I've always found finding things like this difficult. Red Ed classes are generally geared for young kids, to expose them to some new hobby, or for old retired people looking for something to do. I've tried a couple and felt very out of place.
There are community colleges, but that seems like a more involved sign up than I'd like (although I did it once in my mid-20s after graducating from university).
Other than that, I struggle to find in-person places to learn things. Art, cooking, gymnastics, etc. There seems to be a big gap in the market for adults looking to learn things without doing it all on their own. Is there something else out there I'm not aware of?
Search around for an atelier. They are geared towards learning to draw realistically, using classical techniques. Searching for "atelier training", "atelier drawing" on youtube will show you some results of the kind of thing you can expect. Some are online, some are in person. In person, in my opinion, is best.
I just checked out a video and a lady said she spent 40 hours drawing a small sphere. That might be slightly more intense than what I'm after, but probably what I need with my impossible standards.
I do see there is a school just about a mile from me. They have various summer workshops, but many require I take a week off work; they have a couple weekend options too. It looks like they occasionally have some night classes, but they are full. A 10 month long class that doesn't start for 4 months and costs over $2,400 is full... that kind of blows my mind. It seems like doing one of these fundamentals classes would be the way to go before showing up for a 24 hour over 4 day deep dive, live drawing, workshop.
I guess I'll bookmark it and come back to it occasionally to see if something works out for my schedule and current skill level.
"A 10 month long class that doesn't start for 4 months and costs over $2,400 is full... that kind of blows my mind."
Yeah, they've kind of become trendy in recent years.
If you are motivated, while you wait for a class to open up you can definitely use some of the stuff they teach you on your own, like drawing from Bargue plates and casts. Draw from life as much as you can, too. Every little bit of drawing helps. You just have to keep at it.
There are also online artist communities where you can get feedback on your art. Again, a talented teacher is best, but peer critique can be helpful too... and being part of an online community works for a lot of people who can't find/attend an in-person class. So I'd see if I could find some of those. I don't have specific recommendations, unfortunately, but I know they're out there. Searching on youtube or social media sites might yield some results.
I've had luck in finding life drawing groups (where you draw from a live model) through meetup.com. They were pretty cheap. They offered no instruction, but at least you were drawing from life and were among other artists.
I've always found finding things like this difficult. Red Ed classes are generally geared for young kids, to expose them to some new hobby, or for old retired people looking for something to do. I've tried a couple and felt very out of place.
There are community colleges, but that seems like a more involved sign up than I'd like (although I did it once in my mid-20s after graducating from university).
Other than that, I struggle to find in-person places to learn things. Art, cooking, gymnastics, etc. There seems to be a big gap in the market for adults looking to learn things without doing it all on their own. Is there something else out there I'm not aware of?