Leeds Art Group

Art classes in Leeds and beyond!© Est.2013

Tag Archives: books


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New course starting September 2025!

Hi everyone
I will be running the Beginners Birds Drawing Course 2 from Monday 29th September 2025. Please note the closing date is Friday 19th September 2025.  Scroll down for further information.

Beginners Birds Drawing Course 2

Headingley Parish Hall, St Michael’s Road, Headingley, LS6 3AW.

Mondays 10am – 12pm – morning course (Ref: BIRD2MORN)

Mondays 6.30pm – 8.30pm – evening course (Ref: BIRD2EVE)

Start date: Monday 29th September 2025 – this course will run for 7 weeks.

Price: £70

In this course we will use images of the birds we see around the UK as inspiration for drawings and paintings.  Each week we will focus on a different bird and use different media.  We will explore a range of materials and techniques and use a series of simple steps to build up a picture.  This course is designed for beginners and is ideal for anyone with a love of birds or who would like to improve their drawing/painting skills whilst experimenting with a variety of materials.

Please note: You do not need to have completed the Beginners Birds Drawing Course 1 in order to do this course.  The ability level is the same but the course content will be different.

This course will run twice on Mondays, please state which time slot you would like when booking.

All materials will be provided during the lessons.

All classes will be taught by myself, Wendy Atton BA (Hons).   If you would like to view my work please visit my website at http://www.wendyatton.co.uk or my instagram page @wendyatton_artist.  Please note that places cannot be reserved without full payment and all fees are non-refundable in part or in full.  These classes are open to anyone aged 18 or over.

If you have any questions or would like to book a place please get in touch by either email:leedsartgroup@yahoo.co.uk or telephone: 07788 871286.  Payment can be made by bank transfer or cheque.  If you already have my online payment details please use the correct reference when booking and please drop me an email when you have paid so that I can confirm receipt and book you on the correct class.

Online tutorials

I won’t be running any online courses via Zoom this term but there are several courses available on my Patreon page and individual lessons can now be purchased for £3 without subscribing.

If you don’t yet subscribe to my Patreon page and would like to join for free please click on the following link and select  “Membership options” then “Start 7 day free trial”;  Get more from Art by Wendy Atton on Patreon.  This will give you free access to over 100 videos.  If you wish to keep your subscription after the free trial, the cost is £6 +VAT (=£7.20) per month and you can cancel at any time.

If you have any questions please get in touch and I hope to see you soon.

Wendy x


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Beginners Portraiture Course 2 – Lesson 7: Watercolour.

This week was the final lesson of the course and we finished with watercolour. A tricky medium to work with but great for mixing flesh colours and layering up different tones. Great work everyone and thank you so much for all the effort you’ve put into this course each week.

The next course will be starting in September, details to follow soon.

Below are some of this week’s pictures and you can see more on our Instagram page at: @leedsartgroup.

Cheerio for now.

Wendy x


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Beginners Portraiture Course 2 – Lesson 6: Soft pastel.

This week we continued looking at light & dark tones and how they describe the contours of the face. Then we added colour using soft pastels. These pastels are great for creating smooth changes in tone and colour because you can blend them easily using fingertips. Well done everyone, great work again!

Below are some of this week’s pictures and you can see more on our Instagram page at: @leedsartgroup.

See you next week for the last lesson of the current term.

Wendy x


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Beginners Portraiture Course 2 – Lesson 5: Derwent Inktense Blocks.

This week we used these water soluble Inktense blocks to create our wonderful portraits. We’re now starting to focus more on proportion which is key to making better portraits. This medium allowed us to experiment more with colour mixing too. Great work everyone, well done!

Below are some of this week’s pictures and you can see more on our Instagram page at: @leedsartgroup.

See you all next week.

Wendy x


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Beginners Portraiture Course 2 – Lesson 4: Cross hatching.

A pretty tough challenge this week I think. Using fine liner pen and cross hatching technique to create all those different tones in the face. Well done everyone for keeping at it and learning as you go. Brilliant work!

Looking forward to seeing more of your fab work next week!

Below are some of this week’s pictures and you can see more on our Instagram page at: @leedsartgroup.

See you next week.

Wendy x


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Beginners Portraiture Course 2 – Lessons 1-3

Hi everyone

Sorry there’s been a bit of a gap since my last post. I can’t believe we’re already in week 3 of the course. Here’s what we’ve been up to so far and you can see more pictures on our Instagram page at: @leedsartgroup.

More next week.

Wendy x

Lesson 1 – Self portraits using charcoal.

Lesson 2 – Dark and light using poster paint

Lesson 3 – Life model using water soluble graphite.


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Beginners Animal Portraiture Course 3 – Lesson 7: Jellyfish

For our final lesson of the course we finished off in a blaze of colour! We used Derwent Inktense Blocks to create these vibrantly coloured jellyfish.

Another week of wonderful artwork! Thank you so much to all of you for always putting in so much effort every week. It really pays off!

We’ll be having a bit of a break now with the face to face classes but there will be an online course coming soon and we’ll be back in the classroom again in June. Watch this space for further info!

Thanks for spending the last few weeks with me. I’ve loved it, hope you have too!

Below are some of this week’s pictures and you can see more on our Instagram page at: @leedsartgroup.

Cheerio for now.

Wendy x


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Beginners Animal Portraiture Course 3 – Lesson 6: Ring tailed lemur

This week was slightly different in that we produced several paintings from different photos. This wet on wet technique using black drawing ink could potentially leave you waiting for ink to dry. By having several pictures on the go at once there’s always something to do. Lovely lemurs everyone!

Next week a different animal in our final lesson of the course.

Below are some of this week’s pictures and you can see more on our Instagram page at: @leedsartgroup.

See you all next week.

Wendy x


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Beginners Animal Portraiture Course 3 – Lesson 5: Frog

I loved this lesson folks! You created these fantastic frogs in watercolour this week. Watercolour is a difficult medium to master and some of you were using it for the first time ever. So I think you all did an amazing job. Wonderful stuff, keep it coming!

Below are some of this week’s pictures and you can see more on our Instagram page at: @leedsartgroup.

See you all next week.

Wendy x


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Beginners Animal Portraiture Course 3 – Lesson 4: Bee

Another pretty messy, smudgy lesson but totally worth it for these fantastic bee drawings using soft pastel. Quite a tricky one this week – lots of layers to build up and lots of technique to master. It was great to see your confidence grow with this technique in just one lesson.

Below are some of this week’s pictures and you can see more on our Instagram page at: @leedsartgroup.

Great work folks! See you all next week.

Wendy x