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I will sound extremely banal and predictable if I mention how many people have got caught by drawing and how many of them have brought it to their professional activity. However, it’s really so, and the question about how anyone can start learning drawing or refine their skills is now a pretty hot one!
It’s been told by everyone a million times that the pandemic has critically changed all aspects of our lives, and art isn’t an exception. When we all had to stay home for months, art became one of those safe activities to practice while being isolated. Besides, there was a huge trend on learning something new during the lockdown, so drawing and painting were one of the most popular options, along with foreign languages and sport.
Now, as the global situation is slowly improving and we’re getting back to our normal lives, art and art classes maintain their positions. For some, artistic activity has become a synonym to relaxation and meditative practices to help decrease stress level, and for others, doing art has opened new career and professional opportunities.
Whether you’ve already hit the road to art practices or not, you may be asking yourself what the best way to master drawing is — and here we go, with online art classes and art school suggestions from our team!
Why Choose Online Art Classes?
Online art classes ensure absolute creative freedom, so you can draw wherever you want. You need neither art schools nor the physical presence of your teacher. It may sound strange to practice painting all alone with no other students around you and without the studio ambiance. However, many people, including experienced artists, who discovered online art classes, find it pleasant and stress-free to draw on their own (or with a friend) in a comfortable environment.
Another essential benefit of online studying is the massive choice of courses which isn’t always available in classic art schools — or it may be impossible to find the classes you need in your town. So all you need is to check the available courses and pick those which fit your interests and mastership level.
Finally, online art classes are the best start for newbies. You can check as many courses, teachers, and drawing styles as you want to find the one. With regular classes, this would have taken a lot more time or might have been totally impossible. Besides, if you are unsure your interest in arts is serious, you can always try free classes. For experienced artists, online education is a chance to enrich their portfolio and learn from the prominent professionals of the industry, which is often unfeasible in another setting.
Top 20 Best Online Art Classes
- Creative Portrait Illustration with Procreate
- Daily Sketching for Creative Inspiration
- Fantastical Illustrations with Procreate
- Creative Watercolor Sketching for Beginners
- Fantasy Illustrations for Children
- Portrait Sketchbooking
- Powerful Female Characters
- Architectural Sketching with Watercolor and Ink
- Kawaii Illustration
- Artistic Watercolor Sketching
- Online Courses from London Art College
- Jenna Rainey’s Tutorials
- MoMA Online Courses
- Creepy Characters with Emilyena
- CTRL+PAINT
- Art With Flo
- ArtStation Free Illustration Tutorials
- Alphonso Dunn’s Art Tutorials
- Anime Art Academy Online Courses
- Marco Bucci’s Youtube Art Tutorials
Procreate has become a huge game-changer for many artists. The tricky digital drawing process many artists were used to can now be left in the past, and you can enjoy true-to-life portrait drawing enriched with fascinating Procreate tools, features, and perks. In this online art class, you will join Samuel Rodriguez in exploring Procreate app’s total capacity, creating stunning digital portraits. You’ll learn to depict the diversity of cultures and personalities with your Apple Pencil and the creative ideas you bear in mind.
During this online art class, you will delve into Samuel’s world, where he combines his graffiti background and studies in Fine Arts. And then you’ll try yourself in merging these so different styles in order to create outstanding and powerful portraits. During the course, you will be taught the essence of figure drawing. You’re also going to master the creative methodology, learn to play with color, lettering, and shapes, and then make your first stylized portrait in Procreate.
Use the code THEDESIGNEST-10 to get an extra 10% off any of the courses. If a course is at 75% off, you can get a total of 85% off your purchase. You can even use the code on multiple purchases — there’s no limit to what you can learn.
Daily sketching is a secret technique of many professional artists and illustrators. This is the way to release the inner creativity and meet the ideas secretly floating in your mind. If you never did sketching before, this online art class from Sorie Kim will help you start and build a habit to draw regularly.
During the course, you will improve your drawing techniques and the entire process as you daily explore, experiment, and even make fun in your sketchbook. With Sorie’s guidance, you’ll learn how to let go of perfectionist biases and relax your hand and mind to picture your everyday life. That’s going to be an exciting experience to observe your ideas flow and the way it transforms into sketches and illustrations — and eventually makes you more feel confident and inventive as an artist.
Take your audience far away with your fantasy illustrations! While fictional art seems extremely exciting and unlimited (and it really is), some creators may fear to onboard it in their projects. Well, it can be very exciting to bring your own worlds to the canvas and introduce your own characters. However, we’re sure you’ll enjoy it a lot, and this online art class from Michael Relth will help you start!
Michael has cut his teeth on drawing fantastical worlds in Procreate. He’s worked with several motion graphics studios for clients such as Netflix and Riot Games, and now he’s here to help you pour your heart and creativity into lines and forms, colors and textures, movement, and gestures. You will join him exploring the essentials of storytelling, composition, and color to create fictional worlds — so not a single character you ever invented will stay unseen in your sketchbook or social media accounts.
If watercolor art beckons and fascinates you, it’s a sign you should give it a go. Besides, watercolor painting is a calming and meditative activity, so you’ll get the double profit from such art lessons. With Laura McKendry, a talented artist and illustrator, you will use your sketchbook as a playground to create unique illustrations and awaken your creativity. She will teach you to paint your first watercolor scenes and arts with playful and unconventional techniques to make you a complete lover of watercolor drawing.
This is probably one of the best online art lessons for beginners, and it brings both the basics of watercolor and helps you discover its captivating yet soothing nature. Laura will share the step-by-step process she uses of the creative watercolor sketching. So as you follow her during the hours of practice, you’ll end up with a sketchbook filled with unique color combinations and your very first experimental illustrations.
Children create the most fascinating universes and are the most avid audience to the fantasy stories. So if you enjoy children and fantasy literature and visual art, you can probably try yourself in drawing illustrations for them. Here, you will cover fairy tales, various books, and movies made for children — and every time, you’ll speak the same language of unbounded creativity and fun.
The online art lessons from Julie Benbassat will help you try your forces in fantasy illustrations for children. Julie specializes in creating graphics for social media, editorials and publishing and is known for her nostalgic and mythical style. She will share her passion and focal techniques with you, turning the studying process into an exciting journey. Once you are ready, you’ll be able to illustrate your (or your kid’s) favorite story with a combination of traditional and digital media.
Once you’re done with drawing endless vases, apples, and spheres (and everything a beginner student is charged at art school), it’s high time to pass to the most exciting and complicated field of drawing: portraiture. Of course, it’s hardly possible to cover everything in a single series of online art lessons. However, it allows you to learn the fundamentals of portraiture.
Gabriela Niko is going to unveil the world of portrait drawing filled with human uniqueness and all the challenges it sets. She will teach you the basics of down to the finer details. You will learn about proportion, structure, and how to draw facial features. You’ll have lots of hours of practice and a sketchbook filled with faces and different facial features — a vital measure to track and assess your progress. You first drawings will be made with a pencil, but you are always free to try pastel, watercolor or oil painting.
Eunice Adeyi, an exceptionally talented illustrator specializing in painting powerful female characters, will guide you through this field in her online art class. Her characters evoke confidence and are filled with powerful spirit — and that’s what you’ll learn to create yourself with at her classes using your Procreate app and Apple Pencil.
You can let your imagination run wild and create dream-like female portraits as you are taught anatomy, color theory, and proportions in Procreate. With Eunice’s help, you will see how to represent diversity in beauty through character portraits and highlight the unity between human beings and nature. You won’t be attached to any particular style, so only the sky is the limit as you create and paint the unique personalities.
Architectural painting and sketching are some of the most popular and intriguing fields of visual art. It’s a way to get to the heart of the location you love, feel the vibe of the city and discover the beauty at every corner, street, and building. Besides, as you do architectural sketching with your watercolors and ink pens, the process promises to be extremely relaxing.
This online art class will be run by a renowned storyboard artist Alex Hillkurtz, and together you will find a sense of fulfillment in discovering the hidden corners of the town that sketching allows. To grab the feeling is an essential lesson that Alex will teach you — and then he’ll show you how to translate it into a watercolor and ink sketch.
During this online art class, you will explore the world of Japanese kawaii and create cute, lovable characters with their own personalities. You will do hours of practice exploring this popular Japanese drawing style, draw your funky fictional self and even turn it into a custom sticker pack.
If you are already a fan of the kawaii culture, you can directly delve into the practice — or you can take a closer look at it with your teacher, Ilaria Ranauro. Ilaria will teach you how to illustrate print-ready unique characters ready to be printed and shared with the world in sticker form. You are going to create a unique character (or a family!) that sparks joy. This course is available for artists drawing both in Adobe Photoshop and Procreate, so make sure you have access to your computer or iPad to start the lesson and go wildly creative with Ilaria.
At this online art course, with the guidance of the unbeatable Felix Scheinberger will teach his students how to sketch with watercolors, ink, and a fearless attitude. It may sound almost impossible, but you will have to lose the idea of perfection as you draw in order to find inspiration and express your ideas. But don’t worry, he’ll give you an instruction on how you can do it!
As every person has their unique experience when visualizing a place, Felix will show how to bring this uniqueness to paper and develop your own style in your sketchbook. There will be lots of fun and original exercises to express your ideas without restraint, and you will significantly enjoy Felix’s charisma and original methods.
London Art College offers over 30 online art classes and covers most of the creative movements: from pencil and watercolor drawing to digital drawing, history of art, and classes for children. All the courses are professionally written, regularly updated — still with an eye of the tradition. The school has been teaching students visual art for over 90 years now, and you’ll be pleased to see for yourself how they bring together experience and a modern teaching approach. No matter if you are a beginner student or seek to upgrade your portfolio with new techniques, the instructors for the school will help you with that.
You will have access to your personal tutor, who will be with you at every step. Whether you start learning to draw as a hobby or to sharpen your skills, the provided classes will get you covered and feed your artistic hunger.
On her Youtube channel, Jenna Rainey covers watercolor, calligraphy, and illustration classes. Her main goal was to inspire creatives to practice regularly (i.e., every day, no matter what). And the truth is that her cozy yet extremely professional art classes bring a massive dose of motivation in them — and that’s not to mention multiple drawing tips, techniques, and even giveaways.
You will have access to your personal tutor, who will be with you at every step. Whether you start learning to draw as a hobby or to sharpen your skills, the provided classes will get you covered and feed your artistic hunger.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), founded in 1929, has a long history of being one of the major destinations for modern and contemporary art lovers. Recently MoMA has launched a set of courses to help everyone passionate about visual art delve deep into its history and theory. In their free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on Coursera, you will learn directly from renowned artists and designers, access MoMA’s collections and exhibitions and find yourself part of the global artistic community.
You will have access to your personal tutor, who will be with you at every step. Whether you start learning to draw as a hobby or to sharpen your skills, the provided classes will get you covered and feed your artistic hunger.
Emilyena’s Youtube tutorials stand from the regular online art classes provided by most creative specialists. First, she introduces you to the grim aesthetic with creepy characters, and that’s an intriguing journey to join. Second, as a digital illustrator, she uses Clip Studio Paint for her works, and at her lessons, she shares multiple tips and hacks on drawing in this app.
Her speedpaint videos will inspire those artists who are interested in mythical and scary illustration — or those who need fresh ideas to upgrade their techniques. In order to feel comfortable as you follow Emilyena’s videos, make sure you have some basic skills of digital drawing at Clip Studio Paint (computer or iPad required) or Procreate.
Ctrl+Paint is a free learning resource dedicated to the basics of digital painting. It follows the 5-minute video concept where each video covers a different topic or instruction, allowing you to learn complex subjects to a manageable extent. The lessons cover the matters of digital and analog drawing, composition, color, using reference materials and many more.
The free library has hundreds of online art classes ready to watch. Like a school curriculum, they are organized into a progression from basic to more advanced topics. Along with free short videos, Ctrl+Paint also offers more complex and in-depth paid classes from $10.
If you want to onboard digital art in Procreate, yet never tried yourself in it before, Art with Flo is one of the best online art classes to help you reach this goal. Art with Flo offers video tutorials for beginners and more advanced tutorials for those willing to take a deeper dive, and there’s a lesson to match almost any taste and request.
At Art with Flo, you will find a collection of tutorials, informative articles, and lots of resources like special Procreate brushes, color palettes, and ebooks. Most tutorials are available at Patreon for $10 per month. You should also check their YouTube channel for free classes, challenges, and how-to’s.
Artstation is a popular platform that artists use in many ways: they showcase their artistic portfolios and meet clients, sell their design work and join their creative challenges. Along with that, Artstation stores a rich library of online art classes made by creators for creators.
That’s not the best option for newbies. However, if you have already gained some experience in digital drawing, you’ll find loads of helpful content there. The courses are tooled for various software, from Photoshop and Illustrator to Procreate, Maya, Gravity Sketch, Clip Studio Paint, and a lot more. The versatility of movements and styles is priceless, so you should find some great free tutorials and classes to help you nail the project or technique.
Alphonso Dunn is an artist, art instructor, and author of two books on pen and ink drawing. He also created his Youtube channel to help creators of all levels deepen their understanding of the drawing process. During his free online art classes, he teaches how to develop and refine drawing, pen and ink, and watercolor painting skills and techniques.
Alphonso provides lots of easy-to-follow videos and tutorials to cover a wide range of topics and subjects: like drawing plants, animals, facial features, buildings, and various objects. All his classes are seasoned by invaluable tips, tricks, and techniques based on the basic drawing principles brought in the accessible language.
Anime Art Academy is an e-learning art school based in Tokyo. Since the demand for manga courses is extremely high — both inside and outside Japan — they teamed with professional mangakas and illustrators to create online art classes on manga drawing to fit both beginner and experienced artists. They will guide you from the basics, right to the skills you will need to become a pro.
With the provided in-depth video lessons and the option for personal guidance, you will progress as a manga artist. The teachers evaluate students’ works in order to find their most excellent students. Those whose works are of the right level to make it as a professional illustrator will receive support to help them start their career in Japan.
Marco Bucci is a professional artist with 15 years experience in the film, TV, game, and print industries. He is convinced that experienced artists must pass on what they’ve learned for as low-cost as possible. So he is a teacher at CGMA art school, and running his YouTube channel, where he shares his free tutorials on various topics (from sketching and oil painting to character art) and aspects of the creator’s work.
He teaches creativity and consistency, so there is plenty of content focused on the regular practice. If you find yourself a fan of Marco’s methods or complete all the provided art lessons from Youtube, feel free to join the full-length workshops available on his website.