Studying Art History & Being A Self Study Student

My big book of Art History

Hey y'all! Hope you're enjoying your Sunday! It's been a pretty chill day over here; it's been raining and is much cooler out so that's been super nice. We've needed a break from the heat and sun! I've spent the day working out and running errands and now I'm at my desk coloring a bit and writing this.

I have some exciting news, I've started studying Art History on my own! I have this huge book of art history that my grandmother gave me from her collection. I've been studying through that and I'm doing the free Art History class from Khan Academy. I highly recommend you check out Khan Academy, they have classes on a ton of subjects and they're really fun! I'm working my way through Prehistoric art and I'm remembering how much I missed learning. Luckily there's about a million books and online classes for me to learn from! 

Here's some of my notes that I've taken so far:

I love using washi tape, stickers, and gel pens for my notes! It's way more fun lol. I remember back in high school I would use my sparkly and neon gel pens until my teachers complained that they couldn't read what I was writing haha. 

Anyway, reading about Prehistoric art is pretty fascinating. We look at humans from 30,000 years ago and call them dumb cavemen, but their ability to teach themselves painting and drawing and carving is amazing. And they even improved in techniques like perspective and cross hatching. I think people back then were much smarter than we give them credit for. I hope someday I get to see cave paintings in France or Spain in person, that would be so cool. 

Going back to how I was talking about how many resources there are for learning, it's pretty amazing how the internet is revolutionizing learning. I don't even have to go to college to get an "education", I can do it myself with a book, the internet, and some common sense. And the best part about learning and all the resources we have is that you can literally learn about everything that interests you and by the end of your life, you STILL wouldn't have learned everything there is to know. There's just so much. And being a self study student is great because you get to pick and choose your areas of study. No math, chemistry, or physics for me yippee!!! EVER! 

I believe self study is just as valid as going to college, maybe more so because you have to have more initiative to push yourself through the online classes and research on your own. So, I'm a student now, yay! And with everything that interests me and I want to learn, I probably will be a student for the rest of my life. So, cheers to learning, books, and the internet! 

Alette :)