Drawing Essentials: Understanding the Human Form and Anatomy
Four-week Practical Course
1 June 2016 6 - 9pm8 June 2016 6 - 9pm15 June 2016 6 - 9pm21 June 2016 6 - 9pm
The Life Room, Royal Academy Schools
£80 per session. £290 for all four sessions. Includes all materials.
Terms and conditions
Learn the essentials to drawing the human form and anatomy including the human head and upper and lower body in the Royal Academy’s historic Life Room – a space purpose-built for life drawing, with practising artist Adele Wagstaff.
The representation of the human form has been a key subject of interest for artists since the earliest of times. The representation of the body was of primary concern for Early Cycladic art and culture dating from 3200 BC. The human face and body was portrayed in both symbolic and realistic ways in Egyptian art dating back to 3000 BC. Ancient Greek sculptors championed the idea that the human body was the ideal subject for sculpture, and Roman artists captured the idealised yet remarkably life-like forms in masterpieces like the Motya Charioteer (created between 480 and 470 BC, Museo Giuseppe Whitaker in Sicily) and Aphrodite Crouching at Her Bath (a Roman copy of a Greek original from the 2nd century AD in the British Museum). In art schools across the world, classical works provide inspiration and continue to be copied by students today.
During the European Renaissance (from the 14th century) the period of modern anatomical study began in earnest and artists made use of systematic observation of the external and internal body to record and inform science and create works of art. A new art practice defined as anatomical drawing was born.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) is most closely associated with pioneering anatomical drawing. Through life models, observation and dissection, Da Vinci created a vast collection of detailed sketches of muscles, tendons, and other anatomical features, whose precision and clarity continue to astound both artists and medical practitioners to this day. The Royal Academy of Arts was strongly influenced by theories of Renaissance drawing, which played a crucial role in the formalisation of the practise of anatomical drawing in the UK. Study from life and of the anatomy was an integral part of the teaching in the RA Schools from when they were founded in 1768.
The first Professor of Anatomy, William Hunter, was elected on 17th December 1768. RA students were originally introduced to life drawing classes only after several years of copying anatomical drawings of past masters and drawing from plaster casts of Antiquities. Entry into the Life Room – where students finally had the opportunity to draw from life models both male and female – was considered the pinnacle of their artistic training and proof of professional capacity. Although there is not the same emphasis on a necessary life-like rendition of the human form, there is still a Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy to this day and artists continue to be inspired by the plaster casts of masterpieces from the Antiquities usually found in the RA School’s cast corridor and Life Room.
The RA strived to collect for its library examples of all the greatest illustrated books on anatomy, and therefore has a very rich collection of key books on anatomy from Andreas Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica libri septem published in 1555 onwards. There are a further 200 anatomical drawings and works on paper from the 18th century to 20th century included in the RA Collection, together with the original anatomical sculptures currently displayed in the Life Room, which are also a testament to the importance placed on this practice by the Academy throughout the years.
About the course
This four-week evening class is an exciting opportunity to study in more depth the essential elements of anatomical drawing and the human form. Working from different and varied life models, and using a range of poses and art materials, this course will introduce and explore different parts of the human anatomy in detail under the guidance of practicing artist Adele Wagstaff.
The course will reference and make use of expertly selected items from the Royal Academy’s own Archives and Collection – a unique and exceptional scholarly reference and teaching tool which has informed artists and their practice since the Royal Academy’s foundation in 1768. As well as learning from carefully chosen archival material, participants will develop skills in observation, representation and rendition. Participants will focus on different parts of the human figure, working under different light conditions, with different materials, in black and white as well as in colour, and using a variety of short as well as long poses. All levels are welcome.
Each session will be clearly defined by focusing on a different element of the human form:
Week one – The Torso
Week two – The Head, Neck and Shoulders
Week three – The Upper Limbs and Hands
Week four – The Lower Limbs and Feet
Participants can attend individual evening sessions or all four. Each session is from 6 – 9pm.
This course is suitable for all levels.
This course is for you if:
• You have an intrinsic interest in drawing or some prior knowledge and would like to improve upon existing skills and learn new techniques and approaches.
• You would like a new perspective in your approach to life drawing and the anatomy. You would like the opportunity to develop your skills and ideas in a small group setting and in the historical setting of the Royal Academy’s Life Drawing room, with one-on-one teaching and expert led guidance.
• You have no prior experience of life drawing but have an interest in the theory, practice and history of art and drawing from life.
The number of participants is strictly limited to 18 participants per session to enable detailed feedback from the Course Tutor for each participant on the work that they create.
Price per session: £80
Price for all four sessions: £290
Wednesday 1 June:
Week one – The Torso
Wednesday 8 June:
Week two – The Head, Neck and Shoulders
Wednesday 15 June:
Week three – The Upper Limbs and Hands
Tuesday 21 June:
Week four – The Lower Limbs and Feet
Each session is from 6 – 9pm
This course has now sold out, but will be repeated later in the year. For further information please contact Mary Ealden, Courses and Classes Coordinator, on 0207 300 5641 or mary.ealden@royalacademy.org.uk
Includes:
• The opportunity to work from life models
• Special reference to works in the Academy library and archives on anatomy
• All practical materials
About the Tutor
Painter Adele Wagstaff trained at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Slade School of Fine Art where her teachers included Andrew Maclaren, Myles Murphy, Patrick Symons, Norman Norris and Euan Uglow. Following her graduation from the Slade, where, in the Life Room Adele focussed her practice on working from the nude in sustained poses, Adele continues to focus on the human figure, portrait and still life.
Adele has been shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the BP Portrait Award, and her work has been exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery, Discerning Eye, Royal West of England Academy, the Canadian Portrait Academy and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. She continues to exhibit regularly in London and throughout the UK.
Adele has published two books: Still Life Painting in Oils, 2012, and Painting the Nude, 2015, both published by the Crowood Press. She also regularly contributes to The Artist magazine as well as Artists and Illustrators magazine.
About the space
The Life Room
Set in the Academy’s historic Life Room, nestled deep in the heart of the RA Schools, this unique and significant space was designed in the 1860s when the galleries and schools were first constructed, purpose built to accommodate the study of the human form in art.
The semi-circular seating arrangement is based on an ancient design and can trace its British history back to the 1730s and Hogarth’s Academy in St Martin’s Lane. The directional light is also of ancient design and is used (then as now) to provide directional light to aid the delineation of the figure’s musculature – significantly enhance the use and study of colour and light in art.
Our courses and classes programme
Our programme of short courses and classes offers the opportunity to explore a range of subjects, led by expert tutors and practising artists.