Introduction
Its 2023 and you don’t need to go to art school to learn how to make kick ass art. There are tons of online resources, free and paid, that can teach you how to make the kind of art you think about in your dreams.
Note, that this is a list of paid art classes Yes, you can self teach art by watching YouTube videos and reading books, but in my experience, they only go so far. Taking a paid art class by a teacher whose work you admire can help speed up your art learning process once you feel like you’ve reached a plateau.
Another thing to take note of is that these classes are for hard art skills like drawing, perspective, sketching, rendering, etc. Typically, these courses do not cover things like art business, negotiating salary, and industry pay, which I would argue is just as important if not more important that the art skills themselves.
Don’t Know What Classes to Take?
Here are the kind of classes I recommend taking in order (for any art career) to get your feet wet:
- Perspective !!
- Color & Light
- Perspective again
- Anatomy
(Seriously - take a class on perspective. Changed my life.)
Table of Contents
IntroductionDon’t Know What Classes to Take?1. Schoolism2. Brainstorm School3. Warrior Art Camp4. Coloso5. SmArt School6. Independent ClassesKat Tsai’s Color & LightConclusion
1. Schoolism
Best all-arounder
Class type(s) & topics: Asynchronous pre-recorded classes covering a variety of topics, from concept art to water color painting to storyboarding. Schoolism also has limited time seminars which you can watch live or watch recordings of for a limited time. They frequently bring in guest lecturers.
Payment: Schoolism is subscription based. You pay one price for access to all the courses, materials, and seminars for as long as you are paying. You can pay monthly which is around $30 or yearly, which is around $250. You can pause and go through course material at your own leisure. Sometimes teachers will host critiqued sessions which are an extra $800+ dollars for instructors to review your work and give you video feedback. Other student’s video critiques are posted to, which I think are just as informative and valuable to watch.
Community: Schoolism shares a Discord server with Light Box Expo (which is a convention just for concept art). They host weekly live study sessions and have a pretty active community of voice channels where you can follow along with recorded courses with other students.
Classes I’ve taken:
- Foolproof Concept Painting with Airi Pan
- Story-Driven Illustrations with Djamila Knopf
- Gesture Drawing the Alex Woo
2. Brainstorm School
Best for concept art for video games and film. (But note the controversy)
Class types & topics: Synchronous classes. Classes aren’t recorded. There are live critiques of everyones work where you are encouraged to talk on the mic. In my experience, I’ve found that criques can last from 1 minute to 30 minutes per person depending on if the teacher likes you or how relatable they find you.
Payment method: Buy 1 class. No recordings. There are some class scholarships you can apply for where you take the class totally free. I did this with the Intro to Anatomy course.
Community: The community is hit or miss. This school is defintly more bro-ey and it shows. There are hardly any female teachers. The male teachers I have had prefer their male students.
Classes I’ve Taken:
- Perspective Boot Camp
- Intro to Anatomy
- Color & Light 1
3. Warrior Art Camp
Best for background painting in animation
Animation industry
Founder:
Paid classes with critique
Paid seminars and demos
- Pretty active discord
4. Coloso
Best for anime-style illustrations and webtoons
Class type(s) & topics: These classes are asynchornous and pre recorded with subtitles. It isn’t a subscription. You buy one course and access it for a lifetime. Most if not all of these classes are taught in Korean or Japanese, but you will get and English translation if you purchase the course.
Payment: One time purchase for one course. No critique.
Community: I don’t know much about the community for Coloso. Note that since the instructors primarily speak Korean (and some Japanese), it can be harder to interact with them on social media if you don’t speak those languages.
5. SmArt School
Best for: Western-style illustrations
Class type(s) & topics: Old school Western illustration. Think 1990’s fantasy book covers, Magic the Gathering Card cards, and traditionally drawn graphic novels.
Payment: These classes are significantly more expensive, but also much longer with more intimate class sizes. You can audit a course, which means you only get to watch the live lectures, and you don’t get any critiques or access to HW or reference material. Classes are not recorded.
Community: SmArt school has a private discord server that you will be invited to when you pay and access a course. This discord isn’t as active as others, but is a good resource nonetheless.
6. Independent Classes
Sometimes artists will organize and host their own classes on Twitter.
The reason that this is at the bottom of the list is because you have to do your own searching to find them. Stalk your favorite artists on social media, and maybe they’ll host their own class one day. DM them and tell them that - if they ever made a class you would take it.
These classes can be a hit or miss since the artist is working entirely indepently from any feedback, but at the same time they can be an amazing resource to learn from artists who are working in the field today.
Kat Tsai’s Color & Light
If I could only take 1 art class, this would be the one.
Conclusion
There are a ton of great places to learn art online nowadays. After 2020’s Covid pandemic, people are finally waking up to the power of virtual classes.
My parting advice to you is to take classes from people who are doing what you want to do today. For example, if you want to go into background painting in the animation industry, there are many great teachers who currently work that exact job and also teach classes online. Take their class. Utilize their knowledge to the full extent by asking them your burning questions about what its like to work in the industry today.