Artist's Academy Reviews 20

They have lots of video lessons on many different crafts. They are easy to follow. The instructors know their stuff.
There are many resources and articles.

Be very cautious about how you sign up for this company course. My account was billed without my knowledge or approval. I have contacted them for a refund but haven’t had a response yet.

I don't think a lot of people understand how the Gold membership benefits work, because I've had a completely different experience with the site; they send out emails every 2 weeks to remind me about my benefits, and invite me to all kinds of new classes, make good recommendations based on classes I've enjoyed, and I'm quite pleased with the instructors, they're very knowledgeable.

Artist's Academy has some wonderful videos that have helped me learn some new things and to further my experience with things I already know. They are well made and they use reliable artists to demonstrate.

I was given notice of artist academy several years ago and have renewed by using the in-expensive renewal rates. I dont use it much, but have done artwork all my life and have found there are several places where the information is very helpful. They have never done me wrong or charged me incorrectly, and the staff has been very cheerful and nice to me when calling or emailing them. They have so many different opportunities to see something new, I will continue using them. I hope that all will better for others as we gain a group of artists that are willing to share.

Do NOT under any circumstances sign up for these services. They have charged my card and returned the money after I called them out despite ending services with them THREE TIMES ALREADY in like the past two weeks. Learn from me. Do not let these scammers try to steal money from you repeatedly as well.

I don’t use it as much as I should. I do like most of the presentations.

I got a trial 3 years ago and cancelled after the trial. I was then charged without notice for a years subscription the following year. I contacted them and told them I didn’t even have an account. They refunded the money. This year I got charged again for a subscription that I don’t have. I contacted them and they said they have no record of me and asked for more information. I sent the an alternate email address that could have been used and haven’t heard a word.

Scam - money came out of my bank. I have never even visited the site.

Wonderful experience! Useful to remember basics! Step by step aproach!

I literally woke up one morning to find $211.17 missing from my checking account. It is true that there is no advanced warning. These people are horrible! Fortunately I went through PayPal and it shows a refund pending. Artists academy doesn't really seem to care about their employees either if they are willing to throw them under the bus like that, dealing with angry customers.

Well, so far it has been ok, I guess. I have viewed a few videos, but I can definitely say that there aren't very many videos or classes to watch, and they aren't very good videos either. Also, the videos or classes are broken down into tiny, short videos where you might watch someone sketching a portrait for a painting, but the video is split up into sections, so it appears they have more content than they actually do. In one video you'll see the beginning of the head, mapping out the eyes, nose and mouth. Then you will watch another video where the nose is drawn with detail. and you'll watch 10 videos to finally see the finished sketch of a portrait painting, no real painting at all. Skill Share is expensive but 1,000 times better than Artist Academy when it comes to the videos and courses they offer. Judging by the reviews posted here on Trustpilot about Artist Academy, they are just as spendy, the only difference is they take your money unexpectedly and won't give you a refund. I don't even know when my trial subscription ends or how long it is even supposed to be for. I am going to try and cancel my membership now before I get money taken from my bank account from Artist Academy. Hopefully it hasn't happened yet.

Autorenew is difficult to turn off, and although the terms of service state that Artist's Academy will send an email prior to auto-renewal, I never received one.
Since auto-renewal, the expiration date of my membership hasn't changed and is currently set for ten days from today
The site is not very well organized.

Signed up for a very low price of $9/year with automatic renewal. Intending to cancel before the year was up. Was surprised to see a charge of $210.68 pop up on my debit card 10 days before renewal was due. Luckily, the bank flagged it as suspicious & did not pay. Called the company. Was told an email was sent saying payment would be taken out 10 days prior to the anniversary. No where in the email I received about renewal, did it give a 10 day warning. After voicing my aggravation, the phone operator had the audacity to offer me a reduced yearly membership of $49.

У меня такая же история спустя ГОД! Украли 92 $ после года! Я в шоке!

Hello! Your company debited my money! I haven’t visited your site for a long time and haven’t signed up for a premium subscription! I’m very upset about this!
I request that this subscription be canceled for $92 and my money refunded. I don’t use your site and don’t plan to use it. give me back my money.

Apparently I signed up for the $1.49 membership for the first year. Never even accessed the website. I was charged $81.32 today without any notice. I called to get a refund and was told that they sent a reminder email. I checked everywhere and they never sent an email. They have an no refund policy. They are a bunch of con artists. Don’t use this company!!

BEWARE. They will lure you in with a $3 subscription for one year so they can take $150 from you for the second year. They don't send you a reminder that your subscription is about to renew automatically (they will say they did), they will charge your card almost 2 weeks before your current sub ends, and when you call them about it, they'll say "sorry, we have an "No Refund" policy". This place is a scam, and their content isn't even worth the initial $3.

Maybe fine for beginners, but there's a lot better materials to watch on Youtube.

tl;dr
This website is limited selection of Craftsy.com’s content rebranded as Artists Academy but offers poor value as you have to purchase classes that are currently available to stream in a standard premium Craftsy membership. I suggest you search for a Craftsy coupon deal and sign up for Craftsy membership instead, or purchase Craftsy classes when they’re having a promotion. Maybe revisit Artist’s Academy once they’ve added all the Craftsy content.

I received a cheap premium membership offer on Instagram for NZ$1.50, after signing up I was immediately offered gold membership for another $9 (not sure if that was USD or NZD). I decided to purchase it even though I thought that the premium membership was supposed to include access to all videos - it does but the gold membership gives you a small number of benefits of dubious value - eight short ebooks which are actually pretty good, but I’m on an online streaming platform to watch videos not read books; and four additional courses/classes, which are good but you don’t get to choose which ones you get, and you can get those courses elsewhere (read on to find out how); plus you supposedly get discounts on content you purchase… or do you….?

Artist’s Academy is owned by TN Marketing, which also owns Craftsy and other online streaming services. The classes are Craftsy classes rebranded as Artist's Academy. There is one piece of original content - a 14 day drawing and painting beginners course which contains no actual drawing or painting demonstrations. It’s more like a drawing and painting theory lecture. It’s good, but not really what it says on the tin, and it’s only included with gold membership.

Selecting ‘all videos’ from the menu brings up just 69 videos, that’s not courses, it’s just individual videos, so there’s very little content included in your membership. The menus need work, for example the ‘browse’ function allows you to select ‘painting materials’ but to find specific media you have to type in a search box. Searching for the term ‘watercolor’ brings up just 1 video.

As the website is now you can’t view the classes/courses in series as they were originally recorded except for the two complimentary ones you got with your premium membership (or six if you upgraded to gold membership). It’s useful to have the option to watch the videos in series as the lessons in most classes build on previously taught skills. There are currently 21 classes available for purchase on Artist’s Academy, but a search for drawing and painting classes on Craftsy brings up 162 classes. My regular premium membership on Craftsy allows me to stream classes, access class materials and participate in discussion in any class on the platform.

Just like on Craftsy you can purchase classes to own forever if you don’t want to sign up for membership. If you upgraded to a gold membership you’re supposed to get a 20% discount on classes but when I added the ‘Startup library: learn to draw’ class to my cart and proceeded to checkout not only was no discount applied but $39.95 shipping was added! The class is described as “On-demand video access anytime”, there are no physical materials. I tried with another class, which didn’t add shipping, but still no sign of the 20% discount I’m entitled to with my gold membership upgrade. On that basis I’m no better off than someone who hasn’t paid for membership. Currently Craftsy is offering up to 70% off classes. I tested the startup drawing class and I could buy that for $21 today on Craftsy compared to $109.90 (including shipping) at Artist’s Academy for exactly the same class.

I’m beginning to wonder whether anyone did any website testing before going live, especially with the references to knitting and cake decorating that remain in the edited text transferred from Craftsy. Looks like someone just did a search and replace rather than actually reading the text - that’s sloppy.

Artist’s Academy has the potential to be good if they upload all of the Craftsy content and add some original content so I’ll take a look again in a few months but as it currently stands it’s hard to see the value in this platform, even at the very low membership price.

I’ve emailed them for a refund so hopefully that all goes smoothly.