These best online illustration courses will benefit anyone who has an interest in illustration or starting from scratch, to acquire or further their skills.
An illustration is more than being able to draw. Though having graphic design skills is beneficial for many illustrators, An illustrator is an artist who uses Illustration to clarify, introduce, or supplement an idea. Illustrations are mostly seen in advertising, but it’s also used for articles, blogs, and instructional material for training purposes
Read on as we explain more about what illustration is all about and some of the best online illustration courses in 2022!
- What is an illustration
- Where can I find the best online illustration courses
- The 12 best online illustration courses in 2022
What is illustration?
An illustration is simply a visualization made by an artist. It can be a drawing, painting, collage, engraving, etc. that explains something.
An illustration can explain an idea even without the text nearby. You can tell a story with an illustration by conveying some meaning and explaining a certain context only with the help of an image.
The illustration is very different from graphic design. Illustrators create products themselves while the task of a graphic designer is to create suitable compositions with ready-made objects.
A designer’s focus is on creating a successful product that will only meet the requirements of the customer and the needs of the target audience while a good illustrator is more focused on the image itself, rather than on marketing goals.
The different types of illustration include:
- editorial illustration
- advertising illustration
- concept art
- fashion illustration
- technical (scientific) illustration
- infographics
- packaging illustration
Where can I find the best online illustration courses?
Below are the top 10 reputable online illustration course providers which you can start learning illustration and drawing from.
- Skillshare (Two-week free trial then $10/month)
- Coursera (more in-depth)
- Udemy.
- Domestika.
- Alison.
- Canva.
- Shaw Academy.
- Creative Live.
12 Best Online Illustration Courses 2022
- The Illustration Masterclass (Udemy)
- Illustration for Designers: Create Your Own Geometric Animal (Skillshare)
- Make Things Make Money: The Business of Illustration and Lettering (Creative Live)
- Illustrator for Non-Illustrators (LinkedIn Learning)
- Character Illustration: Drawing Faces, Figures & Clothing (Skillshare)
- The Complete Drawing & Painting Illustration Course (Udemy)
- Pen and Ink Illustration: The Basics for Creating Magical Drawings (Skillshare)
- Digital Illustration for Beginners in Adobe Illustrator (Udemy)
- Illustration & Inspiration: Keeping a Sketchbook (Skillshare)
- Digital Illustration: Doodles to Designs (Skillshare)
- Illustrating Characters and the Stories They Tell (CreativeLive)
- Adobe Illustrator: Vector Illustration from Scratch
1. The Illustration Masterclass (Udemy)
First on our list of best online Illustration courses is the Udemy illustration masterclass course. It is a beginner-level course that is known as a quick and easy way to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Gimp to master digital illustration. Offered by Edu Evolution, the Illustration Masterclass course provides three hours of on-demand video plus 19 articles and numerous downloadable resources for students. The course covers certain topics such as how to use royalty-free or copyrighted images in your work and at the end of the course, students receive a certificate of completion.
2. Illustration for Designers: Create Your Own Geometric Animal (Skillshare)
The skillshare illustration for designers course is an excellent course that covers Vector illustration using Adobe Illustrator. It is an intermediate 90-minute with 16 lessons course that will help you to become a master of the adobe illustrator tool. If you are working in illustration, it’s essential to enroll in this course because Adobe Illustrator is one of the most common programs used for vector illustration
DKNG designers Dan Kuhlken and Nathan Goldman are the instructors for the course. DKNG is a design studio working primarily in the entertainment industry with clients that include ABC Family, Disney, and MTV.
Lessons taught by Dan Kuhlken and Nathan Goldman in this course include basic shapes, adding color, geometric designs, adding texture, and how to research before creating a design.
This course is hosted on Skillshare, and there is a free 1-month trial for students who want to take this course and all the other Skillshare classes
3. Make Things Make Money: The Business of Illustration and Lettering (Creative Live)
The Make Things Make Money course is created to instruct those with a passion for drawing and illustration as well as to turn that passion into money. It is a beginner to intermediate learning taught by Dina Rodriguez, a commercial artist, and professor at Pacific Northwest College of Arts. Through the 29 lessons in almost five hours of on-demand video, Rodriguez will give you a basic understanding of how to take your passion and turn it into a part- or even full-time business. The course will teach you how to use social media to attract clients, discover your process for landing a job as well as learn what to charge.
4. Illustrator for Non-Illustrators (LinkedIn Learning)
This beginner-level course is offered by LinkedIn Learning (previously Lynda) and covers everything you need to know about using Adobe Illustrator for drawing. It’s 3 ½ hours that covers Adobe Illustrator tools and techniques such as creating drawing brushes, drawing with the Pencil tool and the PaintBrush tool, perspective, proportion, and distortion, contour drawing, and the inking and coloring of drawings.
In reality, not all designers are naturally good at drawing. But with Adobe Illustrator, you can convert your imaginations or ideas into a final product with ease.
If you’re already good at using Adobe Illustrator, this course can still help you improve your skills and use it better to incorporate drawing into your graphic design work.
Von Glitschka is the instructor of this course to almost 40,000 students. He is a professional designer and illustrator for ad agencies and corporate art departments around the world. The illustrator for the non-illustrators course is one of the best online Illustration courses you’ll find in 2022.
Upon completion of this course, you will receive a Certificate of completion.
5. Character Illustration: Drawing Faces, Figures & Clothing (Skillshare)
Creating memorable characters is a skill that you can use time and time again as an illustrator. This course teaches you how to create memorable characters and help their character grow. Through the course, you will even learn how to give personalities to these characters and bring them to life.
This course includes 1 hour of on-demand video and is taught by professional comic artist and illustrator Gabriel Picolo. More than 32,000 students are taking the Character Illustration: Drawing Faces, Figures & Clothing course. The course covers figure movement and poses, the four core facial expressions, proper use of color, textures, clothing,e.t.c, and finally how to give your character emotion and personality.
6. The Complete Drawing & Painting Illustration Course (Udemy)
The Complete Drawing & Painting Illustration Course is 12 full hours of on-demand video course that teaches the basics of pen & ink, graphite, watercolor, and other media. You can study at your own pace and learn illustrations that will help you advance as you work on 20 different projects during the course.
This course is a beginner to an advanced level course taught by Jaysen Batchelor, a professional freelance artist, illustrator, and designer. You’ll get access to ask Jaysen questions and join an online community of former students.
The Complete Drawing & Painting Illustration Course is one of his newest classes. Upon completion of this course, you’ll receive a certificate of completion.
7. Pen and Ink Illustration: The Basics for Creating Magical Drawings (Skillshare)
The Pen and Ink Illustration: The Basics for Creating Magical Drawings course is a beginner course taught by Yasmina, an established artist in ink and watercolor. The course lasts for just 30 minutes and can be very helpful for illustrators who are just starting or getting more advanced. Downloadable resources are also available.
Illustrators have always used pen, ink, and paper as the classic tools and this course will teach you which supplies to get, how to do hatches and crosshatches, as well as textures and patterns. While the course is on the short side, the information and downloadable resources provide you with untold value.
8. Digital Illustration for Beginners in Adobe Illustrator (Udemy)
The Digital Illustration for Beginners in Adobe Illustrator course focuses on Adobe Illustrator and professional illustrations and vector drawings are within your reach.
It is a beginner to intermediate level 2 ½ hours of on-demand self-paced video instruction course taught by Moy Lobito, a professional artist, the beginner-level course with six articles and various downloadable resources that you can use during the lessons that go over subjects such as the Pen tool, the Pathfinder tool, the Shape Builder tool, plus the Width tool that are all part of Illustrator. The course will also teach you skills like outlining, sketching, painting, and how to add detail to illustrations and vector drawings. You’ll get first-hand accounts of the real-world views into the art and business of illustration.
9. Illustration & Inspiration: Keeping a Sketchbook (Skillshare)
The Illustration & Inspiration: Keeping a Sketchbook course is a beginner 32 minutes course that focuses on ideas that are done through the completion of three exercises which include drawing from life, drawing patterns, and drawing from the space around you.
These exercises will help create a strong foundation of the basics of illustration. Though it is a short course with downloadable resources, the lessons learned can be a great source of inspiration for illustrators.
The course is taught by Illustrator Leah Goren, who holds a BFA in Design from the Parsons School of Design, and he will take you through the workday of a working professional.
10. Digital Illustration: Doodles to Designs (Skillshare)
The Digital Illustration: Doodles to Designs course, is a beginner course taught by Jon Burgerman, and it covers how to take those doodles to the next level, even turning them into paid gigs. The course is a 1-hour video course.
Doodling is very often the initial stage of a project for a client from an artist, designer, or illustrator
This course contains 16 lessons, and each of them will teach you how to expand on your doodles and digitize them in a vector graphics program. Learning how to expand your skills in doodling can be very helpful if you spend a lot of your day doodling.
11. Illustrating Characters and the Stories They Tell (CreativeLive)
The Illustrating Characters and the Stories They Tell course is a 2 ½ hours of on-demand video that covers how to draw characters as part of an overall larger story, and how to make characters more relatable by learning the responses to fundamental character styles.
It is an intermediate skill level course taught by Mary Jane Begin, a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. The course is made up of 16 lessons encompassing the key elements of storyboarding, story creation, and character development. It is taken by more than 10,000 students, the course also includes downloadable resources and helpful bonus materials to help you succeed.
12. Adobe Illustrator: Vector Illustration from Scratch
The Adobe Illustrator: Vector Illustration from scratch course tutors you to master the software so that you can create professional-grade illustrations and graphic work. It comprises 58 lessons with a total run-time of 8 hours and 3 minutes. You can complete the course online at your own pace using the Domestika application
This course has been attended by nearly 3,000 students so far and has 98% positive reviews. The original audio of the course is available in the Portuguese language while the machine translations are available in Spanish, English, German, Italian, and French.
Additionally, the course teaches you to create geometric shapes, apply color and transform objects, how vectorize an image to create complex logos and illustrations, and how to add and experiment with color. As you proceed further, the course elaborates on the difference between format types and shows how to integrate texts into your design. The final segment is about learning to streamline your creative process and exporting high-quality files.
Conclusion
These best online illustration courses will prepare you for excelling as an illustrator by acquiring drawing, sketching, and painting which are often at the core of an illustrator’s job. Being familiar with these design elements is important.
An illustration is simply a visualization made by an artist. It can be a drawing, painting, collage, engraving, etc. that explains something
If you have any questions on any of these online illustration courses, drop a comment below.
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