Online drawing classes - any recommendations?

[Montero]

So I have my tablet and have done the odd doodle to get the hang of the pen function - thank you to folks on that thread.

My current aim is towards drawing cartoons - but I'd like to take some drawing lessons first - as in learning to sketch.

There are a myriad of drawing classes out there online, but I just wondered if anyone had any they particularly liked? And ones where you can ask for feedback?
If there are any for people starting off with tablets rather than pencil and paper, that would be especially helpful.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

drawabox.com - its designed for paper, but you can transfer all the skills to a tablet - particularly pen control, which is always a bit funky unless you have a really expensive one, or have mastered your settings.

Do you have an artist glove yet?

 

[HEarts]

Check at Udemy, there is a plethora of drawing classes. But! You should wait for things to go on sale, it’s where i started when i began drawing seriously.

if you’re serious and want to git gud. Marc burnette has a free YouTube series and actual classes that i recommend 100%

 

[Montero]

Thanks folks.

@Mon0Zer0 Artists glove- had to go and look that up - the tablet I've got only responds to the pen that comes with it. Do I still need a glove?

@HEarts Marc Burnette - struggled a little to find the right one - is this the one you mean?

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Thanks folks.

@Mon0Zer0 Artists glove- had to go and look that up - the tablet I've got only responds to the pen that comes with it. Do I still need a glove?

the glove just helps you draw lines smoothly by reducing friction on the tablet surface.

 

[HEarts]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtu_JtQCY0yryIy6zK4ZCg sorry i was exhausted when i posted, and a bit tired haha. I gave you a youtube link to his free stuff. His other website Is ART School on Cubebrush.co. It’s pricy, but If you’re starting from the ground up it’s a two year course and he was the lead designer at blizzard at one point.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I'm not sure how that glove would make drawing curves on a tablet any easier but I can see that it would be useful in traditional media for keeping sweaty oily skin off expensive high quality paper. Personally I draw all my comics on bog standard A4 printer paper. If I need to protect the lower portion of a page of art as I redo something at the top of a sheet (I usually draw panels in reading order) I'll just tape a piece of blank paper over the lower part of the page and lean on that.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

They're not all for drawing, but Art Station has a really nice elearning section for digital art of many kinds. Usually, you need to have either a pro or a plus account to be able to watch the videos, but, for the rest of this year, they've made it available for the free accounts also. You might also look at Pencil Kings.

 

[Keturah]

I haven't done many online classes so I don't have many suggestions that fit everything you're looking for but I can throw out a few ideas and hope something is useful for you! :


Proko does some great youtube quick tutorials on basic anatomy.
Not everything he says is law and there's a lot of different methods of learning when it comes to anatomy but especially his Lomis head videos I found massively helpful!
(I linked directly to one of the first videos on said method)

Ethan Becker also makes some great youtube tutorials and leans more towards the cartoony side so I thought you might like that! His videos are a bit full on with the jokes and drama but what his says is usually quite helpful. He has a discord group where he does classes and feedback.

New Masters Academy, CroquisCafe and Line of Action have some great images for gesture / life drawing.

Sorry this is a bit long, I hope this helped!

 

[Montero]

Thank you all. I am slowly getting around to looking at different videos. Just had a whole long run of admin **** turn up just when I fancied drawing plus I am sitting out in garden as much as possible in the sun while we still have sitting out weather - and all signals are very erratic so...... It will probably be a month or more before I have watched through videos and tried things out. Just didn't want people thinking I'd lost interest or summat and really appreciate all of you taking time for this. Maybe a bit more than a month as we have VISITORS next month! And the house is *&*%%**. Really looking forward to visitors, housework not so much. Am starting gradually on days when it isn't sunny. But the sun keeps shining. Life is so hard.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Thank you all. I am slowly getting around to looking at different videos. Just had a whole long run of admin **** turn up just when I fancied drawing plus I am sitting out in garden as much as possible in the sun while we still have sitting out weather - and all signals are very erratic so...... It will probably be a month or more before I have watched through videos and tried things out. Just didn't want people thinking I'd lost interest or summat and really appreciate all of you taking time for this. Maybe a bit more than a month as we have VISITORS next month! And the house is *&*%%**. Really looking forward to visitors, housework not so much. Am starting gradually on days when it isn't sunny. But the sun keeps shining. Life is so hard.

So draw outside.

 

[Montero]

I want to sit and watch the tutorials and do the exercises in them which I can't do outside due to poor quality connection. By the time I am in the house in the evening, don't have the concentration for learning new things. Anything I draw at the moment looks bleh to me, so I don't want to sit and freehand without the tutorials.

 

[JunkMonkey]

So it's bleh. Seriously, if you want to learn to draw, draw.

 

[Montero]

I am happiest learning first then do-ing. It's just how I am. My post that started this bit was just meant to show it was work in progress and was supposed to be vaguely amusing.

 

[Aknot]

I’ve taken online classes for the past year and a half. I started with drawabox and have continued with some paid courses with Brainstorm, CDA and Peter Han. My focus is traditional media but the advice I’ve gotten is that learning pen and paper first will do a lot down the road. Because if that I would highly recommend drawabox as a start.

My progress has been decent but I attribute a lot to it to simply doing basic exercises. Drawing isn’t an academic skill. You can’t read books and memorize it. It’s much more an athletic endeavor, believe it or not. You gotta train your muscles to get the control you need to apply the theory you learn. That is hours upon hours of just drawing. But what you draw matters. The first few lessons of drawabox - just practicing lines, circles, ellipses, boxes, organic forms etc - will serve you even as a pro. Do a page or two of them every day. It’s a grind, and not what drawabox is about, but adding that practice on top of the lessons and homework DAB offers will boost you a lot.

Good luck and feel free to ask questions about courses etc