Figure Drawing: The Spirit of the Pose | Part 1: Intro and Theory

[New Masters Academy]

In this new series, figure drawing instructor, Karl Gnass, will show you how to draw an entire figure through his five crucial stages: Gesture, Formulation, Anatomy, Light and Tone, and Aesthetics. In this lesson, Karl will give you an overview of these five stages. He will then elaborate on the three initial stages to achieve a solid foundation for your drawing. Karl will share with you his in-depth theories of how to construct your figure drawings.

Materials

• Conté Crayon – Sanguine
• Digital Tablet
• Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencil – Indianthrene Blue
• CarbOthello Pencil – Prussian Blue
• Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel Pencil – Black
• Seth Cole Heavy Ledger Paper

[elskya]

Hi,

I’m trying to figure out the best approach to this series, and whether or not I should be using an easel, and what size paper to work on. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[ManuelFernandez]

@elskya

 

Watch the video on drawing benches and easels, you should work as large as you can to move your shoulder, I’d recommend a bench.

https://www.nma.art/videolessons/beginners-program-lesson-2-drawing-furniture-and-lights/

[elskya]

Thanks, Manuel – I have an easel so I’ll use that.

[Philipp Ringli]

Why is there no link to the reference material? This is basic stuff, nma!

[Joshua Jacobo]

Phillip,

 

That is definitely not supposed to be the case. It looks like the references images may have gotten lost during the new website move. We will get to the bottom of this and correct next week.

[Georg Hasenoehrl]

Hi,

I like the approach of gesture from Karl Gnass and the 3 stages. My question is: If I want not to draw photo realistic, do I have also to know the 3rd stage anatomy? What If I want a style only with gesture and volume/shape? (I am a hobby artists). What are your thoughts about this? Many thanks from Austria/Europe.

Best regards

George

[Kayin Aaron]

I know this is way old but Georg if you are still around. The more anatomy you know the more you will have ideas for decision making. What you want to and not want to include.

 

[Justyna]

This is literallly the best figure drawing course ever. Really, it’s very demanding, but I can clearly see the huge progress in my understanding of a figure and in my drawings. This is just brilliant. It was really tough at te beginning but now I’m already on the 3rd week and feel like I’ve finally started connecting the dots. Thank you Karl for sharing your knowledge with us. And thank you Joshua for making it possible for me to learn from all the masters here. I never expected I would be able to afford enrollig to classes of all of these amazing teachers here. But you really made it possible and now my dream of becoming a pro artist could acctually come true someday. Thank you so much, all of the NMA crue! I’m just so happy I had to post this here 😀

[Author]

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