City Lit Art School — Art Classes in London
Explore new and exciting subjects within a range of art and design disciplines, develop your skill set, get the support required to change career or launch yourself as a freelance artist or designer. All this and more delivered through our practical and engaging art and design courses at City Lit.
Our range of part-time, weekend and evening art and design classes are taught by successful artists and practitioners to ensure you get the skills, knowledge and experience you want and deserve. From experimental painting and drawing to contemporary jewellery making, there is sure to be a course for you. Study from 1 day to 2 years, whether you are a complete beginner or a practising artist preparing for an MA. Our courses are designed with you in mind, so you get to spend more time doing what you love.
Set a new goal, start your next creative adventure with City Lit and let us support you to realise your ambitions.
We host exhibitions throughout the year at City Lit Gallery where our students showcase their amazing work.
Any questions? Contact our visual arts team on visual.arts@citylit.ac.uk
- Oil painting: techniques and mediums
Course start date: Thu 18 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Steve WrightOil paint is a medium with a long historical tradition, capable of heavy impasto effects and delicate transparent colour films. Working practically, in the studio, this course will expand your understanding of approaches to building a variety of surfaces in your paint working with mediums and expanding your use of texture and glazing This course is for all levels – both beginners and more experienced painters.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Illustrating animals Course start date: Thu 18 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ciara FloodAnimals are all around us – even in London! From Trafalgar Square’s flocks of pigeons, to rodents on the Underground, to the dog-filled squares and parks. Despite their ubiquity, animals are notoriously hard to draw – as, anatomically speaking, they’re so different to humans – as well as to each other! And, they don’t like to pose!
Learn how to overcome these challenges in our ‘Illustrating Animals’ workshop.
Our Workshops enable you to take a deep dive into a specific process, media or tool.
They throw the spotlight onto niche areas of the visual communication field, enabling you to hone higher-level skills and gain deeper insights.
Workshops tend to have a practical focus, with little or no theory or context, although this varies by course.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Photography, space and architecture Course start date: Thu 18 Sep 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Michael HardingCapture the architecture of London, from ancient churches to modern buildings in this introduction to architectural photography. Learn about the history and development of this specialist genre then venture onto the streets and spaces of London to put your theory into practice, identifying architectural styles and experimenting with different lenses, composition, processing and editing.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Jewellery: stone setting ICourse start date: Thu 25 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rae DuncanEnjoy making your own jewellery, but want to develop your mount-making and stone-setting techniques? Discover essential techniques in setting a gem stone, including round bezel and tube settings, with the guidance of an expert tutor.
Full fee £419.00 Senior fee £335.00 Concession £272.00 - Bookbinding: Japanese books and boxes Course start date: Thu 2 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Kate RochesterExplore the elegant sewing patterns found in Japanese binding. Learn how to make books, make a fold-out case, sew traditional and contemporary designs, and experiment with creating your own. This course is suitable for beginners. - 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 - Advanced printmaking: personal project development Course 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 - Night and low light photographyCourse start date: Thu 16 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jad OakesDiscover how to capture the bright lights of London’s West End after dark. This course will lead you through Piccadilly Circus, the London Eye and Waterloo Bridge and provide feedback on your images in the classroom.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Sketching at Tate Modern Course start date: Thu 30 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Exploring the pleasure and challenge of sketchbooks; learn and improve your drawing skills and 'ways of seeing' and understanding, working from an exciting range of artworks in Tate modern.Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £89.00 - Art in theory: What is creativity?Course start date: Thu 30 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
This critical studies course for developing artists and makers explores the concept of creativity and what it means to be an artist, drawing on a range of cultural theories and work by creative practitioners to help inspire and enhance creative and critical thinking.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £139.00 - Fashion and editorial photography Course start date: Thu 8 May 2025 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Kean Street Photography Studio
Tutors: Ed GregoryThis course will help you to develop your skills in editorial fashion photography.
The course is project driven and will take you from the creation of a basic story board through to a photo shoot. By the end of the course you will understand the workflow, the tools and thinking / planning required to run a successful shoot for yourself. The course also provides advice on getting material published.Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00 - Beginning miniature bookbinding Course start date: Thu 6 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Royston HawardExplore the charm of tiny books in this introduction to miniature bookbinding. You will discover the history and appeal of this unique style and make three adorable miniature books to take home. Suitable for beginners. - Photography in a day: Flash with speedlightCourse start date: Thu 6 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Matthew WardLighten things up: join this practical course to learn the basics of using portable flash (speedlights) to enhance your images. Experiment creatively indoors and outdoors with different flash techniques, with a professional photographer on hand to guide you throughout.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - 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 - Life painting: expressionist approachesCourse start date: Thu 13 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Amanda WalkerExplore imaginative, dynamic approaches to painting the figure using a variety of approaches: be inspired by new ways of seeing and access innovative ways of approaching your life painting.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00
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