Life Drawing Sketchbook Short Course
Course description
Course overview
Life Drawing Sketchbook is a short course ideal for both beginners and learners with more experience looking to develop their figure drawing skills. Working from a diverse range of experienced live models, you’ll experiment with traditional and experimental drawing techniques, such as gesture, proportion, foreshortening, light, and structure directly in your sketchbook.
The techniques you learn in the studio will be directly applicable to drawing at home, in public, and in motion, helping you to build a sustainable and long-term sketchbook practice. This course supports both technical observational studies and intuitive, embodied responses, allowing you to explore and develop your personal approach to the human form.
The combined traditional and experimental hybrid delivery in sketchbook format has proved successful in helping artists develop their skills in and out of the classroom. You are encouraged to work between sessions to refine your skills, focus on personal goals, and make the most of your time in the studio.
Classroom discussions and sharing work are a vibrant feature of this course and present an opportunity to gain feedback on your drawings from a wide range of perspectives. Beginners will have the chance to learn from more experienced learners, while all participants gain confidence by sharing their knowledge, perceptions, and individual skillsets. This collaborative environment fosters experimentation, reflection, and creative problem-solving, while building connections within a supportive artistic community.
This course is available in two formats: a 5-week evening course or a 2-day course.
Who this course is for
This course is suitable for anyone interested in figure drawing, whether you’re trying it for the first time, revisiting the foundations of life drawing, or refining an existing practice.
Beginners will develop the skills to draw from live models, while intermediate and advanced learners will explore more experimental approaches, learn from peers, and strengthen their decision-making in drawing. All learners benefit from working in a collaborative, supportive environment where feedback, discussion, and shared learning are central.
No prior experience is necessary.
Key information
Topics covered
- Observing and mapping the human body
- Gesture, movement, and proportion
- Foreshortening and spatial relationships
- Light, tone, and structure
- Traditional dry media techniques (charcoal, pencil, pastel, conte)
- Experimental and embodied drawing approaches
- Using colour in life drawing
- The body in relation to interior space
- Developing and sustaining a sketchbook practice
- Individual and collaborative drawing exercises
- Classroom discussion and reflective feedback
- How to use a sketchbook
Learning outcomes
- Draw from live models using a variety of traditional and experimental techniques
- Use your sketchbook as a tool for reflection, experimentation, and sustained creative practice in the studio, at home, and in public
- Apply observational and intuitive approaches to gesture, proportion, foreshortening, light, and structure
- Engage in classroom discussions and sharing of work to gain feedback and learn from peers
- Strengthen creative decision-making and problem-solving in your personal drawing practice
- Build connections within a supportive community of artists and continue drawing independently beyond the course
Materials
All materials will be provided, however, please feel free to bring any materials you like to work with such as:
- Charcoal, compressed charcoal, pencils, conte crayons, soft pastels
- Sketchbooks: A3 and A4
- Sugar paper: A3 and A4, mid-tone (grey, buff) and other colours
- Erasers, sharpeners, biros, felt tip pens, masking tape
Tutor
Joe Richardson
Joe Richardson is a London-based multidisciplinary artist and artist-educator working across painting, drawing, walking, teaching and socially engaged practice. His work often begins with observational drawing out in the world: on trains, during walks through the city, and within everyday life. From there, he returns to moments of transition in the in-between spaces where roles, environments and ways of being shift, and where feelings of tension, balance and anxiety surface. These raw, immediate drawings often evolve into studio works, becoming paintings, cyanotypes, prints and other artefacts that carry traces of movement, place and lived experience.
Central to Joe's work is the belief that making, teaching and learning are inseparable. Through participatory projects, he invites others into the act of moving/walking and drawing, creating shared experiences and practical ways to generate imagery, reflect, and bring thought into motion. The routes he walks become a working space: a place to observe, to record notes and reflections, and to test ideas outside the studio. In this sense, drawing walks shift from incidental journeys to an essential method for connecting with place, people, and questions that shape the work and activate new ideas.
Joe regularly teaches Short Courses at UAL and is the course leader for Advanced Painting at City Lit. He holds an MA in Fine Art and MA Academic Practice from Central Saint Martins and University of the Arts London as well as a PGCert in Academic Practice from UAL. He also holds Advance HE Fellowship Status.
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