Find Figure Drawing Classes, Workshops, Open Studios in the USA and Canada (2024)

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Find Figure Drawing Classes, Open Studios in USA and Canada

Since 2009, this directory has listed art schools, ateliers, and studios where artists can paint, sculpt, or draw live art models. Life Drawing groups come and go, and schedules change, so it is wise to confirm with the organizer before attending. Please report any defunct groups or broken links to directoryFind Figure Drawing Classes, Workshops, Open Studios in the USA and Canada (4)artmodelbook.com

See submission guidelines if you would like a free listing.

USA:Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California(Los Angeles · O.C./San Diego/I.E. ·Central · Bay Area ),
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania,Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington DC,Washington State, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
CANADA: Alberta, British Columbia (Vancouver), Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia,
Ontario (Toronto), Quebec, Saskatchewan

Submission Guidelines
Increase attendance by promoting your sessions in this directory.

To add a free listing for your figurative art classes and open studios, please email the following information to directoryFind Figure Drawing Classes, Workshops, Open Studios in the USA and Canada (5)artmodelbook.com with the name of your group in the subject line. If your organization offers more than one class or session, please submit one listing, and explain the various offerings in the description.

  • Name of Group/Organization
  • Street address of drawing workshop location
  • City, State/Province, Zip/Postal Code. (Zip/Postal code is used to sort geographically.)
  • URL, Email and/or Telephone for prospective attendees to obtain more information
  • Instructed or Uninstructed
  • Description: 100 words maximum, plain text. Include any pertinent information such as regular meeting day and time, whether models are nude or costumed, gender of models, length of poses, equipment provided (benches, easels), fees, atmosphere, etc. If you are seeking new art models, mention that here. Please write as a long-term description—do not include enrollment deadlines or course dates—to avoid your listing appearing obsolete quickly.

PLEASE DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS -(STOP)- THIS IS NOT A TELEGRAM -(STOP)-

Submissions deemed off-topic or unverifiable may be excluded. The focus of the directory is figure drawing—nude, costumed, or street clothes.

Listings may be edited for length, clarity, format, or redundancy.

Listings are free. A reciprocal link is always appreciated.

Long Live Life Drawing

Open studio sessions are an economical way to practice drawing from life.

• Winnipeg Sketch Club has beensketching from live models since 1914.
• Friday Night Open-Figure Drawing has been a resource in Milwaukee for over 50 years.
• Susan Gallacher has held two weekly life drawing sessions in Salt Lake City for 40 years.
• Sandy Hill Life Drawing Workshop in Ottawa has been meeting for over 35 years.
• Taos Open Figure Drawing Group has been meeting for over 35 years.
• The Etobico*ke Art Group has been meeting since 1951.
• Florence Hill has hosted the Figure Drawing Co-op in Minneapolis since 1976.
• Basic Inquiry in Vancouver BC was established in 1983.
• Open Figure Drawing Inc. has met on Wednesdays in Syracuse since the late 1980s.
• Mendocino Figure Drawing Collective has been meeting since 1989 at Mendocino Art Center.
• Wednesday Model Lab has been in continuous operation at Watercolor Art Society Houston since 1986.
• Minerva's Drawing Studio (previously Spring Studio) has hosted figure drawing 7 days a week in NYC since 1992.
• Monday Night Figure Session at St. Augustine Art Association has been ongoing for over 30 years.

"Open figure drawing sessions have become ubiquitous for two reasons: a resurgence in the popularity of the figure in art, and the fact that such sessions are usually very reasonably priced. They play an important part in meeting the needs of artists who are interested in drawing the nude figure but cannot afford to hire a model. Their communal nature helps keep costs down and also gives artists some company (and in some cases, competition) while they work from the model. The shorter poses that are usually the focus of such sessions provide unique challenges on a technical level."— Robert Zeller, p.192, The Figurative Artist's Handbook: A Contemporary Guide to Figure Drawing, Painting, and Composition

The Art Model's Handbook: The Naked Truth about Posing for Art Classes and Fine Artists • by Andrew Cahner
ISBN-13: 978-1-442-16969-2 • ISBN-10: 1-442-16969-9 • Order your copy from Amazon or Book Depository.
contactFind Figure Drawing Classes, Workshops, Open Studios in the USA and Canada (7)artmodelbook.com• Contents of this site © 2009-2023. All rights reserved.
Painting on book cover: “Trois Couleurs Noir.” Oil on canvas. © 2004 Antoine de Villiers. Used with permission.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Find Figure Drawing Classes, Workshops, Open Studios in the USA and Canada (2024)

FAQs

What is the best way to learn figure drawing? ›

Take a course:

Your local community college or university likely offers figure drawing classes, and there are many nonprofit organizations for the arts that teach them too. If you're more comfortable working online, there are numerous videos on Behance for life drawing and figure drawing.

Is there a free drawing course? ›

Best Free Drawing Basics Course for Beginners (Proko)

This free course will teach you the very basics of drawing, starting from how to hold your pencil, shapes and shading, and ultimately more complex techniques so that you can draw anything easily.

What do you do in a figure drawing class? ›

What to expect when the class starts?
  1. the class starts with a warm up pose for around 20-30 minutes.
  2. Then you'll practise with quick poses. The model will hold a pose for 2-5 minutes and you'll do rapid sketches of them.
  3. Then the poses get longer and you do one long one (maybe 40-60 minutes at the end).

Where to start learning figure drawing? ›

In art, this simplified figure is called an armature. Learning to draw armatures is a great place to start in figure drawing. You don't have to worry about making the armature look like the person you're drawing. Once you take away all the details, what you're left with is a diagram of how someone is posed.

How long does it take to learn to draw figures? ›

Art students who would like to become fine artists, start their art education in art schools from the age of 9 or 10. By the end of this school, which takes 4 to 5 years, they have very good drawing, painting, decorative arts, composition, and sculpting skills as well a firm knowledge of the history of arts.

What is the best free drawing app? ›

Here are some great applications for drawing that won't cost you a penny to use.
  • Autodesk SketchBook.
  • Adobe Illustrator Draw.
  • Adobe Fresco (previously Photoshop Sketch)
  • MediBang Paint.
  • GIMP.
  • Sketch I.O.
  • Procreate.
  • iPastels.

What website do people use to draw? ›

Draw: Free Online Drawing Tool | Canva. Choose from thousands of free, ready-to-use templates. All the power of AI, all in one place.

Can you learn to draw without talent? ›

Anyone can learn to draw or paint with enough practice. Some of the most famous artists in history were not born with talent, but they practiced regularly and became great artists. There are a number of ways to practice, such as taking classes, watching tutorials, or practicing on your own.

Is there any app to learn drawing? ›

“With over 1,500 hand-drawn lessons developed by real artists, ShadowDraw is a drawing app for beginners who want to improve their skills and become better artists through daily step-by-step drawing exercises.

How to take drawing classes at home? ›

Start with simple things: Draw things around you, like still lifes, fruits, flowers, or simple objects like cups or vases. Use reference material: Reference photos, drawings or even real objects to help you with proportions and perspectives. Practice every day: Set aside a specific time each day to practice drawing.

Is figure drawing useful? ›

One of the most valuable benefits of figure drawing is that it helps an artist understand the element of motion or action in a drawing. The artist is capturing a living human in their natural position, seeing it as it is in real life. It is the best way to get a feel for movement, weight, balance, and tension.

What is the full figure drawing? ›

Figure drawing is the art of sketching the human figure, often done live with a nude model who is standing or sitting in a pose that emphasises the figure. This process helps the artist capture the essence of the human body's musculature, texture and postures.

Which is the easiest method of human figure drawing? ›

The easiest way to draw people is with the 'Ball-and-Socket' technique, a method in which the artist sketches several conjoined ovals to form the body parts of the human figure and draft the figure's pose.

What is the first step in learning to draw figures? ›

Learning the three-dimensional shapes of these large muscles is the first step to creating figures that are anatomically correct. Learning the forms of the muscles is vastly different than learning anatomy from a medical book. You have to learn how to draw them when the muscle is stretched, flexed or relaxed.

Can you learn figure drawing without model? ›

“Can I learn to draw the human figure without having access to a life model?” The answer is yes, you can to learn drawing human figures to a certain degree without life sessions.

How hard is figure drawing? ›

A figure drawing may be a composed work of art or a figure study done in preparation for a more finished work, such as a painting. Figure drawing is arguably the most difficult subject an artist commonly encounters, and entire courses are dedicated to the subject.

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