Drawing: The Human Figure

The hardest thing to draw is also the most interesting.

About This Course

The human body breaks all the easy rules. It's not made of simple shapes, and it never holds perfectly still. This course tackles it directly. Proportion, gesture, and the quick decisions figure drawing demands.

What You'll Create

  • A folio of figure studies developed across the term, including gesture and longer poses.
  • One final considered figure piece selected for the end of term exhibition.
  • A brief written statement on the choices made in the final piece.

Course Details

Age Range
12-14
Term
Term 1
Schedule
Thursdays, 4:00pm
Duration
10 weeks
Price
$480
Spots Available
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What You'll Learn

  • You'll use proportion to keep a figure believable.
  • You'll capture movement and energy fast with gesture drawing.
  • You'll simplify a complex form into basic shapes first.
  • You'll work quickly, under real time pressure.
  • You'll build real confidence drawing something that won't sit still.

The Support You'll Get

You won't be handed the answer. You'll be shown how to find it.

Your practitioner has spent years making their own work, and their own mistakes. In the studio they work alongside you: asking the right questions, pointing out options you hadn't seen, helping you push through the moment you get stuck. The ideas stay yours. The decisions stay yours. They're there so you're never finding the way through alone.

Week by Week

Week 1: Why the figure is different from every other subject. Proportion. The basic measurements that hold a figure together.

Week 2: Gesture drawing. Fast, loose, capturing movement.

Week 3: Simplifying the figure into basic shapes.

Week 4: Hands and faces. The details everyone notices first.

Week 5: Drawing a figure in action, not just standing still.

Week 6: Working from a longer pose, more detail.

Week 7: A final considered figure piece, with a simple setting.

Week 8: Exhibition. Public showing, families attend.

Every course ends with an exhibition

Celebrate what you created with the people and our community. Every term concludes with a presentation or exhibition of your work: a chance to share your process, your ideas, and what you've made.

Your Instructor

Charlotte Lance

Charlotte Lance

Author & Illustrator

Charlotte has illustrated and written children's books published by Penguin, Pan Macmillan, Allen & Unwin and Scholastic. Her work includes A Really Super Hero, This Girl, That Girl, and Moth in a Fancy Cardigan. She builds worlds that hold stories within stories, working across traditional and digital media. She teaches the way she works: look closely, draw what's actually there, then make it yours.

Ready to start?