Intro to Figure Drawing B
Adult Course | Registration closed 10/16/2024
This is an introductory course for beginners looking to learn how to draw the human figure. This course breaks down the complexity of the human figure into easy, manageable steps through a dynamic, gestural, and shape oriented methodology. Through hands-on instructor demonstrations and critiques, students will learn about the kinetic energy and movement of the body in pose, proportions, and light and shade to create a convincing likeness of 3 dimensional form. Through exposure to hundreds of short poses, students build up a fluency and comfort in starting the drawing and learning the shapes of the human figure, eventually refining those shapes as they advance into longer poses.
- Week 1: Gesture - the dynamic start
Week 2: Short pose - Light and Shadow
Week 3: Short pose into Long Pose
Week 4: Anatomical landmarks, short pose
Week 5: Long pose - Light and Shadow,
Week 6: Values - conceptualizing tonal fields.
- -Drawing Board (Please make sure it is large enough to fit the entire sheet of paper we'll be using for the course. I recommend getting a piece of masonite cut to size at your local home depot)
-Paper: We will be using Canson Mi-Teintes in the color "Moonstone" throughout the course. Please purchase a handful of sheets.
-Charcoal: Vine Charcoal (soft). Winsor Newton brand is recommended.
-Eraser: Kneadable eraser
-Knitting Needle (I recommend the a size 2)
-Cotton Rag (find an old t-shirt or cotton rag and cut up into hand sized squares)
-Stump (A solid paper stump used for unifying charcoal marks. Not to be confused with the smaller and narrower tortillion. Try and buy a few sizes)
-Filbert Bristle Brush (used for oil painting, this is a useful tool for softening edges and unifying values. Any brand will do. I recommend a size 4 and 6.)
Optional tools: Small handheld mirror, and a baseball cap for blocking out glare.
Alexander Soukas
Alexander Soukas' serious training in the fine arts began upon attending the Walnut Hill School for the arts, one of five high schools in the United States dedicated to rigorous training in music, ballet, theatre, writing, and visual arts. Unsatisfied with his studies, and desiring to pursue a career as an artist, he began homeschooling as a way of earning his diploma while undertaking an apprenticeship with realist figure painter Jason Polins. Soukas studied traditional painting and drawing in Boston with Polins for 4 years, where he now visits as a guest instructor at Polins' atelier, The Boston School of Painting. Years later, Soukas studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in a coordinated program with the University of Pennsylvania for a year before leaving to seek a more rigorous classical training at Studio Incamminati. While there, he worked for and studied under Nelson Shanks as one of his last apprentices. https://www.alexandersoukas.com/