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Skillshare Classes to Engage Your Creativity through Watercolor Flora, Striking Posters, and Houseplant Care

Considering many of you found our previous Skillshare picks useful, we thought we’d share another selection of courses from the popular online platform that we’re loving here at Colossal. This next round encompasses art, design, and even the basics of home gardening in simple, multi-lesson units. If you need some completely offline entertainment, check out these modern puzzles and DIY kits, too.

Designed for novices, this watercolor course by illustrator Rosalie Haizlett teaches the basics of rendering natural features. She’ll walk through taking reference photos, sketching, layering paint, and adding texture to create vibrant mushrooms and ferns.

Based in East Sussex, artist Seb Lester (previously) guides students through essential calligraphy techniques in his 15-lesson course. You’ll learn to write your name with elegant flourishes and even get a printable workbook for an extra dose of instruction.

Designers Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips offer a basic graphic design course that explains the principles of scale, framing, grids, and hierarchy. Previous students have designed a variety of spreads like the one above, and the instructors say the main takeaway is this: “Graphic design is all about relationships — the relationships between one design element and another, that element and the page, and that element and yourself.”

Learn to adorn hand-drawn letters with beautiful florals in Gemma O’Brien’s 12 lessons. The Australian artist utilizes drawing techniques with digital collage, creating a dramatic combination of the two.

Based on his own poster-a-day project, digital artist and photographer Temi Coker is offering a course focused on merging type and images into striking posters. He leads students through capturing the right images and Photoshop basics and even provides a guide for sharing work on social media.

While this pick has a slightly different focus, it’ll still get your hands just as dirty as learning to use watercolor or hand-lettering with ink. Botanist Chris Satch from The Sill teaches potting techniques, basic care, troubleshooting, and ways to ensure that your houseplants thrive.

Alanna Cartier knows that capturing high-quality and effective photographs of artwork can be difficult. In her 11-lesson course for all skill levels, the Toronto-based artist and illustrator teaches how to take effective images for social media and online shops without spending an entire day.

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