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
- Watercolour painting studio: nature and colour
Course start date: Thu 30 Apr 2026 (and 1 other date)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sisetta ZapponeCelebrate the glorious colours found in nature by working from observation of natural forms. You will be encouraged to respond to the subject expressively using paint and other colour media to create a number of studies and one or more finished pieces.Full fee £389.00 Senior fee £311.00 Concession £253.00 - Sketching at the museum: Tate Britain Course start date: Thu 10 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Mario Lautier VellaExplore the pleasure and challenge of sketchbooks: learn and improve your drawing skills and ‘ways of seeing’ and understanding by working from some of the iconic artworks at Tate Britain. - 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. - Colour communication Course start date: Thu 10 Jul 2025 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Maya WildColour influences mood, meaning, even decision-making! In short, colour communicates. Learn how to use colour in your creative work, to make it as communicative and influential as possible.
Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00 - Sketching at the museum: National Gallery Course start date: Thu 24 Jul 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 by working from some of the iconic paintings in the National Gallery.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £79.00 - Explore printmaking Course start date: Thu 30 Oct 2025 (and 5 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Esther HeyhoeCome and get inky with this fun one day workshop exploring printmaking. This course will give you a basic understanding of monoprinting, relief printing and screen printing and is aimed at those who would like to explore different printmaking techniques before going on to other courses.Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £89.00 - Cyanotype printmaking in a day Course start date: Thu 26 Jun 2025 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Adam HogarthCyanotype is a photographic printing process which produces a beautiful deep blue print from a variety of artwork, including drawings, photographs, physical objects or combinations of all of these. All levels welcome.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - Try it out: jewellery makingCourse start date: Thu 11 Dec 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth BoneIdeal for beginners who want to give jewellery making a go. Come and join this short taster course introducing you to basic jewellery processes and techniques to enable you to make a simple piece of jewellery.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - 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 - Portraits and people photography Course start date: Thu 13 Nov 2025 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Lorenzo BerniDiscover the secrets of successful portraiture, from the studio-lit portrait to street and documentary photography, or those special moments for the family album. Gain confidence in photographing people through practical work indoors and out, teaching you invaluable skills in lighting, composition and poses, to produce a beautiful portrait portfolio.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Introduction to pattern cutting III Course start date: Tue 16 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SelormeyThis is a chance to work on your own project of your own choice creating a pattern of a garment you have designed or a style you have always wanted to recreate from your favored garment.Full fee £439.00 Senior fee £351.00 Concession £285.00 - Contemporary painting studio Course start date: Thu 1 May 2025 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ruth Brison, Benjamin SeniorDevelop your own ideas in painting with reference to the work of contemporary artists and experimental processes on this higher level course. Ideal for students who have completed Painting 2 or Painting 3 or equivalent painting courses.Full fee £959.00 Senior fee £767.00 Concession £623.00 - City Lit contemporary jewelleryCourse start date: Thu 18 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth Bone, Tanvi Kant, Louise Seijen Ten HoornDelve into the world of contemporary jewellery and develop your skills in drawing, design, critical thinking and technical skills. This rigorous, multi-disciplinary year long course is suitable for intermediate to advanced jewellers. Get to grips with a series of practical projects which will culminate in an end of year public exhibition.
**We'd like to review this course is of the right level for you. Please contact Visual Arts (details on the right) with a short personal statement and images of your work.**
Full fee £1,949.00 Senior fee £1,559.00 Concession £1,267.00 - 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 - 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
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