I Joined Artma in My First Year of BFA. I’m in My Fourth Year Now — and Still Here.

Aaditya Alai JJ School of Applied Art, Mumbai  ·  AI Artist at Dashverse

I didn’t join Artma because I had a clear plan. I joined because I was confused.

I had just gotten an All India Rank 8 in the CET for JJ School of Applied Art — the best art school in India. I had admission. I had a college. I was in my first year of BFA. And yet, I had no idea what to actually do with any of it. Everyone around me was telling me I had a bright future. No one was telling me how to build one.

I had been watching Venkatesh Sir on YouTube for a while before I ever paid for anything. He didn’t make it sound easy. He made it sound real.

Then I saw a free Artma webinar on Instagram. I thought — it’s free, Sir is someone I already know, why not? I went in. And something shifted.

What I Was Doing Before — and Why It Wasn’t Enough

The honest answer is: I was copy-pasting.

I’d pick an image from Pinterest, open it on one side of the screen, and try to replicate it. Watch a YouTube tutorial, follow the steps, get something that looked okay. No understanding of why it worked. No ability to recreate it without the reference right in front of me.

They teach you how to copy. Not how to see.

Artma was different from the first module. The fundamentals — anatomy, structure, the Loomis method for head proportions — were taught not as digital techniques but as ways of understanding what you’re looking at. Once you understand structure, you don’t need the reference in front of you. You can build from memory, from imagination, from a brief.

The Seven Modules — and What ‘Structured’ Actually Means

The program starts where most courses skip — the basics. Not “here’s how to use the brush tool” basics. The actual fundamentals: how lines work, how shapes relate, how value creates depth, how light behaves. Things I thought I could pick up as I went. Turns out you can’t. Once I understood them properly, everything else — the software, the speed, the confidence — followed.

Each module builds on the one before. By the time you get to portrait work, or texture, or commercial applications, you’re not learning those things in isolation. You’re applying a foundation that’s already there. That’s the difference between a course and a curriculum. You don’t have to decide what to work on next. The structure already knows.

There are exercises in every module. You watch, then you do. If you get it wrong, you understand why — because the session explained the principle, not just the steps. That’s how deep the material goes.

Portrait illustration — Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

Wednesday Nights

The live sessions are Wednesday nights, and they’ve become something I look forward to in a way that’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been in one.

There’s also something about working live alongside others. You’re not just watching a replay. You’re in the room. You feel the pace of the work differently.

Sketch to final colour — Chapter 12, The Monkey’s Games

The Feedback — What Makes It Different

In most places — colleges included — feedback means someone points out what’s wrong and moves on. You’re left to figure out the correction yourself.

Artma doesn’t work that way. Sir personally responds to every student, regardless of how many there are — and the feedback tells you both where you went wrong and what to do next. It’s not evaluation. It’s instruction.

It’s Not Just About the Art

One of the things that surprised me was how much of the program focuses on the business of being an artist — marketing, career strategy, how to price work, how to build a portfolio that gets you clients rather than just compliments.

Most art education stops at the artwork. Nobody teaches you how to turn what you make into a livelihood. The gap between loving art and knowing how to build a life around it — that gap closes inside this program. Gradually, and then all at once.

Realistic portrait — Maharashtrian woman

The Part I Didn’t Expect

I’m in my fourth year of college. I have a full-time job. I got it through Artma.

The team reached out, there was an opportunity with a company called Dashverse, and what followed was not just a referral or a name drop. Venkatesh Sir personally created a group, gave us assignments that were exactly what the company needed, and prepared us in a way that made the transition seamless. When I joined Dashverse, I wasn’t just ready — I was already doing the work.

My parents — who once couldn’t quite picture a future in art — are happy. There are no regrets on anyone’s side.