Why should you learn to draw the figure?
Our pocket super computers can record or create a nearly perfect visual image of whatever we see, in a fraction of a second. So what's the purpose of figure drawing in a modern world?
Why bother?
Figure drawing has been around since the days when we lived in caves and kept livestock inventories with primitive drawings made from burned sticks and pigmented mud smeared on cold stone walls.
Evolving side by side with technology and style, figure drawing has taken many forms over the years, evolving from the only existing visual record of fashion and beauty ideals to the pure art form of personal expression it has become today.
I've learned traditional academic sight-sizing methods from contemporary painters who would be quite at home at Paris Salons of the 1800s, and I've studied alongside incredible abstract expressionist painters that flung paint and passion in equal amounts.
Along the way, what I've learned is that there are no wrong answers. There are as many ways to draw the human figure as there are ways to make a mark on a surface. Even though we have access to technology that would have been unimaginable to yesterday's artists, the fundamental tools are exactly the same, tens of thousands of years later.
The act of learning how to observe another human being is is a deeply personal and humbling experience for those who are open to building connections through curiosity and empathy.
To learn how to draw the figure is to learn how to see.
For those who come with an open heart and mind, the practice of figure drawing will change the very way you see the world, and I'm so excited to share this with you now.
Check my classes page for information about upcoming classes and workshops.