Drawing and Painting Distance Learning Art Course by the London Art College

Painting and Drawing Diploma Course (D1)

Tutored by Alan Dedman BA, RAS, PGCE and Julie Douglas BA Hons

Course Overview
This comprehensive course teaches students to use: Pencil, pen & ink, watercolours, oils, acrylics and gouache – as well as to draw and paint landscapes, portraits, life drawing, illustration and much more.

It is the college’s foundation course designed to give both starters and more experienced artists who feel they lack some basic techniques, the opportunity to acquire the practical skills necessary to learn which areas they enjoy most – with a view to concentrating more on these aspects of art in the future.

Good basic techniques are, in our opinion, very important to enable would be artists to maximise their potential. Too often people are put off continuing with their art because they are disappointed with their early efforts, when, with better techniques – and encouragement from their course artists, the work they produce would be more satisfying to them, leading to a desire to continue to paint and draw. The college believes that this course, with its well constructed, progressive self study units, is an excellent choice for the aspiring artist.

Course Prices
Please visit our 'Prices and Buy Now' page to view the course prices and to purchase your course. UK residents can purchase courses on this page via instalments, please scroll down to the relevant section to pay a deposit.

Study Units Covered
Materials needed, perspective, pen and ink drawing, drawing plants and flowers, drawing animals, drawing out of doors, using the photocopier, distinction between pen and pencil, illustrating for children, materials and colour, watercolour techniques and preparation, size and proportion of pictures, composition, landscapes, creativity in painting, oil painting, experiments with style, acrylics and gouache, life drawing, life and movement.

Flexibility
The student has some flexibility within this programme to allow them to concentrate more of their time on sections of particular interest, but we do encourage people to try all the subjects and media included in the course to develop an all round understanding.

This course has been running for many years. It is regularly updated but has proved its worth to thousands of past students, many of whom acknowledge that their subsequent success as artists started with this course. If you want to become an artists, whether in the expectation of selling your work in due course or simply for the pleasure of painting and drawing in your own home, this course offers you a very cost effective introduction to the world of the creative artist. This course with its well proven progressive study units, could be just what you are looking for. The duration of the course is approximately twelve months, although the college allows students up to two years to complete their studies.

Critiques
If you have scanning / photography facilities, students are able to upload their artwork to the Artwork Submission Area on our website. Each student is given a unique username and password on enrolment for their own private section in this area. Students can upload their artwork to this area for the tutor to collect and critique. The tutor will then upload feedback for the student to download or read.

Critiques via Regular Mail
If you do not have any facilities to upload your artwork, you can send your work in the normal way to the tutors centre and receive your artwork back with your critique. It is essential you label all packages/artwork your student number.

Support
All our courses are written to be complete in themselves. However we realise that students may appreciate being able to get clarification about various things as they work through their programme as well wanting reassurance that they are putting techniques into practice effectively. The tutors provide the technical support to deal with relevant queries.

Most courses have their own dedicated Tutor. The tutor keeps the course up to date and relevant to today's students. They are available to the individual student for advice and encouragement. Each course has regular exercises and assignments that are constructed in such a way as to give the student the opportunity to practice the techniques learnt on the course and to test themselves as they go along. The student is encouraged to submit the assignment work to the college for the tutor to critique. The student's work will be returned together with the tutor's personal critique. On many courses the assignment work may be suitable for inclusion in a student's Portfolio of Work that could be very useful later. The college will use the assignments submitted as the basis for any award of a letter, certificate or diploma.

Duration
The expected duration of this course is approximately 1 year although the college allows students up to two years to complete their studies.

Overview
This course is suitable for all students.The following is an overview of some of the areas that are covered in the course.

Media: Equipment used	Subject: Areas covered	Techniques: Skills developed
Pencil Pen And Ink Watercolour Oils Acrylic Gouache	Plants and Flowers Animals Landscape Illustration for Children Life Portraiture	Using the mediums Perspective Composition Enlarging Different Styles Selling your work

Samples pages from this course
Click the download icon below to view a pdf sample course page which will open in a new tab. Alternatively right click and save the file. Please be patient for it to load, it is 1.1mb.

Below are some sample images from the course itself.

Testimonials from students

"I've just finished the Drawing & Painting Diploma course with Alan Dedman & have received my diploma, I've been awarded a' Merit ' it makes all the hard work worth while :) Thank you to the LAC & Alan, I toughly enjoyed it & Alan is an excellent tutor giving constructive criticism & encouragement. I have just enrolled for the Life Drawing Course also with Alan. I'm looking forward to starting it soon. :)"
Jill Jeffery-Smith (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)

Thank you so much for the certificate and your letter. i was delighted to be awarded the distinctions, I just hope i can eventually translate it into sales. i wrote to Julie Douglas when i finished last month but I would like to reiterate my thanks for her help and advise throughout. I found the sections on composition utterly invaluable. i now feel I can 'read; pictures where before i only barely understood and as a direct result i am tackling the sort of landscape format painting that i have always avoided of fear of making mistakes. I have greatly enjoyed and appreciated the experience and I have learned an immense amount. I guess the toughest par starts now. Thank you Richard Alford (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)

Ann commented on London Art College's Wall post. Read More Here >>
Ann wrote: "It was brilliant - I have not long finished the course and thought the same when I first started but I enjoyed every minute of it. It was great to see some of my painting on the website. I am not a professional artist but have sold many of my paintings and now my boss wants me to do some art for their new offices - Great hey! Just go with the flow and you will learn all that you need to learn. Enjoy the journey - I loved it! Ann"

I would like to take this opportunity to say how much I enjoyed the Drawing and Painting Diploma Course. I found it a real challenge, as I hadn't done any artwork on a regular basis. The course certainly improved my motivation to paint and draw every week and I found Alan's Critique very helpful. He gave me the encouragement I needed to complete more work and improve my painting and drawing. I was surprised to be warded a merit, I was absolutely thrilled. Yours Rosalind (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)

Dear Alan, It's rewarding to finally be submitting my last assignment, but at the same times it's a wistful feeling to know that this will be the last audio critique. Thank you for all the input, encouragement, and advice you have given me throughout the course. Thank you especially for your patience with me. I have learned so many things through this course and I will keep them in mind as I go on. I will especially try to remember your advice to be less "perfectionistic" and to learn to 'let go' more in my work. This is often an elusive concept for me, but I hope that with time I will better understand how to apply it. Enrolling in the Drawing and Painting Course has been a very worthwhile investment and learning experience for me. Many thanks to you and all those at the London Art College! Sincerely, Evelyn (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)

I have really enjoyed this course, and as you suggested, I am looking at maybe the potrait course next. Look forward to hearing from you, and thank you so much for your clear and inspiring advice, Best of luck to you. Esther Murphy (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)

Dear Alan and Personnel,
Thank you for my Diploma. I received it this week and was very surprise to have been awarded a distinction! I really enjoyed the course very much and it was exactly what I needed. I am confident to say that the course is truly unique, honest, and written with so much passion. It is full of essential information on techniques and materials. With the help of Alan and the logically presented course, you can’t help but make progress in your art work. I highly recommend them. I find the course really superb in two ways: first they are very complete and comprehensive and second, Alan's’ comments was always very informative and straight to the point. Meanwhile I am busy with my Art History Diploma and enjoy that just as much.
Kind regards Aurelia (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)

Dear Mr Fisher
I have today, received my final submission together with my Diploma. Thank you. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Linda for her honest and in depth constructive critism of my submissions. I have learn't so much from listening to your critique and re looking at my work - I seem to see with Linda's eyes and then proceed to correct areas where perhaps perspective or proportion was lacking. I have listened to my tapes over and over and have been inspired to apply my hand, with confidence, to a new painting. I have so enjoyed my nine months of study, my study time each day was the highlight of my day ! I am seriously looking at doing your watercolour and guache course, and will revert to you as soon as I am financially in a position to do so - I also note that there is a 20% discount on a second course if I enroll in the next three months - I sincerely believe I shall !I would like to thank all who facilitated my queries concerning my submissions. I always received a prompt response - most times on the same day!! The only time there seemed to be a lack of communication was during your move to new premises, this of course, is understandable. Thank you for your effecient, professional manner in which you have dealt with me.
Kind regards
Caroline Willmore (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)

I am happier with these later pieces of work as they seem to be less overworked and have a certain clarity that my first attempts lacked. The course notes gave an excellent tip of keeping the pictures small. This has been a great help to me...and I started to see an improvement." J.H. From Cheshire (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)

I am currently on the Painting & Drawing Diploma course, working on my final assignment withAlan Dedman. My workplace our local Primary Care NHS Trust held a Well being Day recently. It was the ideal opportunity to promote art as a very rewarding, satisfying and de-stressing activity. I held an exhibition of some of my work. Staff were invited to guess the name of my paintings and also to do their own bit of artwork on a painting I had pencilled out. The finished painting now stands in pride of place in our Primary Care Education Centre! My stall was a great success and I was visited by over seventy members of staff. Many asked for advice on how to get started as artists and others felt inspired to take up the pencil and paint brush again after many idle years. I was approached by someone to help with a community project for disadvantaged people in our area, encouraging children to help paint a mural on the wall of the community centre. Perhaps you would be kind enough to let Alan know of my success.
Shona Lyall (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)

Dear Alan,
I would like to thank you for all the help that you have given me throughout the last year on my Painting & Drawing Diploma course. You are a really good influence - and a kind and helpful person.
Ernest Taylor (Drawing and Painting Diploma – D1)