9 Best Digital Painting Courses

Carson

Published: October 18, 2023

Are you interested in learning how to paint digitally? If so, you’re in luck! Many great online digital painting courses can teach you everything from the basics of digital painting to more advanced techniques.

In this blog post, we’ll look at 9 of the best online digital painting courses currently available that we have selected and rated based on our high standards and criteria.

So, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced painter, there’s sure to be something here for you! Each of these online digital painting classes has been reviewed based on the following factors:

• Who can take this course? Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced Level
• Details of the course
• Course duration
• Price
• Instructor’s Profile
• What the students have to say about the course
• Number of students enrolled in this course

List of Top 9 Online Digital Painting Courses You Should Look in

These courses have been listed randomly, but if you want to know our top picks, they certainly are numbers 1 and 4. These courses are affordable and offer a great deal of knowledge.

1. Ultimate Digital Painting Course – Udemy
2. Digital Painting MEGA Course – Udemy
3. Online Digital Painting Class for Everyone – Udemy
4. Learn Digital Painting Brushes and Pixels – Domestika
5. Digital Painting for Characters – Domestika
6. Digital Painting with Krita – Skillshare
7. Taking Your Digital Paintings to the Next Level in Photoshop – Pluralsight
8. Getting Started with Digital Painting in Photoshop – Pluralsight
9. Mid-Level Digital Painting Course – CGMA

Details of the Top-Notch Digital Painting Courses – Useful Coursesfor Digital Painters

1. Ultimate Digital Painting Course – Udemy

Are you looking to kickstart your career in digital arts? This ultimate guide for digital painting is perfect for you. The course is excellent for all levels and covers many things. Here are some that stood out to us:

• Digital painting techniques
• Drawing Fundamentals
• How to create concept art
• Color theory
• Character design
• Photo: Realistic Painting
• Perspective

The course covers several concepts, ensuring that learning is multidimensional. The course is extensive, with 27 hours of on-demand videos, 68 downloadable resources, and 2 articles.

You can easily complete this course in 27 hours and 8 minutes. The duration is significant since digital painting is technical and takes time to cover. Currently, this course is available for a high price of $84.99. But the good news is that it will soon be available at a discount because Udemy offers frequent sales.

Jaysen Batchelor and Austin Batchelor are the instructors for the course. While Jason strain designer, he’s also freelance. On the other hand, Austin is a working professional in the gaming industry. The Digital Painting MEGA Course: Beginner to Advanced is another course related to and offered on the platform.

Student reviews suggest an overall positive response to the course. One comment stood out for us:

“Such a great course! I learned a lot about painting using my newly bought pad, and now I feel ready to start illustrating my book. The course goes over many painting styles, techniques, and much more. I would recommend it to anyone looking to paint digitally.” 

The online digital painting courses have an excellent rating of 4.5 out of 5.0. It is also a bestseller on Udemy! Doesn’t get any better. Overall, the course has 89,857 students enrolled in it, which is quite a lot. This course is popular. You should surely try it out!

After completing this, you might want to look at some of the related courses like animation, pixel art, or 2D animation class. We suggest you look at them and gain more skills.

This certification is highly recommended, and we like to give it a rating of 9.0/9.0.

2. The Digital Painting MEGA Course – Udemy

Next up is another highly-rated course that covers information for all levels. The course covers various essential concepts such as:

• Painting fundamentals
• Shape and form
• How to use value and contrast
• Light and Color
• Creating texture

The course has everything you need to know to become a digital painter. We went over the course content and found it to be quite extensive. It has 12.5 hours of on-demand videos and 22 downloadable resources. You can complete it within 12 hours and 24 minutes. This duration is great for learning all the technicalities.

You can access this course for a lifetime by simply paying $74.99. Of course, it is expensive, but the good part is that it will soon be on sale.

The course is taught by Austin Batchelor, a concept artist and illustrator. Austin is an active, creative professional in the gaming industry and a freelance illustrator. Digitally Painting Light and Color: Amateur to Master is another course by Austin present on the platform.

Students love the course and believe it is a great one. Here’s one review that caught our eye:

“It was a lot of fun – there is enough guidance and structure to make it unintimidating, and yet it’s loose enough that you can feel free to be creative with the material. In addition, I like the instructor’s style, and he appears very knowledgeable within his field.”

The course has a great rating of 4.6 out of 5.0 stars. We believe you will learn several skills and insights. It is also quite popular, as 40,215 students have already benefited from it.

Our rating for the course is 8.5/9.0.

3. Online Digital Painting Class for Everyone – Udemy

This course is the highest-rated category of online digital painting. It received a good response from the students and has much to offer. Here is what the course will help you with:

• Be able to paint dozens of different materials and textures
• Be able to paint various lighting situations
• Be able to paint multiple subjects

The course is perfect for all levels and comprehensively covers the basics. The course will be great for you. It comes with 13.5 hours of on-demand videos and 60 downloadable resources.

The course has a total duration of 13 hours and 26 minutes which is a decent enough time to grasp important concepts. However, it is available for a whopping price of $94.99. This is super expensive. But like we said earlier, Udemy courses are often on sale, so keep an eye out for them.

Austin Batchelor also teaches this digital painting class.

You surely want to take advantage of this fantastic course. Students felt that the course added greatly to their knowledge. Here is what they have to say about it, “Really good and helpful course, as it covers a wide range of topics that are useful for anyone who wants to paint digitally.”

The course has a stellar rating of 4.9 out of 5.0. This speaks volumes about the course’s popularity. Even better, the course is quite popular among students and has 18,817 enrolled.

Our rating for the course is 9.0/9.0.

4.  Learn Digital Painting Brushes and Pixels – Domestika

If you want to learn how to paint digitally through photoshop, then out of all the digital painting courses, this course is a suitable choice for you. It is great for beginners who are just starting off in this field. Here is a summary of what the course has to offer:

• You can start working in high resolution
• Learn how to make a still life
• Learn how to use photographic references
• Discover how to work with chromatic circles and analogous

In this course, you will do a realistic painting exercise. This will help you practice everything you have learned in the course. The course will take you 5 hours and 21 minutes to complete and comes with 15 additional resources. You will learn a lot! All of this is available for as low as $59.99. But if you enroll right now, you can avail 70% discount, and it will just cost you $17.99

This is undoubtedly a catch!

Patricio Betteo is the author of the course. He is an illustrator by profession and has illustrated over 30 children’s books. Illustrated Characters Factory is another course he has on the platform.

Students believe it is a good course to start with. Most of the reviews we came across were like this one:

“A very interesting course to get started in digital painting .

“The course has 99% positive reviews, which is remarkable. It is worth trying!

The course is also quite popular among fellow learners as the number of enrolled students is 130,039. Therefore, we highly recommend this course to you, and it is also one of our top picks.

We will give it a rating of 9.0/9.0.

Check out the best Adobe Photoshop courses, given your interest in Photoshop.

5. Digital Painting for Characters – Domestika

This is another highly interesting course that is ideal for beginners. The course covers everything from scratch and helps build your concepts. Here is what you will learn from the course:

• Set up your workspace for warm-up painting exercises
• Understand lighting, basic painting tips, and adding textures.
• How to paint character designs

This course is packed with information despite being a short one. It covers all the essentials within 2 hours and 49 minutes. The course comes with 10 additional resources. The digital painting course is currently available for $19.99, which is not a lot considering how much you will learn.

Joel Santana is the teacher for the course. Joel is a character designer and concept artist by profession. With over 14 years of industry experience in Joel’s profile, clients like Disney make a list. The same author’s other courses on the platform include Digital Character Design: Draw Protagonists with Personality.

We went over the student comments and saw reviews like this:

“Excellent course. It gives you a good starting point for digital painting. Joel is very articulate and easy to understand. I have enjoyed it very much and would love to take more of his courses at more advanced levels”.

Like other students who love this course, we believe you will. Overall, this comprehensive course has 99% positive, extraordinary reviews.

The course is top-rated, as can be seen through the 26,230 students already enrolled in it.

Our rating for the course is 9.0/9.0.

6. Digital Painting With Krita – Skillshare

Want to learn digital painting through a super fun course? Are you a beginner looking for a simple course? This course is amazing both in terms of learning and fun. The course content is extensive. This means you will learn a lot! Here is what the course will cover:

• How to work with color, such as selecting the color and picking a color from the existing colors
• Learn about layers and different properties of layers, such as alpha inheritance, opacity, blending modes, and group layer
• Learn more advanced techniques and strategies

The course also comes with a hands-on project to help convert your sketch into the final artwork. Overall, the course can be completed within 4 hours and 38 minutes. You can quickly grasp the concepts offered in the course in this duration. All of this is just for $2.00.

It doesn’t get better than this!

Widhi Muttaqien is the instructor for the course. He holds a Master’s degree in information technology and has over 20 years of experience in computer graphics. Photoshop for complete beginners is another one of his courses.

Students love the course and only have positive things to say about it, like:

“Thank you for such an engaging and educational class. I came to it as a complete novice and am amazed at how much I have learned in such a short space of time! I shall practice my new skills and then I am looking forward to taking the intermediate level course.”

More than 72% of students mentioned that the course had exceeded their expectations. The course is quite popular among digital artists and has 7,512 students already enrolled in it.

Our rating for the course is 8.5/9.0.

7. Taking Your Digital Paintings to the Next Level in Photoshop – Pluralsight

This advanced-level course will take your digital paintings to the next level. It covers high-level aspects of digital paintings that will help you improve your skills. Here is what the course includes:

• Take a decent digital painting and transform it into a more dynamic, story-packed image
• This course will even help you brush up on your photoshop skills!

The course is long and will take you 7 hours and 50 minutes to complete. For an advanced course like this, it is a good enough duration. To access this course and several other insightful Pluralsight courses, you will need to pay $29. Considering that you will get access to several other courses, this price is very fair.

Lawrence Mann is the instructor for the course. He is a UK-based illustrator with over 15 years of experience in the industry. He has worked for clients like Nokia, BBC, and Mattel. Developing Space Helmet Options in Photoshop is another course taught by him.

Despite not finding ratings and comments, this course is still a great one. Make sure to try it out! Our rating for this course is 8.0/9.0.

8. Getting Started with Digital Painting in Photoshop – Pluralsight

The second last course we have lined up for you will help you explore digital painting in Photoshop. This is like the previous course, except this one is designed for beginners. This means you can learn everything from scratch. The course offers great insights. Here are some of them:

• Work on blocking in colors for skin and gear.
• Learn to account for shadows and highlights.

By the end of this Photoshop training, you’ll have a better understanding of how to tackle a digital painting and how to create and adjust brushes to get the effect you want. As a beginner, you will learn a lot!

The course can easily be completed within 3 hours and 53 minutes. This is so great! Like the previous course, you will need to pay $29 after a 10-day free trial. This is quite fair.

Alex Hernandez is the teacher for the course. He is a Pluralsight author and a computer graphics professional. Designing a Proper Invitation in Illustrator is another course by Alex on the website.

The course has a rating of 4.0/5.0 which clearly shows how amazing it is. We were unable to find the student comments, but we believe the course has excellent learning insights to offer.

Our rating for this course is 8.5/9.0.

9. Mid-Level Digital Painting Course – CGMA

The last course is excellent for the intermediate level. You will require background knowledge in digital painting to truly understand this course. The course has been divided into several lessons and will teach you a lot, from the basics to the more advanced level. You will practice painting from both observation and imagination!

You can easily complete this amazing course within 8 weeks. The time duration is great for learning digital painting. The course is available for a whopping $699. This is super expensive. However, considering the learning and experience, it is worth it.

When it comes to instructors, you have a choice between 3. You can choose any one of them, Lane Brown, Arne Billen, or Melanie Yu to learn this course from. Lane is a concept artist and illustrator currently employed in the entertainment industry. Arne is a concept art teacher by profession in Belgium. While Melanie is a visual development artist based out of Los Angeles and employed in the animation industry.

If you want to make a career out of digital painting, then this course is fundamental for you.

We could not find a rating for the course on the site, but the reviews by students are great. Here is one student review about a teacher that caught our eye:

“He is a great teacher! I really enjoyed learning digital painting with him. It was also my first time using color, and his lectures and assignments made it fun. His feedback was also always on point, and he is really kind in the Q&A.”

We are sure you will love this course.

Our rating for this excellent course is 8.5/9.0.

Conclusion

We have reviewed the features of the best online digital painting courses; you can now explore all the content in this blog to choose which course is best for you and your professional objectives.

Based on authentic course material and great teacher reviews, ” Ultimate Digital Painting Course – Udemy” and “Brushes and Pixels: Introduction to Digital Painting in Photoshop by Domestika” gives the best value for money, according to our research. The course material is reasonable and provides a thorough exposure to various tools and topics.

However, before deciding, compare your needs to each Ultimate Digital Painting Course and select the one that best matches your desires and talents.

We can’t wait for you to make the proper selection and begin your journey to learn digital painting online. We wish you the best of luck! Check out our blog on the challenges you might face when learning online before enrolling in any online course or program.