Life drawing has played an important role in my artistic development since leaving school more than twenty years ago. It is something I have done, on a regular basis, for most of those years. I have experienced it from all three sides; as a student, a life model and teacher.

To me, life drawing (or study of the figure in any medium) is an essential, basic training exercise for any visual artist. It can teach and facilitate experimentation in every aspect of picture making, such as composition, proportion, measurement, line, mark making, expression etc… the list goes on.

The very nature of the human figure means that no two life poses are ever the same. The artist is always faced with the task of considered evaluation and complicated  decision when approaching the subject matter. 

The situation in a life class is one of intense concentration. The model usually does a series of very short poses; which encourages the artist to focus on gathering visual information quickly and putting that to paper. Eye, mind and hand work quickly and intuitively together to capture a moment… (hopefully)  resulting in very lively and  expressive drawings.

 
Portraiture

Between 1994 and 1999 I taught portraiture at Bromley Adult Education College.

I initially became interested in portraiture as an off shoot from my life drawing experience. I have always found that when I do life drawing, I can’t help but focus in on the face at some point during the study.

Many artists or students miss the face out of their life drawing studies. I, however, enjoy trying to capture the expression and character of the model before me… the face being just as important to me as the overall form.