Vic Bearcroft- Wildlife Artist
UK WORKSHOPS
Vic offers a variety of teaching workshops in different mediums throughout the UK. Subjects vary from wildlife paintings and portraits, to seascapes, people, children and pets. With mediums in pastel, pencil, oil, acrylic and watercolour, there's something to suit everyone.
At this point in time, most of Vic's workshops and courses are run online via Zoom, This means people all over the world can attend from the safety and comfort of their own home.
Vic's workshops are suitable for complete beginners and advanced artists, and you will learn a great deal about the subject and medium you're working in.
The numbers attending his workshops are kept fairly small. This ensures everyone gets individual tuition and guidance throughout the day so they can learn a lot about the medium they're working in and achieve great results.
2026 WORKSHOPS & COURSES
Start date: Thursday 24th September 2026
Subjects: Harvest Mouse, Holly Blue Butterfly, Stoat
Medium: Graphite & Watercolour on natural-toned card
Course length: 6 x 1.5-hour lessons (9 hours total)
Included in the workshop: All tuition, reference photo (emailed), feedback and an edited recording of the course.
A workshop kit containing everything you need is available to purchase for £9.99
Suitable for: Beginners and advanced artists.
Location: Live via Zoom – invitation emailed after booking.
Time: 7.00pm-8:30pm GMT (Please be ready with your materials by 6.45pm)
Price: £99
COURSE STARTED
The soft tone of pale brown paper gives a warm, old-fashioned look to the watercolours in this series of wildlife paintings.
Each painting will be completed over two lessons. In the first lesson, we will sketch the subject in graphite pencil, using basic shapes to achieve correct proportions, whilst getting familiar with that particular animal, its environment and other interesting facts – all useful information in helping to create compositions.
The second lesson uses a limited palette of watercolours to create a subtle, appealing image.
One particular advantage of using watercolours on toned paper, is that we can add highlights, both subtle and strong, with opaque white paint, rather than having to pre-plan and use masking fluid or leave white paper unpainted.
HARVEST MOUSE
Lesson 1 - Thursday 24th September - Harvest Mouse - Drawing
Lesson 2 - Thursday 1st October - Harvest Mouse - Painting
Our first subject is the tiny rodent that makes its home in long grasses, farmland and woodlands.
This first painting will represent the mouse climbing stalks of wheat grass before the harvest.
HOLLY BLUE BUTTERFLY
Lesson 1 - Thursday 8th October - Butterfly - Drawing
Lesson 2 - Thursday 15th October - Butterfly - Painting
Our second painting is of a holly blue butterfly, a beautiful small visitor to our gardens in early spring and again in late summer.
The soft pastel blue colour will stand out nicely against the warm brown paper.
STOAT
Lesson 1 - Thursday 22nd October - Stoat - Drawing
Lesson 2 - Thursday 29th October - Stoat - Painting
Our final painting is of a handsome stoat, relative of the otter and the much smaller weasel.
The stoat, with its distinctive bounding gait, brown and white fur and long black tipped tail, can be seen throughout the year in grassland, heaths and woodlands.
This painting sees the stoat glancing back before disappearing into the tall grass.
There is a kit available to accompany this course, which includes:
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Clairefontaine ‘PaintOn’ Naturel paper (3 sheets)
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2B Graphite Pencil
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kneadable eraser
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Watercolour Paint: French ultramarine, cadmium yellow, burnt umber, Payne’s grey (blue tint), titanium white.
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Reference photos (3)
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I recommend using a #6 round watercolour brush (**not included in the kit**)
** Kits are posted out approx. 1 week before the course starts **
WILDLIFE IN WATERCOLOUR ON TONED PAPER - 6 WEEK COURSE
Order Wildlife in Watercolour on Toned Paper Course Kit
Wildlife in Watercolour on Toned Paper Course
MORE WORKSHOPS AND COURSES COMING SOON...
Start date: Sunday 1st November 2026
Subjects: Tiger
Medium: Oil Pastels on Black Card
Course length: 3-Hour Workshop
Included in the workshop: All tuition, reference photo (emailed), feedback and an edited recording of the course.
A workshop kit containing everything you need is available to purchase for £8.99
Suitable for: Beginners and advanced artists.
Location: Live via Zoom – invitation emailed after booking.
Time: 1-4pm GMT (Please be ready with your materials by 12.45pm)
Price: £35
7 PLACES REMAINING
Oil pastels have a tendency to be overlooked as a serious art medium; a lot of people don’t have particularly fond memories of them, myself included.
However, with the right pastels, techniques and surface to work on, oil pastels can produce vibrant, atmospheric and rich paintings.
Join me in this one off workshop, painting an atmospheric tiger portrait on black card.
Using black card as our support, along with the correct technique, makes the job of creating the tiger’s fur texture, with all the many shadows, so much easier.
The initial sketch will be made with a white pencil - not too soft, so that it can be erased more easily.
On completion of the basic shapes and proportions sketch, we will refine the important details, e.g. features, before we start to add the pastels.
The oil pastels will be applied in light layers, both to preserve the fur shadows (black card), and to prevent clogging with thicker application.
After applying the basic colour layers, we will then start to add the markings/stripes and detail the facial features with a black pastel.
After adding a little more of the coloured fur texture, we will finish the painting with the final (primary) highlights and whiskers, using both the white oil pastel and white pencil.
I can’t think of many better ways to spend an autumn Sunday afternoon!
Materials; Pentel (recommended) oil pastels - black, white, grey,
reddish-brown, orange, pale orange and yellow (all included in the set of
12), A4 black card, white pencil and kneadable eraser.
There is a kit available to accompany this course, which includes:
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Box of 12 Pentel Oil Pastels
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White Pencil
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Kneadable eraser
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A4 350gsm Black card
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Reference photo
** Kits are posted out approx. 1 week before the course starts **
TIGER IN OIL PASTELS - 3-HOUR WORKSHOP
Tiger in Pastels Workshop Kit
Tiger in Oil Pastel Workshop
Start date: Thursday 12th November 2026
Subject: Sepia Animal Portraits
Medium: Sepia Pencil & Sepia Pen
Course length: 3 x 1.5-hour lessons (4.5 hours total)
Included in the workshop: All tuition, reference photo (emailed), feedback and an edited recording of the course.
A workshop kit containing everything you need is available to purchase for £8.99
Suitable for: Beginners and advanced artists.
Location: Live via Zoom – invitation emailed after booking.
Time: 7.00pm-8:30pm GMT (Please be ready with your materials by 6.45pm)
Price: £50
9 PLACES REMAINING
I love sepia toned art. Whether it’s pencil, pen or paint, visually it has a timeless quality, reminiscent of atmospheric Victorian photographs.
In this short course, we will not only be looking to achieve that timeless quality, but also focussing on the facial features of our three subjects by use of a sepia ink pen over the softer tones of a sepia pencil, to give a close cropped look to the portraits.
Starting with basic shapes, lines and angles will help to achieve the correct alignment and proportions of the features.
We will then create the basic tonal sketch, using the sepia coloured pencil, adding tones and refining details, before introducing the sepia pen to highlight the features and some textures to create contrast and depth.
Further depth and atmosphere will be added by a mixture of texturing and blending with the sepia pencil to form a background ‘frame’ around the subjects.
Lesson 1 - Thursday 12th November - Lion
We begin the course with a favourite of many wildlife artists, a male African lion.
Lions may be relatively monochrome, with no vivid colouring or distinctive markings, but there are a lot of interesting textures in the face - especially that of the male, with progressively more scars as he goes through life.
It is the textural nature of the lion’s face that makes it the perfect subject for pen hatching.
Lesson 2 - Thursday 19th November - Raccoon
Nature’s masked bandit - the raccoon - is our subject for this week.
The distinctive ‘bandit mask’ is, of course, a hugely recognisable feature of the raccoon and, along with those dark, expressive eyes, begs to be lifted off the soft tones of the pencil with the ink pen.
Lesson 3 - Thursday 26th November - Wolf
Of the varied species of wild canids, the wolf is probably the most well-known, and another firm favourite of wildlife artists. The piercing eyes of the wolf will certainly be enhanced by the ink pen.
The variety of tones in the wolf’s fur, initially created with the sepia pencil, will have the more grizzled areas textured with the fine point of the pen.
There is a kit available to accompany this course, which includes:
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A4 cartridge Paper (4)
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Sepia Coloured Pencil
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Sepia Ink Pen
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Kneadable Eraser
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Reference photos (3)
** Kits are posted out approx. 1 week before the course starts **
SEPIA ANIMAL PORTRAITS - 3 WEEK COURSE
Sepia Animal Portraits
Course Kit
Sepia Animal Portraits
