Figure Drawing Foundation, the Academic approach.

This new series of extended foundation courses is intended to expand the practice time devoted to a specific topic as well as the theoretical content.

This 6 session Figure Drawing course, is structured on the three fundamental topics that artists interested in drawing the human figure should practice and that have been the core foundation of the Academic training for Fine Artists for centuries: Anatomy, Cast Drawing and Figure Drawing. This course will give you the opportunity to practice these three essential disciplines sequentially and interconnected. We will dedicate 2 sessions, each of three hours, to each one of these topics.

In the 2 sessions dedicated to Anatomy, the students will learn the structural, proportional and anatomical characteristics of the human body, indispensable for drawing the figure using an active and not imitative approach.

The next group of 2 sessions is dedicated to cast drawing. Cast drawing is incredibly effective for improving measuring skills, observational skills, tonal rendering. Cast drawing is also an intermediate phase between Anatomy and Figure Drawing: It is much easier to learn to identify the anatomical features on a cast rather than on a live model.

Finally, the last 2 sessions are dedicated to Figure drawing using male and female models, practicing measuring techniques, mark-making, studying the effects of light on form and tonal rendering using techniques traditionally associated with Figure Drawing: Graphite of white paper, charcoal and chalk on toned paper, trois crayon technique and reduction technique.