The enduring fallacy of the artistic genius, birthing great works of imagination from the vacuum of a white-walled studio, encourages us to believe that creativity vision is innate. Art history and personal experience prove this to be untrue - you can use exercises to stimulate new ideas in the same way as you can learn methods to help you perceive your subject more clearly, or make marks more confidently. It is through play, collaboration and engagement with the world that we form new id...
2021-06-15 17:01:02 +0000 UTC
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This video is a recording of a live Zoom portrait session, aired on 14th June 2021. It is shared here so that you can catch up and draw from the session if you missed it, or continue to work on a portrait if you attended live. As this is a recording of a live Zoom webinar the quality is limited by Zoom and will be a much lower resolution than our our tutored sessions which are recorded locally and undergo more rigorous processing before their release. Please feel free to work from the video d...
2021-06-15 10:16:51 +0000 UTC
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When Priss modelled for the first time for me at Draw, I was struck by her hand poses and the interesting ways in which she used her hands for life modelling. The most characterful and variously articulated part of the body, hands are really useful and challenging visual stimulus, and the interactions between hands and face is brimming with narrative and emotion. My imagination sparks and fires as soon as I look at reference images like these, with so many gestures and shapes to borrow for in...
2021-06-11 09:23:25 +0000 UTC
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This video is a recording of a live Zoom portrait session, aired on 7th June 2021. It is shared here so that you can catch up and draw from the session if you missed it, or continue to work on a portrait if you attended live. As this is a recording of a live Zoom webinar the quality is limited by Zoom and will be a much lower resolution than our our tutored sessions which are recorded locally and undergo more rigorous processing before their release. Please feel free to work from the video di...
2021-06-08 06:45:09 +0000 UTC
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'Lemonade' is a new series of photo reference shot art directed by Laura Ryan and shot by Olly Hearsey. We'll be releasing a new set each Friday for the next 4 months and you can find the full schedule of releases and some teaser of each set here. Each week Laura will share h...
2021-06-04 09:01:01 +0000 UTC
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As we move into the Draw summer term I wanted to update you on our plans for the Draw Patreon this summer. We recently invited everybody to contribute to a questionnaire about our programme and we've used those answers to plan the programme. Lots of people asked for some time to catch up on the Life Drawing Tier video tutorials, so we're giving you all of June to get ahead on any videos you might have missed before releasing more - based on feedback we'll be releasing pre-recorded videos this...
2021-06-02 09:30:00 +0000 UTC
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This video is a recording of a live Zoom portrait session, aired on 31st May 2021. It is shared here so that you can catch up and draw from the session if you missed it, or continue to work on a portrait if you attended live. As this is a recording of a live Zoom webinar the quality is limited by Zoom and will be a much lower resolution than our our tutored sessions which are recorded locally and undergo more rigorous processing before their release. Please feel free to work from the video di...
2021-05-31 22:20:35 +0000 UTC
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Over the last 34 weeks we've been sharing Lance's Tutored Life Drawing blogs on Mondays. That series is now complete and you'll find all 34 posts available to re-read via the Navigator here; Life Drawing / Student tier supporters will also be able to access recordings of all 34 hours of tutored classes. As we finally enjoy some summery weather here in the UK, you might want to look back at 2021-05-31 11:44:22 +0000 UTC
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In this Studies photo set we are zoom in on the surface of the body to look at the variety of body hair on the human figure. The variety of body hair you see on your model is the result of genetic, hormonal and environmental factors combined with personal grooming preferences. In this set we've provided zoomed in views of leg, arm, chest and back hair with additional focuses on armpit and pubic hair to demonstrate the potential variety of hair length, texture and colour. Lance's tuto...
2021-05-30 09:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Over the past 18 months we have built a substantial library of photo reference comprising clothed, unclothed & portrait photo reference of 28 different Draw models. These have been funded by you, with the pay from those shoots replacing the lost Draw work for our models over the last year. We now want to build on that success to create the most substantial, affordable & ethical life drawing photo-reference library available!
So what's next?
In April we commis...
2021-05-28 09:30:54 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week thirty-four of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on 26th May 2021. You can watch it as a one-off, or watch it in order with other videos in the course, putting the exercises into action by drawing from our photo reference and online life classes. You'll find all of the details on the Draw Patreon Navigator HERE.
-...
2021-05-26 12:17:32 +0000 UTC
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This video is a recording of a live Zoom portrait session, aired on 24th May 2021. It is shared here so that you can catch up and draw from the session if you missed it, or continue to work on a portrait if you attended live. As this is a recording of a live Zoom webinar the quality is limited by Zoom and will be a much lower resolution than our our tutored sessions which are recorded locally and undergo more rigorous processing before their release. Please feel free to work from the video di...
2021-05-25 08:43:19 +0000 UTC
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Body hair is highly variable, depending on the individual, and the part of the body it is located on. Though body hair doesn't contribute to the bulk of the body's mass, and is very much a surface feature, it does affect observations by changing the textures and tones of the surface of the figure..
The marks you make and how you make them are especially important when drawing body hair. The growth patterns and textures of different types of hair can be described by marks that match them...
2021-05-24 09:15:01 +0000 UTC
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In this Studies photo set we take a step back to look at an overview of lots of our wonderful Draw models. As Lance explains in the blog and video which accompany this photoset, skin tone and colour vary hugely both within a model's body and person-to-person. The tones and colours you observe throughout the body will be affected by the local skin colour, and the effects of light. Across a model's body make-up, tattoos and environmental effects like tan lines will create all sorts of ...
2021-05-23 09:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Naomi has been a lynchpin of the Brighton life modelling scene for years and has been posing at Draw since 2014. Her academic background is in English literature and creative writing, feeding into her prose, poetry and writing workshops at Brighton's Feminist Bookshop. She is also a skilled aerialist & performer and we're hoping we'll be able to return to hosting her fabulous aerial life drawing sessions at the new Dr...
2021-05-21 14:09:18 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week thirty-three of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on 19th May 2021. You can watch it as a one-off, or watch it in order with other videos in the course, putting the exercises into action by drawing from our photo reference and online life classes. You'll find all of the details on the Draw Patreon Navigator HERE.
...
2021-05-19 14:03:38 +0000 UTC
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This video is a recording of a live Zoom portrait session, aired on 17th May 2021. It is shared here so that you can catch up and draw from the session if you missed it, or continue to work on a portrait if you attended live. As this is a recording of a live Zoom webinar the quality is limited by Zoom and will be a much lower resolution than our our tutored sessions which are recorded locally and undergo more rigorous processing before their release. Please feel free to work from the video di...
2021-05-17 21:38:00 +0000 UTC
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Rendering skin tone and colour in drawings and paintings can be challenge as skin can vary in multiple ways under a variety of conditions. Assumptions about what skin should look like also leads to problems, both with managing local values and the observed colour of skin.
Many different things contribute to observed skin tones and colours, including the amount of melanin present, location on the body, and lighting. This lesson will look at how these elements affect observed skin tone, a...
2021-05-17 09:01:00 +0000 UTC
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As we near the end of our Tutored Life Drawing course we are broadening our studies to look at aspects of anatomy that express themselves across the whole body. In this Studies photo-set we look at fat and skin folds and their expression across all body shapes. These photos are cropped from the original hi-res photo files, allowing you to see the body in more detail than you would in our full-figure sets and providing a resource from which you can observe the varied articulatio...
2021-05-16 09:01:33 +0000 UTC
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The brilliant Sophie Reid has been modelling at Draw for a good few years, but was one of many models who decided against online life modelling, so we've been missing her this last year. Here she is in portrait-photo-form showing her amazing expressive range! Sophie mostly works as an actor, with a substantial sideline in music and poetry and is known at Draw for the narrative intensity of her poses.
...
2021-05-14 09:36:40 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week thirty-two of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on 12th May 2021. You can watch it as a one-off, or watch it in order with other videos in the course, putting the exercises into action by drawing from our photo reference and online life classes. You'll find all of the details on the Draw Patreon Navigator HERE.
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2021-05-12 12:26:58 +0000 UTC
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This video is a recording of a live Zoom portrait session, aired on 10th May 2021. It is shared here so that you can catch up and draw from the session if you missed it, or continue to work on a portrait if you attended live. As this is a recording of a live Zoom webinar the quality is limited by Zoom and will be a much lower resolution than our our tutored sessions which are recorded locally and undergo more rigorous processing before their release. Please feel free to work from the video di...
2021-05-11 07:38:49 +0000 UTC
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Fat and skin work together to define many surface features of the body. Fat is present under the skin in a thin layer around most of the body, smoothing out a lot of the definition of muscles and providing protection to more delicate structures such as blood vessels and nerves. The skin wraps around the entire body and therefore plays an important role in our observations – this lesson is going to focus on how the skin folds and interacts with fat, but there are many other properties of the...
2021-05-10 09:01:01 +0000 UTC
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This week our Studies photo-set focuses on the hands - you might also find it helpful to revisit the arms photoset to see the hands in context. These photos are cropped from the original hi-res photo files, allowing you to see the body in more detail than you would in our full-figure sets and providing a resource from which you can observe the varied articulations of the body. By ...
2021-05-09 09:00:03 +0000 UTC
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2012 was a time of renewal for the Drawing Circus and our intentions for the future were writ large in the autumn Manifesto. The colour and visual complexity of its sets contrasted with the monochrome Prologue which preceded it, covered in our past three 'Circus photo-sets (see Prologue Parts One, 2021-05-07 09:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week thirty-one of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on 5th May 2021. You can watch it as a one-off, or watch it in order with other videos in the course, putting the exercises into action by drawing from our photo reference and online life classes. You'll find all of the details on the Draw Patreon Navigator HERE.
--<...
2021-05-05 12:21:19 +0000 UTC
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This video is a recording of a live Zoom portrait session, aired on 3rd May 2021. It is shared here so that you can catch up and draw from the session if you missed it, or continue to work on a portrait if you attended live. As this is a recording of a live Zoom webinar the quality is limited by Zoom and will be a much lower resolution than our our tutored sessions which are recorded locally and undergo more rigorous processing before their release. Please feel free to work from the video dir...
2021-05-03 20:02:29 +0000 UTC
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The hands are a subject many find challenging to draw. They are a complex part of the body, with many joints and mobile elements within a visually small area relative to the whole figure.
Handling this complexity is the biggest challenge of drawing the hand. This requires keen observation of subtle changes in contour, and a good understanding of the structure of the hand to help with simplifying all the visual information.
Above Image: Sketches of hands
2021-05-03 09:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Here is our final ETC interview in the 6-part ART/WORK SERIES, aired on the 30th March 2021. In this interview I talk to sculptor and anatomist Eleanor Crook about her background as a classics student-turned art student and the themes & processes behind her sculpture; this video is the uncensored recording, showing images of Eleanor's dissection room drawings that cannot be shown on the public version hosted on YouTube.
About Eleanor Crook
E...
2021-05-02 10:30:00 +0000 UTC
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This week our Studies photo-set focuses on the arms - if you're learning more about the arms it's also well worth making accompanying studies of neck & shoulders, from which the arms are suspended and the back and 2021-05-02 09:01:00 +0000 UTC
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