Learn the essentials with our online drawing workshop—from physical ergonomics and how to handle implements correctly to linework, shapes, perspective, and shading. You'll receive inspiration and feedback from an expert with years of drawing experience in film, games, and publishing.
Why study Drawing Basics at CG Spectrum:
Our workshops fill up fast—register now to secure your place!
2 weeks
weeksNovice
None required
Online
None required
Jan 2025
May 2025
Sept 2025
Whether you're a beginner looking to build foundational art skills, a hobbyist wanting to harness your creative side, or an artist exploring different career paths, our expert-led workshops help equip you with essential and industry-relevant skills
Build a solid foundation from which you can expand your skills and knowledge
Learn from experts who have worked in film, games, and publishing
An online format provides modern flexibility for innovative learning
Quick, secure payment option allows for easy registration
With 10+ hours of self-guided study content and two live, one-hour mentor-led sessions, this two-week workshop is designed to develop your core drawing skills and gain an understanding of art fundamentals. If you're serious about a career in concept art and digital illustration, it will also help prepare you for CG Spectrum's more extensive courses.
Learning Outcomes
Understand basic drawing techniques
Create foundational line and form drawings
Implement perspective, contour, and shadow into drawings
Understand relationships between objects in illustration
Create drawings of nature, animals, and humans with accurate form and volume
Start: 5 AUGUST, 2024
Your two-week workshop includes a one-hour live session with your mentor each week on:
Start: 2 September, 2024
Your two-week workshop includes a one-hour live session with your mentor each week on:
Start: 7 OCTOBER, 2024
Your two-week workshop includes a one-hour live session with your mentor each week on:
You do not need any prior experience! Our workshop will walk you through everything you need to know.
You won't need to download any software for this workshop.
The only materials you'll require are:
Pencil (HB or softer)
100 sheets of smooth, white copy paper (8.5”x11”, loose or wire-bound).
Some other hardware recommendations:
Fineliner Pen (0.3 or 0.5mm)
Gray markers in 2 shades
Copic markers
Prismacolor markers
Faber Castell Pitt Brush pens
The workshop runs for 2 consecutive weeks, starting on your chosen intake date.
It includes:
Before your mentor-led session, we advise you to go through your coursework and do the required exercises so you can ask relevant questions and your mentor can provide feedback on your work.
We recommend you dedicate 10+ hours per week (over two weeks) to cover your readings, tasks, live sessions, and practice.
The more time you commit to your studies, the better you'll get!
This largely depends on you and how much time and practice you dedicate to your craft!
Not everyone will be ready to take the leap to our longer, more challenging courses straight after taking Drawing Basics. If you feel you still have room for improvement, check out our other 2-week workshops to help build your drawing confidence and skills:
Near the end of your workshop, ask your mentor how they think you're going and what steps you need to take to be ready to take on more in-depth study.
For information on our more advanced courses, head to the Digital Painting Courses page on our website.
If you still have questions or are unsure about which workshop to take, we would love to chat with you. Click below to get in touch with our admissions team, and we'll get you on your way.
GET IN TOUCHIt's one of the best discoveries of my life.
Never been so happy to study before. I've learnt so much in such a short time, and not only with the awesome mentors here, but thanks to this big community too! Thanks, CG Spectrum!
Thank you CG Spectrum for giving me exactly what I needed to get started in this competitive industry.
I started the Concept Art & Illustration Course to create a stunning portfolio to apply for an internship. Without CG Spectrum I would never have been able to create a portfolio on a level that got me an amazing internship in Beijing.
Thanks to CG Spectrum, I am a lot closer to my dream of being a concept artist.
The curriculum structure is very reasonable, with both academic basic theories and useful suggestions for career paths. Thanks to my mentors, Brian Huang and Victoria Sarkissian, who not only taught me drawing skills and design techniques, but more importantly, they also gave me the confidence to continue working hard.
The staff are really awesome. They genuinely care and they work very hard for you.
There are plenty of extra curriculars on offer. You can drop in on fundamentals classes every week. The Technical Assistants run friendly competitions. They have workshops and Q&As with big-name studios like Industrial Light and Magic. You get out what you put in, but they do their best to make a lot of good available to you while you're there.
They give you the right tools for the right job.
I enrolled in the Concept Art and Illustration course without any art background (theoretical and practical). Thanks to my enthusiastic mentors, Eric Wilkerson and Brian Huang, and knowledgeable fellas in group chat, I was able to improve my skills in a short time.
Highly recommend this school!
My teachers were very helpful and I have learned so much about the industry. The highlight I think is the community they nurture—I have great relationships with other students, alumni, and mentors from my time at CG Spectrum.
Studying concept art and illustration through CG Spectrum has been wonderful!
From helping me in achieving a better workflow to improving on designing things out of my comfort zone, the course has given me more confidence as an artist. You can tell the mentors really put a lot of thought and care into helping you create your best work, as well as preparing you for success in the industry.
Utterly brilliant!
If you really want to learn how to properly make concept art and illustration or just improve your art, then this is one of the best courses that you could do. The amount that you learn from the tutor and the assignments is huge - it would take many years of self-led practice to learn what is taught here. Fantastic experience!
Experienced, successful and friendly mentors.
CG Spectrum has pushed me closer to my dream of being a concept artist. The mentors are amazing, which really is their unique selling point! Very glad to have taken both the illustration and concept art course, and the advanced concept art course.
I've never improved as an artist so quickly.
Great course. They teach you what you need to know and don't waste your time with stuff that just fills out a course. It was specific to what I needed to know. The classes are very personable and the mentors are industry professionals that never hesitate to put in the effort to help you out. I definitely would recommend this to people interested in getting into the industry. It's set up so that industry professionals (who are still working in the industry) are teaching you. They are at the top of their game. You get the connections as well as the skill and insight into the industry. These guys tick all the boxes in my opinion.
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