Learn To Draw Caricatures: Online Classes & Courses For Studying Caricature At Home
Funny faces and exaggerated features. These traits exemplify caricatures and how artists distort real life for their work.
But learning to caricature is so much more than just drawing funny faces.
You have to learn how to see your subject and how to exaggerate appropriately. The best way to learn is through practice but you don’t need to learn by yourself.
These online courses are the best of the best when it comes to mastering the art of caricature.
I’d also recommend these courses for anyone who wants to get into cartooning or illustration work, only because many of the same principles apply.
If you have any serious interest in learning to caricature these lessons are guaranteed to help.
Proko Art of Caricature
I’ve listed Proko as #1 on this list for good reason.
Very little comes close to matching the value found in this course—especially considering the price tag.
Caricature artist Court Jones partnered with the Proko brand to release his very own caricaturing course. Titled “The Art of Caricature”, this series covers absolutely everything you’d want to know and a whole lot more.
Early lessons start with an intro to exaggeration and how to capture a likeness. These lessons are perfect for newer artists who are still practicing their fundamentals but also want something fun to work with outside of grinding.
Plus you get a real-world blueprint for how to draw caricatures that’ll help you develop your own creative workflow.
You’ll learn how to rough sketch, iterate ideas, change your drawings on-the-fly, and how to adapt your work based on different people.
Not to mention all of these videos are packed full of real examples with Court demonstrating how to draw many caricatures of celebrities from start to finish.
The videos are incredibly high-quality and they match perfectly with the Proko brand. If you’ve watched any of the free Proko videos from his YouTube channel then you’ve probably seen snippets of this caricature course before.
But the premium version comes with so much more stuff that it’s absolutely worth the price. Especially if you’re serious about mastering the art of exaggeration.
We’ve published a very detailed review on The Art of Caricature course if you want to read that to get a better idea of what’s inside. It would be almost impossible to list everything here because the course is so large.
But I’ll say again: this course is listed as #1 for good reason.
Pencil Kings
Online art education has never been more interactive and more community-focused than with Pencil Kings.
This is one of the best places to learn if you’re just starting out, or if you want to connect with more artists to get genuine critiques on your work.
They do have a solid course named Caricatures for Beginners that would help any aspiring caricature artist. It’s a fairly small course running a little over 1 hour. But it does cover enough ground to be worth the investment, especially for a complete newbie.
And the cool thing with Pencil Kings is that you can pay for individual courses or join the community on a monthly payment.
With the monthly billing you join and get access to their entire course library.
All courses at one monthly price. Not to mention they also have a massive community that’s only accessible to monthly members.
In my eyes the community is the real prize here.
That’s how you can grow as an artist by meeting others, getting feedback, sharing your ideas, and helping to further each other’s education.
It’s not the perfect option if you’re just interested in caricaturing. For that I’d recommend Proko’s course since it’s more detailed and much longer.
But if you want to improve your art skills as a whole, and also learn some basics of caricaturing along the way, Pencil Kings will prove incredibly valuable.
They run a great trial offer where you sign up and only pay $1 for 3 days access before being charged the full amount. You can cancel anytime during that period if you’re not happy with the site. Not much to lose with that kind of deal!
Jon Casey’s Training
Jon Casey is a highly skilled caricaturist with years of experience under his belt. And he offers some great online training through his website Cartoon Guru.
Most of these videos are found on Skillshare which is a digital course library.
You can check out Jon’s profile to see a few of his courses and what he offers.
His primary course on caricaturing is Introduction to Caricature which spans just about 2.5 hours. Many of these lessons break down into subject topics like drawing the head, eyes, nose, and so on.
Some artists learn better this way, others learn better from watching full examples.
Luckily Jon offers a mix of both so you can study alongside his work. Plus the lessons are pretty clear so you’ll have no trouble keeping up.
Although I do recommend this course more for artists who already have a background in basic drawing skills. Absolute newbies will struggle to work through this content so focus on fundamentals first and get comfortable drawing from life.
Now the downside: this course is only available through Skillshare which does not sell courses individually. That means you’d need to pay the monthly fee to get access which can be a drag.
At least Pencil Kings sells their courses individually alongside the monthly subscription option.
However Jon Casey is really a skilled guy and his course is phenomenal. If you can get a discount at Skillshare it’d be worth joining just for that series. And you could always sign up for one month & cancel once you’re done.
ToonBoxStudio
In this 4-hour video series you’ll learn exactly what the course promises: How To Draw Caricatures.
ToonBoxStudio publishes high-quality video series on drawing, sketching, and digital painting.
Most courses focus on illustration work and cartooning so it’s a place to hone your cartooning abilities more than your life drawing skills.
In their caricaturing course you’ll get 4 hours of video for only a $20 price tag. Not bad!
The instructor Justin Cook is an illustrator, animator, and caricaturist. So he knows a thing or two about exaggeration in art.
Inside this video course you’ll work through 11 practice exercises all focused on the ideas of exaggeration and closely studying a subject. These are practice lessons that you can repeat time and time again to further improve your skills.
Also worth noting that Justin uses Sketchbook Pro for this entire series which means it’s all digital. But you can follow along with traditional drawing tools if you prefer.
For the price tag you really can’t beat this course so I’d say it’s a definite buy if you’re interested.
Especially if you’re looking to break into digital caricaturing without breaking the bank.
Schoolism
Illustrator and caricature artist Jason Seiler published a fantastic course on the Schoolism website dedicated to caricaturing.
Schoolism offers a library of courses that each have their own teaching styles and lesson plans. This site is really an online library of video education for entertainment artists.
At a glance you’ll notice they don’t have a ton in the way of caricaturing.
But all it takes is one good course to find what you’re looking for.
Jason’s course focuses mostly on practical lessons and general practice routines. You’ll be forced to draw a lot and those exercises will improve your caricatures over time.
The unique thing with Schoolism is how they offer payments on a monthly basis or a per-class basis.
Each video course is pre-recorded and you can pay monthly to get access to everything.
Or you can pay a one-time fee and get access to Jason directly through a personal online class. This option is much pricier and the registration periods change throughout the year.
But you get personalized video feedback from Jason with critiques on your work.
Generally speaking, if you’re new to caricaturing then just go with the monthly plan. You can learn plenty from practicing on your own.
But if you want that extra eye from an instructor it certainly wouldn’t hurt to pay for live critiques.
Paul Moyse Complete Caricature Course
Another caricaturist Paul Moyse deserves a spot in this list for his own digital caricature course.
However this one is quite a bit pricier than anything else you’ll find here.
For comparison, the Proko Art of Caricature course is about $150 for the whole thing.
Paul Moyse’s course totals $400 for a lengthy 9-week class.
If you can swing the price it’s probably worth it. Not too many caricature artists publish courses of this magnitude and offer their personal support along the way.
Each week you get access to a series of video lessons discussing different subjects in caricaturing. These include value studies, color studies, thumbnailing, basic composition work, and videos on specific areas like hair & facial features.
The videos teach you the basics of caricaturing and they all come with a different assignment for practice. If you have 1-2 hours a day you can definitely work through these lessons on a weekly basis.
And with Paul’s course you can have one-on-one sessions via Skype to get his feedback on. This is invaluable when you’re trying to better yourself as an artist.
I am fully aware the price for this course is difficult for most people. That alone may rule out Paul’s course, especially when Proko’s caricature course is less than half the price with lengthier videos.
But there’s something unique in Paul’s lessons that can’t be found anywhere else. His instruction covers more on the process of traditional caricaturing, not to mention the live Skype calls for critiques are a part of the deal.
Although at the end of the day my vote is for Proko’s Art of Caricature as the absolute best caricaturing course.
The lessons apply to so much more beyond just caricaturing and the Proko recording quality is phenomenal. If you do go with that course and you’re dedicated to your practice I’d recommend nabbing the full video pack.
With that bundle you save around $25 which is a nice discount.
Not to mention you get a ton of content that might honestly be the single most comprehensive caricaturing course on the web today.
