Our reviewers evaluate products and services based on unbiased research. Top Consumer Reviews may earn money when you click on a link. Learn more about our process.

The Best Painting Lessons

Where is the Best Place to Take Painting Lessons?

Painting is a beautiful, creative, artistic outlet. It gives you the ability to see a stunning nature scene and recreate it, use your own style to capture a moment in time, or pour your emotions into a project and make a visual representation of what is inside of you. It's one of the most calming and soothing hobbies you can take part in, leaving your mind and body grounded.

Finding someone who teaches painting in-person is much harder than finding a piano teacher or a dance class, so quite a few companies have created online programs for you to do from home. It's significantly less expensive than in-person lessons would be and you can go at your own pace, pause, or rewind different sections to hone in on a technique you're struggling with. You can do a few minutes at a time or spend hours on a masterpiece - it's up to you.

Tuesday, November 5th

2024 Painting Lesson Reviews

Top Consumer Reviews Best-In-Class Blue Ribbon Award The Virtual Instructor Review 5 Star Rating

The Virtual Instructor

5 Star Rating
  • $13.30/month or $67.90/year
  • Learn to draw or paint
  • Beginner and intermediate/advanced material
  • Video and ebook lessons
  • 7-day free trial
  • 30-day money back guarantee
  • Useful blog posts
  • Fantastic student reviews
Top Consumer Reviews Best-In-Class Blue Ribbon Award

The Virtual Instructor is a course put together by artist Matt Fussell. He is a world renowned visual arts instructor who loved teaching and took to the internet to increase his reach to more students. The Virtual Instructor was created in 2009 and over 23,000 people have been a part of the membership program so far. Students can explore both drawing and painting through The Virtual Instructor and find beginner or intermediate/advanced materials to match their skill level.

Narrow by skill level

There is a variety of watercolor, oil, pastel, and acrylic painting courses from The Virtual Instructor. You can browse through the courses to see which one looks most interesting to you or use the filter features on the site to narrow down your best options. You can filter courses by drawing, painting, digital, beginner, or intermediate/advanced. The names of some of the painting courses include "Line and Wash”, "The Watercolor Workshop”, "The Oil Pastel Course”, "Jungle Path with Acrylics”, or "Oil Painting Master Series” among others.

Ebooks with each module

When you click on a course you're interested in, you'll be shown how many lessons are included and be able to review the course curriculum topics, read highlights of what you'll learn, and view snapshots of the ebook it comes with. The Virtual Instructor says that they've designed their course to accelerate learning by teaching in different styles. Each course module includes an ebook with clearly defined steps and illustrations with corresponding videos.

Best Painting Lessons

Buy a course or subscribe to all

The painting course lengths range from 1.5 hours with 7 lessons to 4.5 hours with 22 lessons. You can buy a course outright for $12 - $37 depending on how much material is included or have access to all the courses with your membership.

Monthly or yearly membership

At the time of this review, The Virtual Instructor had a banner on their website offering 20% off of any course with a provided discount code. The cost for a membership where you get access to everything on The Virtual Instructor site is $13.30/month or $67.90/year. Besides the courses we explored and the virtual ebooks they include, members also can join weekly live lessons where they can get real-time instruction and ask questions. These are saved for later streaming and you'll find over 490 of them online.

Free trial and money-back guarantee

If you're hesitant about signing up for The Virtual Instructor, you'll be pleased to hear that they offer a free 7-day trial. It includes access to everything on the site, and once the trial is up you'll automatically be billed for the plan you sign up for. Even after you've signed up and your plan has gone into effect, you are still eligible for The Virtual Instructor's 30-day money back guarantee. If you aren't completely happy with your subscription during this time, you can reach out to the company and get a full refund.

Best Painting Lessons

Explore free blog posts

On top of the courses from The Virtual Instructor, they have a fun and useful blog with articles about drawing specific things, the best erasers for sketch artists, the differences between pastels, tips and tricks for storing and protecting art, and instructions on how to paint a variety of objects and animals. This is free information that is worth exploring when you have some extra time on your hands.

Worth the money

Like many other painting courses, The Virtual Instructor has student testimonials on their website that sing their praises. Outside of this, we found that most everyone felt the course was well worth their money. People feel like no matter what you want to learn about, you'll find a video that covers it here. There are thousands of followers on The Virtual Instructor's social media sites and students are impressed with what they're offered through the courses. There is no Better Business Bureau rating for The Virtual Instructor, but that's not especially uncommon with small businesses like this.

Affordable and low risk

We really like that students have the option to purchase a single course outright with lifetime access or get a broad array of material with a subscription. Whichever route you choose, you won't be overspending here. You're getting a lot of bang for your buck, especially considering the free trial and 30-day money back guarantee. The Virtual Instructor offers a comprehensive learning experience and is a really safe bet for painting lessons. This is our favorite option among online painting lessons and has earned our highest rating.

Udemy Review 4.5 Star Rating

Udemy

4.5 Star Rating
  • Starting at $11.99
  • One-time payments
  • Some free courses
  • Lifetime access to courses
  • Over 3,280 painting lesson options
  • 30-day money back guarantee

Udemy is a one-stop shop to learn a new skill. This education technology company was founded in 2010 and is based out of San Francisco, California. The number of people who utilize this site are staggering. Over 73 million learners and 75,000 instructors come here to share knowledge across over 250,000 courses. You could learn to play an instrument, speak a new language, acquire a professional skill, increase your health and fitness knowledge, and nearly everything else you might take interest in. There are over 3,280 results for painting lessons alone.

Filter features

It's completely overwhelming to come to Udemy and have so many choices for painting lessons. Luckily, not only do they specialize in offering a wide array of information, but they also make it easy to narrow down what you really need. You can sort classes by student ratings, language, certification prep (if applicable), video duration, features, topic, level, subtitles, and price (paid or free). We noticed that based on keywords, some non-related coursework can be found mixed into the painting classes. For example, bass guitar, classical guitar, fingerstyle guitar, golf, and a few other random topics are available in the painting class group, so you'll just have to use common sense to ignore these if they pop up as options.

All styles of paint classes

Some of the topic options for painting classes include watercolor painting, acrylic painting, oil painting, abstract painting, clip studio paint, and digital painting. There are more watercolor classes than anything else, but regardless of the style you're going for, you'll have more than enough options. When you're scrolling through the list of classes, you can see a photo to represent the class, the title and a one-line overview, the instructor's name, student reviews out of 5 stars, how many hours of material are included, the amount of lectures, and if it caters best to beginners, intermediate, or advanced painters.

Best Painting Lessons

Money-back guarantee

You will get plenty of details on the painting class when you click on it to learn more. You can read the names of all the lectures, read student reviews, a long description of what the course is all about, and an extensive bio about the instructor. Although you don't get a free trial of these courses, you should have a pretty good idea of what you're in for if you take the time to read all about each class. Plus, classes do come with a 30-day money back guarantee in case you aren't totally happy with the course once you get going on it.

Frequent sales

Each class has its own pricing, so you should expect to pay anywhere from $11.99 to $74.99. When we were browsing courses, there were a lot of them on sale with major markdowns. A Rembrandt oil painting course with 8.5 hours of content wrapped into 17 lessons was marked down from $79.99 to $11.99. Quite a deal. Sales are actually quite common here, so if you see a course at full price, it wouldn't be surprising if it got marked down within a few months. For painting classes with lifetime access, the prices at Udemy are hard to compete with.

Free, free, free

Did we mention there are free lessons here too? You can sort all the lessons by free ones and take classes like "Watercolor Paint Tips”, "Painting Succulents in Watercolor”, "Painting Sweet Treats in Watercolor”, "How To Paint a Realistic Robin Bird”, and 16 other classes. They are shorter than the paid ones, usually around an hour or so, but many of them are highly rated, so it's a great way to get some free painting lessons.

Best Painting Lessons

Hundreds of student reviews

The best way to decide if a particular painting class from Udemy would be worth your time and money is to read reviews from students. If they say the instruction is clear and the content is informative and helped them progress, then it's a no brainer. Pay attention to whether or not people feel like the class fits the skill level it's listed for, just to make sure you aren't bored or in over your head. There are hundreds of reviews on many of the classes, so it's a really reliable way to learn about the quality of the class.

Poor BBB rating

We should note that failure to respond to complaints against the business have resulted in a "D-” rating for Udemy from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), so this alone won't reassure you that this is a great place to learn to paint online. People say that if they have issues they need to reach customer service for, it's nearly impossible since they are really unresponsive and you have to get through a lot of bots to speak with a human. If you wanted to cash in on your money-back guarantee and get a refund, we imagine it would be quite difficult based on how many people have complained about communication here.

Lots of perks here

Discovering Udemy's customer service issues was extremely disappointing to us and caused us to give the company a slightly lower rating than we would have otherwise. The company's classes seem really comprehensive and extremely affordable. We love the non-subscription format and lifetime access you get when you sign up. Because you have so many choices here, Udemy is still one of our favorite choices for paint classes, although not quite our #1.

Painting Lessons with Marla Review 4 Star Rating

Painting Lessons with Marla

4 Star Rating
  • Monthly subscription for $39.99 or yearly for $395
  • Over 73 lessons available
  • Free mini-lessons
  • Lessons available on any device
  • 30-day money back guarantee
  • Cancel monthly membership anytime
  • Lifetime access to one-time payment workshops
  • High student ratings

Marla has been an art educator for over 30 years and her workshops are nationally sought after. She graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and then worked as a commercial illustrator for 25 years. Marla decided to take her workshops online to pass on the knowledge she has gained over the years to benefit beginner, amateur, and professional artists. Whether you're interested in watercolor, drawing, pastels, acrylic paint, or oil paint, Painting Lessons with Marla covers it in her classes.

Free mini-lessons

One of the first things offered to visitors on Painting Lessons with Marla's site is free mini-lessons. With your name and email address, you'll get a Color Confidence Handbook, watercolor sketching lesson, landscape in oil lesson, and pastel beginner's guide. These courses cover some basic fundamentals and give you an idea of what the teaching style is like for these lessons. We highly recommend starting out here and thinking of it as a free trial of sorts to see if you want to dive further into what else is offered on the platform.

6 lessons/month

For more comprehensive lessons, Marla has both monthly and annual plans for pastel painting. If you pay $39.99/month, you'll get 6 sessions available for you to watch each month. These are step-by-step videos that also come with a detailed PDF study guide. They're all aligned with a monthly theme like unity, simplicity, design + composition, value + light, form, proportion + scale, and others. This is the sixth year the course has been running, so each year the monthly sessions change. Everything can be accessed from the website on any device, but unfortunately the videos aren't downloadable.

Years worth of lessons with annual plans

If you sign up for a year-long subscription at $395 ($32.99/month), you can instantly access all of the sessions for the past 5 years and everything from the current year thus far. Sessions in the past covered specific things like clouds, gardenscapes, rivers and streams, water, still life florals, birds, cute critters, snowscapes, food, fall color, Southeast Asia, and so many other topics. If you sign up for a year-long subscription, you'll have more than enough instruction to keep you busy for a while.

Best Painting Lessons

Yearly plans give you the most value

The year-long subscription makes the most sense if you go with Marla's painting lessons. That's because the format here isn't a one-size-fits-all step-by step painting course where you learn everything from the ground up. Rather, all the lessons are dedicated to fine-tuning a certain aspect of painting or working on the technique it takes to draw an object or person. With all the 73+ lessons, you'll be able to pick and choose what you need the most help on or what you want to learn to draw, and go in whatever order you choose.

30-day money back guarantee

Painting Lessons with Marla gives customers a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you're paying month-to-month, you can easily go into your account and cancel so that you're not billed any further and will no longer have access to the material. If you've paid for a year upfront, you have 30 days to test out the lessons and cancel in order to get your money back. Otherwise, you'll still pay for the rest of the year, but you can opt to not renew your subscription the second year.

Lifetime access to workshops

Another option for painting lessons here are the workshops. These don't require any sort of subscription. Instead, you can look through the different classes available and purchase them outright. For example, we found a "Watercolor Sketching II: Garden Journaling” course that looked fun. It costs $97 and includes over 9 hours of video instruction, a 65-page coursework book with illustrations, materials, color theory, and exercises for you to lay the groundwork to be successful. Students will have lifetime access to the courses they purchase, so this is a good option if you don't like subscriptions. Each workshop lays out what you'll learn in each chapter, so you'll have a thorough understanding of what you're about to purchase.

Best Painting Lessons

Workshops in different mediums

The cost of workshops varies by topic and how much information is covered (mostly between $59 and $127). There are pastel and sketching workshops, oil painting workshops, acrylic workshops, and more. There were a lot we were excited about, so this is a fabulous option for people wanting a little more step-by-step instruction along their painting journey.

Lots to learn

There are glowing testimonials from students on Painting Lessons with Marla's website. Even outside of her website, people say that Marla puts a lot of effort into each lesson and her tutorials are easy to follow. We did see a lot of people say that although each lesson includes information for beginners, you'll jump in more easily if you aren't a complete beginner. This company does not have a rating from the Better Business Bureau, but quite a few people have purchased her workshops or signed up for her subscriptions and are really happy with what they've learned.

Provides great options

We're big fans of the workshops here. The subscription plan is intriguing too, but maybe not as easy to progress with if you're an absolute beginner. Either way, the pricing is reasonable and there is so much instruction and information. You can go at your own pace and surely find something you're excited to learn about and paint. We appreciate that there are some freebie options here and the year-long plan comes with a 30-day guarantee. Overall, this is a service that provides good options for people excited about honing their painting skills and diving deeper. Painting Lessons with Marla has earned one of our highest ratings.

My Painting Club Review 3.5 Star Rating

My Painting Club

3.5 Star Rating
  • $20/month
  • Pay monthly or by individual class
  • Acrylic and oil painting
  • 150 video lessons
  • 1 week free trial
  • 100% satisfaction guarantee

My Painting Club was created by a man named Richard Robinson and it teaches students to teach with both acrylics and oils. They don't share information about their background or how long they've been around, but they do give a good general overview of what they offer. Every lesson is viewed by video and the company boasts that each one gives you the best possible learning experience. In total, there are 150 complete video lessons with new ones added regularly. You also receive printable lesson notes, photo resources, tips, and a self-critique system to help you progress.

Sales-y banter

If you scroll through all of My Painting Club's website, you'll find it to be quite sales-y. It's definitely a homemade website that aims to be personable with lots of banter and big promises about satisfaction, hype about freebies and guarantees, and so on. By the end it started to get a little annoying since we had to scroll so much, but we tried to overlook it.

Live workshops

Although this is a video-based platform where you view pre-recorded materials for your lessons, My Painting Club was created to also give students live instruction and feedback as well. Each month they host an online group workshop aimed to keep students challenged and inspired. Plus, 5 paintings from each monthly workshop are critiqued by the tutor, so you get real feedback on your work if you're chosen.

Best Painting Lessons

No video downloads

For people who want to paint but aren't sure what to paint, My Painting Club lets you search for topics like "flowers” or "beaches” and find the video lesson you want. Before signing up to become a member, you can browse the videos on the site to see what types of videos there are. The downside of these videos from My Painting Club is that they aren't downloadable. To avoid piracy, the company has made it so you only have access to the content if you have an internet connection. Most of the time this will probably not be a problem, but sometimes it's nice not to worry about where you are when you want to access your lessons.

Pay monthly or by class

Outside of what you get with a $20/month membership, you could also choose to pay for individual classes that you have access to forever or even pay tuition for a private one-day course with Richard Robinson himself. This is $350/person or $450 with a friend. Individual painting lessons on things like painting landscapes, tropical islands, a sailboat, and other geographic locations and topics are usually $45 each. You don't need to sign up for anything to purchase these and you'll always have access to them..

7-day trial and 100% guarantee

My Painting Club offers a 7-day free trial where you have access to everything. You can cancel anytime prior to this trial end date and not be charged anything; otherwise, you'll start being billed $20/month until you cancel. The company says, "There is literally no situation in which you will not get your money back if you request it.” This promise does not just apply to your first or most recent payment, but My Painting Club says it covers all charges to your account since the day you signed up. So supposedly, if you pay for a year's worth of painting classes and then come to them saying, "I was not satisfied with all that I've done here.” they could refund you every payment you've made up to that point. That's a BIG guarantee and hopefully they actually stand by it.

Best Painting Lessons

What do students really think?

Besides not having a Better Business Bureau profile or rating, My Painting Club also doesn't have a lot by way of customer reviews. We found a single third-party review and it said that their 7-day free trial ended after 5 days and they felt like there was no interaction with teachers or students and felt that paying to use the program would be a waste. Considering the company boasts that they have over 40,000 members, we really expected to find more student feedback than we did.

Impressive video selection

Overall, we are impressed with how many videos are available to students from My Painting Club. Each one is a couple hours long, states what skill level it's good for, and gives an explanation of what to expect. You won't necessarily be taking your painting from the ground up with the basics here, but rather you can paint whatever strikes your fancy if you're diligent. It's kind of a "pave your own path” style here, which will be good for some. We appreciate the strong guarantee behind this company and hope that you could truly get your money back if you are unhappy. In the meantime, definitely test out the free trial and see what you think. My Painting Club has earned a decent score from us.

Learn & Master Review 3 Star Rating

Learn & Master

3 Star Rating
  • $249 one-time payment
  • Lifetime access to content
  • Oil painting course
  • 60-day money-back guarantee
  • Positive customer reviews
  • "A+” Better Business Bureau rating

Learn & Master is a company that you could turn to for learning more than just painting. This company has courses for guitar, dance, photography, drums, piano, and more. Their comprehensive painting course includes reading, listening, watching, and doing, so you'll get a full multi-modal approach. This course is designed for beginners who are serious about learning composition, color theory, and technique. The company says that their material will take you well beyond the basics and as far along the path of mastery as you want to go.

DVD-based course

The Learn & Master system is entirely DVD-based. This means you'll place a physical order on their website and wait for your course to arrive in the mail. DVDs are definitely an archaic way of getting content for a painting course, but it does have its benefits. As long as you have a DVD player or device with DVD-playing capabilities, you can access the painting lessons and use them wherever, whenever. You also don't have to rely on a website to stream anything and you just pay a one-time cost for lifetime access.

Best Painting Lessons

Feels outdated

The downside of these DVDs is that they may feel old and outdated. The content is still valuable and accurate, but when you're used to watching crystal clear videos on your phone and TV, the quality of what you'll get from Learn & Master could almost be hard to watch. We know this because there is a video highlighting the instructor, Gayle Levee, on Learn & Master's website where she gives an overview of the course and what she hopes you'll learn from it. The quality was a bit grainy and you can tell they were made a long time ago. They have a few other teaser videos so you can see what the instruction is like, and we recommend you view those. If they don't bother you, then we're confident you can learn a lot from these lessons.

Comprehensive content

There are 20 lesson DVDs, 3 audio CDs, a lesson book, and access to Learn & Master's student support site with each purchase. The topics covered include setting up a studio/workspace, brushwork technique, color theory, understanding composition, understanding perspective, using photographic references, varnishing your paintings, and so much more. You'll go over different styles like realism, impressionism, scumbling, impasto painting, wet into wet, and more. There is no shortage of content here, so with Learn & Master, you'll definitely go way beyond the beginner stage of painting if you're dedicated to practice.

Money-back guarantee

The price for Learn & Master's painting course is $249 with a $14.80 shipping charge (which could vary based on your zip code). Also, there is a 60-day money-back guarantee in case you're not satisfied with your purchase for any reason. Shipping costs won't be refunded, but as long as the DVD set is in new condition with no scratches, defects, or markings, you can get your money back.

Best Painting Lessons

Positive reviews

The Better Business Bureau gives Legacy Learning Systems, the company behind Learn & Master, an "A+” rating. They're a business with very few customer reviews, though. Besides the self-posted testimonials that Learn & Master has on their website, we could find very few reports of people's experiences following the painting course here. We did find reviews from a few students who said that the color theory explanations were worth their weight in gold, it is a great learning tool, and Learn & Master provides some of the best learn-to-paint instruction available. This is from a small sample size, but the positivity is nonetheless reassuring.

Solid content, but not for everyone

The idea that Learn & Master's paint course is all on DVDs that were filmed so many years ago will be reason enough to dissuade people from considering these lessons. We do believe that there is valuable content here, so it would be worth their time to do some refilming and possibly change up the format that they offer their courses in. However, if you can look past the outdated nature of these painting lessons, Learn & Master is a great option for beginners who are determined to go to the next level. We like that there is a one-time cost for the course and you can get your money back within 60 days if you're unsatisfied. This option won't be best for everyone, so Learn & Master has earned an average rating from us, but we wouldn't hesitate to make a purchase here if you're interested.

Artist's Academy Review 2 Star Rating

Artist's Academy

2 Star Rating
  • Pay monthly ($8.50) or yearly ($102)
  • Stream on phone, TV, computer, or phone
  • Some free videos
  • Cancel anytime
  • 30-day refund policy

Artist's Academy is a virtual studio where artists can develop self-expression through painting and drawing. Their lessons are taught by award-winning artists whose work is displayed in prominent locations all throughout the country. On the company's "About Us” page, you can read a bio of each instructor to better get to know their background and decide if one of their classes would suit you.

Skill-based videos

To get an idea of what types of videos and classes are available through Artist's Academy, navigate to their "videos” section and browse through what's available. You can watch a video intro that goes over the structure of the class and what is taught, but you'll need to be a member to watch the video in full. Most videos are between 20 and 40 minutes and teach things like hand/eye training for sketching, watercolor paint application, color mixing, brush strokes, creating the illusion of light and form, how to create texture, and more.

Free content

There is a "free videos” section from Artist's Academy, but these are only 2-4 minutes long and teach brief skills like how to clean a palette, lead vs. titanium, varnishing a painting, why you should paint vertically, how to storyboard, and much more. These videos will cover the materials you'll need for the paid classes and how to set them up so that you're all ready to go.

Best Painting Lessons

Jumbled videos

Right away we realized that there isn't a lot of organization to how Artist's Academy displays most of their videos. It's not somewhere where you find a full course that starts from scratch and helps you successively build your way up step-by-step. You're not necessarily working on one particular project or painting through all of these videos that you add to over time. Rather, it seems like a random collection of painting/sketching videos that all have different topics and you can choose whatever you're interested in at the time.

Buy a class

If you want to get really specific with a certain type of painting or skill, the "shop” page from Artist's Academy is more organized. You can pay between $29.99 and $69.99 for classes that take you from beginning to end on a project. Some popular ones are "Realistic Watercolors Step by Step”, "7 Days of Drawing”, "Startup Library: Painting with Acrylics”, or "Startup Library: Painting with Watercolors”. If you're a member, you get a discount on these classes, but you still have to pay separately for them.

Monthly or yearly payments

To become a member with unlimited access to painting and drawing lessons and articles, video streaming on your mobile device, tablet, computer, or TV, you can sign up to pay monthly or yearly for a subscription. The monthly cost is $8.50 or you can pay $102 for a full year upfront. There is no discount or benefit to paying in advance besides knowing that you have a full 12 months of content that you can take advantage of whenever you want. If you pay for a year in advance and are unhappy with your membership, you could get a full refund within 30 days. After that, refunds happen on a prorated basis, but you can cancel at any time.

Best Painting Lessons

Hard to match skill levels

It would be nice if the skill level for each video was a little more clear. If you're a beginner, how do you find the classes that are really basic? You don't want to jump into shading and lighting and creating details on someone's face if you're not even sure how to hold the brush correctly. Or on the flip side, what if you're an expert painter and don't want to waste your time with videos that aren't useful? We wish that videos were listed with some sort of label indicating the target skill level.

Surprise price hikes

There aren't many reviews from people who have used Artist's Academy, but the ones we found weren't good. Most people complained that the first year's pricing that's advertised is really low, but they'll surprise you the second year with much higher pricing and charge you without warning. People said they were charged anywhere from $50 to $100 more the second year and some were even told by customer service that there is a no refund policy, even though their website states differently. No one is thrilled with the material and they say you can get similar or better content from YouTube. There is no Better Business Bureau rating for this company, and most of what we did find was just frustration from students.

Not a good starting place

If we were wanting a lot of structure and just getting started on our painting journey, we would lose our steam pretty quickly with Artist's Academy. We felt a little overwhelmed trying to grasp all that's available to us and where we should even start. The price is definitely affordable, but we'd rather put our money into something that makes us feel like we are making a lot of progress and gives us a clear path to success. We recommend going higher on our list for a better-organized option for your painting lessons.

Online Art Lessons Review 2 Star Rating

Online Art Lessons

2 Star Rating
  • $9/month or $50/year
  • Hundreds of free classes
  • Beginner drawing and painting lessons
  • Over 100 free classes
  • VIP members get over 400 paint-along courses
  • 30-day money-back guarantee

Online Art Lessons by Paint Basket is a site where people can hone in on their painting or drawing skills (not to be confused with their sister site, Paint Basket... very confusing). All of the classes are provided through online videos which aren't available for download or offline viewing. They're created by Nolan Clark, a professional artist and tutor with over 20 years of experience. You can view live replays or search specifically for whatever type of painting or drawing classes you're interested in.

A mix of styles and mediums

Online Art Lessons says their drawing and painting lessons are perfect for those just starting out. They cover all the basics and then help you reach intermediate level. The classes include a mix of acrylic, oil, watercolor, and soft pastel, pen and ink, and pencil drawing. The subjects range from realistic animal painting to portrait painting, water-soluble oil paint, and advanced watercolors.

Best Painting Lessons

Topics for everyone

Classes include topics like painting Monet's garden, pairing complementary colors, painting shadows, using abstract shapes, flower reflections, painting lace work, statue busts, and hundreds of other topics. Surely there are video lessons here that would get anyone excited about advancing their painting skills.

Confusing pricing

After we scrolled the home page for what felt like way too long, we found a button that said we could join for $5 to get instant access. We don't fully understand what this means since nowhere else on the website do they advertise that you can get anything for $5. In fact, pricing here is pretty confusing and by the end we still weren't confident in the cost of it all. On their "Join Now” page, you could sign up for a $9/month membership until you cancel or instead pay $50 upfront and get access for a year. This supposedly guarantees you access to all the courses, but some courses are advertised for Silver+ members and others for Platinum members, but it is unclear if these cost extra. In short, this company is in bad need of a pricing page that clearly lays out the cost for each level and what it includes.

Hundreds of freebies

There are quite a few free videos that are available to anyone, which is nice. Online Art Lessons has a "free classes” tab on their website with specific lessons like "Girl with the pearl earring”, "Painting rock formations”, "Flower reflections”, "Tuscany steps”, "Bluegums in forest”, and so many others. The length of these classes can be over 2 hours long and all of them are labeled with the skill level it takes to successfully complete and understand the instruction throughout the course.

Best Painting Lessons

Wish they had unfiltered customer reviews

There is no Better Business Bureau rating for Paint Basket or Online Art Lessons. There aren't many student reviews either, but it doesn't help that they have a very generic company name and it's hard to find third-party ratings because of it. Paint Basket itself seems to have overall good ratings from some students, but technically this is a sister site and they aren't the same thing. Online Art Lessons is probably not a first pick for many people who are just picking up a paintbrush for the first time and need step-by-step guidance through the process.

Just go for the free stuff

Truthfully if it were up to us, we would mostly just take advantage of the free classes on this site. They seem really similar to what you'd be paying for, so if you find some that you're interested in that fit your skill level, you might as well go ahead with them. If pricing and this website were more straightforward, we might be more excited about paying for courses here. Due to confusion and lack of straightforwardness, Online Art Lessons has not earned one of our highest ratings.

Online Painting Lessons Review 1.5 Star Rating

Online Painting Lessons

1.5 Star Rating
  • Daily emails with tips and tricks
  • 2 free workshops
  • Free downloadable workbook

Online Painting Lessons is mostly referred to as "Katie Jobling Art” on the website and all the company's social media platforms. The creator and instructor, Katie Jobling, says she is dedicated to helping beginner painters find their style, unleash their creativity, and create breathtaking artwork that they're confident in. She has worked with big names like Crayola, Arteza, Logitech, Strathmore, Skillshare, and Huawei.

Find your inner style

Jobling really focuses her efforts on helping painters break free of self-doubt and become "art innovators” instead of "art imitators”. This means finding your artistic voice and painting like yourself, not like someone else. She has come up with a 3-part process for artistic growth that you'll explore through her content. Students will develop skills, explore color theory, composition, and more by watching her videos.

2 free workshops

There are 2 free workshops from Katie Jobling Art that will give you an idea of how the rest of the course would be. The first workshop is "The 3-Step Method To Paint Impressionist Landscapes” and the second is "Create Artwork you LOVE (without tutorials)”. To access these lessons, you'll need to provide your name and email address. You'll receive a link to the videos in your inbox, and like all other videos from Katie Jobling Art, they can be downloaded and viewed on any mobile device.

Best Painting Lessons

No official painting course

Unlike most other online painting lessons, The "Learn to Paint with Confidence” resources from Katie Jobling cost nothing and are mostly a way to draw traffic to her website where she sells her own artwork as well as other sites where she sells her work. This also helps her get her name out there as people watch her videos and she receives revenue this way. There's no way to purchase any type of course here since there isn't really an official one. Instead, you'll register with your name and email for one of her free workshops. From there you'll get a link to the video and automatically get more tips and tricks in your inbox each day. Your email will include a link for a free downloadable workbook that covers her 3-step method.

Nothing to rate

Jobling doesn't have a rating from the Better Business Bureau since there isn't officially anything that people buy or receive here except for links to videos and emails. She also doesn't have ratings, but based on her social media following, she is a popular artist and people like to see her creations and get little insights about how to improve their own paintings from her videos and social media posts.

No step-by-step lessons

If you just want some really basic workshops and a workbook to get you excited about painting and help you know where to start, it costs nothing to take advantage of the Katie Jobling Art resources. However, there are no comprehensive lessons here that are actually going to teach you how to paint from the ground up. Rather, you could refer to Jobling's videos about common mistakes that new painters make and use her process to inspire you to discover your favorite painting styles and topics. If you're looking for real step-by-step painting lessons, visiting Online Painting Lessons by Katie Jobling won't fill this need, so they've earned our lowest ranking.

Compare the Best Reviews

Continued from above...

Painting is great for people of any age to take part in. Whether you've got a finger-painting toddler or you're a retired professional exploring new hobbies, painting suits everyone. If you're like most of us, the majority of your artistic "training” and painting experience came through the classes you took in school while you were growing up.

Some of these may have even been mandatory, so you might not have appreciated them at the time. Unless you took extra painting credits, dove deep into all the episodes of Bob Ross you could get your hands on, or found a private studio that teaches classes, you may have hit a dead end in your training and are wondering what your options are.

Online painting lessons are as convenient as it gets. The class you choose can reflect the style you're interested in learning. If you're wanting to learn to draw people rather than nature scenes, you could find a class for this. Maybe you're interested in acrylics, watercolor, or oils specifically. There's a class for that too. With our help here, you'll be able to match yourself to online painting lessons that fit your experience level within just minutes. Before getting started, you'll likely be given a list of materials you need so that you can get your own in-home studio set up and ready to go.

We've done a lot of the important research regarding some of the best online painting classes available to you and recommend keeping the following things in mind when you're looking around:

  • Art style. Are you looking for general education on painting so you can discover the type you like best? Do you want to dabble in all different styles and learn the basics of each? Or are you looking for something in particular? Explore the styles taught in the online classes and choose the one that piques your interest.
  • Price. Although you're spending pennies on the dollar compared to private painting lessons, the cost is still a big consideration. Does the company offer a program with a one-time cost that you'll have lifetime access to? Or is there a subscription fee to continue your education month after month?
  • Instruction type. Do you like the idea of a live masterclass that adds a personal touch to your training? Or do you prefer separate video lessons that you can progress with, pause, or reflect back on if you need to? Consider your preferred way of learning when choosing a painting program so that you get the most out of the lessons.
  • Reputation. What have others said about the painting program? Does it have glitches or is it always running smoothly? Is customer service easy to work with if you need to cancel a subscription or have an issue with your account? What do students have to say about different instructors and what they've learned from them?

The experts at Top Consumer Reviews have researched the most popular online painting lessons available to you. We hope this information helps you find a company that accelerates your painting skills and gives you a relaxing, enjoyable experience!

The Best Painting Lessons Compare Painting Lessons Compare Painting Lesson Reviews What are the best Painting Lessons Best Painting Lesson Reviews

Painting Lesson FAQ

When you sign up for an online painting class, you'll usually receive downloadable videos that have a series of lessons to watch. You'll get step-by-step guidance from a master painter. Depending on the type of painting you're interested in learning, you'll be instructed in all the techniques that you'll need to know to improve your painting skills. Some classes also offer an eBook with helpful tips you can always refer to, as well as the option to submit your artwork for critique.
Taking painting lessons online is just like being in-person, except you can pause, play, and rewatch anything you're learning. You'll have your own papers, brushes, and paints at home to work with and you'll follow along with what you see in the class to create your own artwork. The idea is that you can create your own masterpieces from home on your own time and not have to find a local studio to go to.
Most classes have downloadable videos that can be viewed from nearly any electronic device. If you're using a smartphone, iPad, tablet, or computer, you should have no problem viewing your painting lessons. Some older courses have you buy DVDs that ship to your home, so you might watch those on your laptop or TV. In short, you can plan on being able to access your painting class from anywhere at any time since they are more accessible than ever now!
Any and all! You could select a paint class that specifically teaches a paint medium you're interested in like acrylics or watercolor. The other option would be to find a class that touches on a little bit of everything so you can dip your toes in the water and decide what you like best. Online learning is so popular now that you can find painting lessons that cover all mediums, topics, and techniques with just a few clicks.
Compared to the cost of doing in-person painting classes, online courses are fairly inexpensive. Not only are you avoiding driving to an art studio at scheduled times during the week, you also can spend as long as you want learning from your online class without worrying about the cost. Some companies offer online courses on a subscription basis and you pay month-to-month, or you can purchase the class outright and have it forever.
If you have a question about the class itself, you should always be able to reach out to customer service and get answers that way. If you're wanting help with your painting, we suggest choosing a course that offers live Q&A sessions, the chance to submit your artwork for critique, or video chatting with an instructor. Although online painting courses are done remotely, there are still many ways you can connect with other students and teachers as you learn.
The beauty of an online painting class is that you can start, stop, and rewatch any parts of the lesson. You don't have to "keep up” like you would in a face-to-face class. You can master techniques by watching them over and over again and take as long as you want to finish the whole lesson. Online paint classes are 100% flexible and can be done around your schedule.
Not all online painting platforms allow you to get your money back if you're unsatisfied. If you're unsure if a painting course is right for you, it would be wise to choose one that offers a trial period or money-back guarantee if the class isn't as you'd hoped. Companies want customers to be happy with what they're offering, so if you don't want to use your painting class anymore, you'll likely be able to cancel your subscription or get a refund within the first few weeks.
The Best Reviews of Painting Lessons