Skill learning, fiverr and other platforms.

[ozan_erdi]

Hello everyone. 

I dont know if this post going to last, or how helpful its going to be since i am going to mention some other websites, not for freelance but about learning.

Now i have been tryng hardcore for 2 years to improve my skills to compete against the best. Not only on fiverr, but everywhere. Since i also have a day job i cant really give it more than 1 or 2 hours a day. But 2 years is a long time and i have made some beautiful progress. Altough i still have much to do. But getting closer to higher levels makes it harder to finding a good course.

My field is mostly concept art and character design. So i am focusing on those. And of course, basic drawing and anathomy to support them. But anyone who wants to mention what they do to improve themselves are welcomed and expected here. Thats why this post is not in graphics&design. So here are some plaftorms and methods i use to improve my profession;

1 - Fiverr. I will start here because it needs mentioning. What i have seen on fiverr is really the general stuff. How to use certain programs, getting familiar with design concepts and more about how to be succesfull at business sides of the things. But besides photo-manuplation, i find fiverr's courses really lackluster. There arent any art spesific courses, certainly not for the experienced. So fiverr's courses are not my thing. To be honest, never was. If you know how to use photoshop and illustrator, as a graphic designer you have no business in fiverr courses. If you are a beginner, you can find some stuff in fiverr.

2 - Youtube. Of course, what would this post mean without mentioning the Good'ol tube. Now, youtube is perfect. Most perfect solution to most stuff. There are people who are really experienced and inspiring, knows how to adress and how to teach for everyone. BUT, most of the high end teachers there using the youtube for advertisement. They give you a small video of what they are doing, explaining some stuff and after that they will point you to another website where their actualy courses are. Which is fine. Nothing good is free after all. And they have to make a living. But this means spesificly searching for each teacher in different platforms, their own websites and such. Tons of accounts, payments, platforms. So much to get a hold on. But at the end game, thats most likely what one should do. So the youtube is just a search engine if you are aiming high.

3 - Udemy. This website helped me a lot. I mean A LOT. The courses are cheap, and there are stuff for everybody. But there are too many, who knows which one to pick? Who knows which one is suitable for me to improve my methods? Nobody knows. You just have to buy and see for yourself. I have bought a lot of courses there. Most of them cant help me anymore. But i have got lucky and found a great teacher there. His methods and videos are clean, on point, suitable for all levels. It really depends on the teacher as one would guess. Most of the platform is not for me anymore as i am looking at the courses and think "maybe i should teach them instead" Except that one guy. This experience on Udemy has tought me something else. Which is again, youtube. Now instead of buying a truckload of courses i search for the teachers name on youtube. Take a look at how they do and buy their stuff afterwards. 

4 - Domestica. This website has great potential. All of the teachers are up to some good. They have produced amazing stuff and i am sure they are good teachers too. I am very compelled to take a look at what they do. But there is one problem. Most of them are not in English. Which is a killswitch for me. Of course i can still watch them and read the subtitles. But i'd like to do the same stuff as i am listening. And that is off limits for me. So i cant really speak about it too much.  So if you are like me, i suggest you to learn Spanish, Russian and Portuguese before coming to this website 😄 

5 - Skillshare. To my eyes, this website is almost the same with Udemy. Some of the teachers are same. Some arent. So if you have tried one and happy about it, you should try the other one. There is one thing different about Skillshare is that they have a small monthly payment which gives you access to every course avalible. So if you have the time, skillshare is better as you can chew trough all the courses in a small period of time. Right now as i have mentioned, i dont have too much time. So im not heavily leaning on Skillshare.

6 - Instagram. Its mostly Junk. Even for a graphic designer. You cant learn anything there. Instagram's algoritm drove everybody insane. In order to gain followers, people are sharing everything for consistent content flow. So its full of Junk now. But what you can do is, at least for my field; you can find good and talented people there, so you can check if they have some courses on other platforms. Instagram might be a junk itself, but it knows the advertisement.

7 - Artstation. This is the actual high end place for a concept artist like me. But its very spesific so i will not spend so much time explaining it here. In a short sentence; they are good but they are expensive. Specially if your currency loses every battle against USD.

8 - Local Teachers. I really like the face to face experience when it comes to learning and i am willing to pay a truckload of money if i can find a good teacher. I have tried to find people to do that. But most people i could reach are not after some challenging high end players. They just want some youngsters who prepares for college or something. Of course this situation depends on the country too. Turkey is not known for its great concept artists. And couple months ago, i was offered to be an online teacher for concept art and design stuff. So i guess im not a student here anymore.

9 - Masterclass. Now this is another world i am willing to explore but i have a feeling i will be dissapointed. In this website, you are learning from the masters. I dont know what they are teaching or how, but you can subsrcribe to this website and learn comedy from Steve Martin. Architecture from Frank Gehry. Acting from Samuel L. Jackson. Guitar lessons from Carlos Santana kinda stuff. While it all looks flashy and interesting. I dont know how detailed and good those courses actually are. To be honest, it looks too good to be true 😄 My guess is that they are talking about the theory of their field and leave the small details. You cant have Steve Martin to teach you everything he knows about comedy. Right? 😄 Oh and, its NOT cheap if you cant guess it already.

I hope these informations are useful to you guys. I can add more as i experience if this thread wont be dust. And im willing to see what you people are doing to improve yourselves.

Edited August 8, 2022 by ozan_erdi

[finndev478]

Artstation is my favourite platform. It has a very high standard. 
For 3D artists, a big recommendation from me would be the Polycounts forums, where many skilled artists share their knowledge and give detailed feedback. 
There also great discord-communities for learning and getting feedback and help, for example the Dinusty Empire (for 3D and 2D art).
For most topics there are active discords community where people from the field discuss insights, techniques and help each other.