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UdemyBestseller on UdemyDrawingPaid courseAll LevelsCertificate

The Ultimate Character Design Course (Udemy.com)

Learn To Draw & Design Characters. Obtain Valuable Drawing & Design Skills For Animation, Cartoons, & Video Games!

Created by: Jaysen Batchelor

Last updated January 2025

Our take

Based on the ratings of 7,564 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in January 2025. No course pays to be reviewed.

Jaysen Batchelor's course walks complete beginners from basic pencil control through full character design, using 24 hours of video split across 14 sections and 100 lectures. It starts with actual drawing in section two rather than theory, then moves through anatomy, gesture, expression, and finally full character demos. The syllabus is built for people who have never designed a character before and want a set path to follow at their own pace, not a quick reference for working artists.

Reviewers with little drawing background call it personal, almost like a private lesson, and describe Batchelor's explanations as clear and detailed as he builds from basics up to full figures. The Q&A community, where students post progress and get feedback, comes up often as a highlight. Complaints cluster around two things: students who already draw find the first few sections slow and repetitive, and some say Batchelor's pencil-and-paper demos are hard to see clearly and don't translate cleanly to digital tools. A few also note the instructor team answers Q&A posts less consistently than they used to.

At 24 hours for one flat price, it is a long, structured alternative to shorter digital-drawing courses, and the 2025 update keeps it current. It rewards patience: the boot camp and human-form sections take real hours before students reach character demos. Anyone who wants a guided, ground-up path into character design, with people to compare notes with, should get real value here. Artists who already have solid fundamentals will be better served skipping ahead or picking a course built around digital workflow from the start.

Best forComplete beginners who want a structured, ground-up path into character design with feedback.
Skip it ifArtists who already draw well and want digital-only techniques, not paper basics.

Pros

  • 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

Cons

  • 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
The course feels personal, like a real private lesson
Dror Koch, a student

Listed as All Levels, but it really suits true beginners; experienced artists will find early sections too slow.

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What you will learn

  • How to design unforgettable characters
  • How to draw character body and poses
  • How to draw different styles of characters

Course content

14 sections · 100 lectures · 24 hours of video 2 articles

  1. 1Introduction 2 free previews2 lectures · 5 min
  2. 2Lets Draw Some Characters 2 free previews3 lectures · 37 min
  3. 3Learn The Fundamentals of Character Design 2 free previews15 lectures · 2.5 hours
  4. 4Drawing Boot Camp 3 free previews15 lectures · 2.7 hours
  5. 5Drawing The Human Form Training 5 free previews32 lectures · 7 hours
  6. 6Character Gesture & Pose 2 free previews12 lectures · 2.8 hours
  7. 7Character Expression And Emotion 1 free preview4 lectures · 1.6 hours
  8. 8Shading Your Characters1 lecture · 29 min
  9. 9Hair & Costume Design 1 free preview4 lectures · 1.1 hours
  10. 10Character Design Styles 1 free preview5 lectures · 2.9 hours

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • Student wanting to learn how to design characters
  • Students wanting to add a new skill to their tool belt
  • Students Willing to take action and start drawing amazing artwork
  • Students willing to put in some time to gain a new skill

What you need before you start

  • Paper & Pencil
  • Or digital means of drawing
  • A willingness to work hard and learn

How it compares

Against the other 194 rated Udemy courses in Drawing on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.6 out of 5higher than 51% of them
  • Reviews7,564#4 of 195 by number of reviews
  • Length24 hourslonger than 95% of them
  • Last updatedJanuary 2025more recently than 81% of them

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Course Description

Join over 30,000 achieving student and start making your art dreams a reality through your drawings.

NOW YOU CAN FIT ART SCHOOL IN YOUR POCKET.

This course combines a simple effective teaching system with easy to follow videos and tons of projects to work on. And a mind-blowing 24 hours of video content straight to your fingertips. This will take you from beginner to advanced in how ever long you want it to take because its completely self guided. Take it at your own pace.

PREVIEW SECTION 12 OF THE COURSE.

If you scroll to section 12 you can watch the entire character design process through a two part film that demos a character design form start to finish. This course will teach you everything you need to know to design unbelievable characters.

YOU'LL GAIN INSTANT ACCESS TO:

  • 12 sections - 95 lectures

  • New and improved character design skills

  • Access to The Artist Inner Family Facebook Group

  • Q&A Support through out the entire course

  • Downloadable resources

  • Student discounts to future courses

  • 100% absolutely no questions asked money back guarantee (for 30 Day)

  • All future updates to the course

CAN YOU GIVE ME A QUCK RUN DOWN?

Yes! Here's what you'll learn:

  • Drawing fundamentals

  • Story telling

  • Pencil control

  • Dynamic poses

  • Style development

  • Body proportions

  • Drawing body forms

  • Drawing faces

  • Drawing hands

  • Foreshortening

  • Gesture & Poses

  • Facial expressions

  • Hair & Costume

  • Anime

  • Disney animation

  • Comic

  • Pixar style

  • Character design demo

  • Facebook group

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK.

Section 2

You'll dive right into your first character drawings. It's never fun to listen to a bunch of lectures on theory for the first few hours of a course. It's much more fun to actually do. So you'll already be drawing characters by lecture 3.  You'll get to draw a male and female character in this section. You can preview this section for free if you want to get a taste of the course.

Section 3

This section is called Learning The Fundamentals of Character Design because you will be learning everything you need to know in order to build a strong foundation. You'll learn everything from the drawing hierarchy to how line, shapes, and form are used in stages to create character designs.

Section 4

Welcome to drawing boot camp. This sections name comes form the fact that you will go through exercises that will strengthen you drawing ability. This includes pencil control, muscle memory, speed control, and pressure control. All of which are extremely important to character design. We call this section drawing boot camp because you'll change after going through it.

Section 5

Next your going to receive some extremely useful training. This whole section is on drawing the human body. You'll need the ability to draw the human form if your going to create good character designs. Through out this training you will learn how to draw every individual part of the human body from different angles and in different poses. This section breaks down the human body into simple to understand shapes and forms that you can replicate over and over again. And don't worry, you'll learn how to draw the male and the female forms.

Section 6

This section is all about how to pose that body that you're now an expert at drawing. In order to create exceptional character designs you need to know how to draw poses that are dynamic and have attitude. You'll learn all the different ways to make a pose dynamic and how to express a characters attitude, emotion, and just give them that appealing look. Trust me. By the end of this section you'll get it like a professional.

Section 7

The most important part of character design is always telling a story. Here you'll learn how to tell a story through your characters expression. First you need to know how to draw certain expression. Once you've mastered your character expressions you can start mixing and matching eye and mouth expressions to get a wide variety of emotions. Creating good expressions is the secret of the pros.

Section 8

You probably don't want your characters to be naked and bald so in this section you'll learn all about hair & costume design. Hairstyles and costumes are really what make characters iconic and memorable. So you'll learn all about how to give your character their "Thing" that will distinguish them form other characters.

Section 9

This section of the course will give you some very practical knowledge and skills in drawing characters in different genres. Character design is broken up into different genres. You'll be taught in-depth how to draw anime, Disney animation, comic, and Pixar cartoon styled characters over the course of 5 lectures. You won't want to miss this section!

Section 10

At this point you have acquired all the necessary skills and knowledge to design your own characters from start to finish. So now its time to put it all together. You'll get to watch a two part video of me designing a dragon slayer character from start to finish. This section demonstrates a character being imagined and developed right before your eyes. Theres no better way to learn than to watch others.

WHY THIS IS THE BEST COURSE TO BUY.

As an instructor I have always worked hard to build courses that are simple for students to understand and implement. I wanted to build a course that could take a student with little or no drawing skills and shape them up into a decent character designer in a short period of time. My company Jaysen Batchelor Education is committed to developing courses that exceed expectations and provide value above and beyond what is payed for. If you're not happy with the course you can always get a 100% money back guarantee within the first 30 days of purchasing the course. The refund process is hassle free and you won't be asked why. But I have a feeling you won't want to refund this course. 


This all comes under one convenient easy to use platform. Plus you will get fast, friendly, responsive support on the Udemy Q&A section of the course or direct message.

I will be here for you every step of the way!

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now and lets change your art world today! 

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Instructor Details

Jaysen Batchelor

At the age of 17 I began a 6th month internship with an animation studio out of Utah. After my internship was up, I was hired on to build backgrounds and to design props and characters for animation projects. I then began to do my own freelance work on the side through networking and using online freelancing sites. Now I work as a freelance Illustrator and designer working on my own time from where ever I want.

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Reviews

4.6

7,564 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Dror Koch on 3/24/2026

The course is amazing. I always loved to draw but never learned professionally. This course helped me so much, not only with drawing but also how to deal with unperfections and mistakes. The course feels personal, like a real private lesson and you can also post you're progress on the Q&A section, see how othes are doing and get answers to your questions. It is really wonderful and I reccomend it to everyone who likes to draw, in every level.

By Amy Bocas de Gato on 3/21/2026

So far so good! I knew some basic stuff mentioned here, but the course really helps organizing everything to start designing. Hope it keeps being this good.

By Justin Sneed on 2/12/2026

Fantastic course that has given me a lot more motivation to continue on practicing various methods of character design in a very informative and easy step-by-step fashion. The only problems that I have ran into so far is that the illustration posting underneath the Q&A sections aren't supported on the mobile variation. That and haven't really had the teacher nor his assistant come in for any feedback underneath the posts in the Q&A sections for quite a while. Asde from those small issues, the videos are easy to follow nevertheless. I have been recommending people the courses through the app seeing as how art has improved. The only trouble is that there isn't as much human interaction or feedback given to better understand the lesson outside of the lecture videos. Either way, it's very much appreciated that these videos, resources, and instructions were given for a future learning. I've had fun in the course and getting the opportunity to test out what I've learned on much more physical/traditional media. Excited for the next license ahead and to test out these methods on my digital tablet as we advance.

By Scott H on 1/8/2026

I'm just starting but I do like the fact that there isn't a lot of materials to start. By video 3 you're drawing, well he's drawing, I'm trying to follow. But I think I've gotten farther than I ever have before. I'm in my 60's so I'm a lot older than most starting this, so if you're looking to learn character drawing, know it's never too late. I've got a long way to go but that's half the fun.

By Onyx Hendrikz on 12/5/2025

It's been super helpful. I've been an artist for years, but I've always struggled with characters and anatomy unless I use bases or references. I started designing my own characters a couple years ago when I was in high school and I found it very fun (it's a hobby I still have to today), but I did struggle quite a bit. I always used lines before, but now I understand it MUCH better. So far the course has taught me a lot, and I look forward to completing the rest of it.

By Ryan Boddy on 10/11/2025

So far, pretty good! I totally agree with getting right into something to drive motivation and get the student drying. I've loved replicating these first two characters, it's been pretty fun. I will say, the light blue pencil and the camera occasionally losing focus can make it very hard to follow what is happening at times. I know you want to convey that anyone can do this, but I don't think there would have been anything wrong with doing these examples digitally so that it was much easier to see your strokes. With that said, I still managed to follow along, and it's been quite fun!

By John Krueger on 8/14/2025

This is an amazing course. I would say that it doesn't automatically make you an expert, and is more on the beginner side. It is kind of boring for you if you are more intermediate that advance, but it get's way more fun later on with more full drawings. But you need to understand the basics if you are a beginner. The instructor is really good at teaching and at art.

By Mohamad Arif bin Ngadiman on 8/7/2021

Truly I learnt so much from this course. For anyone interested in drawing human, this is the right course. Jaysen Batchelor is a genius teacher. He did know how to simplify things when drawing character design, which is essential to us as a student. Before this, I have learnt anatomy to draw human, but it was damn hard to apply it in making comics or kind of drawing. But Jaysen teaches is with a system which is so easy and applicable to drawing comics or cartoon in human form. Honestly, I recommended this course for anyone interested in character design. Thank you to my teacher, Jaysen.

By Dominic Birmingham on 1/5/2021

Thank you Jaysen for making this course. I learned a lot! liked that it covers different styles of drawing, as well as the fundamentals. If I'm trying to be critical, I would say that the course seems to be really beginner to intermediate level as there seems to be plenty more to learn before reaching an advanced level. This will keep me going for months as I digest and practice this course content. After that I wonder if there would be scope for an Intermediate to Advance, or even Master level course?

By Rasmus Hauschild on 1/26/2020

This course is the best! It starts off very basic so you can follow no matter your current skill level, but pretty much right from the get-go, you get to make some really nice stuff! Jaysen is an awesome teacher, not only is he really talented, but he is also really good at making the lectures entertaining and easy to follow, which means a lot considering you will be putting a lot of hours into this course. Thank you for this amazing course! :)

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Overall Score : 92 / 100