08 July – 19 July / 2 weeks
Monday–Friday, 10am – 4.30pm
Course leaders: varied
Fee: £880
Level: suitable for various levels of experience

Book now via UCL Shop

This course will introduce you to the essential first principles of drawing through group and individual tuition and help you develop your own practice and individual vision.

Each day you will explore particular aspects of drawing and experiment with a variety of techniques and materials. These include traditional methods of working such as observation of objects, the human form and light; the use of line, measurement, scale, and proportion; the organisation of pictorial space; materials and surface; investigating transcription and translation of existing art works; contemporary ideas about spontaneity, memory, imagination, abstraction and construction, and recording the creative process. In the second week, you'll be encouraged to explore and nurture ideas through drawing. You will develop your own art practice and personal vision at your own pace. Regular critiques of work will be held, along with discussions of future plans at the end of the course.

08–10 July / 3 days
Monday–Wednesday, 10am–4.30pm
Course leader: Rose Davey
Fee: £264
Level: Varying levels of experience.

Book now via UCL Shop

This three-day course will equip students with the necessary tools to identify quality within artworks and explore the many problems this exercise poses. Artworks will be pitted against one another to provoke lively debate and better understand why one work or artist might be perceived as ‘better’ or more ‘valuable’ than another.

Students will be schooled in the art of looking through the identification of the formal values inherent in art that can discreetly ensure an artworks quality, and the seductive nature of symbolic value which can often propel an artwork to fame. The course will be structured around lectures and seminars at the Slade, and intense debate whilst stood in front of original artworks. Gallery visits will range from world class collections such as the Tate Modern and National Gallery, to lesser-known commercial galleries showing the work of students fresh out of art school. The course will culminate in students delivering a short presentation on an artwork they perceive to possess quality, in contrast to those they consider to be lacking in quality. The aim is to leave with a curious, critical eye, educated through the observation of the artwork, combined with a knowledge of the context in which it was made.

10–12 July / 3 days
Wednesday–Friday, 10am–4.30pm
Course leader: Robert Rivers (Slade Materials Research Associate)
Fee: £280 (including a materials levy)
Level: Varying levels of experience

Book now via UCL Shop

The history of paper-making is full of examples of people experimenting with and making use of waste materials and plants that are growing close at hand to make new sheets of paper. Making paper by hand can be a very sustainable way to produce a surface to work with.

To make paper you need cellulose, which is a fibre extracted from plants. This can either be taken directly from the plant or used after it has been spun into textiles. The first papers that were made in China were said to have been made from things such as old fishing nets and scraps from the processing of hemp plants into canvas. Almost two thousand years later we can still adapt this process to make use of specific plants and materials we find around us to create new and exciting paper surfaces.

This three-day workshop will take an experimental approach to the craft of paper making. We will explore different materials that have been used historically to make paper and find different plants and materials that we can use now, such as stinging nettles, straw and hay.

During this course we will process different plants to extract their cellulose fibres to make a paper pulp. There will be an opportunity to make a simple mould and deckle which will be used to make our sheets of paper; if you already have one please do bring it along. We will also explore sizing and burnishing the formed sheets of paper. There will be a specific focus on making paper as an art surface and we will consider the variety of different ways it can be used.

08-12 July 5 days
Monday–Friday, 10am–4.30pm
Course leader: Altea Grau Vidal
Fee: £440 for 5 days
Level: Varying levels of experience

Book now via UCL Shop

This in-depth introductory class with Altea Grau Vidal, Slade print tutor, will guide you in translating your drawing practice into the medium of printmaking. The course offers an intensive introduction to the methods and materials involved in the traditional techniques of copper etching and will begin with an opportunity to examine examples of original prints by different artists. This will be followed by a thorough introduction to the basic etching processes – hard and soft ground, aquatint and sugar lift. You will be encouraged to explore the various processes fully in order to develop your own personal language. There will be opportunities for one-to-one tutorials as your work develops and progresses.

The course fee covers most of the materials necessary for etching, however copper and paper are not provided and will be available to purchase during the course. You can also take this course over two weeks if you would like time extended time to develop your work.

15–19 July / 1 week
Monday–Friday, 10am–4.30pm
Course leader: Malina Busch
Fee: £460 (including a materials levy)
Level: Varying levels of experience. From beginners to painters with an independent practice, but some previous experience in drawing will be helpful.

Book now via UCL Shop

Build confidence seeing and using colour in your creative practice.  On this painting course, you will learn to make visual judgements about a colour and identify colour characteristics, develop an understanding of colour relationships and behaviour, and develop an understanding of colour phenomena.

Interactive workshops will explore colour’s relationship to each step of the painting process. Examining traditional and modern oil painting techniques and water-based paints, you will gain insight into how colour perception connects to material choices like painting supports, grounds, mediums, glazes and scumbling. You will then have the opportunity to apply these ideas to your work through a personal project. Through demonstrations and group discussion, you will learn how to select and organise different types of palettes, how to ‘key’ a palette, and how to use colour relationships to heighten mood and create expression in your own work.  Drawing upon the resources of the Slade, we will examine colour through Josef Albers’ prints and the Material Research Project in Graduate Painting. 

15–17 July / 3 days 
Monday - Wednesday, 10am–4.30pm
Course leader: Paul Jackson 
Fee: £264
Level: Varying levels of experience

Book now via UCL Shop

This three-day masterclass offers a wonderful investigation of how to fold 3-D structures and patterns from flat sheets of paper with master paper artist Paul Jackson. The forms and structures you will create hold the potential for many artistic and design explorations, as well as structural essentials. It includes the opportunity to experiment and have wide-ranging discussions with Paul about the nature, context and applications of folding. This class is especially valuable for the development of hand and mind skills, using simple and elegant methods -- no digital templates or complex machinery are needed -- only paper sheets, your hands and some care in concentration. This is creative haptic learning at its very best, a great way to embody and combine an understanding of crucial structural principles with creative enquiry. This masterclass is suitable for artists, makers, designers, educators, architects, engineers and students. No previous experience is necessary. All materials are supplied. Just bring your hands!

Paul Jackson (Slade alumnus) is one of the pioneers of folding as a Fine Art practice and has exhibited his artworks in many galleries and museums. He has also curated several ground-breaking exhibitions of contemporary origami, undertaken many commercial commissions, and published over 40 books on the subject, including the bestselling ‘Folding Techniques for Designers’ and ‘How to Think and Design in the Third Dimension’. Paul has taught in over 80 universities, and through teaching has developed highly effective ways to communicate the essence and beauty of this art form and its relevance to creatives.

22 July – 02 August / 2 weeks 
Monday–Friday, 10am–4.30pm
Course leader(s): Mixed
Fee: £880
Level - Varying levels of experience 

Book now via UCL Shop

This course teaches first principles in painting and how these might be developed into personal subject matter. Beginning with drawing on Day 1 we contemplate how these two disciplines cross over and inform one another. During week one you will be exploring some of the formal issues of drawing and painting through observation. Special emphasis is put on looking carefully at tone and mark-making, the translation of tone and line into colour and the role of colour in both painting and drawing. In the second week you will investigate composition, working from both primary and secondary subject matter, using techniques and ideas to develop personal ideas in painting, using a variety of materials. Your personal development will be encouraged through taught studio sessions, slide talks and regular discussions about ideas and methods.

22 July–02 August / 05–16 August / 19–30 August / 2 or 4 or 6 weeks 
Monday–Friday 10am – 4.30pm
Course leader(s): Virginia Verran and mixed tutors
Fees:
£880 for 2 weeks
£1760 for 4 weeks
£2640 for 6 weeks
Level: Varying levels of experience. From beginners to painters with an independent practice, but some previous experience in drawing will be helpful.

Book now via UCL Shop

This course will give you the support and guidance needed to develop your own independent practice. You will be setting up a studio-based study to evolve your own practical and aesthetic interests. This will be supported by a series of optional morning workshops including: working from secondary sources, mixing and applying colour, discussing supports and grounds, methods demonstrations, and learning some of the essentials of the painter’s craft.

A life model can be booked on selected days to generate source material. There will be individual tutorials, slide shows and group critiques run by invited artists, representing a wide spectrum of professional practice in terms of style and subject matter. This course may be followed for two or four weeks as appropriate.

This course may be followed for two, four or six weeks as appropriate.

29 July–02 August / 5 days
Monday–Friday 10am–4.30pm
Course leader: Caroline de Lannoy
Fee: £440
Level: Varying levels of experience 

05 - 09 August / 1 week
Monday–Friday, 10am – 4.30pm
Course leader : Kate Hopkins
Fee: £440
Level: This course is suitable for varying levels of experience. From beginners to painters with an independent practice. Some previous experience in drawing will be helpful.

Book now via UCL Shop

This course teaches strategies that inform observational painting. It is designed to help you set up and respond in more nuanced ways to a still-life practice, by offering further perceptual insights with the potential for inspiring new ideas.

You will learn: to carefully and effectively observe relationships between objects and the space they occupy; how to use colour to create illusions of light and form - a 'pictorial colour space'; and to consider colour relationships (perceived and on the palette), illusory edges and other phenomena. 
In addition, you will develop your awareness of the surprising issues of our perception of size, shape and colour involved in still life painting. This practical course will reveal unexpected phenomena about how we perceive the world. Through daily practical painting exercises and talks, you will scrutinise scale, shape, tone and colour, and consider painting in the light shed by the psychology and neuroscience of vision.

This drawing and painting course is inspired by ‘Eye and Brain’ by Richard L. Gregory, explaining “how we see and what we see, including the strange phenomena of illusions” alongside more recent developments in cognitive neuroscience.

12–16 August / 1 week 
Monday–Friday, 10am–4.30pm
Course leader: Ian Rowlands
Fee: £440
Level: Varying levels of experience

Book now via UCL Shop

In this course you will develop your ability to represent the human head and build a body of work around a single subject. The emphasis is on developing your drawing and painting skills through a practical approach to the study of portraiture.

Initially you will focus on investigative and analytical studies working directly from the model, firstly through linear drawing and measurement, as well as tonal studies. You will then move onto approaches that allow for more expressive potential. You will explore colour and its interaction and relativity, as well as its role in the articulation of space and form.

These structured, developmental studies will lead into a final three days of sustained painting. You will be supported through individual tuition, informal discussion, slide talks and group critiques. The course will conclude with a final group critique, during which the group's work will be discussed.

19–20 August / 2 days
Monday –Tuesday 10am–4.30pm
Course leader… Rebecca Loweth
Fee: £176
Level - Varying levels of experience

Book now via UCL Shop

This practical course will introduce collage as a way of thinking and encourage learning through making. With the idea of make and remake at the heart of the course, you will be guided through the varied approaches and techniques of collage and how it can be used as a tool to lead you into painting, drawing or 3D. Through workshops and studio time, you will explore composition, colour, texture, layering, selection and disruption of images and more. We will look at the history of collage and its contemporary importance, focusing on Slade alumni for inspiration. The mornings will start with a brief talk and a practical workshop, leaving the afternoons for studio development, discussions and tutorials.

This course looks at working instinctively and building confidence to realise the exciting potential of collage. The workshop is equally appropriate for people trying collage, or indeed art, for the first time, or people who want to explore collage in order to feed into their existing art practice.

19–30 August / 2 weeks 
Monday - Friday, 10am – 4.30pm
Course leader(s): Tess McKenzie and Christopher Earley
Fee: £880
Level - Varying levels of experience - some experience of an art practice recommended

Book now via UCL Shop

In this course you will explore the scope of what drawing can be today. Across two weeks, you will work with a range materials and techniques – both traditional and non-traditional – and experiment with how drawing interacts with other media like sculpture, photography, performance, and installation. The aim of this course is to help guide you to expand your artistic vocabulary and to give you space to independently develop your own contemporary drawing practice.

In the first week, tutors will lead you through a series of workshops, introducing different approaches to drawing. Each day you will work with a new set of materials paired with a new way of thinking about making art. In the second week, you will move into personal studio spaces to develop your work and try out new experiments, culminating with a public exhibition. Throughout, you will regularly discuss your work in personal tutorials and group crits, and you will expand your thinking through a program of contextual lectures, artist’s talks, and gallery visits.

19–30 August / 2 weeks
Monday–Friday 10am–4.30pm
Course leader: Andy Pankhurst
Fee: £880
Level: Varying levels of experience. From beginners to painters with an independent practice, but some previous experience in drawing will be helpful.

Book via UCL Shop

This two-week course will give you the opportunity to work directly from a life-model for two weeks. You will explore working ideas of initial compositional drawings and colour studies together with the nature of painting from sustained observation and concepts connected to it.

The course will begin with an initial introductory slide talk with the first two days focussing upon drawing aspects such as: proportion, tone, temperature and composition. The remaining time of the first week will be a combination of quick day and two day colour studies and paintings from the life-model.

Our second week will be working from the life-model in a sustained pose for the whole duration of that week utilising lessons and concepts learnt.
Working collaboratively together with the model through a creative process we will explore varying possibilities of poses, compositions and colour environments which sets the models pose and set-up for the week as a group, including participants working spaces.

One-to-one tuition will be offered on the experience of a sustained visual exchange: perceptual shifts taking place between the artist & subject, colour mixing, tone & temperature, form and the role of structure in terms of proportion and spatial relationships.

Essentially studio time working from the model will be interspersed with demonstrations, discussions and slide talks including, and not limited to, colour theory, perception and colour mixing.

The final session of the two weeks will be devoted to feedback and support for continuing after the course finishes.