The Ultimate Drawing Course - Beginner to Advanced vs Photography Basics and Beyond: From Smartphone to DSLR

Eleven hours across twelve sections takes learners from basic line quality and geometric forms through value, one-, two- and three-point perspective, still life, textures, eyes, the human face, figure drawing and a bonus animation-character module. The logical progression and breadth are genuine strengths for a beginner. The limit is depth: no single topic receives enough coverage to produce confident, independent work on that topic — the course teaches a foundation across many areas, not mastery of any one.

Jaysen Batchelor is consistently described as clear, friendly and easy to follow — the most cited positive across every source category. His demonstrating style is conversational and encouraging; he slows down for difficult concepts and moves briskly through ones that are visually obvious. Reddit users in r/ArtFundamentals and r/learnart recommend him specifically for learners who found more technical instructors (like DrawABox's uncomfortable rigor) discouraging.

At the standard Udemy sale price of $10.99–$14.99, eleven hours of video, 50-plus projects, downloadable worksheets and lifetime access represent very strong value. The course comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Even at the non-sale listed price of ~$85, learners on Udemy's frequent sale cycles rarely pay more than $15.

Fifty-plus individual drawing projects throughout the course give learners constant practice opportunities — from basic line exercises to realistic eyes, geometric still lifes and face studies. The projects are well-paced and genuinely build on each other. The ceiling is the platform model: no instructor reviews learner work, and the Q&A section is the only feedback channel. The "advanced" in the title describes the course's final sections, not the level of mastery a learner exits with.

The fundamentals of line, form, value, perspective and proportion are the bedrock of all drawing disciplines — from illustration to concept art to portrait. Learners who complete the full course have a genuine foundation. The gap is specificity: this course teaches you to draw fundamentals, not to draw in any specific style or for any specific professional output. A learner who wants to draw anime, do architectural sketching or pursue portrait commissions will need subject-specific follow-up courses.

Across five courses the fundamentals — exposure, the ISO/shutter/aperture triangle, depth of field, composition, light and basic Lightroom — are taught clearly and at a beginner-friendly pace. Glendinning and Sullivan are repeatedly praised for thoroughness. Capped because several reviewers flag the Lightroom and smartphone sections as dated, and courses 3-4 as padded with off-topic chatter.

Professors Peter Glendinning and Mark Sullivan are the most-cited strength in the first four courses — "thorough", "great advice", "easy to follow". The score is held back by a recurring complaint that the instructors are absent from the discussion forums and never personally critique work, most acutely in the capstone where they "make only token appearances".

Free to audit; ~$49/month subscription for graded assignments and the Michigan State certificate, completable in roughly two to three months. Strong value for a university-backed beginner curriculum. Capped because the capstone month adds little new content for the same monthly fee and a minority called the production quality "not worth the price".

Real shooting assignments, a web gallery and a portfolio-building capstone give learners genuine practice and shareable work. But project quality is bottlenecked by peer grading: many reviewers report superficial one-word critiques, plagiarised submissions, bot accounts and slow turnaround, which undermines the feedback loop the projects depend on.

Multiple learners report going from "knowing nothing" to confident shooting, selling prints, or switching toward photography seriously. The exposure and composition fundamentals transfer directly to any camera. Limited by the absence of business-of-photography content and by post-production teaching that lags current Lightroom versions.