Anatomy for Life Drawing

An artist who understands artistic anatomy is free to focus on the expressive character and rhythm of their figure drawing, instead of struggling to make it look like a figure!

Learn simple anatomical concepts that will enable you to visualise any part of the body, in any action, from any direction, and grasp the essential action of drawing in a few lines instead of fifty.

For beginning anatomists, the focus will be on the skeleton, while content is flexible for those with prior knowledge. In this workshop you will see visible improvement in your drawing skills over the course of the week.

* Short courses and weekend workshops are open to students of ages 16 years and over. The NAS Art Club is open to students from ages 15 years and over.

* Drawing and painting short courses may
be held in upstairs studios. If access to stairs is not suitable, please contact us at short.courses@nas.edu.au

* What to bring? Please refer to the list of required materials in the Art Materials field below.

David Briggs PhD trained at the Julian Ashton Art School, Sydney. He specialises in life drawing and painting and in relating modern scientific knowledge to artistic colour theory.

He has taught art classes since 1996 at many institutions, including six years as the life drawing instructor for Disney’s Sydney studio and classes in drawing, and art history and theory at the National Art School.

He is the author of an extensive website on the theory and practice of colour for painters, The Dimensions of Colour

Students must supply their own art materials, please refer to the list below.

• Pen and notebook to jot down notes and ideas
• Cartridge paper A2 size - 50 sheets or pad
• 2 bulldog clips
• Progresso (solid woodless graphite) pencils - 2B, 4B
• Kneadable eraser e.g. Faber-Castel Knetgummi art eraser
• Firm white eraser e.g. Staedtler Tradition or Mars plastic
• Stanley knife or similar (for sharpening) or pencil sharpener
• Sheet of fine sandpaper (for sharpening)
• Enclosed footwear is essential in all studios on campus.

If you already own a book covering artistic anatomy, then please bring it along; otherwise, you might like to wait until David discusses some of the better ones in class before buying one. A particularly good one is the 'Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist' by Stephen Rogers Peck.