COURSE CODE: SC2504072
COURSE DATES: Monday 17th – Friday 21st August 2026
TUTOR: Charlie Schaffer
DAYS: 5
TIMES: 10:00am - 4:30pm
EXPERIENCE LEVEL: Ages 18+, All Levels
FEE: £425
LOCATION: Bankside Campus, 185 Park Street, SE1 9BL
Exploring the Portrait is a dynamic and thought-provoking mixed media course that invites you to question, expand, and reimagine what a portrait can be. Moving beyond traditional ideas of likeness, this course encourages you to experiment with materials, mark-making, and conceptual approaches to portraiture. Through a series of focused sessions, you’ll explore multiple ways of seeing and representing the human face, from observational to expressive, intuitive to analytical.
Sessions will cover:
– Close observation as well as abstraction and conceptual interpretation
– Materials & mark-making
– How identity, mood and character can be captured or disrupted
– Develop ideas through experimentation, layering, and reworking
– Group dialogue & shared learning
– Creating an extended portrait using the approach that resonates most
You’ll gain confidence in experimenting with materials and approaches, deepen your understanding of portraiture as both image and idea, and develop a more personal and expressive visual language. Suitable for all levels, this course offers an open and supportive environment for exploration. Teaching is responsive and discussion-led, with demonstrations, references to a wide range of artists, and ongoing one-to-one feedback. You’ll be encouraged to take creative risks, question conventions, and learn both independently and collaboratively within the group.
Following this course, you may be interested in joining one of our weekly painting courses such as Portrait Painting.
Recommend booking by: August 3, 2026
All attendees must be aged 18 and over.
This course is suitable for all levels. Students can move at their own pace depending on their experience, with as much support from the Tutor as they wish. This means an student from the following experience levels can join this course:
Choose a Beginners course if you are looking for a broad introduction to the medium you are studying. Our Beginner courses are suitable for students with no prior experience.
Choose a Beginner + course if you are looking to hone your skills, focus on a specific subject area and build your confidence. These courses are suitable for those with some basic skills in and knowledge of the taught medium.
Our Intermediate courses are suitable for students who have considerable prior knowledge of the taught medium or have completed a Beginners/Beginners + course with the Art Academy.
Choose our Advanced courses if you have considerable knowledge in the taught medium. You are expected to be able to work independently and have critical discussions around your work.All Levels
Beginner
Beginner +
Intermediate
Advanced
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Charlie Schaffer’s practice consists of paintings and drawings featuring portraiture, self-portraiture and his interpretation of Old Masters’ artworks. In 2014 Schaffer received his BA Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Brighton – a year after completing his Foundation Diploma at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. He was subsequently awarded the Brian Botting Prize “for an artist aged 30 or under for an outstanding representation of the human figure” in 2016, 2018, and 2019.
In 2019 Schaffer won the National Portrait Gallery’s BP Portrait Award for his painting ‘Imara in her Winter Coat’, an amalgamation of thousands of hairline strokes painted over four difficult months as artist and sitter in his studio. He uses his portrait paintings as a way to experience connection and understanding with his subjects, placing focus on the process rather than the final product. Indeed his self-portraiture reveals truths about the artist’s own emotional state, which has evolved with his artistic style.
In addition to the National Portrait Gallery collection, Schaffer’s work is held in a number of international private collections, as well as collections held by several universities. Schaffer is currently working on a commission for the National Portrait Gallery, which, upon completion, will enter the permanent collection and remain on show to the public.
185 Park Street,London SE1 9BL tel: +44 (0) 207407 6969
This is our new purpose built accessible campus. Find more information here
Nearest Tube/ Rail: London Bridge or Southwark (both a 10-15 minute walk). Please note that London Bridge has two exits, the most direct route is to follow signs to “Borough Market”.
Bankside Campus
Students are welcome to use The Hub during break times, where you can prepare hot drinks and/or food. You must bring your own keep-cup, water bottle or food container to the Academy as mugs, glasses, and containers will not be available in our Bankside campus.
Tea and coffee will be provided by the Academy and is available from the island unit at the end of The Hub.
We offer a number of concessions and discounts, please find more information on what we offer here.
If you would like to purchase a gift voucher to be used on our courses then you can purchase these here.
£425.00