Renewing the Renaissance™ (RTR)’s Beginner’s School was created to allow an individual anywhere in the world to learn online the basics of drawing, painting, and sculpting—for free, no registration required. The internet is filled with numerous painting and drawing videos that assume an introductory understanding of art that most people don’t have. We have designed each course of the Beginner’s School to teach students starting from the very basics up to the point where they can comfortably use videos and advice to further their own development. The Beginner’s School provides a comfortable venue for seniors to help maintain their cognitive skills through art, for young students to foster their creativity, and for parents to introduce art to their children and grandchildren. For those who want a quick video tour of the website, click here (and use the Closed Captions feature if you want!).
Each course—drawing, painting, and sculpture—consists of a series of lessons that includes subject matter text, artist videos (with edited closed captions), and video commentary to guide the student. The lessons include exercises we’ve tried to keep to about an hour, making it easy to fit conveniently into a busy life. Google Translate allows the student to translate the text, videos, supply recommendation lists, and budgets into the student’s spoken language (see here for information regarding translation limitations).
You can view the lessons for each course by clicking on the course title you’re interested in on the Course Topic Summaries under Home. Going beyond “how-to,” lessons include topics such as the tools required and their cost, and what to consider in choosing a workspace or studio, all supported by brief art history lessons. We have a lesson, Being A Successful Student, that will help you do just that…and our FAQs are organized to give you the answers quickly to your general questions. Check out our lesson Choosing Your First Course for a quick guide on getting started.
The first Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 14th to the 16th centuries, beginning in Florence, Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. As a cultural movement, it encompassed a flowering of literature, science, art, religion, and politics. It is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such multi-talented artists as Leonardo de Vinci and Michelangelo. Artists during the Renaissance learned from older, Master artists in the Master’s studio or Atelier (ah-tell-YAY). Some Ateliers would have many young artists learning from and helping out the Master, and students influenced and helped each other as well.
It’s this sort of artistic community we want to recreate here at RTR’s Beginner’s School and connect artists all over the world. We want students to submit and share their work using our submission form and encourage each other in their artistic journeys by contributing to the student galleries (see an example here). Students can also communicate with each other by posting in the Leave A Comment section of each lesson, like the one below, and also by using Instagram to post images of their work (tag us! @beginnersschool). We appreciate all the positive testimonials we’ve been receiving on our courses–check out what people are saying about us.
The Student Resource Center (SRC) is another place for artists to share. As a searchable database, the SRC allows experienced artists to submit their tips and techniques to guide the next beginning student along. The SRC also includes ideas such as how to flourish by getting your creativity unstuck, and nourish yourself to be a healthy student artist.
We believe supporting art is important for the world’s future, and that it’s important to ‘give back’. At Renewing the Renaissance, we strive to work with adult artists with challenges (such as high functioning autism, language and social impediments, and executive functioning disorders) to help their art careers. Take a look at the work of our talented painters and sculptors on our sister website www.RenewingTheRenaissance.com. Consider commissioning a painting (an interesting creative experience!), or acquiring their artwork.
Thanks to all for embracing the Beginner’s School spirit of the Renaissance!
Key Developers
![]() Ashleigh Norman, MFA SFAI The ‘right brain’ developer and lead writer of lessons. |
![]() Phil Shemanski, CPA MS (Tax) The ‘left brain’ developer and Beginner’s School founder. |
Video Artists
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![]() Oil: Cynda Valle |
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Acrylic: Will Kemp & Will Kemp Art School
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Contributing Artists
A really big thank you to the all the artists–living and dead–who have contributed to great vastness of art history and contemporary art. You inspire us to create our own art and to see the beauty in even the most banal. Thank you.
Renewing the Renaissance artists, without whom this site would never have been born. Thank you for your patience and support throughout this process and for continuing to create and share your artwork with the world.
Videographers & Support Staff
Shawn Darling
Mike Mahoney Bryn Robertson |
Tim Erskin, KMVT
Rene Mendoza, KMVT Bobby Chastain, KMVT Shelley Wolfe, KMVT |
Website Creation, Advice, and Testing
Sarah Ammons | Kaaren Marquez |
Ryan Carr | Oscar Ramirez |
Mabisa Chhetry | Jason M Rhodes |
Cesar Karamazov | Fernanda Rodriguez |
Jay Mandyam | Onur Yildiz |
Shreyas Mandyam, MMediaWeb | Tom Zephyrs |
Our “Village” of Supporters
They say, “it takes a village,” and it couldn’t be more true. Thank you to our village of supporters out there–you’ve been with us through all the paint, sweat, and tears it took to complete the Beginner’s School and we are forever indebted to you. We value your advice, your opinions, your guidance, and most of all your open minds and ears as we’ve worked together to create this. Indiegogo crowdfunders, your contributions significantly impacted our development and we couldn’t have done it without you.
Maneeza Aminy
Jahye Aronson Caitlin Becker Gwen Behrstock Janet Cahill David Colvin Laura Corben Steven Crawley Jane Ferguson Susan Fink Geri-Ann Galanti Dee Gibson Jeff Grabow Laurie Green Patricia Herzog Daria Hodapp |
Bette Houtchens
Claudia A. Howe Carole Hunter Harold Jaffe Nancee Jaffe Karen Jaw-Madson Robert Kalof Laurie Kasparian Karen Kaye Amanda Keating Robert Kranz KHRG Law firm LLP Janet Loeb Christina Ma Amy MacDonald Rahat Marfatia |
Lydia Martin
Vicki Martin Susan Mielke Linda Naiman John Norman Kim Norman Lynne O’Hara Raymond Osofsky Jennifer Pence John Phelps Safa Rashtchy Bonnie Rickles Richard Sasaki Joan Shemanski Naomi Shemanski Sheri Shemanski |
Laura Shumaker
Perry Simon Cole Smothers David Spector Michael Teng Mark Tramiel Sanjay Uppal Irma Velasquez Sylvia H White Ellen Whorton Dennis Wilkins Michael Wohler Michelle Wohler Pearl Wolffs Nathan Zebedeo Laurie Zoloth |
Wonderful program, thanks so much. It’s already helped my sculpturing o much.
Thanks again
Robert
Hi Robert,
Thank you for the nice compliments! We’re so happy that you’re enjoying the site and that it’s helping you. We’d love to see some of your sculptures and how our lessons have helped you! Use the submission form on the homepage to send us photos of your work. 🙂
Stay creative!
The Beginner’s School Team
As a beginner it is wonderful to have such a comprehensive site with a wealth of information at my fingertips. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and creativity.
regards, Gil
Hope your creativity is increasing daily through your art, Gil. We’re busy developing more lessons and other interesting tools for you all!
The Beginner’s School Team
HI I’m here in 2019 nearly 2020..and the site is very relevant for me..I previously found an oil painting teacher who provided all the skills based foundational teachings online at ether reasonable or free but I hadn’t found a sculpture source for the same … those “foundations” that I find confidence boosting …this site is helping me enormously.
Thank you to all of you that contribute to making this information freely available. You can rarely find it even in art schools since 30 years ago when it suddenly became the trend to just find your own way without the basics…for some inexplicable reason.
Kindest thoughts from New Zealand
Jude
Hi Jude,
Thank you for such kind words! We’re happy to help and share our knowledge with people who are interested and excited to learn. Notes like this are what make teaching so worthwhile. Thank you and happy creating!!
Happy New Year,
The Beginner’s School Team