Drawing Courses in London
At City Lit, we have a variety of drawing courses, delivered in our bright, modern studios for students to create and develop a body of drawing work. Supported by our team of experienced and expert tutors, we offer students both a practical guide and an informative insight, providing an opportunity for all levels to explore traditional and contemporary styles of drawing.
We have classes for everyone, whether you’re a complete beginner and you want an introduction to drawing; or you’re at an intermediate or higher level and you want classes that focus on developing advanced drawing skills such as mark making techniques, experimental approaches and use of colour, tone and shade within these disciplines.
Our courses are specially designed to offer you support in overcoming any frustrations, learning new skills and helping you achieve your personal creative goals.
We host exhibitions throughout the year at City Lit Gallery where our students showcase their amazing work.
To arrange a conversation with our drawing coordinator about your interests, options and courses available, please contact our Visual Arts team at visualarts@citylit.ac.uk
- 50 drawings in a day
Course start date: Tue 1 Jul 2025 (and 8 other dates)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Mario Lautier VellaA high energy programme of directed and self-directed drawing projects, with rapid shifts in materials, scale, subject and focus. Strictly no discards - come ready to play, risk, invent and discuss. For those with some drawing experience.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - Anatomical portrait drawing Course start date: Fri 4 Jul 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Andrea VoiseyEnhance your portraits by uncovering what lies beneath the surface. Through demonstration and direct observation of the model you will examine proportion, rotation and the key anatomical structures of the head and neck that denote likeness.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - Drawing for beginners Course start date: Tue 8 Jul 2025 (and 7 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sam HannerExplore 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 £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £139.00 - Contemporary drawing sketchbook Course start date: Thu 10 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Simon EnglishExplore the sequential and adaptive nature of sketchbook drawing as a site for generating personal material, inviting connections, and extracting patterns of meaning. Includes gallery research, set-project as stimulus, and practical exploration of contemporary drawing techniques. - Contemporary collage: summer school intensive Course start date: Mon 28 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Simon EnglishA short experimental course to explore and combine a variety of collage techniques using found images, drawing, painting and paper to create unexpectedly beautiful or powerful images. Suitable for beginners. - Drawing in colour: summer school intensive Course start date: Tue 5 Aug 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Kim ScoullerExplore a variety of techniques and approaches to making a still-life in pastels. Learn how to mix pastels on paper, choose suitable materials and supports to allow you to create a finished pastel drawing.Full fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00 - Drawing into painting Course start date: Thu 11 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Tony HullGain an understanding of the creative journey from a drawing to finished painting. Explore the creative potential when drawing and painting activities are combined.Full fee £389.00 Senior fee £311.00 Concession £253.00 - Draw, paint, print Course start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Mary WintourOn this experimental course, you will draw, paint and print in often unfamiliar ways in order to catch the unexpected. Through experimentation and reflection, you will collate a personal collection of work. .Full fee £369.00 Senior fee £295.00 Concession £240.00 - Drawing: charcoal techniques Course start date: Tue 23 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Luke JonesExplore the creative possibilities that this fragile medium affords. Learn and develop the components of drawing with charcoal’s subtle yet dynamic lines. This is a course for beginners. No experience is necessary.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - City Lit year of the figure and portrait Course start date: Mon 29 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rebecca Allen, Desmond Haughton, Joe Richardson, Kim ScoullerThis is a year-long course that explores the endlessly fascinating subject of the human form through various aspects of drawing and painting the figure and portrait. For those interested in building real progress and confidence in practical skills and taught by a team of specialist tutors, you will be inspired by stimulating projects that explore historical and contemporary artists' contexts to support your creative work.Full fee £2,899.00 Senior fee £2,319.00 Concession £1,884.00 - City Lit contemporary collage projects 1Course start date: Thu 2 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
City Lit contemporary collage projects 1 initiates a year-long set of collage and mixed media projects designed to experiment with and examine the interplay between the two and three dimensions. You will work with a wide range of materials, on and off the wall, extending our pictorial practice into the realm of collage, painting, drawing, assemblage, bricolage, decoupage, photomontage, small scale constructions, printing and text within the context of mixed media.
Note* the course is designed in a way to enable students to either complete all three courses over the year or to come in at any stage in no particular order.Full fee £839.00 Senior fee £671.00 Concession £545.00 - Introduction to using a Sketchbook Course start date: Fri 10 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
A sketchbook is a great place to try things out, make mistakes and take risks - all in the nature of experimentation. An introduction to exploring creative mixed-media, drawing and mark-making techniques with confidence which can build personal ideas for further development.
Suitable for beginners as well as those with some previous drawing experience who would like to start using a sketchbook.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - Drawing and painting from the imagination Course start date: Thu 6 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Clare Barton-HarveyExplore the richness of the imagination in drawing and painting. Cultivate a range of methods for stimulating and connecting to what inspires you, and ways to express your imagination freely through the medium of acrylic painting and drawing. - Collage and mixed media: 3D approachesCourse start date: Thu 13 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ruth FranklinAn exciting short, experimental course taking an adventure in collage to make 3D constructions from paper, amalgamating found materials and images to make exciting new sculptural forms.Full fee £339.00 Senior fee £271.00 Concession £220.00 - Portrait drawing: expression in the face Course start date: Thu 20 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
This short course will develop your existing knowledge and skills in drawing portraits to meet the challenge of creating expression. Bring your portrat drawing to life by exploring character, personality and emotion in the face of your subject, working from the life model.Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £127.00 Concession £103.00
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