Northlight Art School (sample) has taught drawing and painting in Foundry Yard since 2011: small classes, patient tutors and every material on the table.
The school started as one Monday drawing class in a borrowed room. Today six tutors teach about a hundred and twenty students a week in a first-floor studio with tall north windows, so the light on a still life stays the same all evening (sample).
Everything we teach starts with drawing: looking, measuring and judging tone. Painting classes build on the same habits.
Every evening class follows the same order, so you always know what comes next.
18:30
Find an easel, pick up paper and materials from the shelf and make a tea.
19:00
Fifteen minutes at the front: the week’s idea, shown on a real drawing.
19:15
You work from the still life, the model or your photo while the tutor goes round each easel.
20:30
Drawings go on the wall for ten minutes; the tutor points out what worked. Showing yours is up to you.
20:45
Brushes washed, work in your folder, next week’s topic on the board.
Practising painters and illustrators who also like explaining things.
Drawing and the Foundation term (sample)
Mondays, Fridays
Watercolour (sample)
Tuesdays
Oil painting (sample)
Wednesdays
Acrylics and Saturday teens (sample)
Thursdays, Saturdays
Kids classes (sample)
Saturdays
Workshops and the taster class (sample)
Thursdays
One long room on the first floor with twelve easels, a still-life stage, a sink for brushes and racks for wet paintings.
Every Thursday at 19:00 a tutor runs a one-hour drawing class for new students. Paper, pencils and tea are on us; you only need to turn up.