Art & Design Courses - Online & in London  

Work independently on your own jewellery projects in our well equipped jewellery workshop. This is an opportunity for self-directed and untutored bench time, sharing the studio with the year long VV414 City Lit fine jewellery course.

This 20-week course will take you on a journey from beginner to intermediate, direct.







The Children’s Book industry is thriving, largely due to globally rising literacy levels, and a growing awareness of the importance of early childhood education. As a result, Children’s Book creators are in demand.







Our tutors will teach you the many and various skills you’ll need to illustrate books for children - from drawing and painting (analogue and digital), sequencing and pacing the narrative, to editing the images digitally and overlaying text.







You'll learn about the children’s publishing sector; gaining a sense of the different genres and markets for children's books, and where your illustration style might fit.

Year 1 of the City Lit Fine Art (CLFA) course will enable you to develop and refine your previous experience in Fine Art in workshops exploring different approaches to drawing, painting, sculpture, print, digital media, and contextual studies, in weekly studio sessions. You will be part of a small cohort of dedicated students and will be taught by experienced and professional tutors who are all practising artists.



The Year 1 course will give you experience in combining different studio processes relevant to current art practice. It will introduce new ideas and contexts, and help you identify your own personal creative responses. Group discussions and tutorials will support the development of your thinking and help you adopt an independent and open-minded approach to making artwork. This course can be taken for personal creative development and progression on to Year 2 of the CLFA course, or to help you prepare for application to Fine Art study at HE.level.



Some basic studio materials are provided, and you will need to supplement these with specific items.

This course will help you improve your skills in graphic design and visual communications in their broadest sense, for delivery or publication in print and online, working with text, image, layout, medium and message across a range of physical and digital media and formats.



It is ideal for anyone who has already completed our City Lit graphics course, and for anyone wishing to build a more extensive and professional portfolio of graphics work, whilst developing a deeper understanding of the connection between text, image, message and media.



Confirmed industry specialist guests: Lydia Thornley, Designer, Creative Director and Reportage Illustrator and award winning film producer/director Mark Craig, maker of the film “The Last Man On The Moon”.

On this course you will develop your creativity, your personal artistic understanding, and a body of contemporary art work at an advanced level through the experimental exploration of a personal project. The course is facilitated by practicing artists and theorists, who will support you through guided critical and creative research, experimental workshops, critical studies, studio practice and tutorials.



This course will be delivered online and in person. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Interested in a career in Children’s Book Illustration, or advancing your practice to the next level? With the guidance and support of your tutors, you will have the opportunity to engage with experienced industry professionals, and develop your practice and personal visual vocabulary to a professional standard.







Confirmed visitors/speakers include:



- Rachel Petty, author/illustrator agent at the Blair Partnership, former editorial director Macmillan Children's Books,



- Margaret Hope, art director, Welbeck Publishing Group



- Arabella Stein, Managing Director, Bright Agency.

This 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 projects that encourage both a personal enquiry and the development of an individual methodology. The course involves theoretical, contextual and practical components. Student testimony:



“This course has been absolutely brilliant! It’s not only taught me printmaking methods but also about the artistic process. I’ve learnt so much, it’s really been very transformative!” El Morrison (2023)



“The course has pushed my boundaries. It has encouraged me to try new things within print and to think about the context and concepts I am trying to deliver” Declan Hoare (2023)



“I thoroughly enjoyed the course. I met many wonderful talented artists. It has made me think about my own practice; how can I change it, modify it, make it more exciting. The tutors are absolutely amazing! They are full of knowledge, encouragement, and support. It was a great, great experience.” Areej Abdi (2023).



This course will be delivered online and in person. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

This year-long advanced course is aimed at artists who wish to expand their print-based practice through exploring the integration of printmaking with a range of other media and processes. It includes: individual and collaborative practice; the creation of a body of work in a range of print- and print-related media; the production of a print publication, and a public exhibition of work. As you acquire advanced skills you will be encouraged to explore your own ideas and themes developing a sustainable art practice that is both meaningful to you and relevant to the contemporary art world.



This course will be delivered online and in person. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

The human form offers inexhaustible potential for communication and expression of ideas; this is an exciting advanced course for those with experience of working with the figure and/or portrait who would like the challenge of exploring new perspectives on the figurative tradition in drawing, painting and mixed media.

Year 2 of CLFA (VM552) will enable you to consolidate and focus the various creative experiences and ideas you will have gained in Year 1, or from equivalent external courses.



This course enables you to identify, develop, produce, and exhibit a personal creative project.



You will adopt simple research methods to help you develop and produce a body of new creative work that takes an individual, self-motivated direction. The necessary self-motivated approach to your work will result in the development of a cohesive set of new artwork that should reflect your own interests. There will be group critiques, one-to-one tutorials and weekly studio production sessions that will challenge and enable you to explore and refine your creative intentions, plus seminars and presentations in which you will learn and engage with new contextual information. These are delivered by experienced, practising artist / tutors.



You should; be prepared to spend some of your own time developing your creative work, and enhancing your creative thinking by visiting exhibitions, reading, researching and planning your project.



Basic materials are included but you will need to supplement these depending on the nature of your creative work.



The course culminates in a group exhibition in the college gallery. This will be organised and marketed collaboratively by the student cohort with engagement and support from CLFA Tutors and City Lit technical staff.