Drawing Portraits and the Figure with artist Suzanne Kemplay

Perfect for those who love the challenge of tackling one of the hardest yet most satisfying subjects. Get ready to focus like never before on heads, shoulders, knees and toes.

In this 8week course students will explore portraiture, figurative drawing & painting. Suzanne will teach how to look at the head and face in detail and encourage you to learn new skills to aid you in creating confident portraits. Expect to look at the figure in different ways and work to express form and movement. This course is for anyone who already has some basic drawing skills/experience and wishes to build their confidence or refresh their practice. It’s also a great preparation for when we introduce life drawing later in the year.

These classes can be done individually but ideally by following from one class to the next you will learn a step-by-step process that will give you a new set of skills and help develop your drawing & painting.

If you would like to try a taster class for £22 before committing to the full course please just get in touch to discuss.

Week 1. Head studies: Exploring drawing the head, placement of features, line drawing and shading.

Week 2. Portrait Head: Working from a photograph of a model we will continue our exploration of the head to develop a finished head study.

Week 3. Copying from the masters: Much can be gained by studying the masters and in this class we will be doing an acrylic painting of a famous portrait painting.

Week 4. Figurative studies in the style of Degas: In this class we will be doing figure studies in charcoal and pastel inspired by Degas’s drawings of dancers.

Week 5. Gestural & Tonal Figure studies: A gestural drawing captures the energy and feel of a pose. We will then do tonal figure drawings using a watercolour/ink wash.

Week 6. Study of Head and hands: In any figurative work hands are incredibly important and should not be ignored. We will do studies of hands and then look at the head and hands together and produce a more detailed study.

Week 7. Painted Portrait: Over 2 weeks, under painting of a portrait

Week 8. Painted Portrait: Finish our portrait.

All materials and refreshments are included in the course fee.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Birchwood Art Studio, Ashley House, Edinburgh, United Kingdom