Learn to Draw and Paint, Wherever You Are
Welcome. We’re so glad you found us.
The Little Art School is a small Scottish charity with a big belief. That anyone can learn to draw and paint beautifully, when they’re taught well and taken one careful step at a time.
This isn’t a set of loose tutorials to dip in and out of. It’s a proper, structured course. You start at the very beginning with how to hold a pencil for drawing and build, lesson by lesson, until you’re painting with real confidence. By the end, you’ll be working in oils on your own version of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. People who once said “I can’t even draw a stick man” get there. We have been teaching the ‘Little Art School Way’ for many years and we know that it will work for you!
How the course works
There are 180 lessons across six Levels, with 30 lessons in each Level. Each one builds on the last, so you’re never thrown in at the deep end and never left wondering what to do next. You learn the way an artist actually learns, getting the basics right first before moving on to the fancier bits.
It took us six years to film our Little Art School Online Course. Every lesson is taught properly, at a pace you can follow, and you can watch each one as many times as you like. There’s no rush and no term dates. You go at your own speed. You will have 12 months access to each Level, but if life gets in the way (as we know it often does) we can extend your access to the Level you are working on for a period of time.
Our approach is a little different from most. We use drawing and painting to build genuine skill and quiet confidence. It’s structured tuition, not art therapy, although a great many of our students tell us how good it is for them all the same.
Just finished my first online course learning to draw and paint with The Little Art School. I have absolutely loved it, very accessible but structured video lessons. I loved the variety of subjects we covered over the 30 lessons, from landscapes to architecture, animals to engineering and lovely flowers and foliage. The monthly zoom chats and Facebook group were so welcoming and supportive, with everyone sharing their work. It is a really lovely group. I would recommend this wonderful course to anyone. I am much more confident about my abilities than when I began and can’t wait to keep learning at the Little Art School.
Why you can trust us
This is the bit that matters when you’re buying from a small charity on the other side of the world, so let’s be plain about it.
We are a registered Scottish charity, number SC045848. You can look us up yourself, right now, on the Scottish Charity Register. Every regulated charity in Scotland sits on that public register, with its accounts and trustees on view to anyone. We’d encourage you to check.
Our work has been validated by others, too. Our Dementia Arts programme, Art in a Suitcase, was validated by the University of St Andrews and featured in the Journal of Dementia Care, with our work recognised in the UK, the USA and Australia. Our wider approach is grounded in the research of Professor Daisy Fancourt at University College London, whose work shows just how much the arts do for our health and wellbeing – read more…
And we’re real people. The Little Art School grew out of years of teaching in our studio in Ayr, on the west coast of Scotland. We’re not a faceless website. We’re a small team who care a great deal about this.
What you will need
Each Level of our course is £300. Your first payment gives you Level 1, which is 30 lessons covering Shape, Tone and Colour Theory – developing your skills in watercolour, gouache and acrylic.
Once you have finished Level 1, you move on to Level 2, then Levels 3, 4, 5 and 6. Each Level costs £300 and has 30 lessons, all structured and progressive, building your skills from simple watercolours all the way to complex oil paintings. Most of our students take the Levels one at a time, at their own pace, and there’s no obligation to go beyond Level 1.
For our international students, we don’t include art materials in the price, simply because posting them around the world would add a great deal of cost. Instead, we give you a clear, friendly list of everything you’ll need, so you can pop to your own local art shop and pick it up. The list is straightforward, and nothing on it is hard to find. Many students find they spend less this way, too. It can be overwhelming walking into an art shop and being faced with a huge choice, so we make it really simple for you.
And we are here to help, by email, phone or Zoom, if you have any problems sourcing your materials.
Try the Taster lesson first, only £25
We know £300 is a leap of faith when you’ve never met us. So before you commit to anything, you can buy a single taster lesson for £25 and see exactly how we teach.
If you love it and go on to buy Level 1, we take that £25 straight off the price. So the taster costs you nothing in the end. It’s less than a takeaway for two, to see whether we’re for you.
And here’s the nice part. Even if you try it and decide it isn’t for you, your taster fee still goes towards free art for a child or someone living with dementia. So you can’t really lose.
Thoughts from two of our students….
Where your money goes
Every penny of profit from this course funds free art projects in our community. Free sessions for people living with dementia. Free classes for children who’d otherwise never get the chance.
So when you learn with us, you’re not just learning to paint. You’re quietly helping someone else find their way to it too. We think that’s a rather lovely thing to be part of.
Ready to begin?
