July is here–ready to learn a new summer skill? Whether you’re relaxing at a northern beach cottage or staying inside with the air conditioning, it’s a great time to embrace creative challenges.

To keep your summer exciting, we’ve gathered our top Skillshare class picks for the month, designed for both seasoned creatives and newcomers. Let’s dive in!

1. Vintage Wildflowers in Watercolor: 14 Days of Painting Prompts

Desk covered in pages of wildflower watercolors in muted oranges, burgundies, greens and goldens, with the artist’s hand and palette nearby 
Take on a two-week challenge to learn vintage watercolor wildflower colors and techniques.

Learn to loosen up and follow your brush with multiple exercises for painting whimsical, vintage wildflowers in watercolor. Each of the 14 prompts focuses on different flowers and techniques, giving you the chance to deepen your understanding of watercolor, composition and structure. 

Taught By

Peggy Dean is an artist, educator and author from the Pacific Northwest. Her background includes a wide variety of arts, including crafting, ballet, calligraphy, painting, fire dancing, writing and more. Peggy loves sharing what she’s learned to help you ignite your creativity. 

How It’s Special

The class provides two full weeks of prompts and challenges–enough time to build a good habit and accountability, but not too much to fit into your day. 

What Students Say

“Thank you for this awesome class! You taught me so much more than ’just’ painting watercolor vintage flowers. Over the course of the class I learned to let go time and again, to trust myself more, to start over without feeling bad about it; and, finally, I actually was content with what I made following your prompts. This has been the first time I’ve painted flowers, but I’ll definitely keep going from here.” -Kelly Paschal

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2. Composition for Illustrators: Expressing Ideas With Story, Structure and Style

Illustration of a cartoonish medieval dinner party at a white table in a red room, with lords and ladies at the table, being served meats, pies, sweets and drinks by two servants. 
You can tell a whole story with one illustration, though it takes forethought and, often, plenty of detail.

Discover the key to composition, which is vital for illustrators but not always easy to grasp. Working in a flat, graphic style, you’ll learn helpful principles and techniques before combining them into one fun series!

Taught By

Tom Froese is an illustrator, designer and teacher who likes to make people happy with his art. His style is colorful, quirky and spontaneous, and his work includes packaging, murals, maps, advertising and picture books.  

How It’s Special

This class is all about learning composition in an immediately actionable way. Even if you’re new to the concept, you’ll walk away with something complete and, more importantly, completely original. 

What Students Say

“Extremely helpful to watch Tom put these principles into action. Also enjoyed looking at the many examples (total eye candy!) during the discussions. This is another high-quality class that we can always count on by Tom.” -Jennifer Heeren

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3. The Sketchbook Fillers’ Club: Four Colorful Guidelines for Stunning Spreads

Grid of photos, each with an open sketchbook page full of shapes, colors, words and sketches, and in the middle of the grid is a photo of the smiling artist
Sketchbooks can be strategic, complementing a portfolio or specific project. 

Learn to fill up a sketchbook with expressive ideas, no matter your preferred media or current skill level. You’ll watch seven start-to-finish demonstrations that are intended to help you build creative confidence and joy during the process.  

Taught By

Dylan Mierzwinski is an illustrator, educator and flower lover who sees sketchbooks as a type of diary. Filling them up is fun and, often, therapeutic. She loves to share what she's learned with others and make art accessible to everyone. 

How It’s Special

Turning sketches and concepts into impressive spreads can be broken into four clear guidelines. With the framework of an entry point, design, completion and reflection, you can develop your own process for sketchbook spreads. 

What Students Say

“WOW! I loved this class so much. The steps were bite-sized and left me so excited to dive into my own sketchbook. The structure of the class and little prompts throughout kept me out of my critical head and helped me push through frustrations and imperfections. Dylan is a talented, thoughtful, and funny instructor. Oh, and the colors and fonts for the text pop ups are delicious. Thanks to all involved in making this class!” -Lindsay Hale

“This was one of the best classes I have ever taken on Skillshare or in person! Dylan cleared the fog from my janky sketchbook process, and I can now proceed in an intentional and organized fashion. Life-saver! I am so excited about where my art practice will go. Loved the bleeps and that she mentioned the real world. Thanks!!” -Angela Shenk

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4. The Pareidolia Project: A Creative Drawing Experience 

Two abstract yet active, animal-like figures, drawn in a bright blue-white, facing each other in profile against a black background
Our brains are wired to see figures in random textures, and our hands can turn those images into works of art.

Turn the objects and faces you see within random textures into works of art! Pareidolia is the tendency to see organized imagery or meaning in ambiguous things, such as a rock face or crumpled piece of paper. This class takes that tendency and pushes you to draw what you see. 

Taught By

Brent Eviston is an artist with a background in teaching art in a variety of settings. He’s studied different drawing forms, from architectural drafting and anatomical drawing to experimental exploration, and considers drawing the root of all his artwork.  

How It’s Special

This class takes something that your brain already does and turns it into a creative process. This is not only fun and creative, but it challenges your brain to push some usual boundaries and create new connections.

What Students Say

“Outstanding right-brain drawing exercises, really great for unlocking the imagination and encouraging you to develop your unique voice and vision, not just copy the instructor. I found drawing the paper subjects addictive and inspiring, and small details such as using alligator clips and black mount boards so useful. Production quality of Brent Eviston's content is always beautiful, this class is no exception. Really loved this class, am sure I will go back to it again and again as ideas just seem to flow freely from this exercise. Excellent.” -Alix McCulloch

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5. Figma UI UX Design Essentials 

Open digital design project about selling headphones, with active options for the color of backgrounds, boxes and buttons  
The smallest details can influence a user’s experience on your site–learning to use programs like Figma gets you a step ahead in the UI and UX space. 

Learn to create beautiful, effective user interfaces using the design tool Figma. You’ll also gain a deeper understanding of client expectations of UI designers, which is especially helpful if you’re new to the field. 

Taught By

Daniel Scott is digital designer and Adobe certified trainer. With 14 years of teaching experience, he loves to help new designers see the connections between print, web, publishing and more. 

How It’s Special

This class doesn’t focus solely on user experience. It begins with working with a persona and walks you through, from wireframes to making buttons to handing off a style guide. Even if you’re totally new to design, you can follow this course. 

What Students Say

“Dan is a fun and relatable teacher who knows exactly how to inspire interest in his class. I've learned so much from him and really enjoyed his sense of humor and quirkiness, which added to his professionalism. See you in the advanced class, Dan!” -Hasmik Sargsyan

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Take the Inspiration and Run!

That’s a wrap on our July top class picks! Use the inspiration to step outside your comfort zone, get experimental and try new challenges—you never know where they might lead!

Written By
Katie Mitchell

Katie Mitchell

Katie lives in Michigan with her husband, kids and pets. She enjoys cooking, travel and live music.

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