Platform: Skillshare (subscription)
Classes range: 30 min – 3 hours each
Level: All levels, depends on class chosen
If you prefer a more flexible learning path or want to cherry-pick specific topics,
Skillshare is a great platform for anime drawing classes. Rather than one single course, Skillshare offers
hundreds of short classes taught by various artists, which cover everything from anime basics to niche techniques. The benefit here is that with a Skillshare membership (it’s a subscription model, usually with a free trial available ), you can access all these classes freely.
Notable classes on Skillshare: For example, one popular class is “Anime Drawing for Beginners” by Pluvias, the same instructor from the Udemy course we mentioned . In her Skillshare class (~2.5 hours), she covers how to draw the entire anime-style body – faces, anatomy, clothes, hair – and even how to keep the style consistent at different angles . It’s a compact beginner-friendly series, and she even introduces using tools like DesignDoll for posing (just like her Udemy course) . Another interesting class is “How to Draw the Face at Various Angles” by Sensei – perfect if you struggle with drawing heads from anything but a front view. Sensei adapts the
Loomis method of drawing heads to an anime style, teaching you how to tackle tricky angles and apply perspective to the face.
There are also classes by actual Japanese manga artists on Skillshare. The Wacom community blog highlighted
Naomasa Matsuda’s classes – Matsuda is a Japanese manga artist with 20 years of experience, and he teaches a series of short Skillshare classes on things like using Clip Studio Paint for manga, applying screentone shading, and creating manga characters with authentic techniques . These classes are gold for getting an inside look at how a pro approaches manga art (and he even throws in tips like recommending Wacom tablets for drawing !). Other classes cover
specific skills: hair drawing (e.g. “Drawing Anime Hairstyles” by Pigliicorn) , digital line art (by Juha Ekman) , cel shading techniques (by Yazuki Wolf, a game artist in Japan) , and even storytelling for manga (by Olga Rogalski).
Why Skillshare: The big advantage is variety and cost-effectiveness. If you sign up for a free trial or a month, you could consume a ton of content in a short time. It’s great for people who like to learn in
bite-sized chunks or focus on one skill at a time. Also, the community aspect of Skillshare means you can post your project and get feedback from peers (and sometimes instructors). The classes are usually well-produced and to-the-point (many are 30 minutes to 2 hours each).
Do note that
Skillshare is a subscription – roughly $14 per month (annual plan) or around $19 monthly, though they frequently have discounts or free trial deals . If you only want one class, that’s not an option; it’s all-you-can-learn. But for a dedicated learner, one month might be enough to take several of the top anime drawing classes and substantially improve your skills. It’s ideal if you have specific gaps to fill (like “I need to get better at drawing hands” – yes, there’s a class for that too ) or if you just prefer a more casual learning style.