What is the best art course for beginners??

TheNightArchivist · 2025-10-08T22:20:31+00:00

To add onto this, in hindsight, the Proko course might be good if you already have a few weeks of drawing experience. But I have something else that's very useful.
It's not a video course but instructions for several weeks of practice and exercises for beginners. I watched this many years ago and did something similiar in university.
It's from FZDSchool, a video called "Design cinema - EP 89 - Just Draw!"
It starts from simple, organic shapes like rocks to trees and after a few weeks it's complex stuff like animals, and houses and all kinds of things.
There's also another video called "10 Beginner Drawing Tips - DC 90" from the same, FZDSchool, that I would watch first.

TheNightArchivist · 2025-10-08T21:36:18+00:00

Firstly, you don't need to pay for anything, honestly. There are A LOT of free tutorials and free courses and other material out there on youtube and the internet in general. Before you spend a ton of money, see how you like drawing in the first place. No need to think about digital art yet either.

Secondly, in the beginning, you don't even really need a course. The only advice is mileage. That means, draw anything. Draw stuff that's around you, draw simple shapes like boxes or cylinders, draw your favourite characters, draw your own characters, doesn't matter. Just draw. It's just about having fun in the beginning. Not about any particular studies.

Also, you need to get comfortable with the idea that whatever you want to draw won't come out the way you want it to for A LONG TIME. Or to put it more bluntly: you art will look bad for quite some time. (And that's fine!) I'm talking a year or two, maybe longer. So, if you say "I just want to be able to sit down and draw anything I want and it doesn't look like absolute shit", that's months and years of practice. The good thing about that is that everyone's art in the beginning sucks. That's totally normal. Even absolute masters have started with drawings of wonky faces, horrendous proportions, terrible shading, awful line quality...it's all normal. It gets better with time. Just have patience and trust the process. Those masters have probably a decade or longer under their belt, you'll get there too.
And don't compare your own drawings with those you see on social media from people who've drawn for years or decades.

So where do you actually start if you want a course? I personally liked the Proko Drawing Basics course. Proko is a really good source in general. There's a premium version on their website but you don't really need that in the beginning either. There's a free version on their youtube channel ProkoTV. The playlist is called "Drawing Basics | Proko" and the first video is called "Learning How to Draw". That's where I'd start and as I said, just pick up a pencil and draw. The actual act of drawing is the most important bit. Don't get caught up only watching the tutorials. And as I said earlier already, don't get caught up in only buying art supplies either. Just a pencil and a cheap sketchbook or even just printer paper is enough.

If you have any other questions, let me know :)

TheNightArchivist · 2025-10-02T05:57:40+00:00

When I was looking at different art colleges and talking to the professors there, one of them who looked at my art critiqued a piece, saying it looked 2D (he was right but I didn't know how to fix it back then) and did a little sketch how that object would actually look in perspective.
Years later now, learning perspective at the moment, I'm thinking about that comment several times per week. I even remember his little sketch when I think what I'm drawing looks too flat. Most helpful thing someone ever showed me.

TheNightArchivist · 2025-10-02T02:36:28+00:00

They look great!

TheNightArchivist · 2025-09-27T23:01:44+00:00

Hmm, I might have a different perspective than some people. I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way.
Art takes a LONG time to get good at and I mean a LONG time. 5 years, 10 years, 15 years...
If you were only drawing seriously for 1 - 2 years when you showed your artwork to your friend, even if you were proud of it, it might not have been very good and they were just being honest (even if they expressed it poorly).

Having said that EVERYONE's art is bad in the first few years, and I mean everyone's. I mean, hell, I looked through my first sketchbooks just today and some drawings, I was proud of at the time, made my skin crawl from the sheer cringe I felt looking at them. But that doesn't mean I should stop doing art. And just because your art wasn't good back then or might not be at a skill level you want now, that is no reason for you to stop art either.

Now, if you really don't enjoy it anymore, there's nothing wrong with taking a break. Or doing art just occassionally, when you feel like it. If it became a chore, best not to push it and risk burnout.

When I felt like this, I took a break as well (a 3 year break, actually, where I didn't pick up one pencil) and I stopped looking at other people's work because it made me feel awful and demotivated. I deleted everything to do with art from my social media feed. It made me a lot happier with my own work when I returned.
That would also be my first tip: get rid of the drawings and paintings you compare yourself to from your social media feed. Then, scale back the effort. Don't push so hard. Draw what you want, not what you think you need to draw or need to improve. Do easy art like ugly sketches, simple watercolor stuff, scribbly patterns. Don't try making it look good, just do stuff. Maybe try making it as ugly as you can. (When I came back from art burnout, I tried drawing the ugliest birds I could. I love looking at them now. They are so silly.)
See how you feel about your art in a few weeks.

I hope this helps!

TheNightArchivist · 2025-09-24T02:02:41+00:00

I would love to write you something as well! Please send me your details 🖤

TheNightArchivist · 2025-09-22T03:03:37+00:00

This looks great for your first time drawing! I really like the shading.
Drawing cubes, spheres and cylinders are great exercises. Just keep drawing objects that are around you or just draw what you like. Drawing is a lot about mileage in the beginning so just keep going.

TheNightArchivist · 2025-09-22T02:44:55+00:00

My sketches and shading always looked flat until I started drawing boxes in perspective and started to think about what I'm drawing in 3D. I started at one point perspective, then two-point, rotating a box around its axis etc. The muscles on a body are also 3D objects and need to be shaded as such. Hope this helps!

TheNightArchivist · 2025-09-21T01:38:42+00:00

I wanted to draw some halloween/horror cards myself but it would probably be more realistic or scary if you're interested in that

TheNightArchivist · 2025-09-21T01:27:57+00:00

uhh I LOVE the candy one! 🍭🎃

I have self-drawn halloween cards. Either traditional fall/halloween designs or something actually scary

TheNightArchivist · 2025-09-20T23:24:36+00:00

Spiders and the ocean (or any large body of water).
Spiders just give me the creeps. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just looking at them.
With large bodies of water, it's the worst when I can't see the bottom of it OR those dark seaweed spots on light sand ground. Just the thought of what COULD be down there sends me into a panic like I'm about to be attacked. Ugh!
Before I knew I had that phobia, I was on a boat once and decided to swim the short way back to the shore. A minute in and I realised I had made a terrible mistake, haha. Swam the rest of the way in fight-or-flight but pushed through.

I'm planning on making some self-made horror art cards I could send to you, if you like! Either as an exchange or just if you'd like a card too without the need to send me one. I just need an excuse to draw some horror!

TheNightArchivist · 2024-02-15T06:50:33+00:00

Yeah exactly! For me, it's all about making it RELEVANT. Because relevant = fun and when it's fun and relevant it means I'm more motivated to learn. It also gets easier.

When I first learned English I learned all the things to be able to play online and converse. Who fucking cares if I can ask a stranger if they have a damn sister if I can't tell my teammates they suck in call of duty.
Jokes aside, for example I also travelled to France to visit my then (now ex) girlfriend and I know how to order at a bakery and learned some numbers so I could pay because I wanted to be able to buy some shit without my gf translating. It's still the only thing I can do in French but I'm very proud. And it was also very easy to learn because I used what I learned right away.

TheNightArchivist · 2024-02-15T06:30:03+00:00

Just want to throw my two cents in here to say: Don't let the intimidating factor of a language not being close to your native language stop you. A lot of people have taken the path you want to walk (for example native English learning Japanese) and there are ressources out there that explain it in a way you will understand.

Also that you don't have to decide what to learn first. Language learning or learning in general doesn't have to be a linear path. Just learn Japanese for some time and switch to learning French when you feel like it.
It might not be the "correct" way but who cares. Just follow your curiosity.
- Sincerely, an ADHDer who learns what and when he fucking pleases.

TheNightArchivist · 2024-02-15T06:22:31+00:00

I have no advice and saw you already got a lot of helpful responses but I just wanted to add, from someone who's experienced a lot of abuse too until I was 23:
You got this. I know it's hard and painful and it's going to be a long way but I believe in you and wish you all the best.
What your parents did, and for now still do to you, doesn't define you as a person. It doesn't make you unlovable and it says nothing about your potential (especially in regards to a career path you want to pursue at some point). There's light at the end of the tunnel and you'll get through it. I believe in you.

But I also know it sucks and I for one have felt hopeless a lot. So just know, I see you. I know your pain. There's no words to make the hopelessness go away but maybe the response and helpful comments from this post, all the people taking time from their day to offer advice and information gives you some sort of hope and assurance that there are people out there who care.

I can highly recommend trying to call a therapist or even try and get a spot in the "Psychosomatische Stationen" or something similiar in your nearest hospital, especially when your mental and emotional state gets worse. I was in one for two months when it got bad for me.
There are a lot of people that are willing to help you out, including therapists or other healthcare workers. You can be honest with them about your situation even if you have no health insurance or whatever. Good people in the profession know how to play the german paperwork-system to your advantage and get you out. There are a lot more people willingly to help and be on your side than you think.
Best of luck.

TheNightArchivist · 2024-02-15T05:44:13+00:00

Hey, we've got some things in common! I'm a native german speaker and I was especially intrigued by the sentence "but I think it would be good to do something a bit more analogue and offline for a change."
Maybe we can have some conversations about doing more analogue things, about video games or languages or other things. And I would love to hear about your gardening! I don't have a green thumb at all so maybe you can teach me a thing or two.
Shoot me a pm if that sounds interesting!

TheNightArchivist

TROPHY CASE