Kevin Hayler: Professional Wildlife artist, author, and traveler.
The Internet is flooded with online drawing tutorials and courses and some are expensive. How can you tell if a course is good or bad? Are online drawing courses worth it? I can help.
Online Drawing courses are worth it if you want to work at your own pace, save money, and avoid heavy commitments. A student must be self-motivated and disciplined to get the most out of online drawing lessons.
Make no mistake, you will find better teachers online than you are likely to find in most art schools or evening classes. The problem is sorting the wheat from the chaff.
I’ve listed 5 of the best online drawing courses and classes for beginners and intermediates. Some have affiliate links some do not, but these are talented artists I admire and who have the knowledge and skills to offer great advice.
Disclaimer: When you buy something via my affiliate links I earn from qualifying purchases and sometimes earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. I am an Amazon Associate among others. I only recommend trusted sites.
How I Chose The Best Online Drawing Courses
Choosing the best online drawing course is entirely subjective. I can only offer my opinion based on the courses I have discovered and the things that I know are important.
I’m into traditional realism. I think most learners want to draw what they see. Assuming that’s the case, I chose artists I admire, those who I consider to be experts in their field, and who teach well.
I chose courses where I can see the benefit for the student. These creators are skilled craftsmen who can draw with the best and are able to pass on their knowledge with clarity and conviction
And what makes me so sure that I am qualified to give my opinion? Good question. This is an example of my work.
It may or may not appeal to you, it is after all, subjective. What matters is I have enough knowledge and experience to be able to make an informed decision on your behalf. At the very least you’ll know where I’m coming from.
1. The Art and Science of Drawing: Basic Skills by Brent Eviston
Best Course for Beginners
If you’re looking for in-depth experience taught by a world-class artist and educator, Brent Eviston’s tutorials and courses are a great place to start.
Over the past 20 years, Brent has taught in his studios, museums, galleries, and schools, and has developed numerous bestselling online figure drawing courses taught to an international student base.
This has allowed him to bring a sophisticated level of education to his online tutorials and courses for beginners.
What does Brent Eviston teach in his drawing course?
This course is intended for beginners who want to and skills required to begin drawing. It will provide you with a solid foundation from which you can build as your abilities progress.
You’ll learn the basic principles of drawing, such as the importance of observing and analyzing your subject, and the value of breaking down your subject into its basic shapes before adding the lines and details. He even teaches you how to hold your pencil properly.
This course includes 4.5 hours of video content and is designed to be used on-demand and when it’s needed. It includes 2 downloadable resources, access via a mobile device, and a certification of completion.
The course is designed to be a discovery-based, step-by-step approach to learning through a series of modules. You’ll learn the basic drawing and sketching techniques, and become familiar with the tools and materials needed to create your art.
The goal of this course is to give you a solid understanding of the fundamentals of drawing.
This video-based course is structured to guide you through the drawing process, one day at a time. Each day you’ll watch a video and you’ll be asked to complete the task ready for the next day
Who’s this course for?
This course is designed for anyone who wants to learn how to draw from scratch. It is the first in a series 7 courses that cover every aspect of the drawing process.
The Full Set of Courses includes:
- Basic Skills
- Dynamic Mark Making
- Form & Space
- Measuring & Proportion
- Contours
- Shading Fundamentals
- Shading: Beyond the Basics
Find all of Brents many Drawing Courses, free and paid, in one place
Read these posts if you want to know more:
- Is Udemy Worth it? Pros and Cons For Artists and Designers
- Is Skillshare Worth It? The Pros and Cons for Artists and Designers
2. The Shading Course by Dorian Iten
Best Course for Shading Techniques
Dorian Iten’s Shading Course distills over a decade of teaching experience into a clear, compact program that helps artists strengthen their shading technique.
Dorian has spent years studying with some of the most respected masters in the world to learn exactly how light and shadow work.
Dorian is good at making hard topics easy to understand, and it’s little wonder that over 20,000 artists from all over the world have used his lessons to improve their skills
This is a video gives you a feel for Dorians style.
What You’ll Learn in Dorians Course
This course is designed to help you stop guessing and start understanding how light truly works. It provides a clear, step-by-step path so you can draw with confidence.
What You Will Learn:
- The “language of light” so your drawings look 3D and real instead of flat.
- How to use reflected light and ambient occlusion to add professional depth to your art.
- How to organize tonal values
- How light hits different shapes so you can draw accurately from your head or from real life
Key Features
- 68 lessons that explain complex topics in a simple way.
- 30 hands-on homework assignments to help you practice what you see in the videos.
- Lifetime access so you can learn at your own pace and watch the videos as many times as you want.
- Video captions available in both English and Spanish.
- A full money-back guarantee if you are not happy with the lessons for any reason
Overall Expectation
Students can expect a clear, structured introduction to realistic shading that emphasizes seeing and thinking like an artist. By the end of the course, you’ll have a stronger grasp of shading techniques, value, and light, the essential building blocks for creating convincing, 3D drawings.
Dorian likes to explain the technical side of drawing and has a methodical approach.
Tools Needed:
- 2B Pencil
- 2H Pencil
- Kneadable Eraser
- Eraser Pen
- Cheap Sketchpad
- White Canson Mi-Teintes paper (160g)
- Sharpener
3. Realistic Portrait Drawing by Stephen Bauman
Best Course for Portrait Drawing
I first came across Stephen Bauman when I was scrolling through Instagram, As you do. It made me stop and find out who he was.
I was blown away by his technique. This guy drew the way I wanted to draw but never have. I was in awe, and still am. He is the real deal.
I went straight to Patreon and donated to his page. I am a big fan.
Stephen is trained in the Florence Academy of Art, where he later taught, and you can see by the nature of his studies how he has mastered classical realism. He is one of the best portrait artists in the world, he’s gently spoken, articulate, and always smiling.
If I have any concerns at all, and I feel awkward even saying this, Stephen is very academic and sometimes uses language in a curiously complicated way. I’ll give you an example.
I was listening to one of his tutorials and he described his use of an aqueous dispersant. That was his way of saying that he was using water. It’s nit-picking and maybe it says more about me.
Stephens Portrait course on Proko is aimed at intermediate and advanced students. If you want some more fundamental lessons, check out his Patreon classes and sign up. Alternatively find him on Instagram, as I did, or Youtube.
What Does Stephen Bauman Teach in his Portrait Drawing Course?
The Portrait Drawing Course on Proko is a training program that helps you draw the human face like a professional.
Stephen completes this portrait over 2 days working entirely from a live model and finishing with realistic rendering. This demo/lesson is a must-have for those wanting to see the entire process and workflow of a professional draftsman in real time.
There are two versions of the course. The full 12+ hour version is where you get to see the entire process of drawing a portrait from start to finish, and the edited version shows only the essentials you need to know.
You will be taught a process not dissimilar to Shane Wolf in the previous course.
Stephen builds the drawing in a series of layers over a basic well-proportioned scaffold, and refines each simple shape progressively until in the final stages, he adds the finer detail.
Of course, he explains it better than I ever could.
Stephen uses mechanical pencils extensively so check out this post:: Best Mechanical Drawing Pencils For Artists
There are 21 lessons in all covering every aspect of drawing the head.
It starts off by showing you how to block in the proportions using shape design to create a likeness and establish the basic shapes with light and shade
This is followed by lessons on how to organize halftones to keep the drawing coordinated and well-structured.
He discusses the importance of recognizing and developing the planes of the head and explains how to refine the shadows and highlights.
You’ll learn how to soften the edges and use different shading techniques for different effects.
And that’s all there is to it!
Read this first: Are Proko Courses Worth It? A Review – Pros and Cons
4. Jason Morgan on Patreon and Youtube
Best Classes for Pastel Pencils
I had to think about including Jason in this list, not because he isn’t very good, but because his working methods might make a purist scream.
There was another reason, he’s only on YouTube and Patreon and again I get no referral commission. Frankly, I’m gutted!
But let’s face it, not including someone for mercenary reasons would be wrong, so why do I think his teaching methods are valuable?
He delights in revealing all the tricks of his trade. He holds nothing back, no trade secrets, and no BS. That’s why I like him.
I first came across Jason on Youtube, he bills himself as a wildlife artist and his channel is mostly dedicated to teaching people his approach to drawing and painting the natural world. In truth his passion extends to all living creatures, he paints plenty of pets and domestic animals too.
His bio is thin on detail, but as a self-taught professional wildlife artist myself, and a fellow Brit, I would put money down that he is from the same ordinary non-academic background as myself.
Jason has refined his work methods into an easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach that demystifies the painting and drawing process.
This is not the tuition you’ll find in an art college. This is a pragmatic, down-to-earth, tell-it-as-it-is, approach to drawing and painting, and I think you’ll love it.
Read this: Is Drawing From Reference Photos Bad? Are You Cheating?
He speaks in plain English, with no fancy art jargon to blind you. If you want to know how most professional artists really draw and paint, Jason is your man.
What Does Jason Morgan Teach in His Tutorials?
Jason teaches just about everything you need to know about drawing/painting with pastel pencils along with other mediums. He’s a dab hand at oils, acrylics, and colored pencils too.
He has a wealth of free material on his YouTube channel, so much so, that I haven’t even joined his Patreon channel, not that the price puts me off, but his Patreon membership tariffs are an absolute bargain.
Concentrating on YouTube for a moment, at the time of writing in 2022, his channel has an impressive 83.4K subscribers. Now before you say that there are other artists with far more subs, you must take into account that wildlife art is quite a small niche.
His playlists cover every aspect of using pastel pencils and range from a whopping 81 beginner videos, to art book and art supply reviews, and even image editing. This is comprehensive stuff.
Jason will teach you how to draw fur, feathers, and eyes, he teaches how to make backgrounds, draw with charcoal, underpainting, you name it? He even gives away copyright-free photo references.
I particularly valued his video tutorial about color-picking. As someone who can draw but by cruel irony, is also colorblind, this tip was really helpful.
So far so good, so what’s the controversy? Well, where do you stand on tracing? Jason traces his drawings. He explains his reasoning and they are perfectly valid. He’s a professional artist and time is money. He wants to get the mapping done as quickly as possible.
As a pro myself I have every sympathy and I’ve traced plenty of pictures in the past. I know that you can’t trace properly without being able to draw too. It’s a shortcut to an outcome. But do learners want to learn how to trace? Should non-professionals trace at all?
I know that a good freehand drawing will always have more life and movement than a precise mechanical drawing. It’s poor practice on one level and can stifle creativity. It’s pragmatic on another, especially, if like me, you draw slowly.
This post goes further: Tracing Art – Is It Good or Bad? When Is Tracing Cheating and Is It Ever OK?
For the sake of balance and to be fair, he also teaches you how to use a proportional divider. This is a far better method because it allows you to draw accurately while retaining the spontaneity of a freehand sketch.
He does one other thing that I have learned to avoid. He uses other people’s photo references, with permission and acknowledgments, but I’m not so sure it’s best practice.
I know we’ve all done that at some point but I do question its worth. I know how hard it is to take good reference photos, while at the same time, I also know how intrinsic it is to a sense of pride in your finished work.
It doesn’t matter how good your art is, if you copy another person’s work it will never be truly your own, and that is important. In my opinion.
This is also important: Can You Copy Art and Sell a Painting of a Painting? I Found Out
Those minor criticisms apart, I have no hesitation in recommending that you follow Jason and join his Patreon classes for longer tutorials.
This is his offer on Patreon (screenshot) as of May 2026:
I rounded these prices up to the nearest dollar:
- Tier 3. – $19 (£14)
- Tier 1. – $10 (£7.50)
- Tier 2. – $15 (£11.00)
There is a 4th level for $36 (£27) per month that offers everything plus a personal critique of your work. It was ‘Sold Out’ When I looked.
There is also a companion website called https://www.wildlife-art-lessons.com/ and yet another https://www.jasonmorgan.co.uk/videos where you can buy his premium videos.
You’ll be interested in this post: Is Patreon Worth it? What You Should Know
5. Drawing Basics by Stan Proko
Best Drawing Course for Value for Money
Stan Prokopenko’s Drawing Basics course is built to give beginners and intermediate artists an easy way to learn fundamental drawing skills.
I am promoting his course as value for money, why? Because he has 58 free videos and 185 in total, covering every aspect of drawing. Even if you decide not to buy his course there is a wealth of freebies to enjoy.
His approach is to break down each aspect of drawing into the simplest terms. There is nothing academic or intimidating in his style. He uses visual teaching wonderfully. It’s easy to follow his tuition.
What You’ll Learn From This Course
- Lines: How to create confident strokes, vary line weight, and use warm‑ups to improve control.
- Shapes: Techniques for simplifying complex subjects into basic forms and designing dynamic silhouettes.
- Perspective: Practical exercises in one‑, two‑, and three‑point perspective, plus intuitive freehand methods for constructing 3D forms.
- Values: Training your eye to see light and shadow accurately, then applying shading to reveal form.
- Edges: Understanding transitions between values to show whether a surface is flat, rounded, or sharply angled.
Key Features
- A large library of lessons with demonstrations, projects, and critiques.
- Assignments at both beginner and intermediate levels, so you can revisit the course as your skills grow.
- Step‑by‑step demos that make each concept easy to follow.
- Opportunities to share work and learn from community feedback.
- Lifetime access, with optional premium extras like extended lessons and downloadable resources.
Overall Expectation
By the end of the course, students will have a repeatable process for drawing anything in three dimensions. It’s a structured, engaging program that builds confidence while leaving room for creativity, making it a strong starting point for anyone serious about learning to draw.
Stan has a teaching style that may appeal more to a younger audience. He certainly doesn’t take himself too seriously.
Why Buy an Online Drawing Course?
Let’s make sure we are drawing on the same page. An online drawing course is a series of instructional videos where an expert teaches you new, or more advanced, drawing skills. Beginners to advanced.
There are 4 great reasons to try an online course:
Structured Lessons
You will find many drawing classes on YouTube that are similar but they lack one important component, and that’s structure.
When you learn an art, you need to learn the basics first. Learning the basics is the shortest and surest route to mastery. It helps you avoid getting stuck in bad habits and gives you the foundation for further practice.
In other words, you need to build on what you’ve learned before. The order you learn things is important.
Expert Instructors
If you’re serious about drawing, you should learn from an expert instructor who can draw exceptionally well.
Not only will you learn better, but you’ll also avoid the pitfalls that come from learning on your own. You’ll skip the frustration, the years of bad habits, and the countless hours of practice that could have been better spent.
I see countless courses online that are made by amateurs who might talk the talk, but who can’t actually draw themselves. There are so many misguided, self-deluding ‘experts’ out there, who can’t do the very things that they teach.
This might interest you: How To Draw in Public: The Experience of an Artist
And please don’t make the mistake of thinking a degree makes any difference. Qualifications mean very little. The only thing that matters is the quality of their work. Nothing else.
Easy Communication
Good communication skills are important. It’s not enough just to have the technical skills if you can’t explain how to use them.
A teacher needs to be able to explain their ideas in a clear and simple way, taking nothing for granted, there is no room for ambiguity.
Not only that, they must demonstrate those skills in their own work. The proof is in the pudding.
Needless to say, instructors who are experts in both disciplines are thin on the ground.
Community Feedback
One other aspect of online learning that sets it apart from other ways of learning is the community.
That may sound like an oxymoron, but the last thing it is going to be is a community. In a way but hear me out.
The advantage of learning alone is the confidence it gives you to play and experiment without the fear of failure or exposure.
We all have to learn somewhere but equally, we all compare to others and the thought of displaying your early lack of skill can be overwhelming. This is where the online community comes in. You are one step away. It’s safe
You can post what you are comfortable showing. The best teachers encourage their students to share and offer feedback. This is invaluable.
How Much Do Online Drawing Classes Cost?
That’s a tough question to answer simply, there are so many variables at play and so many different ways to measure cost.
It’s easy to say that you get what you pay for, but you know what? that’s not true. You pay what the market will bear and some platforms target a more affluent crowd than others and charge more for the same service.
Other sites go for volume. Stack ’em high and sell ’em cheap. They take a small profit from a high turnover. It’s a different business model.
Does paying a premium guarantee a better result? Emphatically NO.
The cost of a course can range from free to many hundreds of dollars.
Free lessons on YouTube are usually teasers, they offer just enough for the potential student to get some value and then they try to sell the course. Nothing wrong with that.
Many students don’t need an entire course, they might be stuck in one particular area and benefit from a free lesson covering that exact problem.
A frugal student could even cherry-pick from various Youtubers and learn a great deal.
You have to bear in mind that a popular YouTuber isn’t really giving their content away. They are using YouTube to make money with ads (more than you think) and to redirect traffic to affiliate links and other offers. It’s not altruistic.
That said most of us will want the convenience of a package that comes with a teacher and a course.
Most of the ‘cheaper’ course sites have adopted the membership fee model to gain access to their library of content. The customer pays a monthly or yearly subscription and in return gains access to a library of video courses.
Udemy still sell individual courses starting from about $20 and rising. The canny buyer should search, see a course, wait for the Udemy cookies to do their work, and wait for a promo.
Be warned. These ‘deals’ often backfire with unwanted auto renewals.
These are 3 well known platforms worth exploring (Updated for 2026):
- Udemy – From $12 monthly or pay yearly
- Domestika – $174.50 per annum first year (renewed at $349)
- Skillshare – $167.88 per annum
This will interest you: Is Art School Worth it? Is it a Waste of Money?
What Are The Best Online Drawing Courses? Final Thoughts
Although your appreciation of the subject matter and style of a picture is purely a matter of personal taste, realism is not subjective at all. Think of a portrait. Is it a likeness or not? You know instantly how good it is. If one thing is wrong our brain detects it immediately.
Related post: Is Art Subjective? Is There Good and Bad Art? Do We Need Critics?
We can measure a person’s talent and skill levels by their abilities to draw what they observe.
The courses I’ve picked are my choice and I don’t know if there are better courses out there somewhere, but I do know they are all very fine artists who teach well and are experts in their respective fields.
None of these courses are going to break the bank. They are all affordable and you will learn a great deal.
Pick one and go for it.
If you want to sell your art and don’t know where to start, I can show you how I do it. All you’ve got to do is copy the idea
These are a few more articles you will enjoy:
- Is Redbubble Worth it? Pros and Cons For Artists and Designers
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- 25 Platforms for Artists to Sell Their Art Online and Make Money
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- How to Get Better at Drawing: 15 Ways to Improve Your Art -FAST
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Hi, I’m Kevin Hayler
I’ve been selling my wildlife art and traveling the world for over 20 years, and if that sounds too good to be true, I’ve done it all without social media, art school, or galleries!
I can show you how to do it. You’ll find a wealth of info on my site, about selling art, drawing tips, lifestyle, reviews, travel, my portfolio, and more. Enjoy