life drawing figure

Having recently moved back to my home state of Minnesota, I had the desire to take some drawing classes to get back into the swing of things. The Duluth Art Institute offers some good classes open to the public; I chose their Life Drawing intensive, three evenings of drawing nude bodies.

Since I primarily work from photographs, it was wonderful and challenging to work from a live model again. I had to perform more quickly, focusing on the gesture of the figure and less on the details. The goal was not to execute a finished work of art but to study the body and add to your anatomy knowledge base. This, too, was difficult for me, since I always want to have a polished and complete drawing to show for my time.

The class had a nice array of students, from complete beginners to more advanced artists, which showed various styles. It is always inspiring to see how other people interpret the same subject matter and what approach they use for choosing their composition.

Our instructor, artist Sarah Brokke, led us through multiple techniques and poses, ranging from 30 seconds to an hour. Having three different models to draw during the course of the program was refreshing, two females and one male. It ended much too soon for me; by the third and final evening I was just getting warmed up! What a great way to get those creative juices flowing, which I was definitely needing. Off to create!

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