Overview on the Nude Studies

While in college, I decided to take a life drawing class in order to polish up my skills as a portrait artist. My professor stressed that drawing from a nude life model, which has been a part of serious art curriculum for centuries, is the most effective way to study and develop the technical skills needed to master the human figure.

The class usually began with quick one to five minute drawings of the model in various action poses. The remainder of the class time was devoted to longer half hour to two-hour poses that allowed us to include more detail in the drawings. The materials we used included charcoal and newsprint with the occasional use of white conte crayon for highlights.