Anatomy Courses For Artists: Best Online Courses To Study Human Anatomy At Home
Learning every part of the human body is no easy task. Most artists spend years studying this stuff and refining their knowledge of human anatomy.
Granted there are plenty of anatomy books out there if you prefer written materials.
But I find that videos are so much easier to understand, especially if you’re brand new to anatomy.
There is so much to learn like the bones and muscles and how all the joints move. It can be intimidating.
I’m hoping these online anatomy courses can feel more approachable while teaching you everything you need to know in a clear easy-to-digest manner.
Proko Anatomy of the Human Body
The absolute best course on human anatomy has to be Proko’s anatomy series.
This was first released a few years ago and covers absolutely everything on the human figure. The videos break down into bite-sized chunks explaining the major & minor muscle groups along with bones, tendons, and joints.
For an online course this one’s pretty detailed. It’s also very easy to follow since it’s not timed and you have access to the videos for life. So you can work through the vids at your own pace taking breaks as you go along.
If you’re familiar with Proko’s other videos then you probably already know about his teaching style.
He uses a lot of visuals, example drawings, and even 3D models based on his Skelly app.
As for the structure, this course breaks down into three separate parts:
- Torso
- Arms
- Legs
You can purchase each part individually or buy the entire course together.
Each individual section gets into so much detail that you’ll be amazed how much you can learn.
Not to mention the exercises really force you to practice drawing anatomy and work through ideas with drawings all on your own.
I’m a big fan of Stan’s teaching style in all of his Proko videos. He’s built a brand around quality content and that’s one of the main reasons his series is truly the best anatomy course for artists.
If you’d like to learn more you can visit the main anatomy course page or read through our full review with screenshots & detailed breakdowns of what’s inside.
Drawing Human Anatomy with Aaron Blaise
Aaron Blaise is yet another talented artist who’s building a brand around his teaching videos.
However Aaron’s background leans more towards the entertainment industry with over 10 years of experience working for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
He now publishes online video courses like this human anatomy series totaling over 9+ hours of video.
The main goal of this course is to help beginners and semi-skilled artists to up their game with human anatomy. You’ll learn all the basic muscle groups and how they appear while drawing the figure.
But most of these lessons involve technical drawings so you can get comfortable detailing the human figure from scratch.
That is one of the biggest distinctions between Proko’s series.
With Aaron’s course you’re focusing more on execution over study. Whereas Proko’s anatomy course aims to teach you the ideas first so you can memorize the anatomy, then follow up with execution afterwards.
If you’re looking more at drawing from imagination then Aaron’s course is superb.
I really recommend this for artists who don’t need to get into the nitty-gritty with anatomy. Think of simpler styles like cartoons, webcomics, and basic illustration work.
The course starts with learning the skeleton and you slowly work through the major muscle groups, limb proportions, and how to draw more complex features like hands and feet.
I wouldn’t say this is the most comprehensive anatomy course out there.
But I would say it’s a brilliant choice for artists who want to dive in and get messy right away. It’ll cover a little bit of everything with an underlying theme of anatomy for animation(including videos on basic human locomotion).
Before you buy have a look at the promo video to get a glimpse of what this offers.
Pencil Kings Anatomy Series
I’m often suggesting that newer artists grab a membership to Pencil Kings for a number of different reasons.
Their library is massive and full of so much variety. You can learn how to draw in different art styles, or pick up the basics of figure drawing or learn digital painting.
Naturally you can find a couple great anatomy courses too. In fact Pencil Kings offers their anatomy series in two volumes: one for beginners and another on more advanced anatomy.
I think both courses are worthwhile but I highly recommend the beginner’s course for any artist just starting out.
The world of anatomy can be really confusing. Add this to all the other fundamentals you’re trying to learn and it can feel downright impossible to master.
With the beginner series you’ll take anatomy slow by focusing on the most important areas first.
The video series totals just over an hour and covers only the major bones & muscles of the body. It’s a fantastic starting point to build up some basic knowledge and start drawing figures with a bit more confidence.
The instructor Francis Vallejo has over 10 years of experience drawing and producing professional art so this is someone you can trust.
The downside? It’s just not long enough.
Especially compared to a monstrous course like Proko where you can learn everything in one series. But at the same time I understand that Proko’s course may be too expensive or too detailed for newer artists—that’s where Pencil Kings can help.
PK offers their videos individually at a fixed price and they offer a monthly subscription model where you can sign up for access to all of their videos.
This works out much cheaper than buying individual courses and it comes with an online community for getting critiques on your practice work.
This is one big reason why Pencil Kings may be worthwhile for beginners. You can learn far more than just anatomy and it’ll still wind up being the cheapest option.
Take a look at the signup page to learn more and check out their preview video on the anatomy basics course page.
21-Draw: Anatomy & Gesture
The 21-Draw library offers video courses for digital artists with topics ranging from digital drawing to more detailed painting courses on characters, creatures, stuff like that.
One course they offer covers human anatomy in great detail and it’s fantastic for practicing your fundamentals.
This course comes with 3 instructors that help you along the way, some offering unique tutorials or more detailed lesson plans on simplifying human anatomy(or getting into more detail as needed). All videos in this course are in HD so the quality is just incredible.
Not to mention if you buy the course you get 9 full hours of video content. That’s unbelievably comprehensive and it’s why I feel like this course really deserves recognition for any artists practicing human anatomy.
Each instructor has a slightly different background but they all have years of experience with illustration work, comics, characters… stuff that requires definitely knowing the human body inside & out.
I highly recommend this course for:
- Beginners studying anatomy
- Skilled artists who need stronger human anatomy skills
- Intermediate-level artists looking to learn new tricks for digital anatomy/gesture work
This course has a large section on gesture too, so it covers anatomy and gesture all in one.
Just note that 21-Draw offers a discount if you buy all of their courses together, they call it the “Illustrator’s Masterclass”. This is great but if you just want the anatomy stuff I recommend their anatomy & gesture course on its own, which is about 50% cheaper.
Scott Eaton’s Anatomy For Artists
London-based artist Scott Eaton offers yearly courses hosted online. These only run during set times of the year so they’re a bit tougher to catch.
But the majority of his teachings are phenomenally detailed and they’re well worth joining if you’re adamant about learning from home.
Anatomy For Artists is one of his more popular courses and it tends to fill up fast.
It runs for 8 weeks(two months) and once the course is over you still get online access for another four months to go back through all the lessons.
This means with one purchase you get a six month course with live lessons, critiques, and support from the teacher all over the Internet.
Typically Scott offers three courses per year: Spring, Summer, and Winter.
You can find upcoming dates, prior student reviews, and even a full outline on the main course page. Topics vary each week starting with basic proportions and moving through the torso, arms/legs, hands/feet, neck, chest, and variations based on different body styles.
This may all sound great but there is one catch.
It’s pricey.
If you visit the registration page you’ll find two options. The “standard enrollment” is the entire course without personal feedback while “full enrollment” offers direct feedback.
They cost $495 and $795 respectively. A massive jump from anything else I’ve covered so far.
Is it worth the price? That’s really for you to decide.
But I will say that Scott’s course is in this list for a reason. It just may not be the right choice for artists who don’t have that kind of budget.
Anatomy Master Class
In the Anatomy Master Class you’ll find 25+ videos teaching anatomy for realism & figurative art.
The goal here isn’t to teach you a specific method of drawing or painting. Instead you’ll study the human figure as a subject matter across all mediums, then apply that knowledge to whatever work you’d like to do.
This can be especially valuable for concept artists who may need to really master the human figure for character design work. Same goes for anyone practicing realism or detailed illustration work.
With one purchase price of $97 you get access to the entire course for life.
This includes personal one-on-one support by many of the artists who run this course, along with some freebies like eBooks and 3D models to aid your study time.
Plus the course still gets minor updates and additions from time to time. If you purchase the course you’ll get access to all these future updates too.
It’s really a great deal and this is one of the few courses that can directly compete with Proko’s figure series.
However I do not think this goes into as much detail as Proko, making it more of a middle-ground for studying anatomy as a beginner or intermediate artist.
Check out the main page to learn more about the lessons, the instructors, and what you get.
In my opinion the critiques are well worth the price along with all the extra goodies. And the price is right in that sweet spot for artists who don’t have much money and don’t want to pay for a recurring subscription.
Gnomon Anatomy Workshop
Gnomon is perhaps one of the more well-known colleges for game design & animation.
They offer a ton of courses related to practically everything in the entertainment industry. But they also have lots of online courses through The Gnomon Workshop.
These workshop videos cover everything from digital painting to 3D sculpting and storyboarding.
So it seems natural they’d have some courses on anatomy too.
In fact they have a few! Or rather, one course split into many volumes.
On the Anatomy Workshop page you’ll get a taste of what this course has to offer. The series is taught by skilled artist Charles Hu as he teaches you to draw the human figure from scratch.
You’ll learn all of the bones and major muscle groups while studying from real-world finished drawings.
Note this series is a few years old so I’d argue the Proko series or the Creature Teacher series will both offer higher-quality video. Although you can get a small preview from this YouTube clip demoing the 1st volume.
If you take a look at volume 2 you’ll see a lot of these videos talk more about shading and how the muscles are shaped. This is a crucial aspect of learning to draw realistic figures.
However I do not personally think this is necessary for getting started or learning to master anatomy. You’ll do that more when you’re in the figure room drawing from the nude model.
As of this writing I can find 6 different volumes in the anatomy series from Gnomon.
These are not sold separately and they only come with a subscription to the site. Currently it’s about $49/mo to sign up which isn’t much more than Pencil Kings.
Considering everything you get I’d definitely say this is worth subscribing if you like Gnomon’s teaching style.
Some of the videos may feel lower quality compared to the 1080p HD lessons we see nowadays. But Gnomon is constantly releasing new courses and you get access to all of them with a monthly subscription.
But I didn’t add the Gnomon Workshop into this post only for it’s anatomy series.
This is here because it’s a truly valuable online classroom with hundreds of courses for artists all online for a super affordable price.
