This Figure Anatomy workshop, is the first of a series dedicated to analyze and draw the male
and female figure from life, focusing on their structural, skeletal, muscular and aesthetic
aspects, at the end of this series of workshops, the participant artist will have acquired a solid
foundation in Anatomy for Figure Drawing, including a number of drawing techniques
traditionally associated with figurative art. This first workshop will deal with the stereometric
rendering of the figure, discussing proportional relationships between the various parts of the
body, structural characteristics of the male and female figure and measuring and drawing
techniques. Future workshops will deal with the skeletal and muscular structures of the various
parts of the body: torso, head, arms and legs in front back and side views, and finally hands and
feet.
My approach stems from the method devised during the Italian Renaissance that revolutionized
the way the human figure was painted or drawn and has been continuously developed and
tweaked since. Known as the Florentine Structural System, it is still one of the main approaches
to depict the human figure, harmoniously blending anatomical, aesthetic and expressive
aspects of the human body.
The workshop will start with one hour demo where I will introduce and demonstrate the
essential aspect of this holistic method, followed by a 2-hour drawing session in the morning
and a 3-hour drawing session in the afternoon, giving the students ample time to practice
drawing the figure in a variety of poses and from different angles, using a variety of media:
graphite, charcoal and chalk on white and toned paper.
Materials
- A pad of Strathmore Drawing series 400 in size 11”by !4” or larger. You can also use any
other paper you like to work with but not newsprint paper because of its poor quality.
-Graphite pencils in HB and 2B gradations
- A couple of red earth colored pencils, such as Venetian red or Indian red or burnt Senna.
Very good brands are Faber Castel or Caran D’Ache.
- Charcoal sticks, such as Nitram, and compressed charcoal pencils, such as Wolff or
General’s, in hard, medium and soft gradations.
- Kneaded erasers, sand paper and a small, sharp blade to sharpen pencils and charcoal.