Intensive Figure Drawing Workshop

This five-hour intensive human figure drawing workshop will provide students with hands-on experience with specific drawing media to develop basic perceptual skills in drawing the human figure. It progresses from capturing gesture and proportion to focusing on anatomy, form, and rendering, providing students with a comprehensive overview of the human figure.  

There will be demonstrations and exercises to practice and review the basic elements of art, such as line, shape, value, form, and texture, leading to their deliberate manipulation for different types of spatial illusion, compositions, and expressive meaning. Starting with quick, dynamic gesture drawings, moving to more detailed work focused on anatomical accuracy, and concluding with extended poses, all drawings will be created spontaneously and energetically, from direct observation.

The human body is marvelously complex and expressive. Excellent figure drawings can be either highly detailed and accurate or highly expressive, yet always convey a sense that the represented form is alive. A highly experienced nude model will be present. 

The instructor will work one-on-one with each student, providing feedback, constructive criticism, and doing individual demonstrations. Class will collectively discuss and critique at the end of each session.

This course is designed to provide students with a structured approach to drawing the human figure, serving as a foundation for the development of a personal interpretive style.

Open to teens with written parental permission, download the form HERE, and submit it signed to Melissa Gabriel [email protected]. 

The Five-Hour Session Schedule

Part 1:   Warm-up and short-pose gesture drawings. 

10:00 AM -10:30 AM / 30 minutes

The session starts with quick warm-up exercises designed to loosen up the hand and eye. The instructor focuses on capturing the figure’s motion and energy, not on achieving perfect proportions. 

Part 2:   Focusing on proportion and structure.

10:30 AM- 11:30 AM / 60 minutes

During the second hour, the poses lengthen to allow for more careful observation and measurement. The goal is to build a solid structural foundation for the drawing.

Part 3: Anatomy and Mass 

11:30 AM -12:30 PM / 60 minutes

With a strong structural base, the third hour is dedicated to refining the figure’s form by observing anatomy and mass. Longer poses (25-30 minutes).

Lunch Break. 

12:30-1:00 PM / 30 minutes

Part 4: Rendering and modeling form 

1:00- 2:00 PM / 60 minutes

This fourth hour focuses on developing the drawing’s three-dimensional quality using light, shadow, and tone on a single long pose (50 minutes). The model holds one position, giving artists time to move beyond line and structure. They can now add value, build up shadows, and explore how light interacts with the body’s curves and planes.

Part 5: Adding detail and review

2:00 -3:00 PM / 60 minutes

The fifth and final hour is spent on finishing the long-pose drawing and reviewing the day’s work with a final class critique.

Materials provided

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR 

Born in NOLA and raised in the Dominican Republic, Raul Perdomo has been an exhibiting artist working in Miami since 1990. He holds a BFA degree in painting and drawing from Florida State University with minors in printmaking and art history. His work has been included in multiple group and solo exhibitions and is a part of many national and international art collections.

Raul has been a South Florida Art Center/now Oolite Arts resident artist between 1990-1993. His experiences as an exhibiting artist in the contemporary art world evolved into the art education field, where he worked for M-DCPS between 2006-2008. Between 2008-2012, taught advanced painting, drawing, and portfolio development workshops both privately and at Oolite Arts. Perdomo served as visual arts program director and has worked as an instructor at Miami Arts Charter School, Wynwood campus, since 2011.