LIFE DRAWING

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For me, life drawing has had the biggest impact on how I’ve developed as an artist. Yes - it is a demanding practice - there’s nowhere to hide when you’re drawing the human body, and

mistakes stand out straight away, but you learn so much it is absolutely worth the effort and learning curve you have to climb.

 

Life classes are also a brilliant chance to play with different materials and techniques - everything from loose washes in turps to drawing in inks and a twig - sometimes without my glasses on just to see what happens.

Learning to 'see' the difference value in skin tones, and replicating that in actual paint is a work of art in itself and will be invaluable in your practice.

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If you’re learning life drawing in an untutored  environment, maybe from a book or doing online class with no feedback, it’s easy to fall into doing the same thing every time. Try to find a tutored  life drawing class locally to you and get along (as often as you can afford it) it really does make a huge difference if you can.

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LOCAL(ish) LIFE DRAWING CLASSES (to me!):

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CICIC Taunton (tutored)- Monday nights or Tuesday mornings with Debbi Sutton - £18/session

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Ross Wallis (untutored) sessions in Easton, nr Wells - every Friday morning £13/session

*NB Ross runs a really amazing workshop once or twice a year with a dynamic 'nude in motion' model - 30 second - 1 minute poses, different mediums in each hand - at the same time! Its a bit befuddling to begin with but once you settle into this it is an incredible experience.

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RWA  - Clifton, Bristol - untutored sessions every Wednesday evening AND tutored Life Drawing full days - see their diary for What's On

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Hannah Twine runs a great tutored Life Drawing class regularly in Honiton, Sidmouth and Lyme Regis - and she often has some wonderful artists coming to visit, so you may be able to book in on those too.​

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