Learning Digital Skills - What's the best way?

 
 Fossil Purple April Flower Brooch  with peach, purple, and ocher   © 2010
 Post-consumer recycled tin cans.  Posted in honor of Earth Day.
 Artist: Harriete Estel Berman                   Photo Credit: Emiko Oye 

Lots of people ask me how I learned to work on my own website.  My answer: I (like most everyone) have to learn by doing.  And, yes, it was frustrating at first (for several weeks). But each frustration was overcome and the bits of knowledge began to coalesce into skills and gratification. 

To get started, a friend or mentor may be best for some people to learn the basics.  I prefer to just jump into the frying pan and start by learning how to use Dreamweaver using Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) as my virtual tutor. All of the lynda.com lessons are video tutorials divided into manageable bits mostly two to five minutes in length. Lynda.com let me learn at my own pace at any time of day or night which was very practical in my chaotic schedule. The online instructions could be repeated over and over with no frustration on the instructor's part or I could jump ahead to a new topic or search for solutions to a particular issue.   

It has worked so well for me that I have also learned Photoshop, Illustrator, even Flickr, and Twitter with Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning). 

It is the best method I know of to show you how to increase your software skills. If you are like me, reading instructions from a book to learn how to use software is really difficult (for me almost impossible).

Added Benefits   Learning these software skills adds benefits beyond just your website. My newly learned Illustrator skills enabled me to learn how to format documents for a laser cutter when I was experimenting at the TECH Shop. I also jumped over to the Corel Draw tutorials because this software was used to run the laser cutter. On the right, you can see several pins made on the laser cutter from recycled game boards for the Pin Swap at the SNAG Conference. 

Photoshop or Photoshop Elements is essential for editing your photos. The online photo editing applications may be good enough for your family photos, but they don't offer enough tools for professional quality images of your art or craft. You need the flexibility and tools that Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) offer to fix your photos.

Get the skills you need as a professional artist with Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) on your home computer. No commute. No driving, no parking, no appointment necessary.

Harriete

This post was updated on January 14, 2022, to provide current links.

 (Back View) Fossil Purple April Flower Brooch  with peach, purple,
 © 2010      Post-consumer recycled tin cans in honor of Earth Day.
  Artist: Harriete Estel Berman                   Photo Credit: Emiko Oye