Scaling Up: The City As Your Canvas 5-days | Summer School: 6/7 - 10/07

Level: Beginners, 18+

Tutor: James Jessop

Dates: 6 - 10 July 2025

Time: 10:00 – 17:00

Cost: £614

This five-day course will give you the opportunity to design your own Street Art and Urban Landscape mural piece. You will be taken through the steps by City and Guilds of London Art School tutor, James Jessop - who is an expert in urban art. After graduating from the RCA in 1999, Jessop has exhibited his urban paintings across the globe, as well as his extensive mural commissions and curated a number of exhibitions on the subject.

This course is intended for those interested in learning street art techniques from an artist with over 30 years of experience creating large scale murals. There will be a focus on freehand drawing and tagging basics ( a form of calligraphy ). Materials used for this will include demonstrations on working with Uni Posca paint pens (the urban artists favorite), which range in a variety of shapes and giant dynamic sizes and colours for fast coverage . Also an introduction to using black/white gesso paint on large scale and fluorescent system 3 acrylic paints for a pop art style effect. You will be shown how to make your own homemade urban art markers, paint using sponges, brushes and various other tools as suggested applicators. This style also mirrors the classical techniques used to transcribe old masters in an institution specialising in classical painting and drawing.

The course will include a comprehensive history of Street Art, to gain an insight into its roots as a ‘disobedient’ art form. We will teach you how to create your own text and logo Street Art design. We will introduce you to the skills and techniques needed to scale up lettering and imagery, develop confidence of expression through drawing without being anchored to the restraints of using a digital projector/tracing methods.

During the course you will incorporate your own research on the urban landscape of the local area from the scheduled walking tour. You will be introduced to various Street Art specialist materials, which will culminate in scaling up to produce your own impactful final piece by the end of the course.

At the end of the week, the intention is to have created an Urban landscape on large Fabriano paper incorporating London, with Street Art logo’s designed by students. We will initially use A4 paper sketches/designs which will be scaled up freehand using a proportional griding method onto large scale Fabriano paper for your final piece (150 x 200cm approx). Students can choose if they would like to develop their piece into a realist or a fictional London city-scape.

What’s included: all teaching and materials

What isn’t included: your meals, and please wear old clothes you don’t mind spoiling, or bring a pair of decorator’s overalls.

10% discount available for City & Guilds of London Art School undergraduate, postgraduate and foundation students and alumni, and staff. Contact [email protected] to receive the discount code.

Please note: in accordance with Eventbrite’s Terms of Service, Eventbrite’s fees are non-refundable. Any refunds made for Summer School bookings will have Eventbrite’s fees deducted, unless we cancel the course. For more information, please see our terms and conditions.

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