Life Drawing Approaches

To coincide with Mary Beard’s Shock of the Nude and BBC 4’s Life Drawing Live, AccessArt has brought together its evolving collection of resources to help all ages and abilities explore and develop skills in life drawing. The resources are suitable for individuals to use to develop their own practice or for facilitators to use with students.

Resources are being added to on an ongoing basis so make sure you are registered with AccessArt to be kept up to date.

If you would like to contribute a resource pls get in touch! 

An Introduction to Life Drawing

Why draw the human figure, by Hester Berry

Capturing Gesture

Capture the essence of a pose through gesture, by Hester Berry

Drawing the Head

Drawing heads can be challenging; Hester Berry guides you...

Drawing Hands and Feet

Tackling hands and feet in quick studies, by Hester Berry

Understanding Foreshortening

Learning to believe what you see, by Hester Berry

Using Tone

How using tone can help you describe form, by Hester Berry

Foreshortened Sketches

by AccessArt Young Artist Rowan Briggs Smith

Repetitive Drawing Exercise

Inspired by Henri Matisse, By Sheila Ceccarelli

Getting it Right

Pushing through difficulties and re-seeing your drawing, by Sheila Ceccarelli

Life Drawing with teenagers: Mini actions

Sheila Ceccarelli includes \"mini actions\" into life drawing

Liquid Drawings Inspired by Degas

Exercises from this resource are well suited to be used in a life class, in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Drawing Someone drawing something

More ways to bring life drawing into a workshop scenario, by Sheila Ceccarelli

Line & Tone

Artist and Teacher Rachel Mercer shares a structured approach to exploring the relationships between line and tone in a life class

Research about Life Drawing & Adolescents

Studies have shown that life drawing can have positive effects on body image in adults. Here, Viren Swarmi examined the effect of life drawing in a sample of British adolescents