Preface

The purpose of this book is to provide guidance for one of the most difficult tasks in the known creative world—to describe, define, and capture a living human being on a flat piece of paper in a meaningful, compelling, artistic, and attractive way. This difficult and beautiful practice is known as figure drawing, and it is a subject that I and many, many, many of the great artists in history have fallen in love with and continue to practice and be obsessed with to this day.

In this book, I will humbly attempt to share some of my ten years of know-ledge and experience on the subject. I say “some” because the topic is so complex and so deep that one book alone can never be enough. What I want to do with this book is provide support in one specific part of the figure-drawing journey, which is drawing from a live model.

Drawing from a live model, or life drawing, is, in my opinion, the most important aspect of the art. This is because life drawing allows us the opportunity to study the human body in its raw, natural, and often naked state. This gives us insight into the third dimension of visual space, and also the subtle nuances of a living, breathing human being that can never be seen in photography.

Because life drawing has time limitations (a human being can only pose for so long), it creates a unique structure to our drawing practice, along with a sense of urgency. This makes the drawing practice much more productive and effective if approached the right way. That is what this book will attempt to provide—an effective way to approach drawing the figure from life and achieve consistent results while making progress in both know-ledge and skill.

These five-minute poses, done with pen and white pastel on toned paper, are examples of figure drawings from a live model.