What we are doing, and what we might want in a figure drawing is not completely straightforward. There have always been artists - for instance Michelangelo, Delacroix, Rodin, Egon Schiele, Jenny Saville - for whom values such as feeling or atmosphere or energy have been as important as, say, accuracy or modelling or precision. In fact it might well be that we want all of these things in drawing, or some combination of them.

It would be my contention that expressive drawing focuses not only on the subject (model), but on our personal reading of that subject and on the materials and techniques we use in representation - so three things all interacting and influencing one another.
It would also be my belief that by understanding the possibilities within these techniques - line, tone, measuring etc - we can liberate our scope for representation and self expressive potential.

This means I think that we have decisions to make about the kind of approaches we may take and techniques we use. In other words there may not be one “right” way to do things but a series of possibilities and choices. The choices we make end up reflecting who we are.

In this course I want to think about what we are trying to do in drawing and connect that to practical possibilities in approaches and techniques. So it will be practical and we will also look at the work of artists who have dealt with these issues, and differing artists with differing approaches, artists such as Delacroix, Michelangelo, Raphael, Ingres, Giacometti, Coldstream, Eugene Carriere, Anne Gale, Rodin, Picasso and many others.

The course will be over ten weeks, each class roughly 2 hours. Running on Wednesdays starting Wednesday 17th January 2024. Cost £350 (which can be split into 2 payments).

Over ten weeks we will look at: Different ways to start a drawing, Drawing with Light, Tone, Line, Accuracy and Inaccuracy, Mark-making.

To register interest or if you have any questions contact me at mail@alanmcgowan.com

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