Figuring out the Figure: Creative approaches to drawing the nude model
Two-day Practical Workshop
30 April 2016 10.30am - 5.30pm1 May 2016 10.30am - 5.30pm
The Life Room, Royal Academy Schools
£440. Includes all materials, lunch and drinks reception.
Terms and conditions
The RA School’s Head of Fine Art Processes and internationally renowned figurative artist Mark Hampson leads this two-day workshop focussing on the figure, and introducing creative approaches to seeing, analysis, mark making and image construction, working directly from and inspired by the nude model.
"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing." – Vincent van Gogh
At the formation of the RA Schools in 1769, life drawing was an activity that was held in much regard as a central skill and way of thinking necessary to all artists. The notion that experience in drawing the nude is fundamental to the creation of all great art now seems conservative to contemporary audiences, however, life drawing retains crucial and relevant functions in the development of an artist’s arsenal of approaches, techniques and abilities. It enables artists to hone their understanding of pictorial composition, artistic invention and visual awareness.
As Royal Academician David Hockney has said;
“Drawing makes you see things clearer, and clearer and clearer still, until your eyes ache.”
Life drawing introduces and develops essential skills in meditative analysis, focussed discipline and acute observation, whilst also promoting playful experiment, hand to eye co-ordination and creative expressiveness.
About the course
Taking place in the RA Schools’ historic Life Room, this weekend course covers all aspects of figure drawing from initial sketching towards fully realised drawn composition. In doing so, it introduces techniques in looking, line work, shading, spatial awareness, related anatomy and image creation. Participants will work with various drawing materials in both monochrome and colour, and from both a male and female model.
This course is for you if:
• You are curious to learn how to approach drawing from the model in a creative and supportive professional environment
• You want to explore life drawing approaches that are informed by both a rich historical context and also a contemporary art school experience delivered by a sympathetic specialist tutor
• You would enjoy the thrill of spending time experimenting with materials, techniques and exercises in mark making , ways of looking and image production
This course is suitable for enthusiastic and curious beginners and also those with previous experience of drawing (not necessarily life drawing) who wish to develop their understanding and re-engage with the joys of drawing from the model.
The number of participants is strictly limited to 18 participants in order to enable detailed feedback from the course Tutor for each participant and the work that they create.
Includes:
• An insider introduction to the Royal Academy and its world renowned schools
• Special reference to works in the Academy’s Library and Archive, focussing on figurative drawing
• All practical materials
• Lunch and refreshments on both days
The course is followed by a drinks reception at the end of the second day.
It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character.
Camille Pisarro
About the Tutor
Mark Hampson
Painter and printmaker Mark Hampson has held over 40 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 200 international group exhibitions. His work has been seen throughout Europe, Asia and the United States at museums, galleries and in site responsive installations. Recently these have included the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, the William Morris Gallery in London and the Kunst Museum in Vienna. In 2012 the RA hosted his solo exhibition, “Almost Real Art” following his two-year artist residency in the RA Collections and library. Drawing, the figure, narrative and humour are all crucial and constant aspects of his art, leading him to be described as a ‘Contemporary Hogarthian Conceptualist’.
In addition to his professional career as an artist he has had a prolific teaching career that has embraced the teaching of Drawing, Printmaking, Sculpture, Painting, Graphics, Illustration and Fashion. Alongside this he served as senior tutor in printmaking for 14 years at the Royal College of Art, before joining as Head of Fine Art Processes in the Royal Academy Schools in 2013. In 2007 he was made a senior fellow of the RCA.
His work is represented in numerous private and public collections including the V&A Museum, The Arts Council of Great Britain, Hyundai Arts Collection, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Krakow Museum and the Osaka Prefectural Government collection.
About the space
The Life Room
Set in the Academy’s historic Life Room, nestled deep in the heart of the contemporary RA Schools: the UK’s longest surviving art school and first Academy. This unique and significant setting was designed in the 1860s, when the galleries and schools were first constructed at Burlington House, as purpose built studios to encourage 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 all the way back to the 1730s and Hogarth’s Academy in St Martin’s Lane. The bespoke light systems and curtain drapes are also of ancient design and are used (then as now) to provide directional light and tonal backdrops to aid the delineation of the figure’s musculature – significantly enhancing the use and study of anatomical and expressive figure drawing.
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.