Figure Drawing with Model Tiffany

We kicked off a new semester of figure drawing at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CMU with model Tiffany.

Her beautiful poses got us back into the flow of drawing with a series of gestures.

We began by turning our charcoals on their sides and drawing with big, swoopy marks and lines.

We changed to a more abstract approach, and created 5-line drawings, allowing ourselves only 5 lines to tell the story of Tiffany's pose.

Like a Haiku poem, the limitation of lines forced each artist to find the most expressive marks possible.

At first, my 5-line drawings felt inept and childish, but soon a flow took over, and I really liked this final one.

All of these gestures prepared us for a beautiful long pose.

Having an inspiring model makes all the difference in the world, and Tiffany's poses swept us away into the joy of drawing an expressive figure.  Many thanks to model Tiffany!

Figure Drawing with Amelia

Model Amelia kicked off our first class of the semester at Osher with athletic, artistic poses.  

We jumped right in with rapid 5-line drawings to warm our hands and eyes up.

 

Turning our charcoals on their sides, we created mass gestures from Amelia's expressive poses.

As we warmed up, we added a few contour lines.

We finished the class with a lovely pose for our long drawing.

It felt good to be back in the studio drawing again.  

Many thanks to model Amelia for her inspiring poses!

Osher Figure Drawing with Kathryn

We had a wonderful first class of the semester on Friday with model Kathryn.  We began with 2-minute mass gesture drawings.

I invited my students to turn their charcoal on its side and make broad strokes to express the masses within Kathryn's form.  I find this technique a good way to warm up at the beginning of a term.  It also helps us to explore the structure within the body rather than just looking at outside contours.

We added a minute to the gesture poses, and included some contours and shadows to bring definition to our drawings.

Then we changed gears to a more abstract approach, and chose 5 lines to represent Kathryn's 1-minute poses.

Now that we were warmed up, we worked on some longer studies.

It was wonderful to be back to drawing, and to have Kathryn's fantastic poses to keep us creating!

Osher Figure Drawing Class with Model Amelia

 We started a new session of Osher Figure Drawing class last Friday morning, and Amelia brought us a wonderfully creative mix of poses.  

We started with 2-minute mass gestures, and I asked my students to use the side of their charcoal to capture shapes and masses within Amelia's body.  I find this approach keeps us from focusing merely on the outer contours, and more on the form. 

We moved on to 3-minute gestures, and used the extra minute to capture shadows and a few contour lines.

Changing gears, we took an abstract approach to Amelia's form, and selected 5 lines to capture the pose in just one minute.

There's a wonderful feeling of focusing, trying to express the whole figure in a minimum of lines, vacillating between descriptive contours and more structural or "summing up" lines, then stepping back to see what you created.  At first, it feels hard and unsuccessful, but then you start creating amazing expressions of universal human themes -- in this case, earthy femininity.

We moved on to a 15-minute standing pose.

And finished out the class with a 45 minute seated pose, with a break in the middle for Amelia to stretch.

It's good to be back to drawing with my students again.  

Many thanks to Amelia for keeping us inspired with her amazing, dynamic poses!

Osher Figure Drawing Class: Zoom Summer School with Model Kathryn

Kathryn kicked off our first session of Osher summer Figure Drawing Friday, July 2nd with fantastic poses full of energy and creativity. 

It felt good to be back to drawing Kathryn, and we focused on gestures to start.

I asked my students to use a soft medium like charcoal or pastels.  By turning the charcoal chunk on its side, we could capture large areas of mass rather than focusing directly on contour lines.

As we warmed up, we added a few select lines to our mass gestures.

Kathryn told a story from her childhood about collecting spring water in gallon jugs tied to each end of a pole and crossing a creek.  A flood had washed out the bridge so that all that was left were steel beams.  She said she and her siblings had to balance carefully as they crossed.

For her final mass & line gesture pose, Kathryn gave us this dramatic fall into the creek!

We moved on to 5-Line poses, simplifying each pose into 5 strokes.  It forced us to observe carefully before drawing.

Kathryn's skill as a model showed in the way she selected poses to create beautiful lines that suited the 5-Line format.

We finished up with longer poses.  The late morning sun shone in our east window, casting a lovely blue light behind Kathryn.  This only occurs around midsummer, so I made a point to draw it in with pastel.

We finished the class with a 30-minute pose reminiscent of Manet's Olympia.

Hiring a professional academic figure model to pose for your class provides depth and creative spark to inspire your students.