Beginners courses in art & design
City Lit is the perfect place to try your hand at art & design in a fun and welcoming environment with courses taught by practicing artists.
Whether you want to explore fine art, contemporary crafts or digital art, we have the course for you. Our range of introductory art courses are open to everyone.
Located in the heart of central London, our dedicated studios for jewellery, ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, digital arts and photography will provide all the facilities you need to start your next creative adventure.
- Drawing for beginners
Course start date: Thu 11 Sep 2025 (and 13 other dates)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Andrea VoiseyExplore traditional and less traditional methods of drawing simple objects. Using structured activities, you will be introduced to key concepts such as line, tone, composition and mark-making. Ideal if you have little or no drawing experience; a great way to learn the basics or prepare for longer courses.
Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £127.00 Concession £103.00 - Introduction to using the sewing machine Course start date: Sun 14 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Renata MinoldoIdeal for beginners, you will learn how to use a sewing machine, its different components, how to troubleshoot and look after your machine. You will also learn different basic sewing techniques to start your journey into the world of sewing.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - Draw, paint, print Course start date: Wed 17 Sep 2025 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Mary WintourOn this experimental course, you will draw, paint and print in often unfamiliar ways in order to catch the unexpected. Through experimentation and reflection, you will collate a personal collection of work.Full fee £389.00 Senior fee £311.00 Concession £253.00 - Bookbinding: gold tooling on leather Course start date: Thu 18 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Tracey RowledgeThis course is a great introduction to gold-tooling and the creative use of the medium. Learn how to gold tool on leather with various hand tools, using BS Glaire and gold leaf. All levels welcome. - Try it out: garden design Course start date: Fri 19 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Alison WorsterGet a taste of how you can improve your outside spaces. In this online workshop you will learn how to assess an outside space and complete a short exercise in garden design planning. A great preparation for our range of beginners garden design courses. - Try it out: stop motion animation Course start date: Sat 20 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Stephanie GriffithsThrow yourself into the world of stop motion animation on this introductory practical course. Enjoy exploring a range of materials and techniques to produce innovative drawn, cut out and 3D animation sequences. An invaluable introduction for anyone interested in developing their animation practice. - Introduction to painting portraits Course start date: Sun 21 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Luke JonesAn opportunity to paint and draw from the life model focusing on portraiture. Basic observational skills will be explored as well as advice on how we can convey mood, character and tell a story through a portrait, inspired examples of artists portrait drawings and paintings. - Drawing: charcoal techniques Course start date: Tue 23 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Luke JonesExplore the creative possibilities that this fragile medium affords. Learn and develop the components of drawing with charcoal’s subtle yet dynamic lines. This is a course for beginners. No experience is necessary.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Introduction to oil painting Course start date: Sun 28 Sep 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Desmond HaughtonOil paint is a luminous and lustrous medium, capable of delicate transparency and rich impasto effects. It holds many challenges for the beginner, but this course offers a structured way into the essentials; you will develop a feel for the possibilities in oil and build essential skills in paint handling.
Full fee £339.00 Senior fee £271.00 Concession £220.00 - Textiles: experimental hand stitch Course start date: Tue 30 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Amarjeet NandhraA contemporary approach to hand stitching and embroidery exploring a variety of traditional stitches and techniques.
Create experimental and expressive samples using traditional and non-traditional materials.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Art and creative thinking with Rod Judkins Course start date: Sun 12 Oct 2025 (and 5 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 - Introduction to photography Course start date: Wed 12 Nov 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Dominic HarrisDiscover the basics of photography to improve your photographs and impress your friends. Learn about shutter speed, aperture, photo composition, light and taking pictures in different environments. This course is perfect for complete beginners or for learning new skills. Please take this course before enrolling on our intermediate courses.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Appraising jewellery and gemstones Course start date: Sat 17 Jan 2026 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Judith Crowe, Derek JhinnooWish you knew more about the jewellery you were buying, or could value the heirlooms in your drawer? Join this fascinating two-day course to learn how to appraise gem set jewellery and stones. Explore precious metals, hallmarking, common gemstones found in jewellery and how to identify antique pieces, and bring your own jewellery for assessment by the tutor.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £179.00 - Introduction to prop making for film, TV, theatre and display Course start date: Mon 27 Jul 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ro SylvesterLearn a range of sculptural techniques that are used in the ever expanding film, TV and theatre prop making industry. Explore a range of sculpting and casting methods and fabricating techniques, and experiment with materials.Full fee £499.00 Senior fee £399.00 Concession £324.00
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