Frederick Figure Drawing

retty much the standard set up for figure drawing sessions throughout history. Gestures/ Warm ups
Our sessions start with warmups, like stretching before a hike or workout. Called Gesture Drawings, they are very quick sketches of the model lasting 1 minute each. This seems frenetic at first but the logic is to get your arm moving freely and quickly and capture only the most basic elements of line and structure. Stand back from the paper and draw with your arm, holding the charcoal loosely between thumb and forefinger so it’s an extension of the arm, not like you hold a pen for writing. Start with the oval for the head, then a quick line down for the neck and spine (This is called the action line and goes right down one leg to the foot). 2 lines across for the shoulders and hips, then block in the ribcage and hips. Arms, hands and feet last- keep them simple, just a scratch. The foundation of every human. Now block in the shadows. Ding! Now, you’re not making the Mona Lisa here so don’t worry about it. The purpose is to go really fast and get your eye-hand-brain working together without thinking. You’ll find that using a rapid flow gives a much more natural and realistic look to the person. Work towards getting the whole person done, simple as possible. As you do more gestures, your speed will improve and you’ll be able to include more structure. Supplies: Vine charcoal, a rag or chamois & cheap newsprint. This inexpensive paper is great for practice, and vine is light and easily blended. You can do many drawings on one page, just wipe away with the chamois

The poses get longer as the evening progresses ending with the long pose (about 2.5 hrs). You can stay with the newsprint, a little white chalk is great for highlights since the paper is gray. Or, experiment with any of the millions of other mediums. This is also a great place to experiment and the other artists are more than willing to talk about them! We hold these sessions and hire these models on a weekly basis FOR YOU. Take advantage, come out for some swell skill improvement with cool people and music
Run by artists for artists! You will improve!

—————
The best way to start anything is with the foundation- everything is based on a few simple shapes: Sphere, Cube & Pyramids. Everything is built out of variations of these shapes. A very good initial exercise is to just draw these shapes by themselves using lights and darks to give the objects dimension

Why I do figure drawing.: Drawing people is probably the most challenging of disciplines in art and also the most popular. A painting with figures in it makes a lot more of a connection to people and rendering those figures in a pleasing way makes those paintings even better. But this is not to disparage landscapes, abstracts or pet paintings! In my experience I’ve learned that the discipline required to render the figure accurately translates right through to every form of art you create. The eye-> brain->hand coordination is without a doubt the one major skill an artist should perfect to achieve the level of skill they desire.