Testimonials

Why is Figure Drawing Important to Artists?

"Artists draw the human figure for the same reasons musicians play scales. It is a foundational study that all else is built on. With practice you gain the ability to focus, relax, and see what’s really there. With practice your hand/eye coordination improves, as does your evaluation of marks on the page. I can think of no other daily practice that is more important to visual artists. If you can draw the figure, you can draw anything."

- Ruthie V.

"I have already seen signs of my studio painting improving, and I know it is from the figure drawing sessions. ...Life drawing: it is like ballet. The day you don't practice is the day you get stiff."

-Erin Libby

www.erinlibby.com/

"It's great to be at figure drawing, it's a really new experience for me and I like the way you hold the sessions. Very relaxed, and easy to be a part of."

- Zoey

"After an hour, I finally begin to slow down and look - really look - at what is in front of me. My first drawings are always awful because I can't switch over to see immediately, but eventually something clicks. I notice how things are and I have the patience to mark them. By the end of the evening, I'm calm, steady, present and focused."

-Ruthie V.

"Open your eyes and draw. Look, look, look." 

-George Weymouth 

"I drew my way through Europe on my first trip there. Though I have returned many times I was more present on the first trip because I sat in one place, with perfect awareness, getting to know it and the people. Photography is great but doesn’t work the same way. You TAKE a picture, but you create a drawing. That drawing act also puts you in one place (and a calm space) for long enough that the locals actually come up to you to see what you are doing and start a conversation. They don’t do that to photographers or tourists.

"To me, finding many ways to enter that experience of awareness is the ONLY thing we can really do to improve our lives. Our thoughts, though, think otherwise."

-Peter Frazier

"Once I start making marks on the paper, it becomes more about responding to these marks and less about copying the image..."

- Mark Demsteader