10 free digital art courses for all levels

The AnyTask™ Platform is pleased to share yet another listicle for digital artists. On this occasion, the AnyTask.com team has put together a list of ten free online courses for digital artists of all levels of expertise.

From how to digitally draw superheroes to complete comic books and 3D rendering of digital art, the list could very well include a course that is right for AnyTask™ Platform online freelance artists.

So, here is the list. But before moving on to the free online courses, the AnyTask™ Platform marketing team wants to remind readers to visit the AnyTask.com newsroom and the Tips for Sellers page. You can find many articles with free courses on drawing, illustrating, creating NFTs, graphic design, logo design, and more.

1. EDX: The rise of superheroes and their impact on Pop Culture

What you’ll learn:

• The history and origins of the first superheroes and comic books and how they changed over time
• The evolution of American society from the Depression to today, as viewed through the lens of the comic book genre
• How the current globalization and diversity of the next generation of superheroes impacts our storytelling across all mediums
• How to apply historical examples to create superheroes for the present day

Course description:

Join the Smithsonian, and comic book industry legend, the late Stan Lee, in this self-paced course to explore the history of the comic book and the rise of superheroes. The current cycle for the course ends 21 June, at which point the archived course ends and learner progress erased. However, the course restarts and enrollment opened again for all students.

Students are taken on a fascinating journey starting with the ancient gods of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman myths that still exist during the course. Still, today, they have superpowers, human foibles, and secret identities. They come from comic books and graphic novels and have taken over pop culture on the stage, screen, video games, and animation.

While learning about how cultural myths, world events, and personal experiences shaped the first superheroes, learners will apply these frameworks to create their own superhero– or they can choose to do a deeper analysis of existing comic book heroes.

2. EDX: Drawing Nature, Science, and Culture: Natural History Illustration 101

What you’ll learn:

• Core scientific observational skills
• Field drawing and sketching techniques
• Concept sketch development
• Composition for natural history illustration
• Form, proportion, and structure essentials
• Drawing and rendering techniques

Course description:

Firstly, it is crucial to point out that this course is currently archived, but please keep an eye out as the course creators will shortly announce future commencement dates.

This course is for aspiring scientific or medical illustrators or artists who enjoy drawing nature’s wonders. Natural History Illustration is defined as observing and illustrating subjects from nature, science, and culture, with their linkages to the central environment.

Those who take the course will learn essential skills and techniques to create accurate and stunning replications of subjects from the natural world. This art and culture course is suitable for people looking to enter the illustration discipline as a serious pursuit or just looking to explore a passion.

3. COURSERA: Modern and contemporary art and design specialisation

What you’ll learn:

• Develop a deeper understanding of artists’ and designers’ processes, including modes of experimentation and responses to technological innovation.
• Develop critical thinking and looking skills to understand how artists and designers respond to their time’s social and cultural issues.
• Gain confidence in looking at and talking about modern and contemporary art and design, and find inspiration from the art all around you.
• Better comprehend the choices that as an artist one makes about fashion concerning expression, identity.

Course description:

This Specialisation will introduce the learner to the art of our time. Through original films and audio, you will go behind the scenes to look closely at artworks and into studios to hear directly from artists, designers, curators, and others. It is also for anyone who would like to learn more about modern and contemporary art. No prior knowledge is required. Enrol to receive invitations to virtual events, gain exclusive access to MoMA resources, and share ideas with an international learner community.

Start with Modern Art & Ideas to learn how artists have taken inspiration from their environment and responded to social issues over the past 150 years. Next, take a deep dive into Seeing Through Photographs, exploring photography from its origins in the mid-1800s through the present. Explore artworks made since 1980 in What Is Contemporary Art? Ranging from 3D–printed glass and fibre sculptures to performances in a factory, the works in this course introduce the learner to the diverse materials, motivations, and methods of artists working today.

4. COURSERA: How to make a comic book (Project-centred course)

What you’ll learn:

• Creating a comic story
• Scripting a comic for publication
• Constructing thumbnail to plot out the look of the final comic book
• Production of pages of art for the comic by pencilling and lettering the pages

Course description:

In this project-centred course, learners will create an original four-page minicomic designed around a short story of their choosing and turn it into a comic book. Upon course completion, learners will have a finished project that they’ll be proud to use and share. The instructors recommend that learners have the following materials available to complete the project:

• At least one ream of 8.5x11 copy paper
• Number Two (#2) pencils and eraser
• Sharpie-type fine point pens
• Ruler with inch measurements
• Adjustable binding stapler

5. COURSERA: SketchUp: how to model a 3D mock-up to showcase your artwork

What you’ll learn:

• Use SketchUp for Web to create simple 3D models
• Explore 3D modelling
• Create a simple mock-up scene for your artworks

Course description:

By the end of this project-based course, the learner will know how to use SketchUp to create a mock-up scene in a 3D model for artworks or illustrations. A mock-up is defined as a rough draft of a finished product or a visually rendered representation of a finished product in graphic design and visual arts.

In this guided project, instructors will guide learners in creating a mock-up scene to simulate the showcasing of print and artworks. SketchUp for Web is a free version of SketchUp that runs in a web browser. It shows a simple interface where anyone can simply draw and create 3D models. This guided project is for graphic designers, illustrators, or artists who want to create visual representations of their prints, illustrations, or paintings through 3D modelling.

6. UDEMY: Artistic digital portrait painting

What you’ll learn:

• Practical techniques in digital portraits painting
• Choosing skin colours and working with a palette
• Painting eyes, noses, lips, ears in proper anatomic proportions
• Hair shaping and matching hairstyle to the face
• Working with portrait photo references
• Sculpting approach in portraits painting
• Smart rendering in artistic digital portraits
• Light and shadow as an aftereffect
• Overview of useful layers
• Asaro head planes study
• Drawing fundamentals
• Character and concept design
• Perspective

Course description:

A practical and complete course on painting appealing and photo-realistic digital portraits by an experienced digital artist specialised in “portraiting.”

The course contains ten parts, each of which is under ten minutes of video content, featuring a beginner to advanced introduction to the techniques and best practices in painting artistic digital portraits.

7. UDEMY: Draw the Mona Lisa on a phone or tablet

What you’ll learn:

• Draw the famous Mona Lisa painting on your phone
• Learn to draw in grayscale to understand tones
• Learn to improve your drawing skills with the free Paintology app for Android
• Take a peek into the great minds of past artists through this drawing

Course description:

Ferdouse Khaleque, the instructor of this course, comes from a traditional background and has recently drawn with the Paintology drawing App on his phone and tablet. He has found that the digital medium has much more than meets the eye. It is powerful, easy to use, and enables users to create all types of drawings without the learning curve. The instructor will take his students on a journey into the minds of famous artists when they were painting and drawing.

Learners will draw the famous Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci, capturing audiences throughout the centuries due to its simplicity. Still, the details show the complex nature of the painting. The Paintology drawing app is available for free from the Google play store.

8. UDEMY: Digitally painting and drawing eyes

What you’ll learn:

• Paint eyes of different types from various angles

Course description:

This course will teach learners how to paint realistic eyes that will take their art to the next level. The instructor teaches techniques in this course that are translatable into any program that uses a layering system from Photoshop to Manga Studio to ProCreate. This course will enhance or give the learners skills in the world of digital painting. The course is the learners’ track to building a solid understanding of the eye and how it should be painted and drawn. The instructor aims to take his students from a basic anatomical understanding and structure to believable and engaging eyes in their paintings, from beginner to expert.

The instructor set up the course to take learners through a step-by-step process of creating realistic eyes quickly. It will equip the learner with the knowledge to create stunning images and concept art!

9. UDEMY: The Essential ArtRage Guide | An Artist’s Tutorial

What you’ll learn:

• A better understanding of graphic design tools
• Attain experience with ArtRage for building knowledge of the software

Course description:

The course creator, Matthew Dewey, says he’s created many graphic designs throughout his life as an artist, but by far, the ones he created using ArtRage are the best. ArtRage is one of the most helpful art software globally, providing an array of valuable tools that any graphic artist can benefit from, Matthew adds.

In this course, the instructor will teach students how to use ArtRage, not just how to create a canvas and put paint on it, but also how to take advantage of more advanced settings, which will undoubtedly lend learners a hand in their artistic career. ArtRage comes with great tools, and using them is vitally important if an artist wishes to create something with magnificence.

10. UDEMY: Photoshop beginner class, digital painting

What you’ll learn:

• Get right into digital painting in no time
• Understanding the basics
• Use of shortcuts
• Learn simple techniques that even experienced artists have in their tool-bag!

Course description:

Getting started can be pretty intimidating! However, in this class, the instructor will cover all things art students need to know to get right into digital painting in no time. While keeping a strong focus on understanding the basics, students in this course will learn how to use shortcuts and simple techniques that even experienced artists have in their tool-bag. The instructor provides students of this course with essential support via Discord and PSD files.

The AnyTask™ Platform team has come to the end of this list of digital art. Keep an eye on the Tips for Sellers section in the AnyTask™ Platform newsroom for more listicles and other exciting information that may be very useful. Please visit the AnyTask™ Platform Become a Seller page and list a Task now to start earning as an online digital artist.

Originally published at https://news.anytask.com on June 11, 2021.