Introduction
Welcome to figure drawing. This site provides references, assignments, and model schedules to support your upcoming studio experience.Below are personal experiences that helped me to gain a better understanding of the history of figure drawing , such as drawing the Chinese warriors of Xian on location and drawing cadavers at the Philadelphia Medical College.Cadaver Drawing
I had the opportunity to visit the Philadelphia Medical College and sketch the cadavers. Ten people were invited. As the doctor was explaining the history of the cadavers and the etiquette the medical students and we should follow he began to unzip the bag. I was anxious to ask to see the hand, a few years before this I severed the tendons in my right hand in Paris and it took close to a year to regain function. But, before I had the opportunity, another student asked, “can I see where the appendix is?” Everyone wanted to see the thing that gave them trouble – to understand. Drawing can be a medium for thought and understanding. We were all invited back a second day to sketch.On the second day I was the only person to return. I couldn't believe they were going to miss this quintessential DaVinci experience. The doctor said to me, “I have some computer work to do, do you mind if I just leave you here." Over the next two days what really resonated for me was how useful an understanding of anatomy is to better replicate the forms of the figure and how the parts fit together and relate to the whole. There is a stupendous app for the Leonardo DaVinci exhibit at the British Museum, that not only shows his complete anatomy drawing but reveals his masterful use of hatch marks. Drawing the human figure can be overwhelming sometimes because it requires not only a foundation of drawing skill but also specific knowledge of anatomy. After this experience i began to study anatomy and found that study has greatly improved my figure drawings. Here are some of the drawings i made in that cold and odorous cadaver room.
Drawn on location at the medical building of Philadelphia University, 2014 Sculpture classesFleshier Art Center of Philadelphia has been around since 1898 and has an inspired community of artists and offers very reasonable to free classes. I learned some of my best figure drawing lessons there by not drawing but actually sculpting the figure. Moving around the figure often, to capture the likeness in 360°, I began to really understand the insertion points for certain parts of the figure and see them as a series of convexities rather than concavities. While a constant point of view is useful in drawing to maintain a consistent point of view for the drawing, It should be thought of as a point to return to after gathering information about the form.
Fleshier also offers a casting room where I was able to cast several of the pieces i made including this self-portrait.
Drawing the Terra Cotta WarriorsWhile in China I visited Xian to see the famed Terra Cotta Warriors. But, by the time I arrived I was exhausted after navigating the bus stops my travel legs were pretty weary and even though I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and i should be appreciating this amazing discovery - I just wasn't. I found myself giving them the Chevy Chase treatment. Fortunately, i had my sketchbook. By willing myself to start drawing I began to slow down and really look at the individual faces on the warriors and think that they were individuals just like me. Not only did I find some empathy for the models I began to appreciate the postures of the different figures and the subtle differences among them. The quality of the drawings were below most standards of excellence or even adequacy and they no longer exist. I wish I had kept them because the goal wasn't to make a drawing to be admired but to strengthen my observation and better understand what I was seeing.École des Beaux-ArtsThe École des Beaux-Arts established a systematic approach to representing the figure realistically. The approach was formulaic, from the prescribed subject matter of Greek mythology to the structure of competing and presenting the finished works. The lessons learned over the course of millennia to represent the figure are evident through the history of the school. If your goal is to represent the figure as realistically as possible there was nowhere better to study. However, the more I studied these works, as technically amazing as they are, the formulae began to overwhelm the experience and I craved artists who approached the figure with different goals, artists like Picasso, Giacommeti, and . While it was a pleasure to see this synthesis of knowledge in these works of art there are also viable alternative goals for artists who work with the figure but it is understood that before most of the well known artist we know ventured into realms of expression and abstraction they were well schooled in the fundamentals of drawing with a firm understanding of anatomical structures and the history of figure drawing.