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165 Best + Free Drawing Courses & Certificates [2026]
Ranked by Michael Kuhlman, CourseDuck's founder, from student reviews across every provider. How we rank
Our top picks
- The Ultimate Drawing Course - Beginner to Advanced [Udemy]
- Character Art School: Complete Character Drawing [Udemy]
- Drawing and Painting on the iPad with Procreate [Udemy]
- The Ultimate Digital Painting Course - Beginner to Advanced [Udemy]
- Drawing for Kids: How to Draw 25 Easy Cartoons Step-by-Step [Udemy]
- The Art & Science of Drawing / BASIC SKILLS [Udemy] - Best Paid Course
- The Ultimate Character Design Course [Udemy]
- Anatomy for Figure Drawing: Mastering the Human Figure [Udemy]
- How to Draw Cute Cartoon Characters [Udemy]
- Manga Art School: The Complete Anime & Manga Drawing Course [Udemy]
About the best Drawing courses
Frequently asked questions
- Udemy and Eduonix are best for practical, low cost and high quality Drawing courses.
- Coursera, Udacity and EdX are the best providers for a Drawing certificate, as many come from top Ivy League Universities.
- YouTube is best for free Drawing crash courses.
- PluralSight, SkillShare and LinkedIn are the best monthly subscription platforms if you want to take multiple Drawing courses.
- Independent Providers for Drawing courses & certificates are generally hit or miss.
- Average
- $46,457 a year
- Middle half earn
- $31,500 to $53,000 25th to 75th percentile
- Full range
- $18,500 to $84,500
Share of US job postings in each pay band; the dark bar holds the average, the striped bars the 25th and 75th percentiles. Source: ZipRecruiter salary data, gathered when this guide was first published in January 2021.
1
The Ultimate Drawing Course - Beginner to Advanced (2022)
A pencil-and-paper fundamentals course from illustrator Jaysen Batchelor that has taken over half a million students from line and shading through perspective to the face and figure.
Best for: Complete beginners with paper and a pencil who want a structured path through the fundamentals before drawing people.
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- Builds from line and value up through perspective, still life, face and figure in a logical order
- Homework and worksheets after sections, so students practice instead of just watching
- Around 11 hours in 64 short lectures, realistic to finish in a few weeks
- Active Facebook group of students fills the gap left by a quiet Q&A
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- First drawing lesson is a photo-realistic eye, which one beginner found discouraging
- Reference photos the instructor draws from are not supplied to students
- Last updated March 2022 and the Q&A gets few replies from the instructors now
2
Character Art School: Complete Character Drawing (2026)
Scott Harris's theory-first character drawing course, 28 hours across 10 modules, with around 318,000 students and a 4.6 rating from nearly 67,000 reviews.
Best for: Self-directed beginners who want the theory behind drawing characters from imagination and will do the assignments alone.
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- Explanations are clear and concise; even a three-star reviewer says he was never confused.
- Module 10 alone is nearly 13 hours of full character drawing demos, start to finish.
- Refreshed in August 2026 and comes with 7GB of extra videos, brushes and workflow files.
- Students can send their work to the instructor for feedback, according to reviews.
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- The first two modules are mostly talking, with little drawing on screen.
- Theory first: practice happens in assignments done alone, which one reviewer says can take months.
- One beginner says she got lost once 3D forms started, with no gentle ramp up; another calls it unstructured for beginners.
3
Drawing and Painting on the iPad with Procreate (2021)
A 5-hour, hands-on Procreate walkthrough from illustrator Brad Colbow that gets iPad owners comfortable with the app fast, though it hasn't been updated since 2021.
Best for: iPad owners who want to learn Procreate's tools by making a comic strip and a painting rather than sitting through a feature list.
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- Easy to follow; reviewers with zero Procreate experience say they felt comfortable by the end
- Learn by making things: a full comic strip section and a final painting, not just a tool tour
- Colbow's delivery and pleasant voice get repeated praise in the reviews
- Short at about 5 hours, with captions in 15 languages
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- Last updated December 2021, so Procreate features added since then are missing
- A couple of students found sections hard to connect and the teaching not systematic enough
- Little guidance on picking canvas sizes for print versus web
4
The Ultimate Digital Painting Course - Beginner to Advanced (2022)
A 27 hour, fundamentals first path from the brush tool to photorealistic painting and character design, with an early drawn eye that keeps beginners moving before the theory lands.
Best for: Complete beginners with a tablet and Photoshop who want drawing theory and digital painting taught in one place.
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- Opens with drawing an eye, so beginners get a real result early on before the theory starts
- Fundamentals sections on perspective, light and color, and color theory come before full paintings
- Students say the two instructors explain key concepts clearly at a pace that is neither too hard nor too easy
- 27 hours across 18 sections reach people, environments, character design and a photorealistic style
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- Exercise files are Photoshop documents, so a reviewer on another app says most assignments are off limits
- Some later sections are painting time lapses with little explanation, according to lower-star reviews
- Unnamed layers and unfixed resource files frustrate followers, and the last update was March 2022
5
Drawing for Kids: How to Draw 25 Easy Cartoons Step-by-Step (2026)
A free, two-hour set of 25 follow-along cartoon animal drawings from an elementary art teacher, built for kids and nervous adult beginners who want quick wins.
Best for: Parents who want a calm, step-by-step drawing activity for a child aged roughly four to nine, or an adult who thinks they can't draw.
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- Free, and just under two hours, so a child can finish a whole animal in one short sitting.
- Videos are paced slowly enough to draw along in real time, which reviewers single out.
- 25 different cartoons across ocean, forest, garden, farm and safari animals keep kids interested.
- Refreshed in August 2026, so it is not a forgotten 2015 upload.
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- Aimed at young children; older kids and adults may find the cartoons childish.
- No theory, shading, color guidance or human figures, only outline-style animals.
- No feedback or assignments; one reviewer felt the drawings looked worse than freehand.
6
The Art & Science of Drawing / BASIC SKILLS (2020)
What You'll Learn
- How to draw any shape.
- How to observe and analyze any subject.
- How to draw any form by breaking it down into basic shapes before adding dark lines.
- How to use light lines and basic shapes to lay an accurate foundation for finished drawings.
- How to hold the pencil.
- How to bring your drawings to life with detail and texture.
7
The Ultimate Character Design Course (2025)
A 24-hour, beginner-friendly path from basic pencil control to full character design, built around a Q&A community and a start-to-finish demo section.
Best for: Complete beginners who want a structured, ground-up path into character design with feedback.
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- Breaks fundamentals down step by step before tackling full characters
- Q&A community where students post work and get feedback
- Feels personal, almost like a private lesson, reviewers say
- Full start-to-finish character design demo included in section 12
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- First few sections drag for anyone who already knows how to draw
- Pencil-and-paper demos are hard to see and don't translate well to digital
- Instructor team answers Q&A posts less consistently than reviewers would like
8
Anatomy for Figure Drawing: Mastering the Human Figure (2023)
A deep, no-shortcuts anatomy course for artists who want to draw muscles, skeletons, and poses from imagination instead of tracing references.
Best for: Artists with some drawing background who want figures built from real bone and muscle knowledge, not tricks.
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- Muscle origin and insertion points explained clearly enough to draw from imagination
- Dedicated sections on hands, feet, skull, and full-body poses
- Bonus lessons cover breast anatomy and a quick sculpting demo
- Last refreshed in October 2023
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- Nearly 58 hours long, and some lessons feel like unedited, one-take filler
- Leans heavily toward comic-style bodies, muscular men and large busts, not general figure drawing
- A shorter, faster paced version of this same course now exists from the same instructor
9
How to Draw Cute Cartoon Characters (2020)
A short, friendly primer on drawing cute kawaii-style characters, taught by illustrator Ben Colefax in under two and a half hours of video.
Best for: Total beginners who want simple, repeatable steps for cute character faces and bodies.
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- Clear, simple explanations that beginners say make kawaii style click fast
- Short and focused: 27 lectures, about 141 minutes total
- Covers faces, bodies, growing a character, and animal characters
- Works with plain paper and pencil or a drawing tablet
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- Last substantially updated in 2020, so some digital tool tips feel dated
- Very short at 2.4 hours, with just three assignments and no quizzes
- Demos lean digital; at least one reviewer wanted more paper-only guidance
10
Manga Art School: The Complete Anime & Manga Drawing Course (2026)
What You'll Learn
- Learn How to Draw professional Manga and Anime styles easily and quickly
- Understand how to draw hands, bodies, eyes, appealing proportions and authentic manga faces
- Learn professional techniques and unique Japanese tips to create dynamic and interesting characters
- Understand the essentials behind why Manga and Anime look the way they do, and how to create your own characters
- Gain additional insights with the included 7GB of Videos, Brushes, Workflows and more
11
Introduction to Graphic Illustration (2015)
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- Class is centered around a final project to ensure students develop the practical skills necessary to succeed in graphic illustration.
- Course can be taken for fun, for a certificate or for college credit.
- Course does a great job of teaching what makes a good illustration just as much as the mechanics of crafting the illustration.
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- Considering it is a college course, the lack of instructor participation is alarming. This is largely a self-study course.
- Despite being an introductory course, it assumes proficiency with Photoshop and Illustrator.
- Course does not provide supplemental information for utilizing the tools covered in the material.