What To Expect In A Beginners Life Drawing Class

Mediums

Most classes use pencil, chunky graphite or charcoal.

Pencils are seen as the simplest, and generally good for starters as there is a ready made range of tones to play with across the HB grading system. What you draw is what you get. There’s very light smudging unless you’re using really soft lead like 5B, and even then you’re unlikely to eliminate your original lines. That however means pencils are quite unforgiving unless you’re willing to use an eraser constantly and risk damaging the paper. Overall, their pointed and precise tips are great for capturing detail, and they work well on smooth paper as they don't need much friction to leave a clear impression - the more you apply pressure and colour in over something, the darker and waxier it will get.

On the other hand, chunky graphite allows larger strokes, fits snuggly in the hand and therefore allows an easier, more free-flowing expressionism.

Taking that feeling to the next level is our next contender - charcoal. To the untrained eye, charcoal can seem quite one-dimensional. It has a loose powdery composition and is very black in colour. However that's exactly why it's such a lovely, playful medium - its talc like texture means it can be smudged very easily, gently rubbing it with your fingers or with the side of your hand to create different shades of grey. Once you understand how to control it, it is perfect for soft broad marks or for big bold black lines, for abstract effects or for realism work. 

That's the wonderful thing about drawing – even when 20 people are looking at the same subject and using the same medium, they produce uniquely individual work.

Angles

Even if you only use chunks of graphite or charcoal, it's a good idea to have a pencil to use as a measuring tool. Extend your hand out and hold the pencil parallel - both vertically and horizontally - against the model you are looking at, and mentally lock down what angles their spine, arms and legs are at. Most people are surprised at how the eye and brain can fool us into thinking a person is standing up straight when in fact they are leaning. 

Those slants can make all the difference to the rest of the drawing, so it's important to draw what we actually see, and not what we think we see: if a model is facing square on to you and their knee is bent forward in your direction, then your drawing of their leg should be fairly perpendicular because looking front on, you won't be able to see the bend of the knee, even if you know it's there. 

To help get to grips with this level of attention to detail, the class might begin with the model holding poses for very short periods. These quick fire rounds of drawing are called 'gesture' poses, and really help you to warm up and see the way the body moves. Pay particular attention to where the shoulders and hips are, because they are the two axis of the body - think of them like two coat hangers, one under the other, holding the top and bottom halves of the body respectively. If you can simplify the anatomy in this way, you're well on your way to making a great figure drawing. 

Drawing is meditation for me. Once I start with a pen or a pencil or a crayon I can't stop and I lose sense of time. I forget anything else that is going on in my life – you can't think about anything else when you are drawing.

- Francine Lawrence, Drawing tutor at City Academy

Time

The great thing about Life Drawing is that in just one class, you can see a marked change - if not in your drawings, in your perspective. But like anything else, it takes time to see greater leaps of improvement. Leonardo da Vinci said "that painter who has no doubts will achieve little", and even he went over and over his drawings, correcting and adjusting angles, joints, muscles and skin folds, so allow yourself to be patient and to realise that nothing is ever perfect.

We are all different  - occasionally doing more lines and scribbling over parts can make a drawing look messy, and sometimes fretting over the small stuff and trying to fix things can make a complex yet exciting masterpiece. Whatever you do, it's okay. Even if you aren't happy about your work, there will be bits you're pleased with. Life Drawing is all about the journey.

If you're itching to let out the creative in you, see our Life Drawing for Beginners classes, or explore the other offerings of our Art Department.

Francine Lawrence, who teaches Life Drawing privately and takes some of our Corporate Classes, lent us her artist's perspective for this piece. She is also City Academy’s How to Draw - Beginners and How to Draw - Improvers tutor. Her classes are fun, creative and relaxed, and she loves sharing her passion for drawing with a huge range of students, from complete beginners to nervous returners.