As we venture further into the Festive Season and navigate our way though the changing landscape of the current pandemic, we hope that this short blog series can help to bring a few moments of lightness, as well as some inspiration to those of you looking for a little bit of a creative nudge during the depths of winter! These drawing drawing prompts are written and illustrated by
2020-12-21 14:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Charlie is our portrait model this week, with a variety of expressive portraits and two head rotations. Charlie's pronouns are They/Them. Enjoy!
Happy Drawing,
Jake
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Use the 2020-12-18 10:01:00 +0000 UTC
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While Lance's regular tutored life drawing blog posts take a short break over Christmas, illustrator and Draw model co-ordinator Megan Snyders has put together a few illustrated drawing prompts aimed at all ages, including children. This blog post is part one of a two-part series, inspired by Lance's fantastic blog...
2020-12-14 14:00:04 +0000 UTC
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This week our life photo set is from our beloved Esme - Taekwondo champion, artist, Drawing Circus mermaid-harpist and stalwart regular of the pre-pandemic life drawing scene. Esme has a particular talent for expressive floor-based poses, and has worked a series of Taekwondo patterns into this set for your drawing-delight.
Esme's pronouns are they/them and you can follow their artwo...
2020-12-11 10:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week thirteen of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on the 9th December 2020. 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 2020-12-09 15:04:26 +0000 UTC
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The Christmas period may make it difficult to get extended periods of time to draw. Between preparing for the holidays and busy home environments, it is easy to miss out on drawing and get a bit rusty.
This week's lesson is about finding creative ways to keep drawing over the holidays with a bumper-pack of exercises to dip into. Remember that any kind of drawing can help exercise this ski...
2020-12-07 10:01:00 +0000 UTC
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On Friday 27th November we held the first of our new, monthly interview series, extending our long running ETC programme into the online sphere. We'll be running these live interviews on the last Friday of every month and have a real exciting line-up of speakers planned. These talks are particularly aimed at students taking their first steps in a life in art and over the next six months we'll b...
2020-12-06 12:06:38 +0000 UTC
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Anna has now returned to her home in Nottingham, but while studying Philosophy at Sussex University Anna would come to model for us with infrequent consistency, with a different colour of hair every time . Anna was a forest spirit in the momentous Sleep of Reason Drawing Circus at the Old Market - an experience ...
2020-12-04 10:31:00 +0000 UTC
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DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS
It was written on a sign above the unicorn pen, and should have been a warning to cast and audience alike - perhaps the bright colours took the edge off of the message. In our second instalment of photos from the The Grand Drawing Circus we delve into both the dark side of The Drawing Circus....
2020-12-04 10:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week twelve of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on the 2nd December 2020. 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 2020-12-02 14:21:47 +0000 UTC
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Toned paper offers an interesting alternative to the usual white drawing surfaces. Starting with a midtone paper encourages a tonal approach, and can also help you start to explore colour contrasts.
This lesson will focus on drawing with two or three colours on midtone papers using red conté, charcoal and white chalk for...
2020-11-30 10:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Bruno has only been life modelling at Draw for a short while, but it was clear from his outfit at last years Christmas Party that he's a snappy dresser. You might have an idea of the kinds of reference image you need for your artwork, but I can say for myself - I never knew that I needed reference images of a bearded man in high heels and a net vest, and now I don't know how I ever made w...
2020-11-27 10:31:00 +0000 UTC
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Ruth has been a main stay of the Drawing Circus for 10 years, bringing an inexhaustible stream of costumes and narratives to our events and settling the role of lion tamer in recent years. Her background as a belly dancer, writer and maker uniquely equipped her for all aspects of Drawing Circus life and she has taken the lead on lots of our prop designs, crafted elaborate narratives around her ...
2020-11-27 10:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week eleven of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on the 25th November 2020. 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 2020-11-25 15:54:00 +0000 UTC
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Hi everybody,
As we're receiving such consistent support here on the Patreon we're really pleased to be able to start adding more events to our programme, in response to your requests in our summer survey.
Following the recent outcry caused by a Government re-training advert and the ensuing 2020-11-24 13:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Erasers are often associated with fixing mistakes, however they are also a tool for drawing. This blog focuses on subtractive tonal drawing, where tone is intentionally removed from our page as part of the drawing process, using an eraser, or other tools. One way to think of this is that rather than erasing mistakes, the eraser is being used to draw light tones.
Charcoal will be used for ...
2020-11-23 10:01:01 +0000 UTC
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This portrait set is of regular life model and Draw Atelier Alumni Christy and his flowing locks - it includes more rotations than normal with links to Christy's clothed and life photosets below. Enjoy!
2020-11-20 10:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week ten of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on the 18th November 2020. 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 2020-11-18 15:33:46 +0000 UTC
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In our third article introducing the major families of printmaking we turn our attention to the quintessential print form, intaglio. These articles are intended to help you broaden your appreciation of the artwork you look at, fill in gaps in your knowledge and to encourage you to develop your own practice further. You can jump back to our2020-11-17 21:16:29 +0000 UTC
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A tonal edge describes the boundary between two areas of contrasting tonal value. This might be a sharp change, with an obvious edge, or a gradual transition between the two tones. Tonal edges are an essential, but often overlooked, part of observational drawing, and expressing these different changes in tone carefully allows for more naturalistic drawings.
Todays blog examines how to dif...
2020-11-16 10:19:06 +0000 UTC
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The awesome Priss Nash - poet, life model and musician - has been life modelling here at Draw for four years, performing as a Dryad in the Sleep of Reason Drawing Circus and a showgirl in the Rise & Fall. She brings wry humour and and wild poses to every session she models for, including this fabulous photo-s...
2020-11-13 10:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week nine of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on the 11th November 2020. 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 2020-11-11 16:30:41 +0000 UTC
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Well to our second introduction to printmaking! In this short blog series we’ll be taking a look at three families of printmaking: Relief, Planographic and Intaglio. Last weeks post on Relief printmaking included a short definition of printmaking – this week we’ll launch straight in with an...
2020-11-09 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
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An observed area, or 'shape', of a single tonal value, or narrow range of tonal values play an important role in observational drawing and can be drawn as distinct tonal shape. Learning to simplify complex patterns of tonal values into clear shapes will help make potentially confusing subject more visually 'digestible' and give you more control over the tonal design of your drawing. This lesson...
2020-11-09 10:52:09 +0000 UTC
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The Drawing Circus exists in liminal spaces - it is part fiction, part reality, constantly telling the cyclical story of its own creation as the models who play the characters of the 'Circus each year become more like their characters, and the characters more like their players. The Circus-themed Drawing Circuses are show...
2020-11-06 14:10:08 +0000 UTC
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Thanks for your patience waiting for todays photo-set. Today have pictures from the wonderful Katie (aka @KatieBrightonModel)! Katie is a multitalented beam of sunshine, bringing joy and creativity to every class she models for. Alongside her day job she is a committed life model, photographic model and local ...
2020-11-06 13:11:14 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to week eight of our tutored life drawing sessions. This video is a recording of the live webinar aired on the 4th November 2020. 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 2020-11-04 16:46:57 +0000 UTC
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Drawing is a means of translating your observations and ideas into meaningful marks - it is raw and immediate and as children we draw before we can write. While drawing can be an end in itself, it is often a beginning and as you draw more you might start wondering how to take your drawings further, making images that go beyond the practical exercises of life and portrait studies. While painting...
2020-11-03 09:54:38 +0000 UTC
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In this article we'll be digging deeper into the topic of tone with an exploration of tonal value - judging how light or dark an area of tone it. We'll just be looking at it in relation to observed tone, prioritising accurate observation and challenging our assumptions about how subjects look by learning to look at them with more focus.
As many drawing materials are mono...
2020-11-02 09:56:30 +0000 UTC
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Dear Friends,
As England enters a new month-long lockdown I thought I'd send an update of what is happening here at Draw. We know things are pretty tough for everybody around the world right now, so for all of you locked down in Europe and South America, awaiting election results in the USA and juggling restrictions elsewhere in the UK: we will all get through these difficult times togeth...
2020-11-01 10:59:43 +0000 UTC
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