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This Pencil Drawing Made Easy review is for anyone wondering whether Nolan Clark’s online course is a good way to learn realistic pencil drawing, especially portraits from photos. The course is sold as “over 42 hours” of real-time video lessons that take you from your first pencil marks to hyper-realistic portraits, for a one-off payment with lifetime access.
Below, we go through what’s actually in the course, what it costs, the bonuses, how refunds work, who Nolan Clark is, and the pros and cons, so you can decide whether it fits the way you want to learn.
Pencil Drawing Made Easy at a glance
- What it is: an online video course in realistic graphite drawing by Nolan Clark, sold through ClickBank
- Content: 26 hours of core lessons plus 16 hours of bonus classes, 42 hours in total, according to the sales page
- Price: $47 one-off for lifetime access at the time of writing (November 2026); check the checkout page for the current price
- Guarantee: 60-day money-back guarantee
- Best for: beginners and improvers who want step-by-step, draw-along lessons for realistic pencil drawing, from still life to portraits
- Less suited to: drawing from imagination, figure drawing, colour work, or anyone who wants personal feedback from a teacher
How we wrote this Pencil Drawing Made Easy review
To be clear about what this review is: it’s an assessment of the course content, structure and terms as published by the vendor on the official Pencil Drawing Made Easy website, compared with other online drawing courses we’ve looked at. Course facts below, such as hours, lessons, price and guarantee, come from the official sales page and FAQ as they appeared in November 2026. This isn’t a report of personal progress results, and we don’t publish star ratings or testimonials that we can’t verify. Where the sales page makes a claim, we say so.
DrawBySight earns a commission if you buy through our links. That doesn’t change the facts below, and we’ve included the drawbacks we think matter.
What is Pencil Drawing Made Easy?
Pencil Drawing Made Easy is an online course in realistic pencil drawing created by Nolan Clark and published under Paint Basket TV Ltd. The course is built around complete drawings: each lesson spends a few minutes on the core concept, such as tonal values or texture, then you draw a full piece along with the video. The sales page describes each lesson as about two hours long, explained “in plain, easy to follow English”, and filmed in real time so you can draw along.
You watch the classes online on a PC, Mac, tablet or phone, in full HD with adjustable quality for slower connections. Supporting PDFs are downloadable files, not printed books.
| Feature | What the official page says |
|---|---|
| Instructor | Nolan Clark |
| Total video | 42 hours: 26 hours core plus 16 hours of bonus classes |
| Lesson length | About 2 hours each |
| Format | Online HD video, filmed in real time; downloadable PDFs |
| Devices | PC, Mac, tablet and phone; a modern browser is required |
| Access | Instant and lifetime |
| Price | $47 one-off (at the time of writing) |
| Guarantee | 60-day money-back guarantee |
| Retailer | ClickBank |
| Level | Suitable for complete beginners, according to the FAQ |
What’s inside the course
The core course runs in a clear order, from basic pencil handling to portraits.
The foundation modules
- Class 1: the equipment you need and getting a feel for your pencils.
- Class 2: a lesson on seeing tonal values correctly, followed by your first full drawing.
- The next four modules: shading, texture (drawing an onions and garlic scene), negative drawing and reflections (a spoon class).
- Pencil studies: after the spoon class, you move on to a set of further pencil studies.
The emphasis on tonal values early on is a good sign. Seeing values correctly is the skill behind almost everything in realistic drawing, from shading a face to making a glass look transparent.
The portrait modules
After the foundation modules, the course moves to portraits, one feature at a time:
- Eyes: making the eye look glossy and wet, recessed into the socket, plus eyelashes and eyebrows.
- Noses: the subtle shading and reflections that make a nose look raised off the paper.
- Mouths: realistic lips including lip cracks, making teeth look “sparkly and white”, reflections on the teeth, and closed, open and smiling mouths.
- Ears: the “six different areas of the ear” and how to make the ear stand out from the face.
- Cheeks, chins, foreheads and necks: tying the features together, including frown lines, a chin dimple and the neck.
- Hair: straight, curly, light and dark hair, depth, sunlit highlights, hair receding around the back of the head and avoiding the “loose wig” look.
- Beards: stubble, short, long and grey beards.
That’s an unusually complete list. Many portrait courses stop at the five main features. The sections on the neck and on tying the features together are worth having. If you want to see what those topics involve before buying, our free tutorials on how to draw a realistic eye, how to draw teeth and how to shade hair cover the same subjects in written form.
The bonuses
The sales page lists these bonuses, which it values at an extra $56:
- Clothing and fabric: a two-part lesson on drapery and material textures, including fluffy jackets, then knitted textures like jerseys and cardigans.
- Hands: a module on drawing realistic hands.
- Student problems and hyper-realism: a lesson answering the most common problems students run into, with fixes shown on actual student drawings, plus a demonstration of hyper-realistic portrait techniques.
- Templates and reference photos: downloadable PDF outline templates for each lesson, including the bonus lessons, plus an exact-size, high-quality reference photo and a photo of the finished drawing for each module.
- Realistic birds: a four-part course drawing a seagull, detailed feathers and complex feather patterns, and a two-part eagle.
The templates are the most practical bonus. They let you transfer the outlines accurately “without having to struggle with grids or proportional dividers”, so you can spend your time on shading. The trade-off is that you’ll practise less freehand placement; if you want to build that skill, our guide to grid method drawing is a good companion.
Who is Nolan Clark?
According to the official site, Nolan Clark has been teaching artists to draw and paint since 2000, starting in his studio in South Africa. He moved to New Zealand in 2008 and took his teaching online, and the site says he has taught over 3 million people to draw and paint since then. The site’s resources page also points to a larger library of his classes in pencil, watercolour, oil, acrylic, pastel and pen and ink on a separate site, plus a course on selling artwork.
Price and value
At the time of writing, Pencil Drawing Made Easy costs $47 for lifetime access, paid once. The sales page frames this against a “normal” price of $14 per lesson, or $182 for the core lessons. We’d treat that as marketing framing rather than a discount, but the plain numbers are still reasonable: $47 for 42 hours of video works out to roughly $1.12 per hour of instruction.
For comparison, Proko’s Portrait Drawing Fundamentals course lists at $65 for about 8 hours of video, though it focuses on a different approach, construction and anatomy, and includes 3D models and assignments. Our roundup of the best online drawing courses compares the options in more detail.
Ordering, access and refunds
Orders are processed by ClickBank, which the site names as the retailer, so you don’t pay the course author directly. After purchase you get instant access to all the classes and bonuses. The course comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee, which gives you time to work through several lessons before deciding.
You’ll need a modern browser to watch the videos and a PDF reader for the downloads. Members also have access to a Facebook group, according to the classes page.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Very complete curriculum, from pencil basics to every facial feature, hair, beards and the neck | Focused on copying from photos; little on drawing from imagination or the figure |
| Real-time, draw-along lessons that show every step | Two-hour real-time lessons can feel slow if you prefer short, edited videos |
| Outline templates and exact-size reference photos for every lesson | Using templates means less practice at freehand placement |
| Low one-off price for 42 hours, with lifetime access | No personal feedback from the instructor on your own work |
| 60-day money-back guarantee | One teacher’s method; you won’t see several approaches compared |
| Graphite only, so the equipment list is short and cheap | No colour, charcoal or digital lessons in this course |
Who should buy Pencil Drawing Made Easy?
It’s a good fit if you:
- want to draw realistic portraits or still life from photos in graphite
- are a beginner, or self-taught and stuck on making drawings look three-dimensional
- like following a complete drawing step by step rather than doing separate exercises
- want to learn at your own pace with lifetime access
It’s probably not for you if you:
- want to draw from imagination, design characters or draw the figure
- prefer a construction-first approach based on anatomy and simplified forms
- want graded assignments or feedback from a teacher
- mainly want to learn colour, painting or digital drawing
What you’ll need
The course FAQ lists a set of drawing pencils in 2H, H, HB, 2B, 4B and a 6B or 8B, a soft eraser, a kneaded eraser and drawing paper. That’s an inexpensive kit, and the same range of pencil grades we recommend in our tutorials.
Is Pencil Drawing Made Easy worth it?
If your goal is to draw realistic pencil portraits from photos, and you learn well by drawing along with a teacher, Pencil Drawing Made Easy looks like strong value for the price. The curriculum covers everything a realistic portrait needs, the templates and reference photos remove a lot of early frustration, and the 60-day guarantee limits the risk. If you’re more interested in drawing from imagination or in constructive anatomy, a course like Proko’s is a better match.
Check the current price and guarantee for Pencil Drawing Made Easy
Frequently asked questions
Is Pencil Drawing Made Easy good for complete beginners?
The course FAQ says yes: it starts with equipment and getting a feel for the pencils, and each class is designed to become progressively more advanced. The early lessons on tonal values, shading and texture come before the portrait modules.
How much does Pencil Drawing Made Easy cost?
At the time of writing it’s $47, paid once, for lifetime access to the classes and bonuses. Prices can change, so check the checkout page before you buy.
Does Pencil Drawing Made Easy have a refund policy?
Yes. The official site offers a 60-day money-back guarantee. Orders are processed by ClickBank, which is the retailer.
How long is the Pencil Drawing Made Easy course?
The sales page lists 26 hours of core lessons and 16 hours of bonus classes, 42 hours in total, with each lesson about two hours long.
Who is Nolan Clark?
Nolan Clark is the artist and teacher behind Pencil Drawing Made Easy. According to the official site, he has taught drawing and painting since 2000, first in South Africa and, since 2008, online from New Zealand.
Can I watch Pencil Drawing Made Easy on a tablet or phone?
Yes. The site says the classes work on PC, Mac, tablet and phone, in HD with adjustable quality. You’ll need a modern browser and a PDF reader for the downloads.