9 Best Illustrator Courses and Classes for 2022

Our team of Illustrator experts has assembled the 9 Best Illustrator courses and classes for 2022. This includes both online Illustrator courses and in-person Illustrator classes with live instructors, as well as free Illustrator tutorials. The list includes an introduction, intermediate, and advanced classes to cover the needs of beginner through advanced learners. Our expert instructors who are the authors of multiple books on the Creative Cloud and Illustrator assembled this list of the best ways for you to learn Illustrator and provided information about each Illustrator course, class, and tutorial. This has been updated for 2022.

9 Best Illustrator courses and classes

• Introduction to Illustrator training class

• Illustrator Bootcamp training class

• Advanced Illustrator training class

• Certificate for Print Design training class

• Illustrator for Fashion Design

• Free Illustrator tutorial: Illustrator Essentials

• Free Illustrator tutorial: Tracing images into vector form in Illustrator

• Free Illustrator tutorial: Using Live Paint

• Custom Illustrator training

9 Best Illustrator Courses for 2021

Introduction to Illustrator Training Class

Learn to use Illustrator to craft artwork, including illustrations, logos, business graphics, charts and graphs. This course starts at the beginning and provides foundation skills for drawing, coloring, and organizing artwork in this powerful illustration tool.

Benefits of the advanced Illustrator Training Class:

• Interact directly with an Illustrator instructor in this live remote, or in-person class

• Learn essential skills, including working with color and drawing tools

• Create a variety of artwork, graphics, and logos with in-class projects

• Learn to share images for use online, in print, and digitally in various formats

• Understand how to integrate Illustrator artwork with other Creative Cloud apps

• Master the Illustrator interface to find the tools and options you need.

• Course offered as a two-day intensive or four-night

Format: Live class meets at scheduled times 

Delivery options: Online or in-person

Student review: “The instructor’s teaching methodology was clear and concise. I truly appreciate her taking the time to make sure everything was clear to me and being available to answer questions I may have going forward. I enjoyed the Illustrator class so much that I’m now signed up for an InDesign class in a few weeks.” -Christine B.

Course details and dates

Illustrator Bootcamp

By combining the introductory and advanced Illustrator courses coursework, this comprehensive bootcamp teaches foundational skills and sophisticated design techniques. Participants learn to transform existing shapes, adjust layers, and troubleshoot production. This course equips learners with a solid foundation that will allow them to create artwork for print, web, and interactive artwork.

Benefits of the Illustrator Bootcamp:

• Interact directly with an Illustrator instructor in this live remote, or in-person class

• Optimize your Illustrator workspace and save shortcuts

• Explore the Appearance panel to apply and save multiple effects

• Learn to use the Pen tool like a pro to create new and trace over existing artwork

• Discover how to use layers to organize your artwork

• Find out how to save and use symbols

• Learn how to import and export artwork into and out of Illustrator

Format: Live class meets at scheduled times either online or in person

Delivery options: Online or in-person

Course details and dates

Adobe Creative Cloud Class for Print Design with Illustrator

This Adobe Creative Cloud course is for anyone who wants to learn Adobe Illustrator along with other tools used in the Adobe Creative Cloud for creating print and digital designs. Learn Illustrator skills for creating brochures, proposals, flyers, newsletters, artwork, logos, charts, and graphs. This course provides Adobe Illustrator training along with skills in related Creative Cloud apps.

Benefits of Adobe Creative Cloud Class for Print Design with Illustrator:

• Learn essential Adobe Illustrator skills

• Find out how to effectively navigate the Illustrator Workspace

• Understand how to create artwork and logos using Illustrator

• Learn to apply color and gradients

• Find out how to share Illustrator artwork in many formats for online or print use

• Learn other related Creative Cloud applications including Photoshop and InDesign

Format: Live class meets at scheduled times, either online or in-person

Delivery options: Online or in-person

Course details and dates

Illustrator for Fashion Design

This Adobe Illustrator training class is for fashion, apparel, and accessories design professionals. Whether starting from scratch, or moving designs from traditional sketchbooks to computer design, or from a CAD system, this class saves you hours of time. Expand productivity by discovering how to work with Illustrator’s design tools and features that allow you to create reusable assets that you can store and reuse - from colors, to patterns, and elements such as zippers and stitches. This class works well as a private class for individuals or groups and can be tailored to your specific needs and types of fashion, apparel, accessories, or footwear.

Benefits of the Adobe Illustrator for Fashion Design course:

• Discover time-saving methods for working in Illustrator

• Find out how to create reusable items and save them into shared libraries

• Get comfortable with the appearance, effects and graphic styles

• Find out how to create patterns that can be transformed to fit apparel

• Discover how to take advantage of symbols, specifically for use in the fashion industry

• Find out how to create complex items like zippers and custom stitching

• Offered as a private class allowing you to focus on design types that meet your needs

Format: Live class meets at scheduled times, either online or in-person

Delivery options: Online or in-person

Course details and dates

Illustrator tutorial: Illustrator Essential Skills

Illustrator is used to create many types of artwork from simple icons to complicated illustrations and technical documentation. In this free tutorial, you’ll learn the shape tools, work with basic selection techniques, and complete artwork. Learn helpful tips for creating artwork on your own using Illustrator.

Benefits of this Illustrator tutorial:

• Learn to use the shape tools in Illustrator

• Find out how to reposition and resize artwork 

• Discover how to use Illustrator’s Transform panel

Format: Self-paced tutorial

Tutorial Details

Illustrator tutorial: Trace images using Illustrator

This free Illustrator tutorial learn to trace images with Adobe Illustrator. Find out how to convert scanned or rendered artwork into crisp vector line art that can be used in many formats online, in video, or print. In this Illustrator tutorial, you discover how to trace artwork to convert it into vector form.

Benefits of this Illustrator tutorial:

• Learn to place images as a template

• Find out how to use the Image Trace options

Format: Self-paced tutorial

Tutorial Details

Illustrator tutorial: Using Live Paint

This free Illustrator tutorial provides a foundation for using Adobe Illustrator’s Live Paint functionality. Learn how Illustrator offers two methods of painting: selecting fills, strokes, or both for an object, or converting objects to a Live Paint group while assigning fills and strokes to the separate edges and faces of paths within the group. Find out how Live Paint is a brilliant solution to painting illustrations with multiple faces that are not necessarily independent shapes that can be easily filled.

Benefits of this Illustrator tutorial:

• Learn various ways to paint in Illustrator

• Find out how to apply colors to complex groups using Live Paint

Format: Self-paced tutorial

Tutorial Details

Illustrator CC Digital Classroom Book

Learn Adobe Illustrator with self-paced lessons that guide you step-by-step while you work at your own pace. This Illustrator book includes 14 self-paced lessons that cover introductory through advanced skills, teaching essential Illustrator skills in the early lessons then building to more advanced capabilities.

Benefits of this Illustrator training book:

• Full-color lessons with easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions

• Video tutorials highlight key topics in each lesson 

• All essential Illustrator skills are covered

• Gets you up-and-running quickly with included Illustrator lesson files

• Written by expert instructors who regularly teach Illustrator classes

• Learn Illustrator at your own pace 

Format: Self-paced tutorial

Book details

Private Illustrator training

If you can’t find exactly the topics or course you are looking for in an existing Illustrator course, you can arrange a custom Illustrator training ranging from three hours to several days. Custom Illustrator training is beneficial for individuals, organizations, and groups who want to work on specific projects or have a dedicated instructor. Learn from experienced instructors who can adapt curriculum to your specific needs.

Benefits of private customized Illustrator training:

• Classes can be tailored to your specific needs

• Work with the instructor to tailor an Illustrator course to your specific objectives

• Course materials are provided

• Adapt the class to include your own projects if desired 

Format: Available on-site, at your location, a local training center, or remotely

Private Course Details

About the Best Illustrator Courses and Classes

The assembled list shows the wide variety of course options for learning Illustrator. These include shorter one-day courses to gain a general understanding of this popular design tool, as well as longer courses which provide a more in-depth understanding of Illustrator. Many of these courses are appropriate for beginners to learn Illustrator, although we have included options for advanced users to improve their skills as well.

All the Illustrator classes are delviered by an expert instructor and are delivered as live classes, while the tutorials offer self-paced ways to learn Illustrator for free.

The decision regarding which class to attend depends upon how quickly you need to learn Illustrator, the time available for your learning, and the available budget. The in-depth courses have a higher cost, yet provide immediate skills in semi-private or small-group sessions, while the free training tutorials allow you to learn Illustrator on your own at no cost. You can learn more about Illustrator.