Life sketches are a consistently rewarding artistic expression, because there’s so much to take in. Every time a model makes a move, there’s something to glean and work on—shadows and gesture to skin texture and how the limbs extend.
Whether or not you’ve already taken classes on figure drawing before, continuing in lessons and mastering model drawing skills should be a regular practice. In this free eBook, we share the 11 reasons why life drawings should be a part of every artist’s repertoire.
Just as a musician, dancer, or athlete must practice and train to maintain a level of excellence, drawing the figure from life on a regular basis keeps an artist’s visual and spatial abilities in good form—calisthenics for the artist’s craft. Learn more tips on life drawing today—download your own copy of this amazing free eBook.
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Author and artist, Sharon Allicotti has a whole list of reasons why life drawings should be part of every artist’s repertoire and points out that drawing models isn’t just for students. In fact, making life sketches a part of your career can result in better art for us all.
By taking lessons, you are able to network with other artists, save substantial amounts of money on model fees, and most importantly improve your overall drawing skills of gauging proportion, assessing space more accurately, and understanding the landscape of the body.
Improve Overall Drawing Skills
Allicotti strongly believes that with the great range of movement possible, together with the anatomical and structural complexity of the body require special demands of an artist’s abilities. The group experience of drawing models accelerates the process of training the eye, especially in terms of gauging proportion.
Life Drawings are Better than Photographs
A photograph does not offer the subtle variations in vantage point possible when drawing from life that enables an artist to grasp the three-dimensional form of the body. Even the best photographs provide mostly an abundance of surface detail, but not the essence of a pose: its weight shift and gesture.
Draw Better from Photographs
With repeated experience, one learns how to use photographs when it is necessary, or for convenience. Frequent practice with drawing models imparts knowledge; successful observational drawing is not simply about seeing, but understanding what is seen. Allicotti explains that the accomplished artist considers that it is more difficult to get a good drawing from photographs than from life—usually the exact opposite for the novice.
Produce a Series of Sketches Quickly
Most drawings done in workshops are likely not exceptional, but some will invariably be of interest to family and friends and perhaps even saleable. Regular life drawing lessons enable artists to quickly build a portfolio ranging from simple drawings to a series of “resolved” sketches from longer poses. Begin by first attending sessions featuring shorter poses from three-minutes to a maximum of 25-minute poses.
Take on the inspiring, yet challenging task of life drawing!
Lessons and workshops are an ideal setting to discover prospective subjects for your own personal creative work. Skillful models may take poses that are especially inspiring, generating ideas for further exploration. The majority of models are happy to arrange private sittings, be it for figure or portrait. In the context of a workshop, you and the model will become familiar while working together in a comfortable group situation.
Look for drawing lessons or workshops at local colleges, community recreation centers, galleries, museums, artist clubs, and associations. Also, other artists—found through galleries, local art schools, and colleges—sometimes run life-drawing sessions in their own studios or belong to drawing groups that meet regularly to draw models. This arrangement confers the added benefit of working with talented professionals; attend one workshop and, in turn, find out about venues from both participants and the models themselves.