Friday Sketchbook Sessions

This event will be bookable on Monday 3 August 2026.

Learn tips and tricks to fuel your passion for sketching and to help keep a sketchbook as part of your creative life. In a relaxed and supportive environment, you’ll learn interesting ways to fill a sketchbook whilst honing your sketching skills and embracing the creative journey.

This eight-week course is suitable for anyone new to sketching, but also for those students looking to reignite their passion for sketchbook drawing, or simply for anyone wanting to explore the creative power that working in a sketchbook offers. Previous participants will be encouraged to expand their sketching practice with a series of weekly projects designed to enhance creativity and drawing skills, with guidance from the tutor.

With 20 hours of studio contact time across the weeks, we will be using such things as the built environment, elements of nature, and a menagerie of still-life objects as our reference. As well as doing plenty of sketching there will be many playful sketching exercises to enhance both your skill-set and enjoyment of this fabulously creative pastime. Mainly project led, we’ll think about layout and consider different compositions on each page to enhance your sense of design. We’ll also look at ways to distort the perspective of a scene so we can depict it in new and exciting ways.

There will also be an opportunity to spend time in the Attenborough Arts Centre gallery spaces, where we’ll perhaps be inspired to fill a sketchbook page or two. Amongst many other things we’ll show you how to make a start in a sketchbook, how to lose the fear of the blank page, and how to see things differently.

About the tutor: Working in a sketchbook is fundamental to tutor Austin Orwin’s artistic practice. It offers him a space to experiment and grow, a space to work out ideas, and a space to document his day to day thoughts and existence. His enjoyment grows with every sketch he makes, and he almost never leaves home without a sketchbook in one of his pockets. See more of Austin’s sketch work on Instagram @theleicestersketcher

Further information: Sketchbook and all drawing materials are included in the course fee. Participants must be aged 18+. This 8-week course runs on Friday mornings, 10am – 12:30pm, starting on 4 September and ending on 30 October 2026. Please note: No session on Friday 25 September 2026. This course also runs on Thursday afternoons – see Thursday Sketchbook Sessions. Please ensure you book the day that suits you best! If the course/workshop you’d like to book is sold out, we do operate a waiting list – simply contact our box office