For those looking into paid online art education, I’m here to share my short-lived experience with Pencil Kings. Pencil Kings is a site that intends to give affordable online art education for all skill-levels. It took me a few days of thinking if it would be worth it. After so, I decided to give the 1$ trial a go.
They offer a variety of courses which was nice, but too bad that it isn’t exactly structured. When browsing for course, there’s this filter found at the side of the site. Sure, there’s this “Foundations” filter, but where do you start when you’re a complete beginner?
As for the quality of the videos, it wasn’t all that appealing. The videos had a resolution of 720p which is fine, but the audio quality needs some improvement. The artists’ narration is also being disturbed by some background music that at times can be annoying. What I mean is that you get this epic sounding background music when it doesn’t really fit.
As for the information they offer, it can be insightful at times. I tried finishing some courses, hoping that it would be worth my time. But unfortunately, some of what I took failed to actually teach me something. Most art instructors fail to put some philosophy in their classes or courses and ends up just demonstrating how they do it than deconstructing the skill.
The most helpful course I took was Color Theory and Speedpainting. I did in fact learn a thing or two from it especially that I somewhat got better in picking out colors.
Well, that’s all for the moments I won’t be pursuing another month of subscription in this site, but check out the courses if it’s really for you. A little side note: some of the instructors have already free tutorials available in Youtube and I didn’t really see that much difference.
Hi MoonAviator 🙂
Thank you for this 100% honest review. One of the things you might have missed is the free 1 on 1 calls where we can sit down and make a gameplan for what your next steps should be and which courses would be the fit for your goals.
What you’ve pointed out is one of the biggest challenges we have – too much content and it makes it difficult to know which ones will really help the most.
We’re working on improving that though, and so much appreciate you for writing this so we can make these big changes.
If you login the button to book a 1 on 1 call should be right there – would love to help you make a plan to get to where you want to be, even if you’re going to continue.
Hope to speak to you soon!
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I may have missed the 1 on 1 call since I was kinda nervous to use it. My fault, definitely.
I appreciate the amount of courses put into this site but then again it can be overwhelming especially when one doesn’t have a plan/structure to follow. Perhaps I’ll comeback when the site becomes better and bigger.
All the best wishes for the improvement of Pencil Kings!
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