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
- Angela Carter: ‘A Different Kind of Human Being’ -Course start date: Wed 8 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Fiona McCullochThis course will introduce and discuss the fiction of renowned author, Angela Carter, specifically focusing upon one novel and one short story. Carter wanted her writing to ‘demythologise the fictions that regulate our lives’, to explore how society narrates us into being and holds us there. In doing so, she offers us a chance to read and, ultimately, release ourselves through her work, as we come to understand the relationship between fiction and reality. For Carter, both of these – fiction and reality – are two sides of the same coin.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Russian 2: conversationCourse start date: Wed 8 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Marina De YongRevise, consolidate and improve your listening and speaking skills on this lively course, which will help you communicate more confidently in daily life situations.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £119.00 - Ruling Russia: Tsars, Revolutions, Civil War , and the Triumph of Lenin (1860-1924)Course start date: Tue 13 May 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Zoe QuinnThis course explores the transformative period of Russian history from 1860 to 1924, encompassing the autocratic rule of the Tsars, the revolutionary upheavals of 1905 and 1917, the chaos of the civil war, and the consolidation of the Bolshevik regime. Students will examine key events, figures, and ideologies that shaped modern Russia, delving into the complexities of political, social, and economic changes during this era.
Please note: this course includes much of the material covered in previous Russian Revolution courses at the City Lit. Moreover this course is taught at an introductory level. Tutor: Zoe Quinn.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Advanced printmaking: practice and discourseCourse start date: Wed 8 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Blended (learn both online and in-person)
Tutors: Claire HyndsThis year-long advanced course is aimed at artist-printmakers who wish to develop a sustainable personal practice through the medium of print. With the support of expert tutors, you will be guided through experimental, practice-based research and developmental tasks that challenge your preconceptions of print media including etching, screen-printing, lithography and relief. You will eventually focus on a longer project that encourage both a personal enquiry and the development of an individual methodology. The course involves theoretical, contextual and practical components.Full fee £2,099.00 Senior fee £1,679.00 Concession £1,469.00 - Italian intermediate revisionCourse start date: Thu 9 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Rosanna CarlàAn evening revision course for learners who have done about three years of Italian and who wish to brush up on the grammar covered so far. If you feel like you could do with another look at some key grammar points, perhaps from a different angle, this course should get you feeling more confident about your grasp of Italian grammar.Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £159.00 - Black British LiteratureCourse start date: Thu 9 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
From Roman society to the present day, from the memoirs of Equiano to the experimental poetics of Kwesi Johnson, Black British writers have significantly impacted British literature, despite limited recognition.
Through an exploration of social, political and historical contexts, this course examines how diasporic writers decolonised genres and mapped their own metaphors onto the literary landscape.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Advanced printmaking: personal project developmentCourse start date: Thu 9 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rolina Elsje BlokUnlock your creative potential in the Advanced Printmaking Personal Project Development course! This engaging programme invites you to extend your printmaking practice while developing a substantial personal project. Over the length of the course you will explore advanced printmaking techniques, refine your artistic voice, and produce a body of finished work.Full fee £2,099.00 Senior fee £1,679.00 Concession £1,469.00 - Introduction to using a SketchbookCourse 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 - Using your voice for audio books and talking newspapersCourse start date: Mon 12 May 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: David ThorpeWould you like to narrate audio books? Are you interested in community work such as talking newspapers for the blind? Explore vocal skills and techniques required in these areas and identify what style works for you. This course will be delivered in the college.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £104.00 - Introduction to contemporary art: ideas and originsCourse start date: Mon 13 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierEver wondered what's going on in the mind of contemporary artists? This course explores the ideas and historical background behind some of today’s most intriguing works, from Conceptualism and Video to Body Art and Installation.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Making it Modern: A Survey of 20th century poetryCourse start date: Mon 13 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Suzannah V. EvansWhat makes a poet modern? What is the different between modern poetry and modernist poetry? How has modern poetry informed the work of poets writing today? Come and explore the exciting range of poetry written in the twentieth century in a supportive and energising group context.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £219.00 Concession £142.00 - Introduction to Adobe Creative CloudCourse start date: Mon 13 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Andrea MarzanoOn this practical introductory course, you will develop solid foundational skills in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, following a natural print workflow. You will learn essential tools and techniques to manipulate images in Photoshop, create basic designs in Illustrator, and lay out single-page documents in InDesign. Additionally, you will explore how these programs integrate to enhance your creative projects.Full fee £549.00 Senior fee £439.00 Concession £357.00 - Develop your confidence in writing: grammar, punctuation, expression (level 1-2)Course start date: Fri 2 May 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Would you like to be more confident in the way you write whether emails or reports at work or messages to friends? Do you want to work on how you form sentences, understand grammar and use punctuation so your writing is more creative? Do you want to learn how to create meaning in your writing?. This course will help you be more secure in your professional, academic or creative writing skills and help you improve some of your weak areas around forming and punctuating sentences with appropriate grammatical form. You will develop your confidence in the most essential areas of writing including different sentence structures, writing paragraphs, using punctuation effectively, using active and passive voices and proofreading.
You need to do a pre-course assessment. Contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / 020 8078 0489 for a face-to-face assessment or click the Start Assessment button on this page. Log on with your email address (not name).
This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here
Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £90.00 - Comedy writing and performingCourse start date: Tue 6 May 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Alan NixonExplore your comedy writing and performance potential under the guidance of an Emmy-award winning comedy producer/director. Alan Nixon shares the skills behind creating powerful comedy using classic and modern techniques.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £139.00
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