As well as teaching classes, I’m an eternal student and always taking classes. I’d like to share some of the gems that I learned from in 2025.  In no particular order, here’s my top three:

Favourite Illustration Class of 2025:

This three-hour-long illustration class by Adolfo Serra was a delight: Illustration Techniques to Unlock your Creativity The cover image for this blog post was made as one of the exercises – to make multiple studies of an artwork you admire. I chose “The White Rose and the Red Rose” by Margaret Macdonald.

What I particularly enjoyed about this course was the encouragement to experiment. I also found it reassuring that the teacher openly acknowledged that he has many different art styles, and addressed how to handle that with publishers. As someone who has a lot of range, it’s a question I’ve often pondered.

The class was taught in Spanish, but there are both subtitles and a dub into English. I watched in it in Spanish with English subtitles because I found it interesting to hear the Spanish for all these art terms, and hear the teacher’s own voice.

This is hosted on the Domestika website, where you can buy classes individually or get a subscription that gives you access to all classes. They often run sales, so it’s worth keeping an eye out to see if you can get it on discount.

Favourite Time Management Class of 2025:

This mini course by Mel Rye (11 minutes long) was another gem I found: 3 Steps To Make Time For Your Art

Mel is extremely good at giving concise, actionable steps (in all of her classes actually), and this is no exception. It does exactly what it says on the tin – helps you figure out ways to make time for your art. Unless you’re a full-time working artist, and even sometimes then, I think all of us struggle with this one. I know I do. And I found the practical advice in here really helpful.

This is hosted on the Skillshare website. They don’t often run sales (outside of Black Friday), but the link should give you free access for a month if you sign up. 

Favourite Paper Craft Class of 2025:

I was really into bookbinding and paper craft in 2025. I love the videos on this topic that Ido Agassi makes. I found this one to be particularly accessible, and it has the advantage of being quite short (17 minutes): Paper Wrapper for Books: A Beginner-Friendly Bookbinding Project (he also has stuff on YouTube if you want to check him out there first).

This class teaches how to make a really cute book cover, a sort of a protective envelope for your books or sketchbooks.

This class is also hosted on Skillshare and the link should give you free access for a month if you sign up. 

So that’s my year of learning, 2025 edition. I hope you find these classes interesting and get something of value from them. Let me know in the comments if you have any wonderful classes you discovered in 2025 that you’d like to share.