NOTE: This course was designed so you could enroll at any time and go at your own pace. You can watch lessons that have already been released. Expect new content once per week.

This course is currently active, so if you submit your work for the latest projects, you could be included in the critique videos!

Anyone can learn how to draw, like anyone can learn how to speak. Drawing is a visual language. If you learn the vocabulary and grammar of the visual language, you can communicate with pictures!

You’ll learn the most important foundational concepts for drawing anything and soon you’ll be able to draw pictures from imagination or from reference. This course is designed to keep you drawing, without getting burned out or discouraged.

It’s heavy on information, lame jokes, and projects. There's even two levels of each project - one for absolute beginners and one for intermediate folks who are here to review and polish their fundamentals. That means you can go through the course twice! First as a beginner and then as an intermediate artist. What? A two in one?!

We'll start by building habits to draw with good line quality. Then we'll move on to shape, which is the main concept that communicates the subject you're drawing. So, it's important to understand how to design interesting shapes to design your own characters and objects. Then we'll make those shapes 3D! We'll learn the basics of perspective and how to construct form intuitively, without complex math and grids. Finally, we'll learn how to add light and shading to our drawings by controlling values and edges.

If you commit to this course and follow along with the projects, you will get better at drawing. You’ll have a good foundation of skills that carry over to every specialty. Whether you plan on becoming a fine art painter, concept artist, or comic artist, this is the prerequisite course!

Secrets of Shading

Part 3 - Light on Elliptical and Lozenge Shapes

Part 3 - Light on Elliptical and Lozenge Shapes

Steven Zapata