Bird Painting in Acrylics - Online Courses - Adult Learning

Online Courses, Nottingham

Date	15 January - 12 February 2026
Sessions	Thursdays: 6pm - 8pm
No. sessions	5
Venue	Online Courses, Nottingham View venue details View on Google Maps
For ages	19+
Group size	5 - 15
Cost	FREE - £50

About this course

Unlock your creative potential and learn to paint beautiful birds in this fun and engaging online course! Whether you're a complete beginner or looking to improve your skills, this course offers step-by-step guidance in using acrylics to create stunning bird paintings. Through demonstrations, exercises, and group discussions, you'll gain valuable insights to enhance your art and deepen your appreciation for the world of birds. Join us for a relaxed, enjoyable journey into the art of nature painting! You’ll work from photo references, completing several small paintings while learning key techniques, such as color mixing, layering, and capturing the fine details of nature.

This course is designed to guide you through the process of painting birds in acrylics, using photographic references to develop your skills and confidence in nature painting. Ideal for beginners, it combines structured teaching with creative exploration, helping you to understand the techniques and tools needed to bring birds to life on canvas. By the end of the course, you will have completed several small bird paintings and gained a toolkit of acrylic techniques to continue exploring nature-themed art independently.

Most importantly, you’ll leave with a greater appreciation for birds and a growing confidence in your artistic abilities. Research contemporary floral artists Select and use reference images effectively. Practice sketching birds in proportion, capturing basic outlines and structure Apply the acrylic painting techniques covered during the course Complete a painting on canvas Develop and implement a marketing plan using at least 3 different channels (e.g., social media, email marketing, and local events) to promote their products. (MARKETING SKILLS)..

What you will need to bring to the course:

An A4 acrylic / watercolour or mixed-media sketching pad

A4 canvas, Acrylic white gesso, a range of synthetic paint brushes, acrylic paint (student grade)

Red (Magenta, Cadmium Red,

Yellow (Lemon and Cadmiun Yellow),

Blue (Ultramarine, and Cerulean),

Titanium white

1) Vibrant Acrylics: A contemporary guide to capturing life with colour and vitality by Hashim Akib

2) Dynamic Acrylics by Soraya French

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.