Benefits:
– Watch instructor demo
– See what other students are creating in class
– Ask questions & receive instructor critiques in real time

“Drawing Made Easy” is like an appetizer before the full course, which is the Essential Drawing Course for Beginners. In this live one-hour online session, you’ll learn the anatomy of shadows, the importance of form, and definitions of important terms that artists use. Familiarize yourself and practice the fundamentals of drawing in a quick, hands-on exercise. The instructor will lead you every step of the way, and if you have any questions, you will get answers during class.

We believe everyone is an artist, and this class will open your eyes to what you’re capable of when you know a few drawing techniques! Everyone is capable of drawing because drawing is a learned skill. No art experience is needed!

The human body as a subject is among the art’s most challenging. New artists strive to master it because drawing people is in high demand: when you can do it, it is very satisfying, more opportunities are open to you, and everyone admires your abilities. Art students and developing artists are judged by how well they can draw a person. Art colleges want to see observational figure drawings before all other pieces, to evaluate the true level of the student’s preparedness. This is what makes drawing people so delightful – you will be introduced to various aspects of drawing figures from observation. It will help you understand how the body is built, what creative shortcuts exist, learn how to draw according to the Academic tradition, including anatomy, measurements, proportions, perspective that depends on the artist’s point of view, and the step-by-step process of depicting a figure effortlessly. That combination of theory and practice, as well as the “tools” for creating portraiture, will help expand your approaches to portraiture.

Anyone is welcome to join these classes. To have the best experience in this class, we recommend having drawing experience. This is because Figure Drawing classes are about using techniques to express the human form, it is not a class where drawing for beginners is taught. If you’d like to learn how to draw, join our Essential Drawing Course for Beginners. Purchasing the drawing course will give you a free pass to Figure Drawing so you can practice your newly learned techniques!

The poses range from sitting, standing, and reclining.

Watercolors
3 days, October 1, 8, 15
10am – 11:30am Pacific Time

Learn three watercolor techniques while drawing and painting a beautiful figure: 1. Dry Brush, 2. Optical Color Mixing, 3. Working from dark to light by adding Chinese White. 

Warm-up on all three days: Sketching with a large brush, in the style of Japanese calligraphy, striving for the beauty of the silhouette.

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Focus on Cast Shadows (charcoal)
2 days, October 22 & 29
10am – 11:30am Pacific Time

Cast shadows are not just those we see cast from the body; cast shadows are found on the body as well. They are projected by every body part and hug other areas of the body, defining the volume.

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Focus on Highlights (oil pastels)
2 days, November 5, 12
10am – 11:30am Pacific Time

Practice drawing with oil pastels and learn the function of highlights while working from a classic sculpture.

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Black Paper
3 days: November 19, 26, December 3
10am – 11:30am Pacific Time

Working backwards, from black to light; long drawing of the torso with white oil pastels. Spend 3 weeks on the drawing – taking it to perfection. If ruined and can’t be fixed, you must start again. This exercise helps develop sensitivity to the nuances of the particular pressure for achieving the tonal range on black paper. 

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Facial Expressions – charcoal
2 days: December 10, 17
10am – 11:30am Pacific Time

Dec. 10: Warm up – Sketching with large brush and diluted black tempera on 10 sheets of printer paper. Main project: starting a drawing of a face.

Dec 17: Warm up – Sketching with large brush and diluted black tempera on 10 sheets of printer paper. Main project: finishing our drawing of the face.

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Advanced Coaching is led by Olya Losina, the co-founder of Prima Materia and the creator of the school’s curriculum. These classes are offered for those who want to take their art to the next level in terms of skill and ideas. Dive into each project and spend an extended amount of time developing and refining your body of work. If you’re an artist that is interested in committing to your art, Advanced Coaching is for you!

This class is for advanced students. In order to qualify and make the most out of these sessions, you must be familiar with drawing and painting. If you’d like to join Advanced Coaching but don’t have art experience, start here!

Recycled Beauty: Bouquet Afterlife
Starts Friday August 19th, 10am Pacific Time

Discovering the beauty where beauty is not apparent, something that the untrained eye would not see. We will explore this idea on a large-format unstretched canvas.

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