Well I haven't done much yet this year, but I decided I have to write something before the month slips away from me.
So, I'm taking someone else's idea and am writing about online classes - some I've taken and some that are starting soon.
Jessica Sprague has a wonderful website and she has classes in photography and digital design from beginning level to professional. I've taken Up and Running with Photoshop, which is self paced and a good entry level class. Also Mouse, Paper, Scissors which is a hybrid class and with it came a wonderful box of supplies for use with the assignments, and Oh Shoot! Beginning Digital SLR Photography taught by Candace Stringham - also an awesome class.
So, the next two that I'm taking with Jessica are The Art of Poster Design which is instructor led and runs from January 9-29th and Digital Art Journaling which runs from February 6-26th. Should keep me busy for awhile.....and I plan on posting the work I do in these classes.
What I really want to take is The Art of Digital Design 1 and 2, but right now it's not in the budget - maybe later this year. (a New Year's resolution??)
At Deviant Scrap, I took an instructor led class called Miss Behavings Welcome to Fantasy Style Workshop which was awesome. We learned how to take parts of scenes and combine them to make our own and she has a great sense of humor.
Shabby Cottage Studio also offers a variety of classes online - both digital and hands on techniques (painting, journaling, etc). I took Gail Schmidt's Down & Dirty the Digital Way which shows how to antique/grunge things up a bit. This studio has four classes that I'd also like to take this year - Interactive Altered Book, Book Binding 1 and 2, and The Magic of Digital Art.
And finally, Scrap Girls has several instructional downloads for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I've bought Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop Elements (I think there are a couple levels in this series) and Mastering Brushes for Photoshop Elements.
The best part of the online classes, whether they are instructor led or self paced is that you can go back to them at any point once the class is "over". The videos are still available to watch as many times as you want - and with me it usually takes a few viewings to get it through my head!
