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In this workshop, figurative artist Marie Le Men will teach you various techniques to complete a portrait from life, using your observation skills and working in charcoal pencils and colour pastels. You will learn how to take your sketching skills to the next level by introducing subtle details and bringing life and mood through the spontaneous use of varied marks and a focus on contrasting values.
Open to beginners and intermediate level learners, this class is designed for young adults and teenagers interested in figurative and observational drawing. It is a short introduction to drawing and expressive portrait from life, aiming to encourage learners to cultivate their own personal style of mark-making. The approach focuses first on structuring a head in planes and blocks, then introducing more assertive line work, finer details and features, before adding the shading and colours.
The course will present participants with an opportunity to discover the subtle art of life portraiture in an accessible, practical way, and to inspire amateurs to pursue this practice on a regular basis through life drawing and sketching their surroundings. The focus will be on simplifying shapes, looking at the subject selectively, avoiding literal interpretation, and the students will be encouraged to develop their own aesthetic view through colour, pattern, and composition. The presence of a model wearing colourful contrasting outfit will help achieve lively results.
In a short introductory demo, Marie will provide tips and some basic principles of observational drawing to equip participants with some basic technical knowledge to get started, and will provide tips and constructive feedback to the students during the process.
All materials provided
Dry Media – pencils, charcoal pencils, markers, pastels, coloured paper (A2) and newsprint.
Students are welcome to bring their own sketchbook.
Please note this workshop is for young people from 12 – 17 years of age.