The Figure Painting Course allows students to study the human figure in a structured and progressive way throughout the year. Participants study practical drawing and painting along with developing the conceptual aspects of making art, considering what it means to paint another human being. The course is an excellent vehicle for both improving students’ technical ability along with challenging them to develop and refine their ideas.
The course is for people who enjoy working from the figure, who are serious about their work and who want to spend an intensive day a week pushing themselves and their work onto a new level. Many artists and designers have used the course as a valuable day out from their studio, to gain inspiration and a fresh input of ideas.
The course runs one day a week throughout term time. It can be taken either as a stand-alone course or in conjunction with the Painting Course or Friday Advanced Painting Course. Upon completion, students exhibit work in the end of term exhibitions and receive a Leith School of Art Figure Painting Course Certificate.
Structure
The course starts with projects dealing with different technical and thematic aspects of working with the figure. In parallel, students are encouraged to develop their own figurative paintings either directly from life or through their own creative process, through drawings and other relevant information and imagery. The course then continues with students developing their work making substantial, sustained drawings and paintings based around a personal, underlying theme. An important aspect of the course is the opportunity to have critiques on work produced outside of the course.
Regular lectures and seminars give contextual, historical and practical direction to the course. Projects link to great artists’ work and students undertake a transcription project from the National Galleries. The aim of the course is to provide an exhaustive and rigorous insight into how artists work with the figure and how students can apply this in a relevant way to their own work.
Core hours are 9.30am to 5pm on Thursdays with life models available most weeks.
