ABOUT THIS COURSE

We all want to improve our drawing. But what does it actually mean to get better at drawing? Answering this question is essential to progressing with our drawing skills. This drawing fundamentals course is specifically designed to identify what we need to work on and exactly how to make lasting improvements in your fundamental drawing skills. 

Over 8 weeks you will have this incredible opportunity to learn from a master. Working from a life model model drawing a different pose each week. We will work to identify what is important and what isn't in drawing the figure focussing on making specific and identifiable improvements in your drawing.

We will be using the sight-size method with the live model over the course. This method is a simple and proven way to see and draw more skilfully. The approach to looking at the model, using materials, making marks, etc. is all based on the premise of simplifying. "When in doubt, simplify" as Steve Huston says. How can we best simplify our way of looking? Our subject? Our technique?

Suitable for any level.

Materials needed

• Faber-Castell putty rubber

• A4 sketch book/ cartridge paper

• A range of pencils (from 2H to 2B)

• A piece of medium grain sandpaper

• A craft knife/ snap-off blade

• Masking tape

Meet nicholas

Florence Academy of Art prize winner and graduate.

Nicholas finished his post-graduate studies at Ireland’s National College of Art & Design (NCAD) in 2009, having previously graduated from the Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork. Thoroughly disillusioned by art education in Ireland, Nicholas searched elsewhere and was introduced to the American ateliers in Florence, in which students study exclusively from life, by the Irish painter Gearoid Hayes.

Subsequently Nicholas quit his teaching career and attended the Florence Academy of Art, Sweden under the tutelage of the Swedish painter Joakim Ericsson. Nicholas received a pair of drawing awards during his time at the school in Sweden and returned to Ireland in 2013. He is now exhibiting nationally, and works and teaches out of in his studio in Wicklow.

nicholasbenedictrobinson.com