Smoky thistles against a soft dark sky

We'll open the term with charcoal at its best: a jar of spiky seed heads with a big smudgy shadow rolling in behind them. You'll learn to lay the charcoal down flat, blend it with your fingers, then lift the light back out with an eraser. It's messy and immediate, and most people are surprised by how good their first one looks.

The stems are the fun part. A few confident lines and the whole drawing comes alive.

All that colour hiding in a lion's mane

Look closely at this lion and you'll see there's green, red and yellow in that mane, not one strand of plain brown. We'll work on toned paper so the pastel sits up bright, building the mane in loose strokes and saving the white for last. Those final highlights are what make him look straight back at you.

A face built from shadow, not outline

Portraits scare people off, so we'll do them the easy way round. Rather than drawing an outline and filling it in, you'll block in the dark of the hair and the shadow down one side of the face, then find the features inside it. It's a proper lightbulb moment, and it works whether or not you think you can draw.

Bring a photograph if there's someone you'd like to illustrate in this unique way.

The same face, in full colour this time

This week we swap the charcoal for colour and look at another aspect of faces. Pastel lets you put blue in a shadow and pink in a cheek and have it look completely right, which is half the pleasure of working this way. We'll build the skin in layers of hatched colour and leave the strokes showing rather than blending them away.

An owl built almost entirely from scribble

No careful outlines this week. This owl is drawn in fast scribbled lines that loop and cross over each other until feathers start to appear out of the tangle. It's a wonderfully freeing way to work, and it suits anyone who thinks they're too messy to draw.

The eyes are the one place we slow right down. Small, dark and sharply drawn in the middle of all that loose line, they turn the scribble into a bird that's watching you.

Two swans, and a background full of colour

Nothing in this one is actually white. The swans are built from lilac, peach and pale blue, and the background is a riot of yellow and green behind them. You'll learn to see colour in something you'd swear was plain, which changes how you look at everything afterwards.

Those two orange beaks are the whole picture. Save them till last.

Ginger fur, green eyes, olive paper

The green paper does half the work here, so the fur only needs a few ginger and white strokes to sing. We'll work up the face first, then flick the fur outwards so it catches the light along the edges. Last of all come the whiskers, single quick lines you have to commit to.

Three old boats, sitting in the mist

A quiet one, all greys and reflections. You'll wash the background in soft and hazy, then cut the boats and masts in with sharp dark strokes so they sit right at the front. The masts are only straight lines, but they carry the whole drawing, so we'll take our time over them.

There's real satisfaction in leaving the water almost untouched.

Pink lilies floating on a green pond

Pure Monet, and a real pleasure to draw. The pads go down first as big soft shapes, then the flowers sit on top in pinks and creams with a hit of yellow at the centre. You'll finish with the water underneath, which is mostly reflections and a few strokes of blue.

Finish the term somewhere dreamier

A calm face with her eyes closed, floating in blues and greens with a moon glowing behind her, and nobody minding whether the nose is exactly right. You'll use everything the term has taught you: soft blending, and knowing when to stop.
It's the kind of picture people end up framing.