A tutored two-day life drawing course, working live from a professional (unclothed) model.

In these sessions, you will be learning how to draw volumes in space using tonal shading, and thinking about outline and how to place a form in space. The days will be filled with rapid, fun-filled drawing where you can experiment with using different mediums to find your most comfortable way of approaching drawing from a life model. Learning to draw from a model is as much learning to see, and you will investigate this over the course of the two days. This is drawing entirely from life – we won’t be using photographs.

We are not looking for detailed, ‘perfect’ studies in these classes, and we are not working with portraiture. This is very much about finding ‘life in the line’, and trying out how to translate what your eye sees in loose, confident marks on paper.

By the end of the two sessions, you should have a feel for how to start and progress a drawing from a life model, and new or renewed confidence when joining a tutored or untutored life drawing session. This course can be seen as a refresher if you have worked in a life class before; it’s also suitable for a complete beginner.

This course is a great (but not insisted upon) foundation for the 3-day course ‘Life Drawing: Expressive Drawing from a Life Model,’ Summer School 6-8 August.

Additional Fee

£30 for the model for the 2-day course. Payment by cash or card on the first day of the course, please.

Materials to Bring

• Drawing paper (sketchbook with A3 or A2 light cartridge paper or loose sheets (tutor will also have some A1 sheets to buy)
• Drawing board to fit your paper. This can be a sheet of foam board, sturdy card from back of a paper pad, MDF, plywood etc. Tutor has a few A2 and A1 boards to buy or borrow
• Large bulldog clips to hold paper on board and/or masking tape
• A supply of ‘willow' charcoal in a couple of different thickness (not extra thin). Minimum 4 sticks
• A stick of white chalk (children's or blackboard chalk is ideal)
• Cheap plastic eraser (not putty), pencil sharpener and ‘firm hold’ hairspray or artist’s fixative to fix charcoal
• Any drawing materials that you feel like bringing, to experiment: for example, felt tip pens, chalk pastels, oil pastels, drawing pens, crayons, chalks, compressed charcoal, chunky graphite, etc.
• Optional: A portable free-standing folding easel