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- Teacher: Ruthie V.
- Course Length: 8 week session
- Start Date: Friday, April 17
- Time: 10:00 – 1:00 pm
Abstracting the Figure
This live model course pushes beyond traditional figure drawing into bold, expressive abstraction. Instead of focusing on anatomy or likeness, students learn to organize the figure through mass, movement, weight, edge, color, and the physical behavior of paint itself.
Working in oil, acrylic, or pastel, you’ll create multiple rapid studies from a single pose. Repetition becomes a powerful tool: each restart builds momentum, strips away hesitation, and reveals new visual possibilities. Rather than refining one image to completion, you’ll practice beginning again—discovering how freshness, risk, and material response generate paintings that feel alive.
The figure becomes a dynamic field of shapes and forces rather than a fixed subject to copy. Emphasis is placed on colors of light, planes of the body, spatial tension, and intuitive decision-making. Students leave with a stronger sense of abstraction, greater confidence in their mark-making, and a body of work that feels energetic, contemporary, and unmistakably their own.
Prerequisites:
At least one Figure Drawing course and Beginning Painting, or equivalent studio experience.Materials List
Medium (choose one or all):
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Oil paint
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Acrylic paint
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Pastel
Supports:
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Multiple small to medium surfaces
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Panels, canvas, paper, or pastel paper
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Plan to work on several pieces each session
- Plan to work larger as the sessions progress
Tools:
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A range of brushes or pastel sizes
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At least one tool larger or looser than your usual choice
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Optional palette knife or scraping tool
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Rags or paper towels
We will work quickly and start over often. Expect to make multiple studies rather than a single finished piece.
Artwork by Isaac Grunewald
Abstracting the Figure
This Abstracting the Figure course is a live model course that pushes beyond traditional figure drawing into bold, expressive abstraction. Instead of focusing on anatomy or likeness, students learn to organize the figure through mass, movement, weight, edge, color, and the physical behavior of paint itself.
Working in oil, acrylic, or pastel, you’ll create multiple rapid studies from a single pose. Repetition becomes a powerful tool: each restart builds momentum, strips away hesitation, and reveals new visual possibilities. Rather than refining one image to completion, you’ll practice beginning again—discovering how freshness, risk, and material response generate paintings that feel alive.
The figure becomes a dynamic field of shapes and forces rather than a fixed subject to copy. Emphasis is placed on colors of light, planes of the body, spatial tension, and intuitive decision-making. Students leave with a stronger sense of abstraction, greater confidence in their mark-making, and a body of work that feels energetic, contemporary, and unmistakably their own.
Prerequisites:
At least one Figure Drawing course and Beginning Painting, or equivalent studio experience.
