Inside the Saturday evening drawing class

On Saturday evenings the studio fills slowly. Coats are hung on the same hooks as the children's classes, but the energy is different: quieter, a little nervous, often with the sentence “I haven't drawn since school” somewhere close to the surface.

We begin by making the space feel small and manageable. Pencils, charcoal, erasers, and paper are laid out for you. There is always a simple starting subject — fruit, cups, a plant, or a small arrangement of objects that feel calm to look at.

The arc of the evening

• Arriving and settling — time to pour tea, choose a place at the table, and simply look around the room. No one is expected to be “good” yet.
• Warm-up marks — loose lines and light shading on scrap paper to take the edge off perfectionism.
• Short demonstration — a clear, unhurried walkthrough of how to approach the evening’s subject: where to start, how to build tone, and how to avoid getting stuck.
• Your drawing time — most of the session, with the tutor moving quietly between easels to offer practical suggestions and gentle corrections when invited.
• Closing glance — a slow walk round the room (only if people are comfortable), noticing tonal shifts, small breakthroughs, and what might be interesting to try next time.

The goal is not to produce a flawless drawing in one night. It is to remember how it feels to focus on line and shape instead of screens, to see your own progress from the first tentative marks to something that clearly belongs to you.

If you can imagine enjoying two and a half hours of calm, concentrated mark-making, the Saturday evening group drawing class is probably for you.