yes I’ve watched your latest video about NMA and it couldn’t have come at a better time for me! It came out just when I needed it. I’d love to see some of the feedback you received. I’ll DM you on Instagram soon. Thanks 🙏

Thank you Lydia! Are you considering teaching?

@@Julie.Miette I would love to at some point but not anytime soon, focusing on coursework for now 😁