Beginners Art & Design Courses
Every great artist started here. Embark on your creative journey with art and design courses for beginners at the City Lit Art School. Whether you’re a complete beginner or looking to refresh your skills, our expert-led courses provide a supportive environment to help you unlock your creative potential.
Our courses cover a range of artistic techniques including drawing, painting, printmaking, and graphic design. Learn the fundamentals of creating art, from sketching to using colour, and discover how to bring your ideas to life through different mediums. Whether you’re interested in traditional methods or digital design, we offer a variety of options to suit your artistic preferences.
With hands-on learning, live sessions, and individual feedback from experienced tutors, you’ll gain the skills and confidence to express your creativity. You’ll also be part of a vibrant artistic community where you can share your work, get feedback, and be inspired by others.
Explore our range of beginners art and design courses today, available both online and in London, and take the first step towards developing your artistic skills.
- Explore: zine making
Course start date: Sun 7 Dec 2025 (and 1 other date)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Pam WilliamsIn this Zine Making course, you will create your own zine from start to finish, from curating the content and designing the publication, exploring typography and experimental approaches to paper folding and zine creation.
Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £89.00 - Try it out: bookbinding Course start date: Sun 7 Dec 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Kate RochesterDip your fingers into bookbinding. Learn a little about the tools, materials and craft of bookbinding while making an attractive book to take home. A chance to discuss further study in bookbinding at City Lit.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - Art and creative thinking with Rod Judkins Course start date: Sun 7 Dec 2025 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Rod JudkinsArt is fundamentally about communicating ideas. If the idea is strong, the work of art is memorable.
This exciting, one day workshop, led by Rod Judkins (artist, tutor and author of ‘The art of Creative thinking’ and ‘Ideas are your only currency’) will explore methods to create ideas and concepts and combine them with the process of making. You will receive a signed copy of Art and Creative Thinking when you attend this course.Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £89.00 - T-shirt screen printing in a dayCourse start date: Sun 7 Jun 2026 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Adam HogarthIn this fun, 1-day workshop you will be taught how to print onto t-shirts, tote bags and other fabrics. Students will learn basic screenprinting techniques, including how to put your own designs onto screens, correct inks and printing methods and how to clean and prepare screens.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £139.00 - Try it out: jewellery makingCourse start date: Thu 11 Dec 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth BoneIdeal for beginners who want to give jewellery making a go. Come and join this short taster course introducing you to basic jewellery processes and techniques to enable you to make a simple piece of jewellery.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - Portrait painting: two session pose Course start date: Sat 13 Dec 2025 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Amanda BrackenDevelop a portrait from life: a structured course to build skills towards making a convincing portrait where the model keeps the same pose over 2 sessions to enable a sustained piece of work.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - Clay sculpture: life and portrait Course start date: Mon 5 Jan 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Valerie MerloFollow in the footsteps of Michelangelo and Rodin and learn how to capture the human figure, both physically and emotionally, on this fascinating practical sculpting course. You will work from a life model to develop your own clay sculpture of the human form.Full fee £599.00 Senior fee £479.00 Concession £389.00 - Metal sculpture: beginners to intermediate Course start date: Mon 5 Jan 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Andrew RevellLearn the techniques required in making sculptural/functional objects in different metals: cutting, bending, welding and joining. Materials and expert guidance are provided, but you are welcome to bring your own project ideas and metal items. For beginners or those with some prior experience.Full fee £489.00 Senior fee £391.00 Concession £318.00 - Watercolour painting: mixed media techniques Course start date: Mon 5 Jan 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ruth BrisonWatercolour has a rich tradition - this course will explore the more experimental ways of using this pleasurable medium and will present new possibilities for producing exciting new work with mixed media. Make inventive combinations of media to draw from your own found imagery, photographs and sketches.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Drawing from plants and flowers Course start date: Mon 5 Jan 2026 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Steve WrightExplore the delicacy and beauty of plants and flowers through the medium of drawing. Respond to their structural qualities and colours, using a range of media and taking inspiration from a rich and varied history of the subject. Suitable for all levels of experience.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - Drawing for beginners Course start date: Wed 19 Nov 2025 (and 7 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Eleanor BedlowExplore traditional and less traditional methods of drawing simple objects. Using structured activities, you will be introduced to key concepts such as line, tone, composition and mark-making. Ideal if you have little or no drawing experience; a great way to learn the basics or prepare for longer courses.
Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £127.00 Concession £103.00 - Ceramics: surface decoration on clay Course start date: Mon 5 Jan 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Trish SpenceWorking with paper stencil, block printing on unfired clay, biscuit and glazed surfaces, you will create pattern and images with slips, oxides, glaze and on-glaze enamels on simple moulded forms and tiles.Full fee £339.00 Senior fee £271.00 Concession £220.00 - Introduction to watercolour painting Course start date: Tue 6 Jan 2026 (and 6 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul DixonGain a grounding in the rich possibilities available when working with watercolour paint. Through a series of practical studies, you will investigate the potential of this versatile medium.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - Pottery evening Course start date: Tue 6 Jan 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Trish SpenceFor those with previous experience who want to work towards their own goals, or for beginners who want to learn hand-building and throwing processes. We will also cover glazing and surface decoration.Full fee £619.00 Senior fee £495.00 Concession £402.00 - City Lit textiles: surface, structure, stitch Course start date: Tue 6 Jan 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Lara HaileyInvestigate textile structures and surfaces through this project based course. Develop an experimental portfolio of 2D and 3D stitched samples, sketchbook research and aim towards a finished piece.Full fee £499.00 Senior fee £399.00 Concession £324.00
Can't see a course you want?
Add this category to your waiting list to set up alerts and we will update you when new courses are released online.
Add me to waiting list