Why Choose Pencil Studio?
🎨 We believe in a balance of guidance and freedom — building strong fundamentals before full creative independence.
✏️ In Level 1–3 and Sketch classes, students follow a thoughtfully guided curriculum and complete one finished project each class (previewable in our monthly newsletter!).
🖌️ Students explore a wide range of mediums — watercolour, acrylic, markers, pencil, pastels — and diverse subjects like animals, landscapes, perspective, and the human figure.
🌟 In Level 4 & portfolio, students earn the freedom to choose their own projects and confidently express their unique style.
We’re here to nurture skills, spark creativity, and build creative confidence — one happy artwork at a time. 🎨
Level 1 project sample. More cartoon like and use of simple shapes and bright colours.
Level 1 (Age 3.5 - 6) 1 hour
Students will be guided step by step to draw with a pencil first, then colour with the chosen medium.
Learning goals:
- Increase shape accuracy
- More exposure of different medium (pastel, watercolour and acrylic paint)
- Better understanding of proportions
- Hand eye control
- Studio etiquette (take care of brushes, drying artwork)
Level 2 project sample. Shapes are more sophisticated and better depiction of the realistic objects.
Level 2 (Age 6.5 - 9) 1.5 hour
Students will be guided step by step to draw with a pencil first, then colour with the chosen medium.
Learning goals:
- Introduce colour theory and colour mixing
- Start to create value and learn to shade
- Better understanding of perspective and how to create depth
- Learn to morph from simple shapes into more realistic forms
- How to create texture with different ways of using the brush
- Studio etiquette (take care of brushes, drying artwork)
Sketch class sample. Just black and white with pencil. Monthly themed.
Add-on Specialized class
Sketch only ("Level 2.5" for age 8 - 12) 1.5 hour
This class is an add-on class for level 2 & 3 students who wants to strengthen their drawing and sketching skills. Recommended to all level 2 students who are preparing to go to level 3 or level 3 aged students who are new to art class.
Learning goals:
- Hone in on observation skills and patience
- Fine tune the control of using a pencil & sketching tools
* The intention of this class is not to have a "pretty, completed artwork" , but is more about practicing and training students to be able to realistically draw / sketch objects on their own.
Students are recommended to bring a sketchbook (about 9" x 12") and shading pencils. We also provide loose sheets of paper.
This class is usually themed monthly (e.g. The whole month is learning to draw the human face. Wk1: start with eyes, Wk2: nose and mouth, Wk3: whole face frontal view and lastly Wk4: side profile of a face with hair ). It is best to attend the whole month to learn to the fullest.
Level 3 project sample. More realistic and subtleties.
Level 3 (Age 9 - 12) 2 hour
Students will be guided step by step to draw with a pencil first, then colour with the chosen medium.
Learning goals:
- Get exposed to more art styles with brief art history knowledge
- Advance technical skills on all mediums
- Learn to create different effect & texture to better depict reality (shadows, glowing of light, rocks, etc..)
- Learn more about human drawing (face and gestural)
- Learn about negative space and what's a good composition
- Prompting their awareness of how to start the drawing, how to see shapes "inside" different objects and understand what steps to take for layering (preparing their independence to go to level 4)
- Studio etiquette (get paint, take care of brushes, drying artwork)
We provide watercolour paper, and $5 cash for a canvas upgrade. You can also bring your own canvas if it is about 11x14" size.
Level 4 (Age 12 - 17) 2 hour
Students will choose their own projects or area to specialize. Teacher will still try to encourage a more balanced exposure of different style/ subjects to try.
* Please bring your own tablet/ printed picture if you have references to look at.
Learning goals:
- Develop independence of how to plan, start, complete the project
- Learn to thumbnail ideas, discuss it and refine it
- More eye opening and appreciate different styles besides just hyper-realism
- Use of different materials such as gold leaves, texture mediums, clay and etc.
- Develop meaningful artworks that has your personal touch to it :)
- Studio etiquette (prepare all materials and clean up)
We provide canvases sized under 16"x20". Please bring your own canvases if you have a specific shape/size in mind.
Level 3 project sample. More realistic and subtleties.
This class cannot guarantee you can admit to the art program but it is always a great learning experience in this preparation process. Think of it as a boot camp of art that you can expect to see great development of skills within a year.
Portfolio (Grade 7 & 8) 2 hour
Very limited spots each year, please inquire about availability.
Sorry, we may not accept students who come to us too late before the portfolio is due.
Interested in art program in high schools? Usually they require 3 - 6 pieces of artwork (includes sketching, painting & sculpture ) and a test on your life drawing skills. We can provide training and consultation to better prepare you in the audition and develop a portfolio that best represent yourself.
We recommend students to start the preparation as early as the second semester of Grade 7 as the audition usually starts in January. That would give us around 1 year's time. Feel free to email us with the recent artworks and we can provide more details on a suggested timeline that is best for you.
What we provide:
- Brainstorm ideas for projects that would stand out
- Help develop quality sketchbook with drawing & painting exercises
- Gestural drawing training
- Learn compositions and shading techniques
Our teachers have honours bachelor degree of design with 10+yrs of experience.
