This Fall, I am painting less because I am continuing with the drawing classes at the Academy of Realist Art in Boston.

The Figure Drawing session is a 12 week session of instruction on drawing the figure using live models. I attend two mornings a week. 

I'm three weeks into this session, and have learned enough to know that there is much more to know!  The instructors, Emmy and Garrett, are as patient as they are skillful.  It's an extremely nurturing learning environment. No fault of the instructors, but 

I felt as unknowing as a four-year-old during my first few classes because their approach to drawing is dramatically different from what I have been doing. (I have been 'winging it', so anything with 'an approach' would be different!)

We spent two weeks sketching 'constructs' of the live model.  A construct is simply a gestural sketch which capture the motion and emotions of the pose using 10-12 lines. 

Now we are into the 'long pose' phase of the session which lasts 10 weeks.  That is, the model will assume the same pose for ten weeks.

The first week of the long pose I created the following 'mini' version of the construct, which is about 4 inches high. I will use this to refer to throughout the entire session. 

Here's my mini:

The next class, I started to draw the construct on the full sheet of paper.  This is my first attempt and has a lot of fixing up to do!  

I will continue to refine this drawing until my construct is correct. 

Here's the big one, 24 x 30, taped to a board.  (You can see the mini drawing in the top left corner.) 

The classroom space for the figure drawing class is excellent.  The room is darkened during all live posing, with lights only on the drawings and the live model.  Below is a photo of the space during a class break.  There are about 10 people in each class. 

Since I am a beginner in this class and all 'leftie' easels were spoken for, I am working from a 'horse', which is the bench in the front.  I straddle it and prop my board up in front of me.  It's a little different looking up at the model, but I hope this vantage point only makes my drawing a little more dramatic.   I am really enjoying this challenging class and am sure it will ultimately improve my painting!