The Best Illustration Books and Courses

People who want to improve their drawing and illustration skills frequently ask what books, courses, and resources I recommend. Trying to Google it leads to an overwhelming pile of cruft and most of the great resources aren’t anywhere on the first 10 pages of search results.

I’ve compiled all my favourite learning platforms, courses, and books below to help guide you towards the good stuff. Everything below will help teach you how to work in the meat and medium of visual language, rather than focusing on the materials (the “which iPad should I buy?” distraction). If you desperately want to focus on tooling, you can read about the hardware and software I use over on What App is That?

I’ve read every book and taken most of the course on this page, so can at least vouch for them first-hand. But be aware it’s not exhaustive. The volume of illustration education available online is constantly growing and I don’t keep close tabs on it anymore.

Learning Platforms and Courses

Schoolism

Primarily aimed at concept artists and digital painters, Schoolism is strong on advanced fundamentals.

Probably too intense for beginners. Dives deep on rendering, composition, and character design.

Recommended Courses

Drawing Fundamentals by Thomas Fluharty

Pictorial Composition by Nathan Fowkes

Essentials of Realism by Jonathan Hardesty

Fundamentals of Lighting by Sam Nielson

New Masters Academy

While a bit old school and slow-paced, the instructors on here are true veterans. Many are classical painters and sculpters, or come from the visual development and film world.

They’re strong on anatomy, traditional painting yechniques, and compositional layout theory.

Recommended Courses

Composition for Visual Artists by Bill Perkins

Constructive Head Drawing by Steve Huston

Elements of Traditional Composition by Glenn Vilppu

School of Visual Storytelling

Strong on beginner fundamentals – great for anyone just getting started.

Jake Parker and Will Terry teach drawing and digital painting from the ground up through sets of well-designed, hands-on exercises.

Recommended Courses

How to Draw Everything by Jake Parker

Basic Perspective Drawing by David Hohn

Painting Color and Light by Will Terry

Creative Composition by Will Terry

Art of Aaron Blaise

Animation, animals, and character design are the focus here. Ex-Disney artist Aaron Blaise leads most of the courses – his teaching style is friendly and laid-back.

These courses assume basic drawing skills and cover more advanced topics.

Recommended Courses

Taking Control of Colour by Ronnie Williford

Character Design by Aaron Blaise

The Art of Storyboards by Lyndon Ruddy

Peter Han

Infamous for his pen and ink techniques, Peter is a master of the Dynamic Sketching style that has spread throughout the art education world. He’s a seasoned instructor who knows how to break down concepts into simple, understandable principals.

He runs online courses and individual mentorships a few times a year, as well as in-person workshops in LA and Europe

Draw a Box

A community favourite, this site walks you through the core concepts of Dynamic Sketching in a well-organised set of lessons.

Covers the essentials of drawing smooth lines, creating textures, and (obviously) drawing good boxes! You can even get feedback on the homework assignments through their group discord or subreddit.

Modern Day James

James is an independent creator running a patreon and selling individual gumroad courses. The style is more directed at game design and concept art for films, but builds on top of classic drawing techniques that are valuable no matter what kind of medium you’re interested in.