Life Drawing Classes Tuesday Evening (BMI Venue)
£180.00
KEY COURSE INFORMATION
All Courses are for Adults over the age of 18 only
Course dates and time: Tuesday evenings 18:30-21:00 (2.5 hrs)
(18:30-21:00)- Start Date May 2nd 2023 – 18th July 2023 (12 consecutive weeks)
Venue – Birmingham and Midland Institute, 9 Margaret St, Birmingham B3 3BS
Out of stock
Life Drawing Classes
Drawing and Painting the Live Model
Join me for a wonderful opportunity to learn to draw the figure from observation. I’ll be using an experienced life model for each of the 12 weeks, studying the human form using various drawing media including pastel. There’s something exhilarating and deeply satisfying about studying the human body in all its graceful dynamism, especially using both drawing and paint media. It is a worthy endeavor that has been an important part of many artists’ training throughout the centuries. Although a difficult skill to master, mistakes become an integral part of the learning process; it is a discipline that will improve your observation and your appreciation of the challenges of drawing from life. The sessions will begin with a variety of shorter ‘action’ poses, which will be executed mostly in pencil and charcoal. These quicker sketches, or gestural drawings, help with loosening up and getting students familiar with working from life, whilst also enjoying the process of observing the figure in dramatic poses. Gestural drawings are about capturing the essence of the pose, a sense of movement and flow, without the burden of details, or even accuracy. As the course progresses I’ll extend the poses, giving students more time to appreciate the nuances of the figure, light and shadow, facial features, and other details.
Life drawing class techniques
Throughout the course I’ll cover techniques like gestural drawing, blind contour drawing, subtractive drawing, building the figure from simple shapes, adding tone, studying proportions (both the body and the face), foreshortening, adding details like hands and feet, facial features, observational measuring, and line weight variation for more expressive sketches.
I’ll start slowly, covering the basic fundamentals that make up a life drawing. This makes the course suitable for beginners, but also for those who want to continue to improve their observational skills.
Life drawing class materials
As for the materials recommended for the course, a selection of pencils (B, 2B, 6B), charcoal(compressed), putty eraser, soft pastels, pastel paper pad, sharpener (I tend to use a blade), acrylic paint (black, white, red, and yellow ochre), and plenty of paper (newsprint pads are great for drawing media, acrylic paper for the paint) are all that are needed.
Drawing from a live model is an exhilarating activity, deepening your understanding of the human form and improving your observational skills. You will definitely make mistakes, but every drawing, even the bad ones, bring you closer to being a better draftsman.
To make this a lot less daunting a task, I’ve collaborated with Cass Art and created a recommended ‘basket’ of materials that you can purchase via the link below. As an added bonus there is a 10% discount on any purchases. Also, you can add or remove any items to the current list. Happy shopping!