If you've met Tilli in real life you'll know that the resting-portrait-face inevitable in longer poses doesn't do her personality justice, so we've included expressive portraits alongside the more passive head angles. In our next sets of recently commissions portraits we've shot a much wider range of head angles...
2020-08-21 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
On its own fabric makes a satisfying and challenging subject to draw, it can add colour and decorative elements to a life drawing and in this blog we will look at how fabric typically behaves and interacts with the volumes of the figure, and how we can approach it in our drawing. In next weeks post we'll look at drawing clothed figures in more detail.
Main image: Henri 2020-08-19 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Carissa, keen drawer and life model, has recently graduated from Sussex uni and has become the face of portrait drawing in both my newest book and Lance's Paint & Draw articles. Here's her life drawing photo-set...
Happy drawing,
Jake
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2020-08-14 08:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Tackling a long figure drawing is excellent practise for a variety of drawing skills and with such a big library of pose here on the Draw Patreon nobody on here should be short of drawing material.
In this walkthrough of a longer drawing, we will look at setting up your page for a longer drawing, and what to look for as we work through it. This demonstration is done in graphite but ...
2020-08-12 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
In her own words, Ellie looks mean, but she ain't.
Stay safe and keep drawing,
Jake
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Please do:
Our first event at the Phoneix studio in the summer of 2018 was a risk, as all outdoor drawing events are. We discovered in the intermittent showers of our 2010 Midsummer Nights Dream drawing event that no matter how tenacious the models remain in the face of inclement weather, paper does not hold up so well. 2020-08-07 08:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
More details coming soon.
2020-08-05 15:45:01 +0000 UTC View Post
When drawing outside, different subjects come with different drawing challenges. In the wider landscape, we have the unique situation of working with a very large space, and lots of distinctive natural textures. Drawing is a valuable way of gaining understanding of this subject.
In this instalment of Outdoor Sketching, we'll be looking at how to draw natural textures common in landscapes,...
2020-08-05 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
As promised, we're very pleased to be able to share the Draw Journal with you all today! Attached is a downloadable copy of the journal for you to read and enjoy. It features interviews with Jade Hylton, Francesca Cluney, 2020-07-31 09:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
In this photo set Carissa is rocking her oversized suit, with some step-by-step dressing poses. Do let us know if you have suggestions for costumed poses you'd like to see in our next batch of commissioned images! Carissa's life set is coming out next month, with some wonderfully twisty poses.
Happy Drawing,
Jake
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Guidelines 2020-07-31 08:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Urban sketching provides us with some unique challenges, as we encounter the geometry of man-made structures. Natural forms like trees are more forgiving, but perspective issues become more noticeable when drawing things like buildings.
The multitude of subject matter in urban spaces can become overwhelming, so we need to think of inventive ways to express and simplify it. This complexity...
2020-07-29 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Christy is an alumni of the Draw Atelier and has been life modelling with us for several years - his brings his dual background in contemporary dance and martial arts to his poses, evident in this energetic photo-set. Amongst his many achievements, Christy taught me to play Settlers of Catan in a seminal game where dr...
2020-07-24 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Outdoor sketching is an excellent way to practise drawing and get a chance to enjoy the sunshine at the same time. In this short series, we will be looking at drawing different outdoor spaces; often when people think of outdraw drawing, they imagine rolling landscapes, but there is a diverse range of subjects to find interest in.
We will be starting with a look at drawing green spac...
2020-07-22 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Catherine is one of Brighton's longest standing life model (deliberate pun). She is a dedicated artist, art model and when concealed beneath several layers of greasepaint - Katinka the Drawing Circus Clown. We are coming close to the end of our current run of portrait poses, commissioned before lockdown started,...
2020-07-17 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
After the face, hands are a part of the body that when drawn, strongly reflect the style and sensibilities of the artist. Whilst some artists draw hands full of knuckles and knobbly features, others express them with more elegant sensibilities, with sweeping gestures and minimal shapes. With this variety of approaches in mind, we are going to look at a range of hands with different d...
2020-07-15 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
We will finish our look at the elements of a portrait on hair. Hair can be challenging to draw at first as it is complex, and has a lot of natural variety, pushed even further with the many different ways we style it. To draw hair we are going to look at how to describe different kinds of hair in our d...
2020-07-12 16:57:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Laura first came to draw at our first big life event in 2009, when Draw was still The Brighton Life Drawing Sessions. Since then she has held pretty much every role going, studying as a student on the Draw Atelier, life modelling for Draw and the Drawing Circus and running the Thursday night life class for several years. When she's not life drawing Laura works as a heraldic artist for the Royal...
2020-07-10 08:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post
The arms, whilst seemingly quite simple in their 3D structure, are immensely complex in the finer details of their anatomy. When drawing arms, it is important to have a good awareness of how the forms change through the limb.
The arm divides into three major sections; the shoulder, the upper arm and the lower arm. The shoulder attaches the arm to the torso, linking it to the chest and bac...
2020-07-08 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Facial hair can be a challenge at first, as it offers up a variety of edges and textures that we don't see too often, even in the hair of the head. It covers the lower half of the face, which can a help disguise some complex forms around the mouth, but we still need to recognise that beards conform to...
2020-07-05 09:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Esme (aka @Sekinue) has been a fixture at Draw both as artist and model for a few years now - Esme is known for dynamic floor based poses and sequences that borrow from their Taekwondo practice as well as being the original harp playing mermaid in the Drawing Circus. This is the first of Esme's photosets and runs in para...
2020-07-03 09:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
On our 2017 summer tour we planned a route that took us through Oxfordshire where we put on a workshop for a confederacy of local art groups. The greatest challenge of organising Drawing Circus tours is finding affordable accommodation for a dozen life models and musicians; researching what we could get for our minimal budget I found the county an uncompromising host. In London we've often slep...
2020-07-03 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The feet often getting trimmed off or placed in as an afterthought - they are full of subtle complexity and are key to supporting the figure. The structure and anatomy of the foot mirrors that of the hand, but is adapted in different ways. Where the hand is agile and able to perform complex tasks, the foot provides a stable foundation to the body with specific features to help support its weigh...
2020-07-01 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
The ear can often be a neglected feature, as it doesn't move, and is away from the focal area at the front of the face. This often results in ears that look 'flat', bringing down the overall strength of the drawing.
Ears also play a role in judging proportion, particularly in profile views...
2020-06-28 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everybody,
In July we're super excited to be posting out copies of our lockdown publication, The Draw Journal. It will be in the form of a small newspaper and full of reflections on the body & life drawing drawn from our 2019/20 'Body' themed classes, talks and events. All of the artists, photographers and models who have contributed to the Journal have been paid using money ...
2020-06-27 11:48:57 +0000 UTC View Post
As our Patreon community grows I've realised we have more and more people drawing from our references who have never met the wonderful models in the photos. That loss of context and character limits what you can get from a still image, so for future shoots we're going to include short videos with our photo sets to help you get a feeling for who the model is, not just what they look like. <...
2020-06-26 09:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Ariane was the very first model to feature on the Draw Patreon and has been modelling for online sessions for Draw for longer now than she modelled for us in person! Her image has become ubiquitous in open submission competitions around the UK and we continue to keep up to date with her travels and adventures through our Wednesday life classes. We are very pleased to now share all of the photos...
2020-06-26 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
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The legs are one of the most neglected parts of the body given the importance of their role in the figure. First of, they are the largest body 'section' after the torso, with significant visual importance. They also support the body, which is an important part of the gesture of a pose. Here we are going to look at the gesture of the leg's structure and in poses, as well as the anatomy, and how ...
2020-06-24 08:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
The mouth has complex, soft forms, and is capable of a wide variety of expressions. The lips vary from person to person, with there being a lot of individuality, but also common patterns. However, this isn't the limit of the mouth; the muscular forms that operate the mouth change the s...
2020-06-22 09:25:46 +0000 UTC View Post