Art for Beginners - Beeston Library - Adult Learning

Beeston Library, Beeston

Date	10 September - 15 October 2025
Sessions	Wednesdays: 10am - 12:30pm
No. sessions	6
Venue	Beeston Library, Beeston View venue details
For ages	19+
Group size	5 - 12
Cost	FREE - £60

About this course

Art for Beginners is an introduction to different ways of creating an image through drawing and painting techniques. No previous experience is necessary, but everyone is welcome as you will learn from your own starting point!

Come along and have a go! In each session you will try out different techniques that will encourage and build confidence in your drawing skills and each activity will be a step on from the previous weeks.

During the course you will be introduced to a range of drawing and painting media, techniques and processes that are simple but creative and will enable you to produce observational drawings from a range of subject matter.

You will learn about the properties of different media and the potential of different image making techniques through looking at and discussing other artists work and by demonstrations, personal experimentation and individual tuition.

By the end of the course everyone will have explored and gained confidence with a wide range of media and techniques, produced finished creative images and gained skills for future art and design work.

You will be able to:

Discuss how other artists have used drawing media and techniques to produce creative imagery.
Use pencil drawing, continuous line drawing, non-visual drawing, pen and ink, colour mixing and painting effectively to produce black and white and colour images.
Create a colour wheel to mix colour accurately.
Produce observational drawings and paintings from selected subject matter.
Use art and design language and vocabulary to describe your own work.

What you will need to bring to the course:

Apron or big shirt.
B, 2B, 3B pencils, rubber–WH Smiths, Amazon.
Range of paintbrushes- pack from The Works, WH Smith or Amazon.
Scissors.
Set of acrylic paints, The Works, The Range, Hobbycraft, Amazon.
Water pot.
*Set of drawing inks- Amazon
A3 cartridge paper pad (at least 140g paper) – (example Daler Rowney A3 cartridge pad yellow and red cover, or Seawhites cartridge paper pad) The Range, Hobbycraft, WH Smith Amazon.
Palette- The Works, Hobbycraft, The Range, Amazon.
Books
1) How painting happens (and why it matters) / Martin Gayford. Library catalogue
2) Starting Drawing Jason Bowyer
3) Sketchbook Explorations Shelley Rhodes

Booking your place and fee information

If you receive certain benefits you will be offered the course for free, however if you have a financial barrier which may prevent you from enrolling on the course, please visit our funding page for further information.

Residency in England

To book and enrol on one of our courses, you must be living in England permanently and live outside of the devolved areas listed below or live within the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) devolved area (Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire).

Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Greater London
Greater Manchester
Liverpool City Region
Newcastle Upon Tyne, North Tyneside and Northumberland
Tees Valley
West of England
West Midlands
West Yorkshire

Residency Eligibility – other criteria

If you are living in the UK on a visa we will require evidence of this in order to be funded for the course, you can upload this evidence when you apply for the course. (completion of a questionnaire will be required).

Some exceptions may apply for example

Your visa expiry date must be beyond the end of your course
Asylum seekers must have lived in the UK for 6 months or longer while their claim is being considered by the Home Office
You are receiving local authority support under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989 or the Care Act 2014

Any learner who is not funded full cost fees would apply to these courses.