Please read below some of the feedback to my one-to-one mentoring and my courses. One-to-one mentoring can be on-line or in person (depending on location). Get in touch for details.

Figure in a Landscape July 2026

“It's been a life changing course. It made me consider the idea of the background and the figure as equally important.

It forces you to address the principles of art and it makes you look at pictures in a new way."

Gill 07.26

One-to One Mentoring

I first met Julian at the weekly life drawing class he runs in Brighton. Having told him I was trying to build a portfolio to apply for an art foundation course, he kindly offered to help me by becoming my mentor. In the beginning, I was lacking in self-belief and artistic direction, but Julian’s advice and guidance were instrumental in giving me the confidence, structure and clarity I needed. We had regular meetings both face-to-face and online, where he set me tasks, shared his own work and gave me valuable practical advice to ensure I built a cohesive portfolio that played to my strengths.

Thanks to Julian’s mentoring, I was accepted onto the Part Time Art Foundation course at Brighton Metropolitan college. Throughout the year-long course, Julian continued to mentor me, offering regular support and guidance, delivered with a healthy dose of humour. Not only is he a fantastic mentor, but he is very witty and calm, which always put me at ease. Juggling my art foundation with my day job was challenging and stressful, so Julian’s support really made a difference, and I went to achieve a Distinction grade. I feel like I’ve evolved a great deal artistically in the space of just a year thanks to Julian’s patience, guidance and expertise, and I look forward to the next step in my artistic journey.

Alice 2025

Julian’s mentoring has been foundational for my development as a serious artist. The one-to-one sessions in his studio gave me a tailor-made concentrated training with the quality of a formal course. His warm, encouraging and well-organised approach provided conditions for me to pursue my creative direction with confidence. The sessions included exercises to stretch my practice in unfamiliar directions, exploring a variety of media to develop sensitivity to tone, depth, space, form, colour and mark-making. Julian also has a vast knowledge of practicalities, including key art supplies vendors, galleries, framing options, studio set-up and tools. He also offered bespoke recommendations of artist role models to investigate which still continue to inspire my work. Overall, Julian’s enthusiasm and support have been central to my growth as an artist and I highly recommend him.

Victoria 2024

Procreate Part 1 + Part 2 and one-to-one sessions

I have now attended three courses with Julian to learn Procreate. (Individual sessions of two hours, a six part weekly online Zoom course with several other learners and a six part class room course with four others). They have all been excellent and very helpful. Procreate is very powerful and complex. It is also a great pleasure to use and has great scope. Julian teaches the process very well and patiently, but to learn to make good pictures requires a great deal of practice and Julian is very good at suggesting areas to focus on and is helpful in reviewing what has been achieved. He is very patient in resolving technical difficulties and constructive so that the whole class learns even when one person is much slower than the rest and the class has students with a range of skills.

Whether face to face or on line Julian’s courses are enjoyable, very helpful and constructive. I can think of no better way of learning and developing Procreate skills, and have found other online courses to be no more than demonstrations of features with no time to practice the fundamentals.

I have no reserves whatsoever about recommending Julian Vilarrubi’s courses and training in whatever method used.

Hugh 2021-2025

The Power of Colour - classroom Sept/oct 21

‘Julian’s Power of Colour course has developed my sensibilities as an artist and I’ve emerged seeing more vibrancy in the ordinary stuff of the world. His approach was both thorough and light-touch on the technicalities of colour theory, and he offered us many suggestions on further art and reading to explore. The exercises he set us challenged us on the foundations of colour-mixing and painting, and have left me more in tune with pigments, how they behave and how to get what I’m looking for on to my surface.’

Victoria 11.21

Procreate Part 1 - online

‘I decided to take Julian’s Procreate course because I had been meaning to try using Procreate to get back into drawing - a hobby I used to love but fell out of the habit of doing when I went to university. Julian was a very friendly and approachable tutor, and I found his explanations of his process and his art very inspiring. He walked me through the software with practical examples, and I now feel I have a good grasp of most aspects of the software - especially after the final assignment he set me, in which I had to create a poster to a brief. I now feel confident using Procreate to practise my drawing skills and to work on my personal projects.’

Frank 11.21

‘Julian was extremely patient when teaching me the basics of Procreate. He was able to deal gently with a pupil (me !) not familiar with the brilliantly creative programme and needing constant good humoured encouragement. I am eager to continue this cyber journey under his kindly and expert tutelage when the occasion arises.’

Jennifer 11.21

Exploring Ink - online

‘This course has made me feel excited about drawing again. I've created work that I wouldn't have imagined. I'd absolutely recommend this course to anyone who feels that their drawing has become too tight and dull - or who wants to have a go at ink for the first time.

I think it particularly suited me at the moment as I haven't got much time or headspace to think, so I appreciated being given very specific tasks - this is what you're going to draw this week! Then I could just get on with drawing it. But I think that if I'd wanted to develop my own work or use different prompts and subjects as some of the other people did then that worked ok too.

I enjoyed the intro with examples and I actually quite liked that it was low-fi. I'd rather see hand drawn examples on a studio wall than a slick powerpoint presentation. The important bit is the way you talked it through and I thought that worked well. 

The format of the group intro and then 1:1 chats worked well for me. It sort of felt cosy, which is unusual for zoom. I really liked hearing you feedback to the other students, seeing their work and hearing them discuss it. Because you were speaking when you held up their work it meant that zoom showed their art. I've taken other online courses where students have shared their work but zoom switches away when other people talk so when the teacher started talking about the art you couldn't see it.

You really showed the different possibilities of ink, mark making and surface textures. I enjoyed seeing examples of other art work and the photo prompts worked well for me. It felt like each week we built on what we'd learnt the week before.’

Mandy 03.21

'I thoroughly enjoyed the 6 week course Exploring Ink. It was such a fun, experimental approach that gave an insight into different approaches to using ink. The 2 hours seemed to pack in such a lot, which included looking at artists using ink/mark marking/mixed media,  being given a new project to start, and a one-to-one discussion about our work from the previous week. While these sessions were on Zoom, due to current COVID-19 restrictions, this wasn't a negative. The sessions were well planned and worked well for our small group. I highly recommend this course. If it had been available I would have definitely signed up for a further session that continued the journey into the wonderful world of ink.’

Linda 03.21