Can you learn art skills? Or is it art purely based on talent? These sorts of questions have been asked time and time again. But with New Masters Academy you will soon find out that there is no need for such questions. According to a famous theory, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become quite perfect at any skill.
However, talent only promotes interest which in turn helps people to gather enough practice time to become experts. And at New Masters Academy, there over 10,000 hours of practical videos from highly revered artists; including Disney’s Bill Perkins who is a famous art director, Glenn Vilppu who is a revered art “veteran” popular for his drawing lessons, or Steve Houston who is a master in figurative art.
So, what’s New Masters Academy?
NMA is an online art learning platform. This idea comes as a relief to many artists; beginners and professionals who are seeking to improve their skill and also tap a thing or two from grandmasters of the game.
The only disappointment, if you can consider it a disappointment, is that instead of learning a few things you could be gaining a whale of knowledge.
One of the major benefits of signing up to learn at the academy is the fact that it’s online. And this is the gift of technology; the ability to experience things, anytime and anywhere. Simply, this means that you have access to quality art content courtesy of the academy at your convenience. And convenience is the keyword. However, it comes at a price.
On the other side, one of the major challenges for professionals who want to go further and improve themselves by probably attending some art school or take an online course is the price that comes with it. Yet even with the immense quality of content delivered at Masters Academy, the price is reasonable. They offer as low as 35$ per month if you’re ready to pay for a full year on the standard package.
Aside from price, there are lots of more reasons to make Masters Academy you goto place if you want to improve your art skills. They offer content that helps you improve at sculpturing, painting, figure drawing, and lots more.
It’s too much to list considering all the categories and subcategories of art. Hence it will be better to just hop on to the platform and see for yourself. But wait, before you jump in or jump out, there is a free trial with the option to back out before the debits start rolling in.
Now, one fact is this; Art schools are expensive and New Masters Academy seems to give just as much or even more than they do. Remember that you can really depend on them to deliver what you need to improve. The tutors in the academy are experienced artists who have spent many years in the industry.
They have made their mark on art over the years and they are more than capable of delivering what you need to be better. More so, since the academy is online, you have access to the numerous videos of these art pros who will be giving you easy to follow tutorials all the way. In fact, some of the tutors were part of the setup at the beginning of the Academy. Perhaps you might want to know the history of the fast-growing online art academy.
History of NMA
Joshua Jacobo founded New Masters Academy in 2012. This brilliant idea for artists to improve knowledge started with a collaboration with some great artists. Artists like Glenn Vilppu, Steve Huston, Ed Fraughton, and Disney’s Art Director Bill Perkins were the first instructors as Joshua established the academy.
We’ve discussed price which is a key aspect to consider when taking up a course. You now have a basic idea of what it takes to get into the academy. Still, there are other aspects of the course that we could walk you through. Every setup has its goals and visions, what they want to achieve for themselves and their audience. We will discuss all of that. Also, you’ll get to know the teaching format, the instructors, and their art backgrounds as well as top courses that you can have a swell time with.
Talking about the mission of the academy, the new master’s academy wants to make learning available to all artists in the diaspora via the use of the internet. It cannot be overstated that the internet makes learning easily accessible and convenient. The academy strives to be the top art education platform and it is doing well in its cause.
The way the academy began its mission to educate artists seems to be very spectacular in their growth. The academy started with only over 100 hours of video content from several instructors who are grand Masters at what they do.
Moving on, the academy has grown to provide more than a thousand hours of art educational content online. They also added to the list of veteran artists in their tutoring ranks.
Who are the instructors?
And you deserve to know some of these amazing tutors in the academy. In no particular order we have:
Glenn Vilppu
Vilppu is a top artist who has been in the industry for many years. He is more than capable of delivering what you need to scale through in your career as an artist. He specializes in drawings and paintings. It won’t be fair if we don’t add that he is a world-renowned artist too. In fact, around the world, people are copying his method of teaching art. His knowledge of traditional figure drawing would be useful to animation based artists like storyboarders and illustrators.
Steve Huston
He is most known for his paintings and drafting. It is known he worked summer jobs to finish his studies at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design. He has worked with top art clients like MGM, Universal Studios, and Paramount Pictures. Steve has won several prizes at art shows and his works keep piling for exhibitions. He has also taught art at various places like Disney and DreamWorks studios.
Chris Legaspi
For sure young artists per experience wouldn’t take it for granted if they could hold on to a professional with over 30 years of experience. His work experience involves doing illustrations for magazines and book covers. He is also a concept artist who has worked on top ranking video games. Chris’s passion to acquire more knowledge is what makes him stand out as an artist.
Bill Perkins
Bill is a painter, draftsman, and art director. His exploration into the film industry makes him one unique artist. He was the art director on Aladdin. Also while he was a layout artist at Walt Disney some of the popular works he was involved in were Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the beast. His practical wealth of experience with the movies makes him a perfect tutor for visual artists.
Kamille Cory
Kamille’s works showcase her as a classical artist and she has excellent craftsmanship. She is also a realist painter. Her education in art happened between 1987 and 1990. She studied etching, drawing, and painting. She’s passionate about helping other artists grow. She founded an academy in Salt Lake City, especially for figurative arts.
These are just a few of the many notable artists in the academy. And while the academy is full of art geniuses its method of delivery is unique and determined by the academy itself. There are a variety of media the academy can help artists to become better at their craft.
Teaching Styles
The method of imparting knowledge is important and the internet already makes things easier. However, if you’re considering taking up a course with New Master Academy you would want to know how they teach art. It involves video formats, presentations, reference images, portraits, and 3D models.
Video formats
This is the major form of lessons on the new master academy and subscribers can stream as many videos as their subscription allows. The videos are HD; higher definition. That is, the videos are crystal clear and subscribers can follow easily. The videos are of different time frames and adequately cover the topics in the title. In these videos, the instructors give detailed explanations of art concepts and offer clear demonstrations.
Reference images
Reference images are very vital to artists. The pictures allow artists to practice their drawings and paintings in accordance with real-life figures and postures. Artists will get accustomed to the human body in various ways. The images are in different categories. Anatomy reference images for instance will help artists with the skeletal and muscular aspect of the human body.
Costumes
While it’s necessary for an artist to understand the naked human body, what about clothes on? The reference images also include those with costumes.
Yet portraits will assist artists when it comes to heads of different shapes and different angles. The academy seems to have dedicated models who feature in most of these reference images.
3D models
New Masters Academy offers computerized courses too and 3Ds are also available as one of the outlets for teaching yearning artists.
Personalized coaching
The videos on the academy are somewhat generalized. They are not structured for an individual. However, the folk at the New Masters Academy are hell-bent on giving their best, hence introducing a platform where subscribers can get one on one lessons.
The feature is a recent idea. And it will help subscribers get teachings tailored particularly for them. And this is how it works. New Masters Academy would make up a plan that would suit you. Instead of just watching videos to improve yourself the instructors will give assignments. This way they can measure your progress and identify your weak points. These personalized coaching is definitely more expensive and ranges from $99 up to. $1000.
Best Courses to take on the platform
Portrait painting for beginners
In this course, Joseph Todorovitch would guide you towards becoming a master at portraits art. But how does this course provide all you need? Well, the course includes:
- Mixing guide in PDF format
- Painting demonstrations
- 24 assignments
- Lots of reference images to paint from
The course video presentation for this course is over 42 hours long. If you were merely working with your intuition before, with this course you’ll now be doing things because you know how portrait painting should be done.
Gesture and structure with Steve Huston
With over two hours of demonstration and concept explanations, the video is great. Sharpie Markers and pencils are adequate to take the course. The topic is based on figure drawing, and despite the seeming difficulty of this aspect for many artists, Steve makes it easy. You learn to represent parts of the body using simple shapes that make figure drawing easy peasy.
Introduction to painting with Steve Huston
Painting is an extensive topic to discuss and the 26 hrs plus video demonstration for this course justifies that. Although the course doesn’t have any assignments Steve’s demonstrations if followed precisely are enough so that you gradually become a better painting. While going through the requirements of the course you’ll realize that following the instructions exactly should not be compromised.
Dynamic gesture drawing
Don’t mix it up. This is dynamic gesture drawing and as the title suggests you can assume that you’ll be drawing figures in motion here. You’ll be taking this course with the great Glenn Vilppu and he really does a great one when it comes to helping you to combine gestures and form.
It appears that the approach to drawing in this course is purely a renaissance style. Figure drawing is a common challenge for young artists not to mention the introduction gestures. So the courses span over 38hours of detailed guidance.
Photoshop for beginners with Chris Legaspi
Even if you’ve never experienced drawing digitally before this course spearheaded by Chris, you will learn all there is to know about drawing on Photoshop. The course has assignments at the end of each section. This would help you to practice whatever you have learned so far. The course involves six sections that adequately cover all you need to know to become seasoned on the graphic application.
How to draw hands with Kamille Corry, Steve Huston, and Glenn Vilppu
Hands are just a part of the body, and often a complicated part of the body to represent. Hence three seasoned artists will be delivering all the knowledge you need to nail well-drawn hands. In this course, you’ll get to understand the structure of the hand. Also, you’ll be taught drawing techniques and the lesson will extend to the arms.
Complete Russian Academic Drawing Approach Iliya Mirochnik
How does it feel to learn an age-long way of doing art? The course takes up a form of art that has been in existence for over 250 years. Thanks to Iliya Mirochnik, the preserved art is probably on the media platform for the first time. This course is one of the most complete courses on the platform. With 35 lessons and over 90 hours of demonstration videos, there is a lot to learn on this course. It’s amazing how the Ukrainian is single-handedly taking the whole course.
Things you will love about NMA
Personalized Coaching
The inclusion of one-on-one coaching in the New Master Academy is a good one. It would help subscribers who cannot learn effectively without supervision.
Top Artists as instructors
NMA has the best art tutors who have made their mark in art in various ways. This is encouraging for users and ensures that they get the best art education too.
Things you may not like about NMA
Sincerely there isn’t much to criticize about NMA. Although the majority of the courses on the platform have assignments involved in the course, some courses do not. NMA could do better to include assignments so that subscribers can have some specific tasks to execute after the lessons.
Conclusion
Eventually, the New Masters Academy is a golden opportunity for artists all over the world. They can learn and improve their art anywhere and anytime. As long as you’ve subscribed to the academy you can stream content without any limits. However, there are standard and premium subscriptions and the latter offers more.
Therefore, it is easier to give this art education platform a thumbs up than otherwise. Yet, one thing to keep in mind is that currently, NMA doesn’t give refunds except in peculiar situations according to their terms and conditions. You should also read up on other components of their terms and conditions before you sign up. Overall NMA is an excellent art resource.
