Sketching a Crowd: Overlapped Figure Studies

In this project, we will begin by loosening up and building confidence with fast, expressive figure studies. During the first two classes, you will practice sketching multiple figures in color on two separate canvases - one canvas per day. Each session will focus on capturing gesture, movement, and energy rather than details. You’ll create 20+ gestural poses on each canvas, drawing directly with a brush and switching colors frequently to keep the compositions lively. Each figure will be completed in about one minute or less, encouraging spontaneity and helping you avoid overthinking. As the poses accumulate, the figures will naturally overlap, creating vibrant, layered fields of movement.

In the following two classes, we will build on this foundation by returning to two new canvases and repeating the process of filling them with a crowd of figures. This time, however, we will slow down and spend more time on each figure, exploring proportion, silhouette, and subtle accents of color. The goal is to maintain the freshness of the initial gesture work while developing more intentional marks and a deeper understanding of the figure.

By the end of the project, you will have created four dynamic artworks: two bursting with quick, gestural energy and two with more developed, intentional figures - giving you a fuller sense of how speed and time transform your drawing process and artistic expression.