Join us for free figure drawing sessions in Ignite Studio twice monthly! Come anytime during the open studio hours on the first Monday and third Thursday of each month from 5:30 to 7:30 to practice your life drawing skills. Visit our event calendar to find more specific dates and times. During our uninstructed open studio hours, we will have a live, clothed model with different lengths of poses, and limited materials available for use. Bring your media of choice, flex your drawing muscles, and stay to discuss your work with fellow artists!
How to Prepare for Free Figure Drawing Sessions in Ignite
Some of my favorite materials to use are pretty traditional to figure drawing.
I use primarily newsprint to warm up on, and different forms of graphite and charcoal are my materials of choice. But you can use the time with the model to draw however you want! Here are some of my favorite ways to make figure drawing interesting:
1.) Use a marker to block in the mass of the figure before drawing lines:
I love using this method to evaluate silhouette and composition. I begin by only using a colored alcohol marker to block in the shape of the model, and then define the figure with lines afterward (I used an ink pen and a white gel pen).
2.) Use india ink for gesture sketches:
A great way to warm up for drawing is by doing quick (30-120 seconds) gesture sketches. Drawing quickly will help you learn what’s important about a drawing. It will also help youprioritize making marks with the most amount of information in them, instead of getting hung up on details. I use India ink (straight from the dropper), but you could make it less messy by using a brush and newsprint to make a bold sketch.
3.) Use contour line drawing using the pen of your choice:
Use crayons, watercolor pens, markers or just plain pencil to make a contour line drawing of the model. You can do this kind of drawing by looking only at the model while drawing. Traditionally for contour drawings you don’t peak at the paper. Your eyes send the information straight to your hand, allowing you to focus on drawing what you see instead of what you know. Sometimes when we’re drawing, we’re caught up by the knowledge we already have of what we think a person or an object should look like. We get a more accurate portrayal when we look at our subject matter more than we look at the drawing. To practice you artist’s eye and drawing skills, you can do a contour line drawing of the figure, making sure to keep your eye on the model at least 95% of the time.
Come visit us during our figure drawing session to do these methods and more!
