FREE Trial with Benzinga Pro happening right now!
Need to take art courses for professional development or prefer to take them for fun? No matter why you’re interested in learning about art, there are plenty of art courses that can help you.
We’ve put together a list of some of the most interesting and rewarding online art courses you can take to continue your creative journey. Check our list of the best art courses available.
Quick Look: Best Online Art Courses
- The Complete Figure Drawing Course HD (Udemy)
- The Ultimate Drawing Course – Beginner to Advanced (Udemy)
- The Art & Science of Figure Drawing: Gesture (Udemy)
- MoMA: In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting (Coursera)
- Game Design: Art and Concepts Specialization: CaLARTS (Coursera)
- Character Design for Video Games: CalARTS (Coursera)
- 3D Animation & Modeling Master Class – Beginner to Advanced (Udemy)
Featured Courses:
What Makes an Online Art Course Great?
Taking an art course at a college or university can be expensive. Online art courses provide a good option because they’re budget-friendly and give you access to high-quality professional artists and studio practitioners. Taking courses online also gives you the flexibility to learn at your own pace and around your schedule.
Many online art courses offer lifetime access to plenty of study materials to use throughout your career and beyond. These courses are affordable, flexible and full of enriching material.
Our Top Picks
You can find several courses in art history, restoration and painting techniques. We also feature online courses that teach artistic software for a reasonable price. Courses are designed for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Choose classes that resonate most with your current level of expertise.
Here’s our comprehensive guide to the best art courses that offer a variety of media for a wallet-friendly price. We’ve included our top picks for traditional art to technical computer graphics courses.
Best Online Art Courses
Here’s our list of the best art courses that can give your artistic talent an edge.
1. The Complete Figure Drawing Course HD (Udemy)
- Who it’s for: Beginner art students
- Price: $9.99
This course will help you learn the basics of figure drawing and anatomy. Course instructor Riven Phoenix is highly recognized for his figure drawing classes used by students worldwide and also by leading entertainment studios around the world, such as Disney and Lucas Films. His courses are highly recommended by art schools and art students can gain industrial art knowledge by enrolling in this course.
The module contains 92 hours of on-demand video with a step-by-step guide to construct the human form rapidly. With this course, you can apply your artistic skills to any art and design field that you choose — whether in painting, illustrations, storybooks or even animation.
2. The Art & Science of Drawing/ Basic Skills (Udemy)
- Who it’s for: Beginners and intermediate-level artists
- Price: $9.99
This course is created by Brent Eviston, a former student of Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles. Having taught drawing for over 20 years, Brent’s class is one of the best you can enroll in if you want to learn the fundamentals of drawing skills. The course is full of powerful insights that can teach you many tools and techniques essential for any artist. In fact, the class is highly recommended and rated — it will dramatically improve your art and design skills and take your career to the next level.
Instruction provides step-by-step guidelines from holding a pencil correctly to incorporating detail and texture to bring your drawings to life. If you seek basic skills of drawing and painting, taking this course will give you a firm foundation.
3. The Ultimate Drawing Course – Beginner to Advanced (Udemy)
- Who it's for: Beginners to advanced artists
- Price: $9.99
The Ultimate Drawing Course by Udemy — the module — stands as one of the most cost-effective art courses the internet has to offer. The course is geared to teach you drawing fundamentals and take your skills to the level of professional dexterity. You can create over 50 different projects through its 11 sections of the course period. It also comes with a full money-back guarantee within 30 days of purchasing the course.
4. The Art & Science of Figure Drawing: Gesture (Udemy)
- Who it's for: Basic drawing skills recommended but not required for this course
- Price: $9.99
This excellent figure drawing course is for beginners who want to get trained in gesture drawing. With 11 hours of on-demand video, the class teaches you how to draw dynamic, expressive features and to assemble the separate parts of the figure to make a complete drawing.
Your instructor, Brent Eviston, gives you hands-on instruction and teaches you how to draw timed practice poses. You’ll learn how to capture the essence of the pose through curves and study motion and movement. Once enrolled, you have access to anatomical diagrams, demonstrations and photographs of nude models to study from.
5. MoMA: In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting (Coursera)
- Who it's for: Beginner-level course
- Price: Enroll for free – financial aid available
If you want to combine studio art with art history and are looking forward to delving into different painting techniques, this class is ideal for you. Apart from various reading and resources, the course offers in-depth, hands-on training, techniques and ideas used by 7 prominent New York School artists, including Agnes Martin, William de Kooning, Yayoi Kusama, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock.
Here you will explore the works of art by live studio demonstrations and gallery walkthroughs and form a deeper understanding of the intellectual and historical diaspora of post World War II. Learners can participate in the studio exercises and post images of their own paintings to the discussion boards. MoMA’s In the Studio is a perfect blend of studio practices and polishing your visual analysis skills.
6. Game Design: Art and Concepts Specialization: CaLARTS (Coursera)
- Who it's for: Designed for beginner-level students
- Price: Enroll for free – financial aid available
If you’re not into traditional art but more into storytelling, video games and character development, this course is perfect for you. Learn how to master the art of gaming and the role conceptualization plays in it. Here instructors teach you the essential tools and techniques applied in the gaming industry today.
With its renowned animation program and expert faculty, the course encourages learners to take conceptual risks that can lead to some new development in game art staying within the parameters of aesthetic principles. Enjoy a flexible schedule as you progress to the final Capstone Project, where you will finally put your knowledge into practice by generating a game design document for a personal gaming project.
7. Character Design For Animation in Illustrator (Udemy)
- Who it's for: Intended for people interested in creating their own characters for animation
- Price: On sale
Want to create animated characters and prep them for animation? If you’ve always wanted to create memorable characters and enjoy animating them, this course is ideal for you. It not only teaches you the basics of concept art but also delves deep into the theory behind character psychology.
Once you learn how to give personality to your beloved character using different poses and facial expressions, you will be guided to take it to Adobe Illustrator to rig for animation. So, if you are passionate about creating cool characters and bringing them to life, this course gets you closer to your story.
8. Character Design for Video Games: CalARTS (Coursera)
- Who it's for: Beginners
- Price: Enroll for free – financial aid available
In this course, you will learn the concepts and approaches to create character designs for gaming platforms. Taught by character animation faculty Fran Krause, the course begins with foundational concepts of successful character design and takes you to structured classes for the remaining lessons.
These classes give you the opportunity to observe three professional character designers working in the studio: Robertryan Cory (SpongeBob SquarePants), Andy Ristaino (Adventure Time) and Jacky Ke Jiang (Journey). You will learn from each designer as they deal with various challenges of designing characters for games. Finally, you’ll have an opportunity to try out some of these learned concepts and apply them to create your unique character design.
9. 3D Animation & Modeling Master Class – Beginner to Advanced (Udemy)
- Who it’s for: Beginner to advanced 3D artists, graphic designers and game designers
- Price: On sale
This course was created to be the ultimate bootcamp for anyone who wants to master the art of 3D animation. In this course, you’ll learn how to master Maya, Mudbox and 3DSMax and use them to create professional-quality assets for your games and animation to include them in your portfolio.
The Master Class covers everything from the basic fundamentals to creating stunning assets for your projects. The course is created by the School of Game Design and contains 6 downloadable resources along with 22.5 hours of on-demand video tutorials. With the computer animation and gaming industry’s top tools and techniques, learning animation, modeling and texturing has never been easier.
Get the Best Art Course for You
Whether you’re starting out in a new artistic career or are an established artist, choosing the right course can translate your passion into a rewarding venture and help you stay current in the industry. Take one of these instructional courses to enhance your artistic talent and bridge the gap for a more rewarding career in this everchanging, creative industry.
With these convenient and affordable courses you can learn at your own pace and get the certification you need to level up, saving you valuable time and money.
Southern New Hampshire University Online
SNHU Online Offers:
- Flexible schedules
- Affordable tuition
- Online tutoring
- Access to electronic research materials
- Specialized academic advising
- Supportive online community