Perhaps because I’m not an artist, I’ve always hesitated to spend a lot of money on homeschool art resources. Should you be a bit like me, I hope that these free homeschool art resources are helpful and a blessing to you!
While I love and enjoy art, it is not a subject I am strong in when it comes to teaching. Which is absolutely ok, because no one can be good at everything. No one! Remind yourself of this often, especially when you feel like you aren’t doing enough.
I do not like wasting things and art supplies are expensive. I didn’t want to ever buy things that we wouldn’t use, especially if I was unable to create an example of what my kids were supposed to be creating!
Not every child is going to be an artist. That is important to remember. Neither of my children became artists, but I always encouraged them to do their best, as with every subject.
I kept many of the art projects that my children created over the years, because after all, a child’s artwork is always the most beautiful in the world to their mother.
Below you’ll find over 30 free homeschool art resources for all ages and skill levels; some include step-by-step tutorials, others include printable templates and many offer videos as part of the lessons.
I hope that you enjoy perusing these free homeschool art resources as much as I did while researching for this post. I’m in awe of the beautiful artwork that talented artists create, truly inspiring!
30+ Free Homeschool Art Resources
This amazing site features free resources for teaching your children the elements of design, how to draw animals, basic drawing principles, how to care for their art materials and more!
You’ll find free drawing, painting (watercolor, pastel and oil) and sketching lessons. In addition, you’ll find free art books, as well as a drawing/sketching course set up with beginning, intermediate and advanced levels broken up.
The most challenging part is selecting which art or craft project to complete with your kids from this website. Their amazing content is organized exceptionally well using the ‘Art by Season’, ‘Art by Type’, and ‘Art by Age’ menu tabs.
If your kids often have a pencil in hand, drawing anything and everything, this is a great site for them. This website is a great find featuring drawing tutorials for everything from figures to landscapes and nature, from princesses to manga and much more!
There are 5 categories to choose from: drawing, medium, perspective, art career and color theory lessons on this site. Most of the lessons listed are for ages 7+, while the art career lessons are geared towards Middle and High Schoolers.
The blog portion of this website features a host of educational content and lessons for teaching your kids art. Included are many art lessons including; drawing, painting and much more. There are also additional options for free resources via email subscription and paid courses/classes and live art classes offered as well.
Carol Rosinski is a graphite pencil artist and offers over 75 free art lessons covering drawing lessons to exercises and theory, from observations and fantasy to video lessons. She recommends students begin with her Line Drawing Parts One through Four and Drawing From Life With Expressive Line.
Auditory learners will likely find this 9 episode podcast series on the Element of Drawing by Oxford University most helpful for their art studies.
While the first few lessons linked on this site are about materials, their care and drawing, be sure to scroll down below those for the beginner, intermediate, advanced and color/composition watercolor lessons.
In addition to the drawing and painting lessons this site offers, you’ll also find art appreciation lessons and graphic design lessons.
Featured on their free art instruction page is a free downloadable eBook, “An Artist’s Guide to Composition”. Below you’ll find their lessons/tutorials featuring drawing and painting. They also offer paid courses and lessons that are available on demand for a period of time.
Lois DeWitt studied and taught art for 50 years, but in 2008 started this website to reach more students wanting to learn art through the World Wide Web. You’ll find drawing, painting, collage, printmaking lessons and more on her site.
Since 2020, The Art Museum and Art Councils of Princeton University have partnered with artist-instructor Barbara DiLorenzo to provide free online drawing classes. Each class is linked separately and includes video instruction. There are also materials lists included from the main page for each medium.
You’ll find lesson plans, units and teaching tools for drawing, painting and more through this site. The step-by-step tutorials for drawing are very helpful. Lessons for students organized by grade from PreK through High School are available here.
With over 4,000 free video art lessons covering all media and all levels, this might just be your one-stop shop for all your kids’ art classes. Grab a cup of coffee and dig in. Have a pencil and paper in hand or an internet bookmark tab ready for easy organization.
Whether you prefer to check out their many lessons on their website or on their YouTube channel, this is definitely a great resource. They have tabs for seasonal art, origami, painting, suggesting a lesson and more!
The educational resources page from the National Gallery of Art can be sorted by grade level or teaching packet and features art history lesson plans. There are also featured educational series below the drop-down menus that are worth checking out.
This website is full of tutorials with great step-by-step directions, printable templates/traceables (when applicable), video and printable materials lists by Tracy Kiernan. Even I felt like I could paint after viewing her tutorials – and I am NOT an artist. LOL!
The National Gallery of Art game features brush styles and paint colors that coordinate with paintings for a student to try and copy on their device. Final artwork can be shared or downloaded to save or print for record keeping.
YouTube Video Lessons/Playlists
- Proko
Get started learning to draw with this playlist of 35 YouTube drawing fundamentals lessons from Proko. You’ll begin with a drawing supplies lesson, followed by covering topics such as shading, improving shape design, drawing with line weight, interesting shapes and much more!
Through 121 videos on this YouTube playlist from Proko artists will learn not only about art, but also science, as this course covers the anatomy of the human body. *Please note there are lessons on the drawing of butts and female breasts in this course.
Beginning with the Art of Caricature, students will begin a 52-video YouTube course covering all things caricature. They will learn different head shape styles, drawing details that matter, physique, pushing the exaggeration and much more!
Schafer Art has put together a series of 23 videos on this YouTube playlist covering drawing lessons featuring sketching basics, lemons, still life and more.
This YouTube drawing series of 22 videos teaching artists the skill of perspective drawing is given by Dan Beardshaw.
Students that are looking to learn or improve their realistic drawing skills will want to check out this YouTube series from Dan Beardshaw. From hair to shading, from lips to skin texture, students will be able to draw their own realistic portrait!
If you have a doodler, this is definitely a video series on YouTube that you want to check out. From cats to florals, journaling to mixed media, this is a great resource for your artistic doodlers.
Manga lovers will thoroughly enjoy this 10-video YouTube drawing tutorial series. They’ll learn how to draw faces (from different angles), eyes, bodies and more!
Ms. Cooper shares 9 video lessons teaching how to create stippling drawing. Not sure what that is? Take time to check it out, it’s pretty cool!
Start learning how to draw with this easy series of beginner art lessons on YouTube from JeyRam Draws. You’ll sketch a fox, organic forms, dog and more!
Students who enjoy or want to learn to paint with acrylics will want to check out Clive5Art’s YouTube channel. There are several years’ worth of acrylic painting lessons and tutorials waiting to be created!
Another great YouTube resource for painting tutorials and lessons featuring landscapes, florals, birds and even glass and fabric painting!
Jay Lee’s painting YouTube channel features both watercolor and acrylic tutorials. His watercolor tutorials are organized by skill levels, making selecting where to start easier for different students.
The painting tutorials found on this YouTube channel are more advanced, but beautiful, so I wanted to share this resource in hopes that a homeschool artist loves her work as much as I do!
This is another more advanced painting YouTube channel, but he has several 10-minute video lesson series that are beautiful!
Phew! There you go, Momma! Now, go forth and create beautiful works of art with your children using one or more of these free homeschool art resources!
