Workshops
Check the registration page for workshop availability.
For in-person participation, we ask that you not attend if you're not feeling well.
Flesh Tones
Join us exploring and celebrating the way that light reflects off skin with varying degrees of melanin. While we'll be mostly working with Cassandra, who has dark skin, we'll have a couple of other models dropping in for contrast. Our goal is to gain a deeper understanding of our palettes when it comes to capturing different value ranges in our models, and also to appreciate how the choices we exercise in our renderings can lead to a deeper fidelity to what we see.
This is an instructed class; there will be some demos in various media, we'll do value studies, as well as exercises in contrast, contours, and comparative tonalities.
Prior figure drawing experience helpful, as is familiarity with your tools.
Date: Sunday, May 25, 1-4pm
Location: Colourfield, Asheville, North Carolina
Class Size: Limited to 10 students
Level: All
Materials:
- Tools: Bring whatever you like, wet or dry, color or black and white, e.g. charcoal, watercolors, pastel, acrylics. Recommended is that you bring a variety of media and be prepared to rethink how you use them.
- Substrate: Expect to use 10-20 sheets of paper of your choosing. Recommended is to bring a mix of inexpensive newsprint or similar, and some nicer stock for the longer poses.
** some reduced rate slots are available for students - just ask.
Painting the Figure with Pastels
This 3-hour deep-dive workshop is based on the premise that pastels are just solid paint, so we'll be using painterly techniques to capture our impressions from a live model. We'll layer, we'll blend, we'll smudge; we'll try grisaille, alla prima, impasto, all of the things. We might also make a mess, so dress appropriately.
No prior pastel experience is required, but you may find that some figure drawing knowledge is helpful.
Location: Colourfield, Asheville, North Carolina
Class Size: Limited to 10 students
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Materials (suggested):
- Pastels: Ideally, a mix of cheap, student grade, and a few professional sticks (Sennelier, Rembrandt, etc.) For the latter, get a few light colors and some vivid hues.
- Paper: Pastel paper is okay, but thick print-making paper (BFK Rives) and sanded paper are preferred. 3-4 full-size sheets should suffice.
- Optional: Apron, mask, water bottle, cloth for wiping your hands, etc.
** some reduced rate slots are available for students - just ask.
Undrawing the Figure
This lively workshop is predicated on the idea that we have an intuitive sense of spatial geometry, and that just a few common obstacles prevent us from effectively utilizing this. Overcoming these obstacles allows us to draw quickly and accurately, no matter what our level of experience.
Through a combination of demos and hands-on instruction, we'll learn techniques to improve our discernment of significant shapes and mastery of the tools.
Location: Colourfield in Asheville, North Carolina
Class Size: Limited to 6 students, in-person only
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Materials (provided):
- Pastels Soft or chalk pastels and vine charcoal
- Paper: large sheets of newsprint or other cheap paper
- Other: Drawing board, clips, easels, chairs
- Optional: Apron, hair ties, water bottle, cloth for wiping your hands, etc.
Tutored Life Drawing
Tutored life drawing sessions differ from the workshops in that they're typically shorter (2 hours), less expensive ($30 or so), and are more of a high-level introduction to Undrawing concepts. They're still lots of fun!
Undrawing Anatomy
This introductory workshop is less about learning anatomical terms than it is about understanding how bones and muscles form their distinctive shapes based on their functions. Think of it as informed observation.
With our well-defined model, bodybuilder Marina, we'll explore different muscle groups in both their flexed and relaxed states, and apply Undrawing techniques to capture them quickly and accurately. It's going to be awesome.
Cost: varies
Class Size: Limited to 10 in-person, 10 online
Level: All levels
Materials: (suggested)
- Pastels Soft or chalk pastels (inexpensive, full-length, square, unwrapped)
- Paper: 50+ sheets of newsprint or other cheap paper (A2 or 18x24").
- Other: Drawing stands, boards, and clips will be supplied for in-person participants.
Undrawing the Portrait
Like Undrawing the Figure, the Undrawing approach to portraiture can yield accurate and compelling results in minutes. It's not about which part of the face to draw first or how things typically align, it's about seeing and drawing from the model in front of us. This takes the guesswork out of the process and allows you to concentrate on capturing the model's character. We'll be using soft pastel for the class (materials list below) but the concepts are applicable to any medium.
Class Size: Limited to 8 in-person, 16 online
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Materials:
- Pastels Soft or chalk pastels (inexpensive, full-length, square, unwrapped)
- Paper: 50+ sheets of newsprint or other cheap paper (A2 or 18x24").
- Other: Drawing stands, boards, and clips will be supplied for in-person participants.
Pastel Figure Drawing
This in-person workshop offers techniques allowing us to use our perception of mass and cool/warm colors to create fast, dynamic figure and portrait studies. Brief demos for each concept, followed by hands-on practice. We'll use soft pastels and toned paper and work from a live model.
Cost: varies
Click for Materials list.In-person only: Limited to 10 participants.
Figure Drawing
Untutored Figure Drawing
In-person and streaming figure drawing session with multiple camera angles of each pose. Poses will vary from 1- to 15-minutes. For those interested, sharing our work will take place at the end of the session.
In-person attendance limited by venue. For remote attendees the Zoom link will be delivered via email approximately 30 minutes prior to session start.