5 YouTube Channels Every Artist and Art Lover Should Know
There is something slightly overwhelming about being an artist today: there is almost too much to learn. You can find tutorials for almost any medium, studio tours from artists around the world, museum lectures, exhibition walkthroughs, interviews, art-history lessons, portfolio advice and even honest conversations about making a living from art, all on YouTube. The difficult part is knowing which ones are actually worth your time.
Because watching someone paint for 40 minutes is not necessarily the same as learning how to paint. And an aesthetically beautiful studio vlog may be inspiring, but it may not help you understand why your composition is not working or how to prepare a portfolio for an opportunity.
So we have narrowed it down to five channels that offer something genuinely useful to artists. Some are practical and technique-focused, while others can help you understand contemporary art, develop your critical thinking or think more seriously about your career.
You don’t have to watch them all. Think of this list as a small library you can return to whenever you need it.
1. Art Prof : For the Artist Who Wants an Online Art School
If you have ever wished you could sit in on an art-school critique without actually being enrolled in art school, Art Prof is a very good place to start.
Founded by artist and educator Clara Lieu, Art Prof describes itself as an online art school offering practical resources for independent artists, students and teachers. Its content covers drawing, painting, digital media, printmaking, 3D art, animation and more, but what makes the channel particularly valuable is that it goes beyond technique.
There are tutorials, demonstrations, portfolio critiques and discussions about subjects artists often have to figure out on their own: copyright, careers, higher education, contemporary art, artist wellness, gender and changes within the art industry.
That combination makes it especially useful for artists who are past the stage of simply asking, How do I draw this? and are beginning to ask bigger questions about their practice.
How should I select work for a portfolio? Why does this piece feel weaker than the others? How do I talk about my work? What actually makes a portfolio cohesive? What should I know before applying to art school or pursuing professional opportunities?
These are very different questions from learning how to mix a particular colour, and they are questions artists will encounter repeatedly throughout their careers.
Art Prof also places considerable emphasis on critique. Its resources include portfolio critiques and discussions designed to help artists understand how feedback can become part of the artistic process.
Start here if you want a broad art education rather than another collection of random tutorials.
Especially useful for: students, self-taught artists, emerging artists and anyone preparing a portfolio.
2. Proko: For Building Strong Drawing Fundamentals
There is a reason Proko comes up so often whenever artists recommend educational YouTube channels.
Created by artist and teacher Stan Prokopenko, the channel is particularly well known for drawing, figure drawing and anatomy. Its anatomy lessons, for example, break down the human body into understandable structures rather than expecting beginners to memorise an overwhelming collection of muscles.
And that is where Proko becomes genuinely useful: it teaches you to understand what you are drawing, rather than simply copy an image.
The channel has expanded well beyond anatomy. There are lessons involving figure drawing, portraiture, perspective, painting, visual storytelling and other areas of art practice, alongside conversations with working artists.
One particularly useful aspect is the emphasis on actually doing the work. A tutorial can be watched passively, but drawing fundamentals only become useful when you put the video aside and try them yourself. That sounds obvious, but it is surprisingly easy to spend an afternoon watching drawing videos and end the day having made absolutely nothing.
Proko’s content also includes discussions about the realities of becoming a professional artist. Its “Asking Pros” series, for example, brings different professional artists into conversations about breaking into the industry, motivation, drawing practice and the challenges of working professionally.
For an artist, that combination is valuable. You can spend one day studying anatomy and another listening to experienced artists talk about how they developed their careers. And if you work outside figurative art, don’t dismiss the channel. Strong fundamentals in anatomy, perspective, structure, light and form can influence almost any representational practice.
Start here if you feel like your drawings are missing structure or you want to strengthen your fundamentals.
Especially useful for: illustrators, portrait artists, concept artists, animators and anyone interested in representational drawing.
3. The Art Assignment : For Understanding Contemporary Art Differently
Not every useful art lesson involves picking up a pencil.
Sometimes the most valuable thing an artist can do is step away from the studio and look at what other artists are thinking about. That is where The Art Assignment, created and hosted by curator and art educator Sarah Urist Green, comes in.
Originally developed in partnership with PBS Digital Studios and Complexly, the series was created to make contemporary art and art history more approachable. Green, who previously worked as a curator of contemporary art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, built the series around conversations with artists, art-historical context and creative assignments.
The assignments are perhaps the most interesting part. Instead of simply telling you about an artist, the series often asks viewers to respond creatively themselves. The original format connected audiences with working artists who offered assignments inspired by their own approaches to making art.
This can be surprisingly useful when you feel stuck in your own habits. If you always work from observation, make something from memory. If you always make finished pieces, experiment with something deliberately unfinished. If your work is usually private, think about what it means to make something participatory.
The point is not necessarily to produce a finished artwork that belongs in your portfolio. The point is to make you think differently about making. The channel also offers discussions around contemporary art, artists and art history, making it useful for anyone who sometimes feels that contemporary art is difficult to understand or talk about.
And there is something important in that. Artists are not only makers. They are also viewers, researchers and participants in a much larger history of ideas. The Art Assignment is a good reminder to keep that part of the practice alive.
Start here if you want fresh ideas, better art-world context and a break from purely technical tutorials.
Especially useful for: contemporary artists, students, multidisciplinary artists and anyone feeling creatively stuck.
4. James Gurney: For Painters Who Want to Understand What They See
If your idea of a productive YouTube session involves watching someone actually work through a painting problem, spend some time with James Gurney.
Gurney is an illustrator and author best known for the Dinotopia series and books including Color and Light and Imaginative Realism. His online teaching focuses heavily on observation, painting, sketching, colour, light, perspective and plein-air practice. What makes his videos useful is that they often show the thinking behind a painting rather than presenting the final image as if it appeared fully formed.
That is an important distinction. When we look at a finished painting online, we see the result. We don’t see the decisions that produced it: what the artist noticed first, what they ignored, how they simplified a complicated scene, why they selected a particular colour or how they dealt with changing light.
Gurney’s teaching often brings those decisions into view. His work is particularly helpful for artists interested in traditional painting and illustration, but there are broader lessons here for almost anyone.
One of the most useful habits an artist can develop is learning to really observe.
Instead of thinking, “That tree is green,” you begin asking: What temperature is the green? Where is the light coming from? What is happening to the colour in shadow? Which edges are sharp? Which ones disappear?
Those questions can change the way you paint. Gurney’s conversations and collaborations also offer a glimpse into artistic education outside the traditional classroom. In a Proko interview, for example, he discusses his own self-education and the books and artists that influenced his development. That makes his channel particularly encouraging for artists who are not following a conventional art-school route.
Start here if you want to become better at seeing, painting and making decisions rather than simply copying references.
Especially useful for: painters, illustrators, plein-air artists and self-taught artists.
5. Great Art Explained: For Artists Who Want to Look More Closely
The final recommendation is slightly different. Great Art Explained is not primarily a channel about teaching you how to draw or paint. Instead, it helps you understand individual works of art through accessible, focused explanations.
And that can be incredibly useful for artists. The more art you look at, the more references you build, not just visually, but intellectually. You begin noticing how artists from different periods approached composition, symbolism, politics, materials, storytelling and ideas.
That matters even if you never intend to make work remotely similar to theirs. An abstract artist can learn from Renaissance composition. A portrait artist can learn from photography. A ceramic artist can find ideas in architecture. A contemporary artist can discover an entirely new way of thinking through an artwork made hundreds of years ago.
Art history becomes much more useful when it stops feeling like a list of names and dates and starts becoming a conversation about why artists made the choices they did. That is also why artists should resist the idea that art history is something you only need to study in school.
It is an ongoing source of references, questions and possibilities. Art Prof’s own curated resources recommend channels such as The Art Assignment and Great Art Explained alongside museum, gallery and art-history channels, reflecting how useful this wider ecosystem of online art education can be.
So, when you have spent the entire day working on your own art, occasionally switch roles. Don’t be the artist. Be the viewer. Look closely at somebody else’s work and ask yourself what it is doing, why it works, what you respond to and what you don’t understand yet. That kind of looking becomes part of your practice too.
Start here if you want to strengthen your art knowledge and develop a more informed way of looking at art.
Especially useful for: artists of every medium, particularly students and artists developing a contemporary or research-based practice.
If you enjoyed getting to know of these channels, you might as well like our feature on 5 Podcasts Every Artist and Art Lover Should be Listening to.
Don’t Just Watch. Make Something.
The best thing about YouTube for artists is also its biggest trap.
There is always another tutorial. Another studio tour. Another “paint with me.” Another artist interview. Another video explaining something you think you should know. It is possible to become very knowledgeable about making art without actually making much of it.
So use these channels intentionally. Watch a Proko lesson, then draw. Watch James Gurney work through a painting, then try something from observation. Watch The Art Assignment, then respond to one of its prompts. Listen to an Art Prof critique, then look at your own portfolio more critically. Study a work through Great Art Explained, then go and find the original if you can.
The goal is not to turn YouTube into another classroom where you endlessly consume information. The goal is to let what you watch feed back into your own practice.
And perhaps that is the best way to think about all five of these channels. They aren’t substitutes for making art, looking at art in person, visiting exhibitions, talking to other artists or developing your own voice. They are tools.
Use them when you need to learn a skill, challenge a habit, understand an artist, solve a problem or simply remind yourself that there are countless ways to approach a creative life.
Then close the laptop, go back to the studio and make something that is yours.
