Best Free Painting Classes Online: 30+ Websites & Channels To Try

Do you love painting but are discouraged by expensive classes? There are tons of free online resources that can teach you how to paint with confidence. This article will discuss some of the best free online resources for learning how to paint in various styles.

1. Online College of Art & Design

Overview

Are you ready to be the artist you want to be? This statement is the challenge that the Online College of Art & Design (OCAD) asks their potential students when you open their website. Aside from the free painting classes, the website also offers advanced courses in art & design, photography, music, and preparing your portfolio.

The website's primary focus is to give one-on-one expert tuition for recreational and board-accredited art courses that you can access at your convenience. It also offers discount vouchers to its students.

Classes

The website has two free classes by Jemma and Kieran. Jemma has free task videos to learn how to draw using charcoal and graphite drawings, painting using different mediums, and creating mixed media art. She also has a Facebook community where her followers can join the live sessions and paint with her for free.

Kieran is another painter who posts free video classes, where she shows how to paint using live objects, and royalty-free images are available for download so you can practice on them. Like Jemma, she draws in charcoal and graphite and paints using acrylics.

What's Unique About It

Many students who wanted to enroll in art colleges and universities boasted of getting 100% on their IGCSE art exam, a feat they couldn't have done without OCAD. Aside from the one-on-one tutorials, you also get a review of your portfolio case study, which will improve your output and portfolio.

2. Paint with Kevin

Overview

Kevin Hill, the owner of the website Paint With Kevin, is a prolific painter who started his journey when he was 15. Although self-taught, Kevin now sells various painting DVDs and painting supplies and runs his online gallery through his website. He specializes in oils, but he also works on acrylics.

Kevin conducts on-site painting workshops where he paints with his students, giving insights and tips that his students can easily follow.

Classes

Kevin's free painting classes are on his YouTube channel KevinOilPainting where he showcases his landscape and seascape paintings using oils and acrylics. His paintings, perfected through trial and error and years of learning from his mistakes, show how dedicated he is to improving his craft, a virtue that every artist should achieve to succeed.

What's Unique About It

Instead of spending precious minutes introducing himself and promoting his website, most of Kevin's tutorial videos dive directly into the painting process. He loves to talk, so there is no dead length on the videos.

He explains his techniques, the brushes that he uses, how he mixes his paints, and many more helpful tips while working on his paintings. If you're into landscapes (mountains, forests, meadows) and seascapes, Kevin is your kind of artist.

3. Andrew Tischler

Overview

Andrew Tischler is a personal favorite of our team with his realistic landscapes, still life, animals, and portraits in oil, though he also works with pencils. He's been painting for nearly two decades, but his greatest passion is teaching art. Andrew, together with his wife Rachel, now runs a YouTube channel and Patreon website from New Zealand.

Classes

Though Andrew's paintings are very realistic (we swear you can almost jump into one of his paintings because of its 3D effect achieved by using the right colors and applying glazes), his explanations are easy to understand for beginners.

Support his YouTube channel by subscribing, though it's not necessary to access his free painting tutorials.

What's Unique About It

Rooting for hyper-realistic paintings? Andrew Tischler is a perfect choice. Aside from his painting tutorials, Andrew also gives you tips on what painting mediums to use, how to block your paintings, stretch a canvas, retouch, and varnish your oil paintings.

4. Jerry's Artarama

Overview

Jerry's Artarama is an online store for art supplies, easels, art furniture, framing supplies, and artist resources.

Classes

Jerry's Artarama free online classes include lessons on painting with watercolors, acrylics, egg tempera, encaustics, mixed media, and oils and drawing with pens and pencils.

You can also choose from different artists, mediums, skill levels, and subjects - from architecture to techniques like underpainting to prepare your canvas for the actual painting.

What's Unique About It

What we love about Jerry's Artarama are the free lessons for kids. We believe that it's never too early to hone and improve a kid's skill. Building their confidence in their abilities is a powerful tool for success later in life.

5. Misulbu

Overview

If you're a fan of K-Pop, Misulbu is an excellent artist to follow. This influential South Korean artist started showcasing her work online in 2017 on Misulbu.com, an online gallery where you can view her artworks. Interestingly, these paintings do not have labels, so you have no way of identifying them except through their thumbnails.

Classes

We don't know if Misulbu speaks English because her paintings do not have narrations. However, that does not stop her from showing her painting prowess.

Though she specializes in portraits on her YouTube channel, Misulbu also does occasional landscapes, still-life, and human movement studies. The fantastic likeness of her watercolor paintings is one of the reasons why thousands follow her channel.

What's Unique About It

Misulbu specializes in Korean subjects for her watercolor paintings, but she also has several American actors for her subject. One thing is sure, though; she is proud of her heritage, and her thousands of views for every video is a testament that many agree with her.

6. Bill Martin's Guide to Oil Painting

Overview

More popularly known as Bill Martin, William Henry Martin is a prolific artist and author whose works are a result of his innovations. He is most known for his "Bill Martin scenes." He depicts his art in an otherworldly manner that will always mesmerize his audience.

Even before his death in 2008 at the age of 65, he never slowed down, spending more than 50 hours a week working on his Mendocino landscapes.

Classes

The website features oil painting exercises that will help you understand forming primary forms, values within colors, color, and distance & texture to make your paintings look professional, even if you're just a newbie. It has paid courses on oil painting techniques, but it has several educational blog articles that you can access for free.

Bill Martin also runs a YouTube channel known as Bill Martin's Guides, where he has organized three series of lessons on oil painting techniques and working on landscapes and still-life.

What's Unique About It

Although the videos in Bill Martin's Guides are almost a decade old, they remain essential lessons for anyone trying to master oil painting.

7. Watercolor Painting

Overview

This website aims to be the go-to site for watercolor artists who want to improve their techniques, practice through video tutorials, and get watercolor painting ideas for your next project. It offers paid classes taught by award-winning artists.

You can access hundreds of free lessons on the website to improve your watercolor painting skills.

Classes

The website has arranged lessons according to skill level, so you can find a course that fits your needs. It even features famous watercolor artists whose styles may inspire you.

However, the most helpful section of the website is the glossary to familiarize yourself with the jargon related to watercolors.

What's Unique About It

We love most about this site is the guide on handling and controlling watercolor brushes, a fundamental but essential skill for any artist to master. It also includes exercises to help you wield better control on your brushes and a guide to watercolor supplies that every beginner should have.

8. Renjitha Anoop

Overview

Renjitha Anoop is another self-taught artist whose art reflects ethnic, modern, and classic influences. She had mounted 16 exhibits in four different locations - Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Bangalore, and Montreal. Her website also boasts an online gallery of her collections.

Classes

Though Renjitha has a paid online class on painting flowers, her free tutorial videos on YouTube have a good viewership. She specializes in flowers, but she also does landscapes and seascapes. She also does tutorials on acrylic painting techniques.

What's Unique About It

This free online class is best for acrylic artists who love to paint flowers.

9. Jay Lee Painting

Overview

Jay Lee has an online store of pillows, wall art, water bottles, mugs, tumblers, and accessories like face masks, phone cases, stickers, and bags that feature his acrylic paintings.

Classes

Aside from his online store, Lee also regularly uploads tutorial videos on how to paint with acrylics using his unconventional tools. Discover how you can create a painting using a nylon loofah, corrugated cardboard, or a brayer.

What's Unique About It

Lee loves using unconventional painting tools like combs, metal wires, sponges, aluminum foil, Q-tips, even metal scrubbers to make textured paintings of flowers, landscapes, forest scenes, and random paintings.

It's also amazing how he turns a series of acrylic paint dots on the canvas into a lovely painting.

10. Draw Mix Paint

Overview

Mark Carder runs a website where he showcases his commissioned works, including two US presidents. His paintings do not come cheap, but something that you can hang proudly on your walls.

Classes

The website has a complete course in oil painting, starting from setting up your studio to finishing your painting, even how to peg a price for your paintings.

The section on free videos redirects you to the Draw Mix Paint YouTube channel, where you can learn how to set up your subjects from real objects or photographs, techniques like mixing colors, drawing in proportions, or painting in oils.

What's Unique About It

Get a chance to learn from one of the masters in oil paintings by subscribing to the Draw Mix Paint channel. You can also watch Mark Carder's Q&A as he explains the different techniques to make your oil paintings stand out.

11. Step by Step Painting With Tracie Kiernan

Overview

Tracie Kiernan is a crafter and artist behind the Step by Step Painting with Tracie Kiernan. She loves to innovate and use whatever available supplies. Aside from running her website, Tracie is also a full-time mom to her three kids.

Classes

As a certified K-12 Art teacher, Tracie specializes in teaching art for kids. She has seasonal and holiday tutorial videos and tips on priming, sealing, and enlarging your designs to fit your canvas.

It also includes tips on how to master your brushes, apply gesso, and create printables for your designs, so you can also share your designs with other artists in the making.

What's Unique About It

Tracie has a traceable library that you can print and use as a template for canvas paintings for beginners and kids. She also loves to break her tutorials into simple steps that are easy for beginners to follow.

12. Empty Easel

Overview

Empty Easel is a community of artists who provide free but quality drawing and painting lessons to guide you as you discover your artistic method and style.

Classes

Aside from art lessons, the website also recommends products that artists should use, including art products suitable for vegans, how to create comic book art, and food photography. The choices on this website are endless. Best of all, tutorials are free, and you can opt-in for their weekly emails, so you stay updated on their new posts.

What's Unique About It

You don't have to stick to a single medium as a community of artists. Instead, this website includes free tutorials on creating mixed media art and painting in acrylics, oils, egg tempera, gouache, and watercolors.

13. Lena Danya

Overview

Lena Danya is a Russian artist who works in acrylics, watercolors, pencils, and oils. Aside from her YouTube channel, she also has a DeviantArt account to feature some of her most amazing digital art and paintings.

Classes

If you're someone passionate about mastering water on your paintings, better check out Lena's channel. She also talks about her real-life experience as an artist and shares tips and advice on succeeding as a self-taught artist with an extensive portfolio.

What's Unique About It

Lena is very passionate about adding water features to her paintings, the most dramatic oil paintings of women bathing in the sea or a river. Some of her video tutorials feature her piano pieces, showing how versatile she is as an artist.

14. Jeanne Oliver

Overview

Jeanne Oliver is an artist, author, and creative mind behind the Jeanne Oliver website. Her book, The Painted Art Journal, teaches you how to improve and hone your painting skills in watercolors, acrylics, mixed media, and printmaking.

Classes

Jeanne and her team choose from more than 40 free classes, from doodling to still-life to portraiture. Though the courses are free, you have to add them to your cart to access them. Don't worry, though. The classes cost absolutely nothing. You need an active email address, and you're good to go.

You'll learn about value mapping, color mixing, mapping the face for portraits, and creating your creative journals.

What's Unique About It

Every artist in the Jeanne Oliver space has their unique take on creating art so browsing through the courses helps you discover your style.

15. Daria Callie

Overview

Daria Callie was an architect-designer from the Belarusian National Technical University before transitioning into a full-time artist in 2016. Her style combines realism with abstraction because she wants to create a "free, boundless atmosphere." Most of her paintings are in private collections in the US, Japan, and other countries.

Classes

Daria's passion for art is evident on Instagram and her website. The real magic happens on her YouTube channel. Here, she shows how she uses 5 to 6 oil colors to create realistic portraits with abstract backgrounds.

She also does detailed paintings to perfect the eyes, mouth, ears, and hands.

What's Unique About It

Daria is fond of using earth tones in her paintings. If you want to master mixing skin tones for your paintings, this channel is your best choice.

16. Robin Sealark

Overview

Robin Sealark hailed from Utah and got her Fine Arts degree from Brigham Young University in Utah. She has a strong following on YouTube and Instagram, where she showcases most of her paintings. Her book Oil Painting Everyday includes easy exercises and engaging compositions to improve your landscape, seascape, and flower paintings.

Classes

Aside from the usual painting tips, Robin shares how she beats the artist's block, tests new art products, and combats the usual artist's fears. She also does collaborative work with fellow artists.

What's Unique About It

Though Robin specializes in oils, she also does acrylics and digital art. She takes inspiration in the most mundane things and creates art using her style, and you'll need that inspiration to create your own.

17. Kelogsloops

Overview

More popularly known as Kelogsloops on his social media accounts, Hieu Nguyen is a watercolor and digital artist. His works include portraits depicted in surreal and abstract styles. He had done various exhibitions, but first went solo in November 2018. He currently works as a head designer for Beautiful Bizarre Magazine as a head designer but still creates art.

Classes

In his YouTube channel, Hieu shows his watercolor sketchbooks which he filled with watercolors over the years. He also gives you a tour of his studio and workspace, so you can get inspired with creating your art studio.

What's Unique About It

Hieu also shows how he does his digital paintings on his YouTube channel as a digital artist. If you're interested in creating digital art inspired by your paintings, Hieu’s is the best online painting class for you.

18. Visual Mind

Overview

Melanie of Visual Mind is an Austrian artist. Afraid that being an artist is pure hard work and financial gain, Melanie quit her art until her college years. Since then, she has been active on her YouTube channel and Skillshare as she shares her art with her audience. Melanie is also a strong supporter of the Pride community.

Classes

Melanie is into watercolors, but she also uses gouache and Copic markers. She also doodles, but she loves doing landscapes, flowers, birds, underwater creatures, and mixed media art.

What's Unique About It

After experiencing a lot of discouragement before she even started her art, she talks a lot about what to do when people discourage you about something. She also talks about how you can be an artist, even when you think you're not talented.

19. The Postman's Knock

Overview

Lindsey Bugbee is a designer, artist, and calligrapher whose art transcends more than just paintings. Her website is a good resource for those who love to work with stamps and calligraphy art.

Classes

Lindsey's YouTube channel primarily teaches calligraphy and tips on how to improve your calligraphy skills and shows how you can enhance unique calligraphy art with a few watercolor sweeps.

You can also check her website for free calligraphy, watercolors, and mixed media art resources. She has hundreds of articles to guide you along.

What's Unique About It

Combine your art with calligraphy when you join Lindsey's tutorial classes. This class is perfect for cardmaking and creating invitations for various events.

20. Myriam Tillson

Overview

Myriam Tillson is a UK-based artist and illustrator who loves to cook, play some video games, and take long nature walks when she's not too busy with her work. She loves exploring the otherworld for her paintings.

Classes

Myriam works with watercolors, gouache, and ink. She loves to explore the human body in her ink art. She paints nudes with tact, grace, and simply presents an expression of art without being offensive.

What's Unique About It

Myriam is an excellent artist to check out if you're into surrealist art.

21. Amazing Arts

Overview

Amazing Arts is an active YouTube channel that uploads several paintings in one video, so instead of working on one, you get seven or more artworks in one video. That number translates to hundreds of painting ideas in a single channel alone.

Classes

Amazing Arts uses watercolors and oils, but mostly acrylics. The paintings are easy to follow, and every beginner can do it without much help.

What's Unique About It

Amazing Arts compresses several tutorials in one short video. It's like browsing through a 300-page book in just 3-5 minutes.

22. Clive5Art

Overview

On his YouTube channel, Clyde Powell, also known as Clive5Art, is an acrylic artist who loves to share his years of experience and art with his audience.

Classes

Clive is very passionate about his paintings, and he spends enough time on his time-lapse videos to explain his techniques and how he can transform an uninteresting canvas into something that you can show off. He needs no tricks for his paintings–just plain artistry, and talent.

What's Unique About It

Clive knows how to have a healthy blend of light and serious paintings on his channel, starting with easy-to-follow small format Christmas cards to complicated winter landscapes.

23. Painting with Jane

Overview

Before Jane Font, owner of Painting With Jane website and YouTube channel turned full-time artist, she worked in the corporate world training new hires, so she understands how adults learn. When she left her work, she focused her energy on honing her artistic skills, even operating her gallery for four years.

Classes

Now Jane uses her passion for arts to create video tutorials for acrylics, oils, and watercolors. While she loved her previous work, she found her calling with creating and teaching arts to people who can't afford to spend much on expensive online classes.

Over the years, Jane has posted hundreds of painting tutorials on her channel, so we're sure you can find something that will suit your style.

What's Unique About It

Jane challenged herself to work on 60 paintings in 30 days, a feat she successfully did and posted on her YouTube channel to show that anything is doable if you put your mind to it.

24. Sergey Gusev

Overview

Sergey Gusev is a Russian artist with a master's in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia. He is known for his realistic portraits and figures using the impasto technique, which he uses a lot.

Gusev is a prolific artist, with paintings in many private collections in the US, Russia, Denmark, France, and England.

Classes

Though the tutorials on his website are not free, Sergey has a YouTube channel where you can learn basic and advanced techniques on oil painting.

He also does lots of oil portraits, nudes, and several landscapes using techniques used by renowned artists so you can try them on your own.

What's Unique About It

If you want to master alla prima painting, you should check out Sergey's tutorials. He also has a few lessons on impasto using palette knives.

25. Watercolor Misfit

Overview

The creative mind behind the Watercolor Misfit website and YouTube channel, Carrie Luc, is passionate about watercolors, hence the name. Her website and channel came into being during an unfortunate health crisis. Surprisingly, the channel gained a lot of subscribers in just a short time, and the community they formed here helped her regain her will and good health.

Classes

Carrie says art should to be therapeutic, not stressful. With hundreds of video tutorials on her channel talking about various watercolor techniques and tips, what supplies to use, and how to avoid creative burnout, this channel is very helpful to newbie artists. 

What's Unique About It

Carrie's videos are light and easy to follow, so even if you're a beginner, you can create lovely artwork just like Carrie's. Her style ventures on whimsical, with crisp, clean lines.

26. Otter Art Studio 

Overview

Run by McCall Johnson, Mr Otter Studio is dedicated to all things creative. Her website has creative tutorials for free available for people of all ages and varied interests. If you’re fascinated by watercolor painting or cardboard sculpting, McCall has tutorials you can simply explore. 

For more than 10 years, McCall believed that anyone could be an artist and wanted to hone these skills on younger kids.

Classes

Mr. Otter Art Studio provides children's art classes in drawing, watercolors, printmaking, crayons, figure drawing, paper mache, and origami. She even has pull string art, tie-dye, making sun prints, and other techniques easy enough for kids to follow.

What's Unique About It

McCall has a very inclusive art class, including painting lessons for children with special needs and even water balloon painting lessons for younger kids.

27. Arlee Bean

Overview

Arleesha's work is colorful, vibrant, and fun. She takes her time with each brushstroke of watercolor paint to create beautiful landscapes full of life. She also has a YouTube channel to post videos tutorials on watercolors and gouache.

Classes

Arleesha's tutorials include painting in watercolors, but she also reviews art supplies she used and fixes mistakes she made on some of her paintings. She also shows how to make printables like stickers.

What's Unique About It

Aside from tutorials on watercolors and gouache, Arleesha also shows how to paint miniatures of game characters.

28. Free Online Art Classes

Overview

Lois DeWitt is an author and artist. She has written two stories for children, free to read on her website and a cookbook. Even in her advanced years, Lois is still active in creating art.

Classes

Lois has a variety of free lessons on her website, including basic drawing with pen and ink, crayons, colored pencils, and oil pastels. As for painting lessons, you can access tutorials on watercolors, acrylics, and oils.

Other classes are about making a collage, printmaking, mixed media art, fabric painting, and other art projects.

What's Unique About It

Over the years, Lois had perfected her skills and discovered numerous tricks and hacks regarding marketing art and using art as therapy.

29. Master Oil Painting 

Overview

Professional artist Bill Inman received a Congressional Art Award in 1983, and since then, his work has graced many professional galleries and private collections.

Classes

On his YouTube channel, Bill paints landscapes and flowers in oils, watercolors, and acrylics. He takes his lessons seriously and does several critiquing on paintings.

What's Unique About It

Bill talks on his video tutorials as if he is talking to his students so that you can follow his steps. He wants his students and audience to see the world as he sees it.

30. Art is Fun

Overview

Aside from her Art is Fun website, Thaneeya McArdle also runs another website to sell her art, including coloring books, printables, posters, diamond paintings, wall art, gadget accessories, and shirts.

Classes

The Art is Fun website offers free painting lessons on acrylics and watercolors and drawing lessons using pastels, colored pencils, markers, and ink. She does still-life, landscape, portrait, abstracts, and nature paintings in several styles.

What's Unique About It

Her abstracts are very colorful and have more structure than most abstract paintings. She even teaches how to understand and appreciate art. However, it is a paid course.

31. Web Art Academy

Overview

The Web Art Academy is a community for artists of all levels, whether you're just starting or looking to brush up on your skills. One of the tutors on this website is Natalie Richy keeps in touch with her students through email, providing them with the necessary guidance to create realistic art.

Classes

Though the website offers paid lessons, it also has several free video lessons on oil painting, including techniques from the masters in the past, underpainting, glazing, alla prima, etc.

What's Unique About It

Besides art lessons, you can also access free ebooks from several authors by making your free account.

Conclusion

We hope you've enjoyed this article on some of the best free online resources for learning how to paint with confidence. In case you're new to our blog, please feel free to subscribe so you can stay on top of our latest articles. Let us know what type of topics interest you most.