To those who are wanting to improve their art skills in many different ways from drawing to crocheting, the Michaels Craft Store demos are a good fit. 

Whether there is a need for hands-on help or to stay in the comfort of home, Michaels offers both online and in-person class options to utilize the time of the artists. Zoom is used for the online classes and each class has a different instructor to teach various subjects. 

Learning this, I decided to try a class out. I participated in an online drapery drawing class. Although the instructor was great at what she was teaching, there were a lot of problems during the Zoom call. Multiple people in the chat were complaining about the lag, the camera being too close to the drawing and the video freezing.

In my opinion, the problem that stuck out the most was the camera. It was too close to the drawing. This made it to where I, and others in the class, couldn’t see the whole picture. We could only see a small sliver at a time. 

Since the video kept freezing, and by the time the video was unfrozen, the instructor was on a completely different section of the drawing. This caused lots of people, including myself, to get behind.

I recommend the in-store classes more than I do the online classes. The online classes have too many problems that make it almost not worth it to join the class. For about an hour of class there was only thirty minutes of actual instruction. 

From my experience, the only pro of the online classes is being able to stay in the comfort of home. The cons of the Zoom struggles definitely outweigh the pros for the online classes. 

I’m sure the in-store classes also have their own faults, but being with an instructor in-person would be so much better on my end. 

The in store classes also have no limit to the amount of people that can go, the classes are two hours instead of one and there are none of the complications that come with being on a Zoom call. 

I did enjoy the thirty minutes of class that was given. I learned quite a few new skills that I can apply to my drawings in the future. 

Overall, the demo classes are a great idea in theory. They give aspiring artists a way to improve on their skills and offer others a chance to learn new art forms.