This is an example of a typical figure drawing class for the start of the school year/semester.  It is designed to introduce students to figure study and develop good habits from the start. Concentration is placed on eye hand coordination, drawing from the arm down and not the wrist down.  Students should spend more time with their eyes studying the model and not on the paper.  Detail rendering should be avoided until the student has learned how to properly render, contour, cross contour, and massing.

The model should be lit so that the landmarks of the body are easily visible, this can be done by using a single light source focused on the model.

Begin with quick gestural drawings of the model. Usually 30 seconds. Number of drawings, 10.  Model will change poses every 30 seconds, usually dynamic poses.

Move onto 1 minute gestural drawings of the model. Number of drawings, 10. Model will change poses every 1 minute, usually dynamic poses.

The purpose is to help loosen up and learn to keep the eye focused on the model and not the paper.

Repeat the above two stages, but do so blind. The student should never look at the paper while drawing, instead focus completely on the model and the pose.

After this is done, go through and examine each student’s gestural drawings. Offer advice and quick critiques as needed.

Suggest that students try different media to work with during these quick gestural studies as well.

Begin 30 second gestural studies but concentrate on the line of action being represented by the model.

Students should learn to recognize immediately the line of action that is present in the figure.

Pick a single pose for the model to hold for 1 minute. Have the students create a gestural drawing of the model as well as the line of action.  Students should learn how to build around the line of action that is present in the figure.

Gestural drawings should be done on cheap paper, usually newsprint quality. The size should be no smaller than 18x20.

Move onto 5 minute poses. Emphasis should be placed on contour, cross contour and massing as quickly as possible.  Number of drawings 3 to 5. Emphasis does not have to include all three at once. In some cases the emphasis can be only on countour etc.

The remainder of the class should be spent on longer poses.

The student must complete a full drawing of the figure in a specified time.  Once this is done, remove the model and ask the students to recreate the figure from memory. Once this is done, ask the students to use their previous drawing as well as the model (who has been positioned back into the same pose) to create a new drawing, correcting mistakes they have made in the previous two drawings.

The emphasis is repetition and eye hand coordination. Teach the students to understand what they are seeing and to quickly render what they see.

Keep in mind that the model may need breaks throughout the duration of the class, as well as the students. The structure and time for the drawings will vary.

During the class, the instructor will be helping the student as they work.  Doing live demonstrations of the techniques being requested can be a huge help.  The instructor should also be pointing out the visible landmarks on the model during the class.

Proportions and detail are not covered for the first few classes. Whole classes can be devoted to understanding proportions and rendering detail once the above basics are learned.

Students should be encouraged to ask questions and experiment with different media.