Look & Draw Workshops

04/09/2026

A little look at some of the brilliant work made during Abstract Through Process: Paint & Print, three days of looking, collecting, testing and making.

The workshop began with a walk through the local area, gathering shapes, lines, textures and small details through drawing. Back in the studio, those observations moved into monotypes and then into paint.

Marks were repeated, rearranged, layered and obscured, with each image becoming the starting point for the next.

Thank you Ginny Elston and everyone who joined us The Heart of Newhaven ✨

Read more about the workshop and the processes explored on our blog: https://www.lookanddraw.co.uk/post/abstract-through-process-paint-print-ginny-elston

01/09/2026

Sunday Life Drawing Club resumes normal services this week on 6 September!

Join us for our weekly three-hour untutored session, working from the life model through a mixture of short and longer poses.

Here’s a drawing tip to try during the session:
We often begin by drawing the outline of the figure. Try flipping that on its head: start at the centre of the body and build the form outwards, finding its weight and volume before defining its edges.

Sundays | 1–4pm | £22
The Attic Studio at The Heart of Newhaven

Book here:https://www.lookanddraw.co.uk/service-page/sunday-life-drawing-club-untutored-1?referral=service_list_widget

28/08/2026

PRINTMAKING THE FIGURE

Printmaking allows us to return to the figure in different ways.

The amount of ink changes. Pressure shifts. Marks from an earlier print can remain on the plate, reappearing like ghosts in the next. Rather than working towards one perfect image, the figure can shift and change through repetition.

In this autumn’s Life Into the Figure course, Sarah Calmus will explore the figure through drawing and printmaking techniques including mono-print, collagraph and lino.

Tuesday evenings
20 October–24 November
Six-week course The Heart of Newhaven

More info and booking: https://www.lookanddraw.co.uk/service-page/life-into-the-figure?referral=service_list_widget

09/08/2026

It has been a year since we lost one of Look & Draw’s best-loved models.

Belle was a familiar presence in the studio, often settling herself beside the human model and sometimes becoming the one everyone chose to draw instead. She also had a habit of getting into carefully arranged still lifes where she wasn’t meant to be, turning herself into part of the composition.

Over the years, she appeared in so many sketches, monoprints, charcoal drawings and paintings. Looking through them now brings back lovely memories of her sleeping through poses, wandering unashamedly over the drawings and making sure everyone knew she was the real star.

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who drew Belle and captured something of her character. I have so many drawings of her, but here is a selection celebrating a very special model who is still greatly missed.

03/08/2026

Abstract Through Process: Paint & Print With Ginny Elston
19–21 August, 10am–4pm

https://www.lookanddraw.co.uk/service-page/abstract-through-process-paint-print-1?referral=service_list_widget

11/06/2026

What happens when movement becomes the starting point for drawing?

Join artist Dr Ginny Elston for an experimental workshop exploring mark-making through movement, sensation and intuition. Expect large-scale drawing, playful prompts and plenty of room to explore.

📅 Wednesday 17 June
⏰ 6–9pm
📍 Look and Draw, Edinburgh

Suitable for all levels. All materials provided.

Book via the website. Link in bio.

11/06/2026

NEXT WEEK HAPPENING with Ginny Elston
Expanded Drawing // Embodied Inquiry
Wednesday 17 June · 6–9pm /£45
What happens when movement and sensation inform drawing as much as observation?

Working with simple materials and guided prompts, you’ll explore how marks can emerge from a felt sense of the body, responding to ideas of time, space and internal states.

As the session develops, you’ll work on a larger scale across wall and floor surfaces, using the body as both a tool and a point of reference. Through repetition, layering and accumulation, drawings will build and evolve over time, creating unexpected connections between movement, sensation and mark-making.

Suitable for all levels. All materials provided.

More info and booking:

Wednesday 17 June 6 – 9 pm Tutor: Ginny Elston This workshop will work with the body as a primary means of mark making and drawing. We will explore how drawing can be an inquiry into the internal, felt sense of the body, as opposed to an external form to be described. Responding with a sense of cr...

27/05/2026

Over at Hidden Door we’ve been slowly transforming a vast old paper factory into this year’s festival site and world.

As part of that, artist Laura McGlinchey is running free drop-in making sessions on Fri 29 May and Sat 30 May, exploring paper, sculpture, temporary structures and collaborative building.

These sessions feel very connected to the spirit of Look & Draw. Process-led, experimental, hands-on and a little bit chaotic in the best way.

Come help us build strange things inside the factory.

Free / drop-in / all welcome.

More info and reserve a space here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/laura-mcglinchey-x-hidden-door-drop-in-sessions-tickets-1989911232062?aff=erellivmlt

16/04/2026

On Wednesday 8 July, Fiona Oliver Larkin will lead the next Expanded Drawing session at Look & Draw, in collaboration with Jill Martin Boualaxai. This multidisciplinary workshop explores drawing through movement, character and performative mark-making.

Beginning with a short movement warm-up, participants will experiment with simple objects used as extensions of the body and interrupters of the mark. Through a series of prompts and collaborative drawing exercises, gestures are exaggerated, redirected or disrupted by the objects being used.

Working on large sheets of paper, the drawing surface becomes a shared stage where movement, character and action leave traces. Marks emerge through tapping, dragging, balancing and shifting weight rather than controlled hand movements.
By altering the relationship between body, object and drawing surface, familiar drawing habits begin to shift and new gestures emerge.

Fiona Oliver Larkin is an Edinburgh-based physical theatre maker, puppeteer and circus performer whose work explores movement, storytelling and the body in space.

Further details can be found on our website.
Head to the link in bio to book your place. https://www.lookanddraw.co.uk/service-page/expanded-drawing-interrupted-marks?referral=service_list_widget

13/04/2026

Sunday Life Drawing has been paused for a couple of weeks break over Easter 🐣

We are back this coming Sunday 19 April, with the usual relaxed space to draw from the model in good company ✏️
See you there 1 - 4 pm !

Booking link:
https://www.lookanddraw.co.uk/service-page/sunday-life-drawing-club-untutored-1?referral=service_list_widget