YouTube Channels for Learning to Draw & Paint

After a thorough analysis of viewing countless current YouTube videos, I found and recommend the following channels and instructors for learning to draw and paint.

Drawing and painting are crafts that anybody can learn!

Passion for learning, hard work and dedication, will produce results.

Categories:

• Painting tutorials for beginners
• Painting techniques & equipment
• Painting advanced tutorials
• Drawing pen & pencil tutorials
• Drawing in Perspective
• Drawing & Painting illustrations & digital art

Tutorials for beginners are aimed for learning to take the first steps in actual painting.

As the website-name says: "paint with Kevin", Kevin Hill takes you step by step through the painting process.

This tutorial channel is suitable for artists who want to get down to painting, and produce their first landscape artwork in oil paints or acrylics.

YouTube channel: KevinOilPainting

Recommended video: 3 Secrets To Creating DEPTH OF FIELD In A Painting!

The Paint Basket painting channel runs by Dennis & Nolan Clark, father and son.

A great place to start for beginners in acrylics, oil painting, watercolor, pastels, pen sketching and pencil drawing.

YouTube channel: Paint Basket

Recommended video: Color Wheel Tutorial - How to Mix Paint

While these tutorials are quite advanced, Joe Cornelius aka Mural Joe, is doing a great job in keeping it simple.

Here you can expect to learn the technique and knowledge for the crafts of drawing and painting, with focus on all the important factors like perspective, color mixing and much more.

Joe is famous for his wall paintings (murals), using acrylic paint. That said, his oil paintings are just as amazing.

YouTube channel: muraljoe

Jerry Yarnell is a painter, instructor and owner of the Yarnell School of Fine Art. He is also known from the television show "Paint This with Jerry Yarnell".

In these tutorials, Jerry teaches some basic understanding of the painting process, including painting rocks, reflections, and other landscape related subjects.

YouTube channel: 1addyrae

Recommended video: Painting Rocks with Jerry Yarnell

The channel Paint Coach, by Chris Fornataro, is a place for beginners in oil painting.

Chris makes it easy to understand by simplifying the painting process, with focus on the essential fundamentals.

YouTube channel: Paint Coach

These YouTube channels deal with technical stuff, and go deeper into the fundamentals of drawing and painting.

Find out how to mix colors, which oil painting supply to use, how to create depth, and much more.

A renowned painter and instructor, Bill Martin's (1943 - 2008) YouTube channel is arguably the best way to start for beginners.

These video tutorials will enrich and improve your understanding of realistic drawing and painting.

YouTube channel: Bill Martin's Guides

In addition to video tutorials, Bill Martin has two HUGE articles about drawing and oil painting.

Recommended video: Elliptical Perspective

Draw Mix Paint is a channel dedicated to introducing the key factors for fine art oil painting. The highly regarded artist Mark Carder runs it.

Leading artists like John Singer Sargent and Diego Velázquez influenced Mark Carder painting style.

Mark manufactures his own unique oil paints, which are available at his website.

YouTube channel: Draw Mix Paint

Recommended video: How to Match Any Color with Oil Paint

Entertaining, yet serious, the artist and teacher, Stan Prokopenko aka Proko, focuses on technical instructional videos including shading, form, and anatomy.

These tutorials may seem quite advanced, but they are aimed and structured for all levels.

The huge team behind this channel are doing a remarkable job.

YouTube channel: Proko

Recommended video: Top 5 Drawing Mistakes

Stan teamed up with master instructor Marshall Vandruff to create a visual draftsmen podcast, where they talk in-depth about art. It is highly recommended.

YouTube channel: Draftsmen

When it comes to understanding the different types and brands of pigments for oil painting, Jason Walcott will guide you through this ocean of variety.

This art channel is full of in depth reviews and tutorials for equipment and supplies for oil painting, pastels, and other art materials.

YouTube channel: Walcott Fine Art

The admired and appreciated painter, Cesar Santos, creates stunning fine art in his own unique way, while communicating with classic art as a solid foundation.

In his YouTube channel, Cesar takes you behind the scene of painting, and the art world.

YouTube channel: Cesar Santos

A fresh channel by a talented artist who shares his artistic journey step-by-step.

This is a rare glimpse on how to succeed as an artist in this new generation of online opportunities.

YouTube channel: Slew

Once you have some knowledge and experience in the craft of painting, these channels will help take your art to the next level.

Andrew Tischler is a talented oil painter who specializes in realistic painting.

The tutorials in this channel are advanced, and aimed for the audience who already know how to paint, but want to take their art to the next stage, when it comes to realism.

YouTube channel: Andrew Tischler

Recommended video: How to paint a seascape

James Gurney is an illustrator, plein air painter and the author and illustrator of the popular illustrated book series, Dinotopia.

In this YouTube channel, Gurney offers all kinds of tips and tricks for creating original art.

In his tutorials, James uses oil paints, watercolor and gouache.

YouTube channel: James Gurney

Recommended video: How I Paint Dinosaurs

The painter Jill Poyerd has exceptionally informative videos about important aspects of fine art.

These video tutorials will enrich your painting knowledge, with many examples from the old masters.

YouTube channel: Jill Poyerd Fine Art

Recommended video: The Forgotten Masters

The craft of drawing is super important by itself, or as a basis for painting.

The following channels will help you get better at drawing, using pencils and pens.

If you are a beginner, this channel is for you.

Paul Priestley does a great job using simple techniques to get you started with actual drawing.

YouTube channel: Paul Priestley Art

Recommended video: Draw with Curves

Here you will find excellent drawing tips by the artist, and art instructor, Michele Webber.

In addition, her channel is full of watercolor tutorials and other art related guides.

YouTube channel: In the Studio with Michele Webber

Recommended video: Drawing Tutorial (AVOID these 10 Beginners' Mistakes!)

Darrel Tank is a master when it comes to drawing realistic portraits.

This channel is packed with top-quality tutorials for all levels.

YouTube channel: Drawing With Darrel Tank

Kirsty Partridge, a talented artist that focuses on realism, runs this YouTube channel.

For beginning artists, these tutorials are very detailed, and easy to understand.

Besides pencil drawing lessons, you will find here colored pencils and watercolor tutorials.

YouTube channel: Kirsty Partridge Art

Recommended video: BIGGEST TIPS for GUARANTEED Realistic Drawings

The Virtual Instructor by Matt Fussell is a channel, which is specially designed for beginners, covering lots of the stuff every beginning artist should know.

Tutorials include pencil drawing, watercolor, pastels, acrylics, colored pencils, gouache, and much more.

YouTube channel: Drawing & Painting - The Virtual Instructor

Recommended video: How to Draw a Portrait with Pen and Ink

For pen and ink drawing, Alphonso Dunn offers many video tutorials in his drawing channel.

YouTube channel: Alphonso Dunn

Another great YouTube channel for learning realistic pencil-drawing, with focus on landscape.

This channel includes lots of painting demos, and some supply and equipment reviews.

YouTube channel: smoothie77

The Love Life Drawing channel runs by Kenzo and his mum Mayko, two passionate artists.

Here you can find many tutorials that will help you understand the "how", and the "why", especially for figure drawing.

YouTube channel: Love Life Drawing

Linear perspective is an important fundamental of drawing.

Unlike drawing from observation, perspective is a set of rules that help you draw from imagination.

You can read my article on how to draw in perspective, for the basics.

The following YouTube channels and tutorials will help you dive deeper into perspective.

Circle Line Art School is devoted to learning to draw in perspective.

The artist and instructor, Tom McPherson, presents these tutorials.

Simple to understand and therefore recommended for beginners.

YouTube channel: Circle Line Art School

Recommended video: How to Draw a Room in 1-Point Perspective

Dan Beardshaw has some helpful perspective tutorials.

These tutorials are advanced; they require basic knowledge in perspective.

YouTube channel: Dan Beardshaw

Recommended video: The Horizon Line & Vanishing Points EXPLAINED

While The Drawing Database is dedicated to drawing in general, it has a huge focus on anatomy and perspective drawing.

Professor Marc Leone presents these video tutorials in an easy and understandable way.

YouTube channel: The Drawing Database

Scott Robertson is a master of perspective drawing, and an amazing instructor.

He is a highly regarded author for drawing books. Some of his tutorials are quite advanced.

YouTube channel: Scott Robertson

Modern Day James is a channel with detailed tutorials for learning to draw.

You will find here many guides on perspective, figure drawing, and other basics. Some in traditional drawing, while others using computer graphics.

YouTube channel: Modern Day James

Recommended videos: A six-part introduction to drawing in perspective: I, II, III, IV, V and VI.

Drawing and painting are essential for many industries like computer games, film (especially fantasy and science fiction), animation, and comics.

To be a concept artist or a product designer, you have to master these crafts (drawing and painting), in order to draw from imagination.

Spencer Nugent is a skilled designer. His channel (Sketch-A-Day) has many tutorials for product design in perspective, both in classic style, and in computer graphics.

It includes live streams, which you can watch later, if you missed them.

YouTube channel: Spencer Nugent

Recommended video: What the heck is the degree of an ellipse?

Swatches is an excellent place for advanced instructions for digital art. It runs by the talented concept artist Clint Cearley.

While it offers countless helpful videos with challenges and critics, I suggest scrolling through the videos, and watch ALL videos about art fundamentals.

YouTube channel: Swatches

Recommended video: Best Art Advice on Drawing Faces

Mark Crilley is a renowned author and illustrator of manga books.

This channel includes many manga drawing lessons, and some outstanding tutorials about drawing in perspective.

YouTube channel: Mark Crilley

Recommended video: How to Draw Backgrounds (1-point Perspective)

Brent Noll (a background designer) and Maximus Pauson (a character designer), are both industry professional artists.

Here you will find guides and tips for animation, computer games design, illustration, comics, cartoons, and other digital art related topics.

Their tutorials are fun to watch and easy to understand.

YouTube channel: BaM Animation

Recommended video: Perspective Drawing in Photoshop! Grids and Tips

Ross Tran is an illustrator and a concept artist.

Besides some amazing tutorials, he draws many characters in his own inspiring style.

YouTube channel: Ross Draws

Recommended video: Illustration Master Course - Ep. 3: PORTRAITS

David Finch is a professional comic book artist.

His channel is full of valuable tutorials for drawing figures, shading, and perspective.

YouTube channel: David Finch

Recommended video: Dynamic Figures: Why Your Figures Are Stiff

Marco Bucci is a professional artist, with 15 years of experience.

He works with some of the biggest studios in the industry, including Disney, Marvel, Lego, Lucasfilm, and more.

YouTube channel: Marco Bucci

Recommended video: Draw Better Hands Now

Trent Kaniuga is a concept designer and a video game director, who worked for titles such as Fortnite, World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, League of Legends, and more.

In his channel, Trent offers guides, advice and tips for drawing concept art, and getting ready for the game industry.

YouTube channel: Trent Kaniuga

Recommended video: Sketching Heads One Piece style

As previously stated, anybody can learn to draw and paint.

Hard work & practice are essential but, in order to improve, one has to learn constantly.

YouTube channels and instructors, books and articles, are great for learning.

Participating in drawing and painting classes are just as important.

I always emphasize to my students the importance of learning to draw before (or alongside) learning to paint.

Here is my guide for realistic pencil drawing.

In my guide for painting realism, you will learn about the 8 key factors to achieve realistic results.

In any case, the world is three-dimensional, but your paper (also canvas, wall, computer screen) is two-dimensional. Therefore, you need to create an illusion of depth and space.

To create that illusion, read about the 15 proven ways to draw the illusion of depth (with MANY examples).