Develop a reliable painting process
Make steady art progress by practicing from proven techniques
Build art confidence by creating consistently good work, without feeling like it’s a “hit or miss”
Join a passionate community of like-minded artists
Digital art has changed the game, whether that’s comics, commissions, freelance, concept art, or selling prints. The opportunities are endless.
But you probably already know this.
You’ve spend months (maybe even years) admiring your favorite artists on social media.
You’ve had a passion for art and you’ve been doodling for a while, so you started to hear a voice in your head saying:
Maybe I can finally start taking my art more seriously
Maybe I can develop my skills and start drawing the things I imagine
Maybe I can turn my passion into an actual career instead of settling for studying or working in a field that doesn't excite me.
But every time you start drawing you feel like there’s a huge difference between what you imagine and what’s actually on the canvas which leaves you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.
But you’re still struggling to figure out what to focus on, constantly doubting whether you’re drawing the right thing.
You are determined to learn art online because let’s face it, art school might not the best option sometimes, whether it’s because of its affordability or the actual information it provides.
So you’ve decided to take the path of the self taught artist.
You know getting better at art takes time and practice..
But when you’re already juggling a hectic college schedule or a 9-5 job, working towards your art dream has no choice but to take a backseat.
And there’s no way you want to give up on the one thing that allows you to be creative and brings purpose into your life.
Because even if you were able to overcome art block and start drawing, you’re still not sure what exactly you want your art style to look like.
You still have no clue how to finish your drawings, so you just keep producing more WIPs in hopes that one day you’ll have enough skill to actually finish them.
In case you were able to finish one of your drawings, you’d just wake up the next morning to realize you actually dislike it.
Every time you sit down to draw, you’re spending hours:
Figuring out where to start
What brushes, tools, colors you need to be using
Stressing about whether you’re going to ruin the one part of the drawing you actually like
or just constantly doubting yourself with things like..
Is this good enough?
This doesn’t look how I imagined it would in my head
There is missing something but I don’t even know what it is
How do I know all this?
I’m a full-time professinal artist, art teacher, freelancer, and Youtuber.
As a self taught artist, I wanted to be able to draw everything..
..characters, figures, portraits, illustrations, backgrounds, expressions, comics..
but..
Every time I tried to express my ideas I felt art block, a wall built by my own lack of skills.
So I decided to focus on developing my technical skill. And every tutorial was saying “study the fundamentals”.
However, as I started drawing boxes or learning complex muscles, I found myself wondering “how does this connect to the beautiful art I want to create?”
This led to me losing my motivation for art and feeling burned out.
Temptation to give up was strong, especially when I wasn't makig any money from my art. Worse still, I wasn't even enjoying the process anymore.
..and I self-published my first art book full of original characters and their personal stories.
(don’t worry, we’ll get to that)
But first, here’s what I didn’t do:
I avoided obsessing over custom brushes, little details of my art, and quick “tips&tricks”, constantly jumping from one tutorial to another.
I also didn’t try try to learn complex anatomy or stress over finding my art style immediately.
Instead a balanced artist is someone who is focused on improving their technical skill while still drawing what inspires them.
It means you get to
Make no mistake, the path to achieving this can be frustrating, painful and straight up maddening. At least if you go at it alone. But if you’ve ever wished for a guide to help you through the journey - this is it.
Join the AcademyYour step-by-step learning system for reaching a professional level in digital art.
Develop a reliable painting process
Make steady art progress by practicing from proven techniques
Build art confidence by creating consistently good work, without feeling like it’s a “hit or miss”
Join a passionate community of like-minded artists
DW Academy is designed to help you progress one step at a time and build the solid foundation you need in order to be able to create the art you desire.
You won’t find any sped up timelapse videos that don’t actually teach you what you need to be doing in order to improve.
Instead you will be able to follow systemized courses that slowly build upon each other to ensure you’d be able to understand everything fully and actually apply it.
Know What To Focus On Next
Imagine if your art practice could be as fun as playing a video game. When you have a clear understanding of what you should be focusing on and you're working on drawings tailored to your skill level, you enter a state of flow. You start to enjoy every step of the journey.
And the best part? By dedicating just one or two hours a day to the right practices, you'll see more progress than you would from a full day of aimless sketching.
Develop A Reliable Painting Process
No more hours spent in front of a blank canvas, filled with uncertainty about the outcome of your next art piece.~
With a reliable painting process that you can adapt to any type of art you want to create, you'll have the confidence in each step of the process.
This confidence enables you to consistently create art that aligns with your creative vision.
Measure Your Results
By having an actual defined goal with every step of the journey, you would be able to clearly see if you are moving forward and easily identify any mistakes.
This will allow you to address them and improve your skills with each piece of art you create.
Develop Your Art Style Gradually
The journey to developing an art style isn't a race. It's a gradual process that grows and changes with you.
The more you progress, the more your style develops, and the more you can refine it to truly make it your own.
Our Academy is designed to not only help you enhance your skills but also to nurture your individual style.
Begin Your Journey The Right Way
In this course, you'll uncover the essential tools and concepts necessary to set yourself up for success in your artistic journey. You'll learn how to optimize your digital workspace, enabling you to learn and create in the most efficient way possible.
Additionally, you'll discover the foundational steps of developing structure in your art and gain insights into the proper use of proportions and lines in your drawings.
The first step to developing structure is being able to represent 3D form with 2D lines. It’s what sets the ground for any real piece of art.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson:
Before starting this game-changing journey, you need to make sure you’re equipped with the right tools. We will cover absolutely everything you’ll need on the path.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson:
A common misconception is that “proportions” are fixed - that they are something that you learn one time and then just apply to your drawings. But proportions actually change in every drawing you do.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson:
Learn The Painting System Through Portraits
This is our main course. It uses portraits as a way to learn the different elements of the painting system by stacking each element on top of the previous one.
This knowledge can then be applied to any subject and art style.
The course includes 10 Lessons which slowly build upon each other to ensure that anybody, no matter their current skill level, would be able to understand it.
Each Lesson is packed with multiple videos and exercises that you have to complete in order to ensure that you understand each element fully before moving to the next.
STRUCTURE
The Lay In captures the most basic planes, helping you to understand the structure of the face, which can then be applied to original characters and different art styles.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson
Planes Of The Head are the more detailed planes that come after the The Lay In. They capture the subtlety of the face and set it up for shading later.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson
Lineweight is the connection between structure and shading, it’s the final stage of lines. It’s what transforms it from a “robot” to a “human”.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson
Shadow Separation sets the foundation for shading. It guides you to identify the light source direction, enabling the accurate depiction of shadow shapes.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson
Value Expansion is about building up the shadows and lights in your painting, enabling you to expand the details of the painting.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson
Rendering is the final stage of your painting. It’s about polishing all of the shading you’ve done before that, in order to achieve a “finished” look.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson
SHADING
Design
After understanding all of the structure by drawing and painting males, it’s time to learn the Advanced Sketching method and apply it to females.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson
Applying all of the shading knowledge and experience you’ve built so far, to create stunning female portraits.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson
Still Lifes are the perfect introduction to color, since they are more simplified than portraits and can easily show you the basics of color.
What you’ll learn inside this Lesson
COLOR
COLOR
With a comprehensive understanding of the painting system elements, you're now prepared to apply them to color portraits for a finished, professional result.
What you'll learn inside this Lesson
Reference LibraryWondering what to draw next?
References are like the building blocks for your visual library, helping you expand it one drawing at a time. It’s what nourishes your inspiration and helps you unlock your creativity.
Often times artists end up in perpetual cycle of scrolling through Pinterest wondering which reference to pick, which leaves them feeling overwhelmed and lost, resulting in an art block.
By joining the Academy, you'll have access to our Reference Library which contains over 300 hand-picked references, organized based on the specific purpose of each lesson.
WorkbooksYou didn’t think our courses are just pure theory, right?
Artists are infamous for the bad habit of watching countless of hours of tutorials and never really applying the information.
After each video, you’ll be able to download a PSD file that we call a Workbook. Each Workbook has a specific task that you have to compete which helps you understand the content of the video lesson and put an end to procrastination.
Real improvement in art requires more than just watching – it involves hands-on practice. No more doubting what to focus on.
Simply watch the video, complete the workbook task, and watch your skills grow.
HandbookYou’ve probably experienced watching a long tutorial, just to realize at the end, that you forgot 95% of the things that were mentioned.
Along with the Workbook, you’d be able to download an accompanying PDF handbook that contains all of the content of the video with all of the drawings and instructions inside, just like a digital art book.
If you want to revisit some information, you can easily scroll through the handbooks and quickly review the art and the drawing process.
You’ll be able to easily study on the go or keep your handbooks on the side while drawing which will accelerate your progress even more.
3D ModelsBeing able to recognize planes, might be a daunting task if you’ve never studied structure before.
That’s why we’ve created two different 3D models to help you understand the different planes of the head.
You’ll be able to rotate the models in any angle and study those hard views that you’ve always struggled with.
Practicing by yourself can be a frustrating and lonely experience. Knowing that others are going through the same experience as you, can keep you accountable and inspired.
By joining the Academy, you’ll become a part of our private Discord server which is full of other like-minded artists who are on the path to improvement.
You’d be able to share your results and receive feedback from other students.
@brenopontesart
@varun.draws
@scottormston
How do I know if this is going to work for me?
Because becoming a successful artist isn’t about how ‘’special’’ or ‘’talented’’ you are it’s about having the courage to start the journey, committing to reach that first peak, and taking one small (already laid out) step at a time.
I can’t guarantee you’ll find a unique art style and make a living from your art overnight after joining the DW Academy.
But I do guarantee that if you do the work, follow the system, and commit to moving forward, your skills will improve and you will have more confidence in your art.
Just email our team at: [email protected] and we’ll get it sorted out for you.
In this bonus course, we’ll dive deeper into the art of stylization.
You’ll understand how stylization works and how you can start exploring different art styles and being closer to developing your own style as well.
For the past 4 years, our coaches have been doing weekly critique livestreams, giving feedback to students inside our Academy.
By joining you’ll get access to all of the hundreds of hours of recordings that cover absolutely every mistake and question that you can encounter on the journey.
Every week, our coaches come together for a livestream where they share their figure drawings and realizations, give feedback to each other, answer figure questions and talk about how to approach learning figure drawing.
By joining, you’ll get access to all of our learning materials, references, drawing files and be able to join us on our journey of learning about figures!
$29.00 / month
And most importantly..Making meaningful art that fulfills your soul.
This is why DW Academy exists.
FAQ
Do I need any specific software, tools, or equipment?
You will need a drawing tablet and digital painting software, but the courses inside the Academy are not limited to any specific tools.
Don't worry if you're new to digital painting - we've got you covered! Inside our Essentials course, we will help you select the best tablet and software tailored to your unique needs.
Who is DW Academy for?
If you want to reach a professional level in digital art without going through years of art block, and to have fun while following step-by-step learning systems to help you improve at:
Portraits,
Figures,
Stylized Paintings,
and more,
while simultaneously working on your art fundamentals, then DW Academy is exactly for you.
There are a lot of courses/tutorials on digital art, what makes DW Academy different?
Unlike many other courses, DW Academy starts from the basics, with detailed videos, practical workbooks, and a clear progress roadmap.
We ensure our methods work for everyone, even beginners with no previous experience.
Other courses often skip vital information, lack clear instructions, and might not suit all learning styles.