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
- Typography, typefaces and font workshop
Course start date: Mon 12 May 2025Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Andrew McCartenAll designers know, images are powerful. But have you ever considered the look of your text? In other words, the typeface? It’s amazing how many designers overlook this powerful aspect of communication. Words are powerful (of course), but it’s not just what they say, it’s how they say it. On this workshop, learn how to harness the power of type.
Take a deep dive into a specific process, media or tool, with our Visual Communication Workshops.
Workshops 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 conceptual or contextual elements, although this varies by course.Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00 - Clay sculpture: portrait head Course start date: Mon 12 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Valerie MerloThe head is the focal point of each person; create a portrait that examines both the structure as well as the emotion of the model. - Bookbinding improvers’ workshop Course start date: Mon 12 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Gavin MoorheadThis one term course is designed to help students to develop their bookbinding skills. You will already have some experience of binding techniques and some knowledge of tools, materials and equipment in order to benefit from this workshop-style class. There will be the opportunity to work on your own projects, or to practice skills in which you feel less confident in order to enable you to progress to higher level courses. Not suitable for beginners.Full fee £399.00 Senior fee £319.00 Concession £259.00 - Drawing 2 Course start date: Mon 12 May 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ute KreymanBuild your confidence in tackling more personal, complex drawings. Further explore observational drawing and visual language. Develop your drawing skills by working with different approaches and exploring a range of artists' drawing process.Full fee £429.00 Senior fee £343.00 Concession £279.00 - Try it out: garden design Course start date: Tue 13 May 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Alison WorsterGet a taste of how you can improve your outside spaces. You will complete a short exercise and experience our design studio. This course links directs to ‘Roof terrace and balcony design and planting’, code VF345.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £59.00 Concession £59.00 - Digital video editing: stage 2 Course start date: Wed 14 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Lily MarkiewiczImprove, and speed up your process and learn to use vital techniques for improving your edits. Explore building a better narrative structure and find out about essentials like screen-directionality, POV constructions and rhythm building.Full fee £269.00 Senior fee £215.00 Concession £175.00 - City Lit ceramics intermediate workshopCourse start date: Wed 14 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel CoxExperience and explore all the making techniques in ceramics: coiling, slab-building, press moulds and throwing on the wheel with tutor guidance and demonstration. Also covering surface decoration techniques and basic glazing.
Full fee £719.00 Senior fee £575.00 Concession £467.00 - SketchUp Pro: intermediate Course start date: Wed 14 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Nicholas WilliamsonThis intensive course is designed for people who have either completed the SketchUp Pro for beginners course or have previous experience of the software. A great opportunity to review your skills and take them to a more advanced level. There will be the opportunity for you to consider your own projects during the course.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Introduction to watercolour painting Course start date: Sat 17 May 2025 (and 6 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rebecca AllenGain 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 £319.00 Senior fee £255.00 Concession £207.00 - Design with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign Course start date: Sun 18 May 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Gita HahnA fun and challenging introduction to these three programs, regularly used together for everything from infographics to packaging and magazine work. Learn how to integrate vector graphics, photographic images and page layout and design.Full fee £649.00 Senior fee £519.00 Concession £422.00 - Art and creative thinking with Rod Judkins Course start date: Sun 18 May 2025 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
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 £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - Sculpture: inspired by Giacometti Course start date: Sun 18 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ro SylvesterA bronze by Swiss sculptor Giacometti recently sold at auction for £65,000,000. Create your own by researching materials, building an armature, sculpting directly in plaster and colour your sculpture to a realistic bronze finish. All abilities welcome.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Sketching at the museum: British Museum Course start date: Tue 20 May 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Diane MartinExplore the pleasure and challenge of sketchbooks; learn and improve your drawing skills and 'ways of seeing' and understanding, working from an exciting range of objects and artifacts in The British Museum.
Please note - meet at Montague Place entrance - the front entrance is now only for ticket holders.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £79.00 - Watercolour painting: mixed media techniques Course start date: Tue 20 May 2025 (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 £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Ways into abstract painting Course start date: Tue 20 May 2025 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rebecca AllenEncounter different approaches to making abstract paintings while developing your skills in using a range of painting materials. With reference to the work of a variety of abstract artists explore the visual language common to both representation and abstraction, eg. colour, composition, tone and paint application.Full fee £369.00 Senior fee £295.00 Concession £240.00
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