Hello, my name is Michelle. I have always had an interest in art and crafts. I love ‘playing around’ 
I recently decided I wanted to learn watercolors. I found this site and was inspired by the variety of art lessons. I desire to not only improve my art skills, but gain confidence and ease when I execute them. The only concern I see now is…how do I not try EVERYTHING at once!
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Hi Everyone! I’m Christine, and I’m 66 years old. A year ago, my husband and I decided to do a major life change, so we sold our property, and bought a fifth wheel.
I love drawing and now that we are on the road, I have plenty of time to pursue my passion. There are lots of different drawing courses on the internet, so I signed up for couple of different trials. Nothing really clicked for me until I came across your site. I only needed to do your trial for a couple of days, before I knew that this was the course for me.
Thank you Matt, for your passion to teach art, and for your wonderful lessons. I love the drawing courses, and am really looking forward to becoming part of the community of artists here.
The one thing that I have found about the RV community, is that you make a lot of friends, but you are always have to say good-bye. Being part of your community will be that constant friend that will be there, every time that I turn on my computer!
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Well said Christine! Welcome aboard. I retired 2 years ago and signed up at that time. I find that no matter what else is going on in my life, my VI membership always provides me with enjoyment that goes well beyond the price I paid. Looking forward to seeing your ‘on the road’ drawings.
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Hi Michelle. Welcome aboard. I understand what you mean about “playing around”. Good luck with staying on track. The important thing is to enjoy the process.
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Thank you sterlingslam😊
Hello all, Im Dave. Fairly new here. Ive been drawing and sketching since about the age of 8. Gained a graphics design and computer animation degree. Worked in graphics for about 10 years, then got married and let my drawing skills and practices fall to the wayside. Life happens. Discovered this site on YouTube and joiend to basically relearn my fundamentals. Im enjoying this immensely although Ive posted a few questions and have yet to receive a reply so Im curious if Matt is still active? Being a Dad i can understand if he isnt so much anymore. Ive discovered a very keen interest in ink stippling and gouache panting (hoping my recent order of paints arrive day)
Hi Dave,
Welcome! I am very active. New lessons are posted every week. Where did you post your questions?
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One was in the Art medium discussion forum and one was to one of the lessons in painting water with gouache. But its ok, nothing like super important.
Hi Dave,
Sorry I missed them, there’s so many places people can ask questions. 
No worries at all. You actually answered the gouache question later in the series. The art medium question was just me wondering if there were any lessons or live lessons devoted solely to stippling in the works.
Hi Dave,
Found the other question on the forum and I think I answered the gouache question in the comments here…https://thevirtualinstructor.com/members/the-watercolor-workshop-painting-with-gouache/#comment-5071
Thank you good sir! I appreciate the response
Hi Everyone, I’m Rain
I’m a self-taught artist but am joining this site to learn more about theory, technique and to refine my skills. Nice to be here!
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Hi, everyone. My name is Reba and I just joined. I have been thinking for some time about joining but couldn’t afford it on a limited income so when I saw that the cost was discounted for January, it was the perfect opportunity. I am retired and just finished classes last year at on online art school and my field of study was oil painting. Since then I have experimented with acrylic pouring. I am now ready to move on to something else. I chose pastels for my first attempt because I had always wanted to use them. I inherited a whole set of Reeves from my daughter-in-law and was chomping at the bit to try them. I have also learned how to paint with watercolors which I really like too. Happy to be here.
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Hello Reba! Welcome aboard. Retirees have the most fun. You will not regret become a member. Matt is a great instructor. Catch some of the live lessons if you can. Even when I decide not to create the artwork proposed in the live lesson, I sit, listen and learn something every time. Plus, you get to talk to other members as well. Patricia. 
(Of course, I meant to write “becoming” a member…) I need to proofread my answers. 
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Thanks Patricia. I’ll do that.
Hi, I have just signed up for the trial but will be continuing to full membership. I have seen Matt on the internet quite a few times and thought I would give the Virtual Instructor site a try. My main passion is drawing and I think Matt is a very talented artist and brillinat teacher. I am currently working though the Pen and Ink subjects and I am really pleased with the results I am achieving.
Alan
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Good afternoon! I am Dawn, I live in Wyoming, USA on the New Fork river. I’m surrounded by plenty of wildlife. I have a small studio and play with clay, creating sculptures. I am 58 years of age, a grandma, a gardener, and a fur baby mom. I would like to take up drawing and painting and learn a few more creative skills, and expand my abilities. Art has always been my passion, but ended up on the back burner of my life. So today is a new and glorious day, because the wonderful algorithms on YouTube popped up this ad to this program, and forum, the Virtual Instructor. Talk about wishes being heard, I now have a place to start and the guidance I was looking for. I bought the year subscription, and now Im ready to go. I’m looking forward to friendships and progress, and creating my nature journal!
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Welcome aboard Dawn! I envy you… Wyoming offers so much natural space. It must be difficult to pick one landscape from the other. I am certain you will not regret signing up with VI. Matt is a terrific instructor and the community is fun and full of interesting people. Some are like me, a newbie (recently retired, I joined in 2017) and others are quite accomplished. Have fun and share with us.
Patricia.
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Hello there, Virtual Instructor! Seems that it’s time for me to jump off the pier and into the ocean without really knowing how to swim that well. That’s okay, we’ll pick it up as we go.
I’m Steve! I am a thirty-four year old stereotypical Canadian nerd. I’ve got two cats, three kids, one wife, and I’ll soon be the future proud owner of a Welsh Cardigan Corgi.
My story is kind of bittersweet. For years I fell firmly into the “gee, I wish I could draw but I’ll never be able to” camp. I’ve always had a strong imagination and detailed visual concepts in my head, but I could never realize them. So instead I busied myself with hobbies and fandom that never actually filled the creative void I felt. It was actually the 2018 death of my father from cancer that made me realize that I don’t want to leave this world with regrets. So, with the encouragement of my lovely wife, I decided I would learn how to draw with the intent of one day being able to put the madness in my head down on paper. That’s the bittersweet part. It took me a terrible loss to find something I didn’t know I needed. Now, being 34 years old and picking up a complicated and detailed hobby is intimidating as all heck.
I spent all of 2019 more or less trying to teach myself drawing and art. It must be said, there were many setbacks. First and foremost, the vast amount of internet videos and tutorials is not only overwhelming but detrimental to a new fresh artist. Where do I start? Click here and subscribe to find out! Contradiction and frustration were two maddening things I spent time getting used to. I began to question why I was even trying this and why I thought I could learn it. I paid for a course by a so-called “expert teacher” I won’t name and found it lacking in substance and failing to explain fundamental concepts like it was some kind of deep dark mystery I had to figure out myself. So I had scattered bits of knowledge with no threads to tie together.
And then, not to sound too much like a paid review, I found The Virtual Instructor. After trying out udemy, other online art teaching resources, and even considering a course that would have put me thousands in debt just for the basic concepts, I can say with absolute certainty this was and still is the only website where I can actually learn something. I think this has to do a lot with Matt’s casual and informative teaching style that breaks down complicated subjects (such as line, for example) into an easy to follow language and structure. Also, this is one of the only instructor sites I’ve found where the instructor actually stops, explains why he’s doing what he’s doing, and doesn’t expect you to already know this or figure it out on your own. Everything is right here, you just need to pay attention.
I started being able to reliably copy other work from reference a little before Christmas and began going to an actual fine art teacher in late 2019 knowing that yes, I could totally do this. Matt gave me the confidence and the resources to cut my teeth on the fundamentals.
So! After a few months of casual Saturday only classes I’m now only just getting back into The Secrets of Drawing and really starting to take this seriously. Up until this point I’ve only been experimenting with mediums and messing around. I feel very strongly that this is where the real work begins, because I don’t just want to copy other people’s work, I want to make my own.
To that end, I’m officially introducing myself. The time has come! It’s this psychological thing for me that since I’m a part of the actual community now, I have an obligation to see this through and stay motivated. Mostly because I’ll know if I’m not putting in the work and making excuses. If I need feedback, it’s here. If I need to reaffirm that there are other people out there like me, that too is here.
So! Here’s some stuff I’ve done below. Again, keep in mind these are just reproductions of somebody else’s work. All I had to do was follow along and copy the values the original artist had already figured out. The first is a graphite giraffe with 2H, HB, 2B and some 4-6B, and the second is a charcoal zebra to go with it. The stripes I still see in my nightmares because I did the really small ones with some General’s pencils and ohhh boy it took forever. I know I am capable of producing art, which is something I didn’t know before stumbling on this website. Heck, my Christmas gift was a full year subscription. I wouldn’t shut up about it.
Without that boost of confidence and the very basic technical knowledge I have picked up here I think I would have given up on my dreams. Instead, much to my excitement, I’m ready to start making them a reality.
tl:dr; hello, new artist here, lol
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