He went on to study at the Edinburgh College of Art between 1908 and 1909, where he gained technical expertise in etching, drypoint and lithography and in the difficult media of pastels and watercolours.

Thomson's early years at the Edinburgh College of Art, had all the rigours of life classes, study of the antique and copying the Old Masters.

During this career Thomson taught etching, composition, still life to the painting school and colour theory to the art and architecture students.

Other close colleagues from the Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal Scottish Academy included Stanley Cursiter and David Macbeth Sutherland.

[7] In the 1920s in particular Thomson's work was at its closest to that of Samuel Peploe, Francis Cadell and other contemporaries, notably John Guthrie Spence Smith[8] and Penelope Beaton.