Happy holidays everyone! It's Jake Garfield here (@jakegarfieldart) - artist, alumnus and tutor with the Royal Drawing School. 

Following on from our Drink And Draw workshop last Friday, here are some images of our amazing model Lidia (@lidialidialife) and a few short drawing activities you can try at home. All you need is a pencil and some paper!

Continuous Line Drawing: We started off with some short continuous line drawings. Set a timer for 2 minutes and that pencil doesn’t leave the page until the two minutes are up. You can get lighter or heavier with your line, the key is to keep the tempo as high as possible. 

I would recommend starting in the middle of your drawing and building outwards. It’s a linear drawing but that doesn’t mean it’s all about outlines - your line can jump around your subject as if you are wrapping Lidia in string.

Two Variations: 

1) Try holding your pencil right at the bottom as you draw. You may find you have less control - this is about focusing on the bigger picture. 

2) Draw for a minute without looking at your page - no cheating! The composition may become a little abstract - try this a few times and you may find yourself naturally developing strategies of how to keep things in proportion.

Sustained Pose: Now we are all warmed up it’s time for a longer drawing. There is no restriction for how to draw, however I would recommend including Lidia’s entire figure and something to give an indication of the space she is in. Even a single horizontal line cutting through the figure can give a viewer clues about the context Lidia is in, and where you stand in relation to her.

Suggestion: When drawing from observation, it’s a good habit to be constantly looking back and forth between your subject and your drawing. 

As a general rule you might want to spend two or three seconds looking at your subject (in this case, Lidia) for every mark you make on the page. The more you do this, the more you will be able to challenge your presuppositions and build a drawing from genuine experience.

Happy drawing and see you in 2022!

If you are interested in exploring what else the School has to offer, we have courses ranging from Drawing and Imagination to the Studio Room in Colour - explore all our Public Courses here.