At the heart of all these course is having FUN and finding YOUR WAY with your creative practice, whatever your current experience level.
We will strike a balance of guidance, practical theory and techniques, with finding a CARE-FREE attitude to create LIVELY and EXPRESSIVE artwork.
We will be looking at a variety of mediums and subjects across these course. You can join me for as many as suit and you are interested in.
Join me live to immerse yourself for a short period; with lifetime access to stream or download High Definition recordings of every session, to revisit, or if you cannot attend live.
Starting a new course can often feel overwhelming, particularly if it is large investment in time and money.
I've created large in-depth courses in the past, and these are great, I've loved them!
Yet, with potentially tens and tens of hours of content this can be off putting.
Maybe you simply don't have the time freedom to devote to a large course; or you might like a course to be condensed into a given time frame to "make you do it"!
(Bearing in mind you will have a lifetimes access to the recordings)
All of these reasons and more will make these mini-courses a great choice for many of you.
That's the idea behind these mini-courses!
You will have access to pre-recorded videos on materials and introductory theory.
These videos are sent out in advance of each course giving you time to prepare and get in the mood - to get a feel for what's coming up.
This then leaves us free to dive straight into creating art in each session.
There is always a combination of initial theory followed by paint-along demonstrations to put this into practice.
Paint-along live, or simply watch and tackle later at your own pace - use these courses however you please! (There's no judgement or "having to keep up")
Each course consists of three sessions (3.5 hours each, so just over 10 hours per course)
We build from the initial foundations, slowly but surely bringing in new concepts, approaches and techniques.
This approach to the courses makes them suitable for absolutely any experience level.
If you are earlier on in your journey it will lay down everything you need to begin, with more experienced practitioners finding plenty of in-depth knowledge and application too.
The creation of larger courses in the past has really helped me get to the meat of each subject and medium...
Absolutely anyone, of any skill or experience level in a subject or medium, who wants to have fun and get straight to the heart of it!
I give you the tools to go off and create your own artworks in your own way - handing you the keys to unlock your own creativity and to develop your own style as time goes on!
Being online means these courses become available to a wonderfully wide range of people, all with different time and travel freedoms and means.
Over the last five years I have been teaching and sharing online, both live and recorded, for what must now add up to many hundreds and hundreds of hours!
As a result, whilst I am still constantly trying to improve the experience for students, I would also like to think that I have honed and refined my approach on this platform - not only the technical side but the actual approach to the teaching itself.
I have had some wonderful feedback from many students so far, some of which you can see below. If you can attend live this really adds to the experience, but is not essential.
Each course I feel gets better and better and I actually get more excited with each one!
Asking questions and direct interaction for those who want it, is a great bonus of these live sessions. So for the duration of the course you are also free to email me with any questions.
There's so much to explore and share, and so many to share it with; and so this online platform, along with my School of Watercolour, becomes a wonderful way to share as much information and inspiration as possible, with as many people as possible around the world!
As many of you may know, I also have an online School of Watercolour:
Here you will find an ever growing library of pre-recorded watercolour tutorials, with a new tutorial released every 2 weeks, plus an extensive tips and techniques section, older archive videos from Patreon, plus the heart of the school which is the online members forum.
We have created these live online courses alongside the school for a few reasons.
I really feel that for those who want it, the school and the online courses go hand in hand, the perfect accompaniments to each other...
...yet, they both work well as standalone platforms too.
You DO NOT have to be a Watercolour School member to join these course
(please see below for pricing)
We are so pleased to offer these courses under the umbrella of the School of Watercolour that we have also decided to create a significant discount on live course bookings for members of the Watercolour School.
If you are not a school member you can see more info here.
If you do decide to become a member and book on to any of these courses, make sure to check the forum (or email me), for the school members discount codes to use when booking these courses.
Please read on for the nitty gritty specifics of the courses and to book your places.
I am a professional artist, specialising in watercolour and also a bit of acrylic here and there, and I love SHARING my knowledge with others to help them on their own artistic journey.
After teaching and mentoring many students of all abilities for over 10 years, I have discovered and refined what is needed to IMPROVE your painting – and how to teach these concepts in a very simple and practical way to take your painting to the NEXT LEVEL.
I will send out a suggested materials list well in advance of the course, including suggested brands and alternatives.
To keep things simple and approachable I have designed these courses to be done with a relatively narrow set of materials
Any queries about paint types, papers, brands and brushes etc or if you are unsure about anything below, please do not worry, all will be explained in detail well in advance of the course.
I will provide specifics with plenty of pre-warning.
Here's a very rough idea across the mediums:
Previously all courses have been run on Zoom.
However, we are hoping that by the time of the first course we will be up and running with a new platform to provide a slightly easier and more slick experience for you!
Either-way, it will remain simple and easy to watch both live and revisit afterwards
Watch this space!
Any other questions about any aspect of the courses, prices or bookings, please do not hesitate to get in touch via email: tom@tomshepherdart.com
The session timings for each course are the same.
These are to give as broad a range of access to people to join live as possible.
Session 1: 10am (UK time)
Session 2: 2pm (UK time)
Session 3: 5:30pm (UK time)
Each session will be approx. 3.5 hours.
As many of you know I do run over and sometimes forget breaks.
This is one of the elements I am working on, so I am aiming to be less rushed, slow the demos down, and have shorter breaks more often!
You can book on to as many or as few as you wish.
I have put some thought into the order of these courses.
For example, whilst each works extremely well as a standalone, they also work well in order.
Not only as an entre course as we will tackle many of the same principles across a range of mediums and subjects...
...but also, charcoal is such a great way to get to know and explore a subject before painting it.
I.e. joining me in drawing wildlife in charcoal before the acrylic wildlife course will significantly help you, and the same with portraits in charcoal and watercolour.
You may wish to purely go with one medium, or marry charcoal up with another medium, or stick with only one subject. The choice is yours!
I love charocal and I love drawing and painting the human face.
Put them together and wonderful things happen!
As with the figure in charcoal I feel this medium and the human face goes hand in hand too.
There is something about the simplicity with which we can focus on capturing simple shapes of light and shadow, yet out of this a wonderful depth and form appears, that lends itself so well to faces.
The medium itself is so forgiving we have endless opportunity to move features around and explore the human face.
This makes tackling an often daunting subject feel much more approachable, whilst yielding extremely exciting results without the need for fancy techniques or materials...or even any previous knowledge on the subject!
In the introductory videos and early stages we will focus on the basic proportions of the human face and how to translate this into capturing individuals in charcoal.
Beyond this we will soon begin to explore taking these foundations and getting looser and more expressive with our marks.
We are going to keep this theory light (just enough) and heavy on the fun; leading to expressive and exciting intepretations of characterful portraits across a range of ages, skin types and expressions!
No previous charcoal experience needed
All experience levels
Outside of wildlife I think one of my favourites is painting portraits in watercolour!
Yes, it can be tricky, but wow, the rewards are fantastic.
We will of course cover the basics of human proportions and how to successfully draw and capture a specific face, but this course is all about having fun with this subject and medium!
It's all to easy for painting human faces and portraits to become a little heavy feeling and paintings overworked.
I will show you the key elements of this subject, and the core principles...
...this will then give us the freedom to play with colour, big washes and bold brushstrokes, whilst still retaining enough integrity to actually make it look like a face.
Learning to look for, paint and trust shapes in the human face will stand you in great stead for tackling other subjects too.
Covering range of ages and skin types we can also take a close look at colour mixing and how we can take the same care-free attitude to colour mixing whilst still remaining sensitive to our subject.
Don't be scared of this subject in this medium. Come and give it a go!
All experience levels
Versatile, forgiving and enormous fun for any subject:
Join me in capturing light, depth, atmosphere and mood in a variety of scene based subjects.
It's forgiving nature not only makes it a total blast, but also makes it a very creative medium; a great one to help improve and gain confidence in other mediums too.
To dive deep and find out join me for this one!
As well as focusing on the different elements of the Acrylics themselves - largely using my favourite approach of working on paper, initially with watercolour like washes....
...we will also look closely at building simple yet powerful compositions; learning how to observe our subject and interpret it into a successful painting, but with your own vision.
The freedom to play and experiment within acrylics allows for a lot of freedom; it is this approach we will focus on.
We will use subjects from coastal scenes and landscapes, through to harbours and street scenes to learn these techniques and apply these principles.
All experience levels
There is an ever increasing discount the more courses you book.
Watercolour School Membersplease make sure you are using your discount codes when booking
Non school members you can checkout and join my School of Watercolour here
(PLEASE NOTE that the recorded version of each of the courses will be available to purchase in the future but at a higher price. So even if you cannot attend live, purchasing now does represent the best value.)
Book 1 out of the 3 remaining mini-courses
Please select your course from the drop down menu
Full Price = £165
Watercolour School Members = £95
Check forum or emails for discount codes
To become a School member click here
Book 2 out of the 3 remaining mini-courses
Please select your courses from the drop down menu
Full Price = £330
Watercolour School Members = £190
Check forum or emails for discount codes
To become a School member click here
All 3 of the remaining mini-courses
Please select your 3 courses from the drop down menu
Full Price = £470
Watercolour School Members = £270
Check forum or emails for discount codes
To become a School member click here
