Being called a nerd wasn’t always something people took pride in. But for the students of Winged Canvas Online School of Illustration and its co-founder, Fei Lu, being an art nerd is considered a badge of honour.
Lu grew up in Markham and attended Markville Secondary School before moving to California to support a family member. She graduated from high school there and went on to earn a degree at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Lu eventually moved back to Canada and began her career as a designer and art director, but the success left her restless.
“One day, I realized I had become the ‘finger pointer,’” she recalls. “I was the art director. I wasn’t making the art, and I wanted to do that again. One of my fondest memories was going to art camp and discovering myself. That was the best time of my life, and I wanted to give back and help others do the same.”
After travelling with her partner and co-founder, Aaron Fruman, the duo founded Winged Canvas in 2014. Initially, it functioned as an in-person Art Hub in Markham, serving as a community studio where artists of all ages could gather for classes, exhibitions, and collaborative projects. In 2020, with the onset of the pandemic, the school shifted online, bringing its lessons to students far beyond the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
“We went online and started streaming on YouTube with digital art tutorials to help students learn how to use the different apps so we could still create together. We were also teaching art foundations, like drawing, painting, cartooning, character design, and animation,” she says.
Today, the school offers private and group lessons, as well as on-demand courses, and a YouTube channel with nearly half a million subscribers (over 460,000 and counting as of Aug 2025). Students come from as close as Markham to as far away as Thailand and Nigeria.
While its online classes are helping train the next generation of art nerds, Lu says in-person education is still critical. Winged Canvas works with schools across York Region and the GTA to facilitate art workshops for schools, helping students who may not have the opportunity to develop their talents.
“Schools don't [often] teach the fundamentals of drawing and painting, and many elementary teachers can teach art, but they're not actually trained in art. The Ontario Art Curriculum covers the elements of art and principles of design, and then we can fill in the gaps by teaching the techniques,” Lu explains.
To help educators learn and teach art, Winged Canvas offers art resources for teachers, including an online, asynchronous learning platform, Art Projects for your Classroom. Lu says teachers are using the lessons in Ontario, Alberta, throughout the USA, Australia and the UK.
“Anyone can sign up and use the courses with their classes, even homeschoolers. We offer bite-sized video lessons; assignments and assessments, allowing teachers to learn art fundamentals alongside their students. All lessons are designed to support the Ontario Arts Curriculum,” she says.
As the community continues to grow, Lu sees an even brighter future for visual storytelling—one that’s accessible to anyone, anywhere. As a result, the school has continued to expand its programs and global reach.
“Our mission is to make art education easily accessible to everyone, whether that’s through one of our courses or watching free video tutorials and live streams on our YouTube channel, where anyone can tune in and start learning art,” Lu says. “It’s bringing art nerds together on an international level, from right here in Markham.”
From its roots buried in Markham to a global platform, Winged Canvas has transformed a once-derisive label into a rallying cry.
“We’ve found art nerds all over the world,” Lu reflects. “That's been our slogan from day one: ’We love art nerds.’”
