Turn your great idea into a short story on this fun practical course. You'll be introduced to some key fiction writing techniques and encouraged to draft a short story from beginning to end. Suitable for beginners who are comfortable learning at a fast pace. Includes a 1-hour break each day.



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

A weekend packed full of endbands for bookbinding enthusiasts. Learn a little about the history and different styles of endband and try out some for yourself. There will be demonstrations of a range of endbands including multi-coloured, Islamic and ‘Manhattan’ style. Suitable for those with bookbinding experience.

DO judge a book by its cover! That’s what buyers do, which publishers know only too well of course. That’s why ‘cover designer’ is a whole job in itself – often distinct from book designers (who deal with the rest of the book).







If you’re an author/illustrator submitting picturebooks to agents and publishers – a compelling cover design is essential. And the same goes if you’re self-publishing, of course.







Learn from a seasoned designer/illustrator all the ingredients of brilliant cover design, and, most importantly, how to create one for your book – be that something you’ve created yourself, or a favourite tome you want to pay homage to.







You’ll journey from traditional media to Photoshop, applying the keystone principles of layout design as you go. You’ll also learn about effective typography, and how to apply type to your designs.











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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.

Explore techniques to create an impressive illustration of your pet.







Over two days you will explore a range of image-making techniques from drawing and painting to digital image manipulation and collage. At the end of the weekend you will take home a finished and unique illustration of your favourite pet.

Aimed at beginners or those wanting a refresher. Join this action packed weekend to make a pendant and silver ring. Implementing fundamental jewellery making techniques, you will gain the basic skills you need to make simple jewellery in metal.

Using the professional application Dragon Frame to capture stop motion and a range of stop motion techniques and processes you will create an exciting and surprising animation. This weekend course will introduce you to some of the techniques of internationally celebrated animators such as Jan Svankmajer and Paul Bush.

Learn how to shoot, edit and export a short film in this fun, informative and fast paced introduction to film making.

Would you like to write a picture book text for young children? This course is designed for children's writers and for illustrators wishing to write their own stories; a starter course to develop both your ideas and your technique.

Once your story is on the page, the editing process begins. Where do you start and what skills do you need? This course guides learners through the editing of a story or manuscript, exploring approaches to making line edits, improving narrative structure and more.

Make and print a collagraph exploiting texture and colour using readily available and simple materials with a low environmental impact. The handmade matrix is deceptively simple to construct, the printed results often richer and more detailed than expected when run through the press. All welcome.

Develop a portrait from life: a structured course to build skills towards making a convincing portrait where the model keeps the same pose over 2 sessions to enable a sustained piece of work.