Introduction to life drawing and painting
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- Course Code: VM483
- Dates: 03/05/25 - 31/05/25
- Time: 10:00 - 16:00
- Taught: Sat, Daytime
- Duration: 5 sessions (over 5 weeks)
- Location: Keeley Street
- Tutor: Tony Hull
Course Code: VM483
Choose a start date
Duration: 5 sessions (over 5 weeks)
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
Examining means and methods of representing the human figure. This will help you develop your understanding of human structures and form, and to build confidence in handling paint in relation to life painting. You will learn to express an imaginative and personal response to the figure.
What will we cover?
Each session will isolate aspects of life drawing and painting and the means to deal with it: modelling of form; dealing with proportion and scale; issues of the figure in space - perspective and foreshortening; weight in relation to posture; and emotional mood.
You will also develop a suitable, limited palette based on colour bias, appropriate to creating form using various tonal structures. We will consider ways of constructing and organising paint, such as coloured under painting, layering, 'scumbling' and other methods, including placement, distortion, balance and rhythm.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- represent the figure effectively in painterly terms
- make use of an expanded sense of paint handling and technique
- locate areas of personal interest and your own language and style
- produce a series of works that demonstrate sustained investigation.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is open to all levels of drawing experience. All painting techniques, methods of application and means of evaluation will be taught in a structured format, within which you can work at your own level. You will be expected to follow instruction and to take part in group discussions.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will be taught by demonstration, practical application, one to one tuition and group discussion.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
There are no additional costs. All materials are covered by the course fee.
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When I've finished, what course can I do next?
You may wish to extend your painting experience by taking additional life painting classes. Alternatively, taking your studies into Painting 2, or higher level painting courses from varying motifs such as cityscape or abstraction which would be a natural follow on from this course. If developing your work through an assessment of pictorial need proves interesting and productive you may wish to consider one of our higher-level courses like the City Lit Fine Art Course where this aspect of making is explored in considerably more detail. Advice can be sought from your tutor as the course proceeds.
I am an artist living and working in London, trained at Chelsea School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art (University College London). I have shown in solo and group exhibitions around the UK and in Europe (including the Whitechapel Open and Threadneedle Painting Prize) with work in numerous private collections and featured in Drawing and Painting by Kate Wilson (Thames and Hudson, 2015) For over 30 years I have taught in a wide variety of contexts, lecturing in many British art schools, including Manchester (MA), Cheltenham (BA), Central St Martins, UAL. I have run drawing workshops for Microsoft Seattle, Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, Electronic Arts UK, Vanguard Animation, Tell Me in Mountain View, CA and Kaos Studios (THQ) in New York amongst others. I have also taught renowned opera, television and film directors how to draw (NDAs duly signed) From 2021-22 I was the recipient of an Arts Council England Project Award to conduct research into drawing and the processing of trauma. I have tenure at City Lit where I deliver drawing and painting courses exploring how these activities alter visual perception, with a strong emphasis on thinking through doing.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
