Can you recommend a pay online service or website that would be useful to an art student?

March 12, 2009 6:06 AM

Is there an online service or website of some sort that one has to pay for that would be particularly useful to an art student?

My sister is an art student and it's her birthday tomorrow. I was thinking of getting her a subscription to a website or online service of some sort that would be useful to her as an art student but I haven't found anything yet. Can you recommend any?

posted by Kattullus to media & arts (11 comments total)

Paid flickr account?
posted by box at 6:11 AM on March 12

You didn't mention what her major is. If it's graphic design or anything to do with computer graphics Lynda.com has zillions of tutorial movies for Adobe, Apple, 3D, motion graphics, etc. for $25 a month. A year spent there costs less than most 1 day Photoshop courses. Very much worth it.
posted by Scoo at 6:19 AM on March 12

She studies visual art. The program is very broad, she's done sculpture, photography, painting, printing, web design and more.
posted by Kattullus at 6:27 AM on March 12

deviantart.com
posted by nuke3ae at 6:27 AM on March 12

Maybe buy her a domain and hosting, and install something like Indexhibit. An online portfolio would definitely be useful.
posted by Magnakai at 6:54 AM on March 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

I recently discovered Safari Books Online. It's an amazing resource for a creative. If she's heavy into web and graphic design, she would probably enjoy it. It would give her full access to heaps of books that are very expensive in the bookstore.

And I'll always praise Lynda.com, as mentioned above. The video tutorials on that site are fantastic.
posted by bristolcat at 8:45 AM on March 12

Or maybe get her a subscription to Amazon Prime so she can buy all of the beautiful art books/supplies that she wants with free shipping?
posted by bristolcat at 8:50 AM on March 12

Or maybe get her a subscription to Amazon Prime so she can buy all of the beautiful art books/supplies that she wants with free shipping?

Caution: the above is misleading -- Amazon Prime does not give you "all" the [anything] you want with free shipping. It makes shipping free on certain items within certain limits (e.g. next-day shipping will stay cost money but shipping in two days will be free). To be clear, if you have Amazon Prime, many items will charge shipping fees no matter what.
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:54 AM on March 12

Caution: the above is misleading

I apologize. I don't personally use it and should have checked into it more carefully. I do have friends who have it and rave about it, however.
posted by bristolcat at 9:17 AM on March 12

Seconding a Flickr pro account - it's a great place to show your work (in all media - I use it as a kind of online portfolio), also she'll connect with lots of similar people and get feedback on her work.
posted by Chairboy at 11:57 AM on March 12

I went with a Flickr Pro account. Thanks, everyone!
posted by Kattullus at 6:46 PM on March 12