As a young artist, Gabrielle felt  the limits of a formal art education. She was frustrated by passive instruction that didn't allow her to explore her creativity. “My family invested thousands of dollars in my art classes, and overall, I wasn’t satisfied with what I got out of it,” Gabrielle says. Disappointed by her experience, she adopted a “learning by doing” approach. “I enrolled in online classes and started working with seasoned professionals to gain actual experience and really develop my skillset.” When she first discovered Skillshare, she was excited to share her practical, straightforward learnings and techniques that were inaccessible to her as a young artist. “Because I went through such a frustrating process to learn how to do things, I told myself that I needed to share this with other people. I want my classes to have the answers to all the questions I had as a student. I want to share everything that pushed me to the next level as an artist.”

From her first class and now on her sixth, Gabrielle loves teaching on Skillshare. “When I’m in the middle of making a class, I’m pumped to wake up in the morning, have my coffee, and start making it. Seeing students excited about the projects they create feels great, especially since I helped them get there.”

Her Skillshare classes have also been  a consistent and sustainable source of income. “To be in the arts, you have to be an octopus. You have to have eight tentacles in eight different projects to sustain a consistent source of revenue every month.” Not only does Skillshare operate as one of her tentacles, it is her most reliable source of income. “Right now Skillshare is my main source of income and that’s really exciting. Within the art world, things can be unreliable since you can’t predict market interest and general trends, which makes earnings less predictable and consistent. But teaching has proven to be reliable since there will always be in an interest in learning.”

11.png

Check out Gabrielle's full catalog of art classes here-  they uncover her unique process and use a variety of mediums, including charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil paints, markers, and digital media.

Written By

Danielle Keita-Taguchi

  • Click here to share on Twitter
  • Click here to share on Facebook
  • Click here to share on LinkedIn
  • Click here to share on Pinterest