The Life Drawing Show (Capturing Personality and Couture)

There is so much more to our life drawing subjects, and in this exciting course you’ll learn how to portray your subjects’ personalities through couture and music!

You’ll be expertly let through an exciting and structured programme of drawing skills, where you’ll explore and produce linear and tonal studies, record active poses, and make more considered drawings, allowing you to gain confidence in your observational responses to the clothed form.

This unique, fun, and exuberant drawing programme will be varied, and each week you’ll be joined by various live models wearing beautifully themed couture. The outfits and themes you can expect include burlesque, cabaret, '70s disco, boudoir, ballet, various dancers, and more, with the aim of showcasing character and flair through couture. Each session will be accompanied by themed music to really set the scene and dynamic, creating an immersive and creative atmosphere.

As you capture the human form, you’ll observe the intricate couture and study how it fits around the body to create shape, form, and finesse, whether it is to define an alternative silhouette, or drapes to accentuate curves. In doing so you’ll develop skills to look beyond the human form to capture the very essence of your subject and translate their personality onto paper or canvas.

You’ll be encouraged to be both personal and expressive in your work whilst exploring a variety of drawing materials. As well as working in the group setting, you'll also be supported and encouraged by your tutor on an individual basis with feedback and suggestions to support and encourage progress and enjoyment.

As your tutor guides you through the series of weekly sessions, your skills of observation and draughtsmanship will develop. By the end of the course, you’ll have developed your skills as an artist and a portfolio of fresh and inspiring work.

• Studies in basic proportion and measuring
• Using environmental clues to reference the angles of the figure
• Expressive use of line, contour and mark making
• Studies in anatomy (including heads, hands, and feet)
• Working with colour
• Exploration of fabric (including texture, drapery, and shape)
• Tonal value and working with contrast
• Drawing the figure in motion and the dynamics
• Capturing the fluid movement of couture as a tool to express character
• Blocking in form
• The figure in perspective
• Using negative space and silhouette

The course aims to:

• Provide you with the observational skills to confidently draw the human form and clothing from life
• Deepen your understanding of how fabric drapes, moves, and lies against the body to create form and add texture
• Enable you to further develop your own work through using different working methods and mediums
• Enhance the execution of your drawings through use of line, contrast, and colour theory and learn how these can convey aspects of personality and character
• Provide you with a sound understanding of basic human anatomy to inform your drawings
• Encourage a working knowledge of negative shape and silhouette in your drawings
• Enable you to draw the figure in perspective
• Impart a self-critical approach to work, through regular group discussions with fellow students

• You’ll have a sound working understanding of the principles which inform drawing the human form from life and capturing the personality of the subject through their clothing
• During the course, you’ll produce a portfolio including varied responses to the human form. With an opportunity to produce more experimental and sustained work later in the term. This can be used to supplement applications for further courses of study
• All students with 100% course attendance will be issued with an official AUB Short Course certificate of attendance. To request your certificate email the team at shortcourses@aub.ac.uk

This course is aimed at students who have some prior experience of life/portrait drawing or who have already completed our Life Drawing – the Essential Techniques short course and would like to take their skills to the next level. Suitable for creatives aged 18+.

• A1 good quality cartridge paper (white)
• A2 cartridge paper (white)
• Sugar paper
• Drawing board clips
• Drawing pencils 2B-6B
• Plastic type eraser
• Putty type eraser (preferably Lyra or Faber Castell)
• White and coloured chalk
• Charcoal sticks (various thicknesses)
• Soft graphite sticks/crayons
• Roll of masking tape