Figure Drawing

Drawing the human form seems to consistently be the most challenging subject matter for most students to master.  It seems to me that this is so because of the psychological connection each person brings to an image of another human being.  The depiction of the human form contains the most direct connection that most people will have to an image - another similar "container" staring back at them.  Students put so much stock in how their figure drawings look - usually much more than other subject matter - in ways that seem to suppose that the human figure as subject matter is somehow more valid and special than other subject matter.  They tend to revert back to a juvenile understanding of what to do in a drawing, simply because the human form has such a tendency to be an intimidating subject to address.

At the beginning of a semester of figure drawing class, I try and get student over this barrier by approaching the figure in several ways:

1. As stated in the previous post, I spend the beginning of the semester teaching basic human surface anatomy (most muscles and all bones).  I illustrate and diagram the skeletal system, and each muscle and group of muscles form the inside out.  I emphasize how each grouping reacts (contracts or relaxes) depending on how the body moves, which then illustrates how, on a real body, one does not see everything delineated as in an anatomy diagram, but that one sees hints of what is happening underneath.  Also, this extended period of the study of human anatomy gives each student concrete principles and structures to rely on - in other words, to take some of the mystery out of what really happens when a model is posing in front of them.  I also make sure that each student knows the names of all the parts of the human body that have been presented, so that when they are drawing we can both have a discussion about what part of the drawing is giving them problems - so that we can have a discussion in a specific, scholarly manner.  After the series of lectures on anatomy, I also have the students complete a drawing that combines three drawings layered on top of each other.  First, I have a model pose in a very basic standing or seated pose, and have the students complete a drawing from that model.  Then, using a skeletal model posed in the same manner as the live model, I have students complete a drawing of that skeleton on a sheet of vellum on top of the original drawing.  Finally, I have each student use their notes and diagrams from the previous lectures, as well as the model in front of them, to complete another separate drawing on vellum of the muscles on top of the skeletal drawing. This series of drawings really causes each student to become much more sensitive to how the human form is a unique, integrated series of machine "parts," as well as encouraging in them to become much more focused in their understanding of how each body is an movable, organic thing.

2.  I have the students complete large format drawings that emphasize the geometric structure and general proportions of the human form.  I have them use large sticks of soft charcoal in order to emphasize what they really see (how light and anatomy define what they see), as opposed to a more stylized, generic, juvenile outline of the figure's perimeter.  I have them work large and to push the speed at which they draw, in order to have them to get used to exploring and discovering how the structures integrate with one another, as well as to emphasize both the organic nature of all of the structures of the figure, and how the figure can be approached by reducing those forms into a more rigid structure.  This emphasis on the larger, more generalized forms of the figure also encourages the students to approach their drawings as ways of developing and layering how the figure can be understood, as opposed to thinking only of a finished product that has to "look right".

3. As happens in most figure drawing classes, I also have the students work in a more expressive, gestural manner at the beginning of class.  This encourages each student to become comfortable with exploring, to "find" the figure after searching the surface of the paper using considered, but loose, line.  Working in this manner also encourages each student to become more mentally and observationally aggressive in their approach.  I don't want them to repeat a generic sense of the figure as they are drawing - I want them to respond in a sensitive manner to what they are seeing.  I also press them on how fast they work.  I don't want them to slow down and draw in a manner that is safe for them, simply because the students need to break habits, to push themselves beyond their supposed limited abilities, and to also use their whole mind and body when they are drawing.   Working fast, and on a large format, and  to keep looking and responding to what they see - these all result in more confidence, a heightened sensitivity, and a way in which they become more focused on the essentials of the figure, not the extraneous details.

4.  I then begin a series of drawings with the students that help them depict the figure in a more naturalistic, realistic setting type situation.  I first have them work on a series of drawings that emphasize the awareness of how foreshortening is used to place the figure in a more convincing space, as well as to try and get them to understanding more about the sensitive aspects of how the figure in front of them is posed, as opposed to using their generic understanding of the figure to draw what is front of them.  I have a series of projects that, again, the figure can be understood using different methods - dividing the figure into shapes, using a exploratory schematic of the figure to understand how parts line up, using a careful understanding of the laws of perspective to change proportions and angles of the figure, etc.  I will then construct a space around the figure using some furniture items and easels in order to show how the figure can be fit into a space without even delineating any part of the outline of the figure.  This whole series of projects/assignments encourages each student to approach the figure in a more expansive, integrated manner, as opposed to focusing on unrelated parts.  To me, this is the most difficult series of drawings, but if the students are given enough time over several class sessions to work on each large drawing,  then these become some of the most dynamic drawings of the class.  I often see huge jumps in each students' ability and confidence after completing these drawings, which enables the class to move on to more expressive approaches to the figure.

Drawing during dance rehearsal in the dance studio.

Anatomy lecture.

Painting completed from two self-portrait drawings completed from life.

foreshortened view of model's head/shoulders.

The end of the semester in painting class

The beginning of the semester in painting is devoted to more structured assignments - color mixing, technical training with the media, studio practice, even a lecture on the specific pigments, binders, different oil medium recipes and their properties, and of course, color theory.  The idea is to give each student a visual vocabulary, or, a set of tools, if you will.  My attempt is to take the "mystique" out of painting - to give my students an empowering sense, that they can work through problems and make things happen in a specific manner.  I say to them often that I want to them to MAKE things happen (or, even if they don't have a clear sense of what will work, I encourage them to work through the POSSIBILITIES of what can happen), instead of hoping that they do.  The first assignments are geared towards having an "organized series of states of mind," as Robert Henri says.  I want them to know that the mystique around painting is a ... fraud.  The mystery and wonder should be present in the reading of the image, inevitably, but not in the work that leads up to that moment.  During class, I often present to them a body of images from an artist, so that they realize that the process of working, the mastery of media, drawing, organization, etc. is the secret, that there inevitably is no ONE resolution to the situation, but that it is a growth on the part of the artist, based on a sustained work ethic.  If you get an email from me, you'll see a quote from Chuck Close that states that you should not be waiting for "the clouds to part and for inspiration to come."  He states that "work is your salvation."  The first two assignments are geared towards each student seeing that affect on their own work.   Towards the end of the semester, I can see that mastery and strong sense of where they want to go in each of my students.  For the final assignment, they must first complete a series of three drawings from any subject matter that they can observe, and then to complete a larger format painting using these drawings as their source.  I feel that, again, the working through of problems that the drawing process accomplishes empowers them to be able to manipulate the media so that they can communicate what they want to the viewer.

A student working from three landscape drawings and from the great view through the windows next to her.

A view of the painting studio

Students working on the beginning stages of their final assignment. Note the drawings situated nearby that they are working from.

A student working on the beginning stages of a printing completed by working from a double-portrait drawing completed from life.

A student working from three separate drawings on her final assignment.

Students working on the beginning stages of their final assignment.

The end of the semester in Printmaking.

The end of the fall semester is coming up at end of this week, and as is usual at almost any educational institution, it's been an intense couple of weeks of activity.
At the beginning of the semester, I structure the printmaking class so that first we work with a more direct process - relief/woodblock printing - then moving to a section of the class devoted to intaglio printing.  Both of these sections include several demonstrations on technical and historic aspects of these media.  Each student is required to complete multi-plate or multi-block prints, incorporating the use of color by using layers of transparent and opaque colors from those individual plates or blocks.  AFter printing state proofs of each image with different color schemes, each student is required to print an edition of the one color scheme that is chosen as the best resolution of the image after a group critique.   After completing the relief and intaglio print editions, we then move to stone lithography.  I will complete a separate post on each of these sections of the print classes, but I wanted to show that at the end of the semester each student is allowed to complete their final print edition using any print media (or, combination of any print media) that has been presented in class this semester.  You will notice in the images below that students working in a sophisticated manner, working in all those media.  I'm excited to see the finished print editions, and they are all working hard.

One student completing the first etch of the stone, one student completing her drawing.

A student using a "rainbow roll" of color for the color block for her final woodblock print.

Finishing the drawing on a stone for a lithographic print. 

A student printing the first of two colors for his final stone lithographic print.

Printing the first state of a print after the first line etch is completed.

A student printing the first of three colors for his final intaglio print edition.

Knowledge of Human Anatomy

After a class on aspects of arm and leg anatomy.

I've been interested in the study in human anatomy since I went to the anatomy lab with my friend Mike, who was going to med school in Vermont around 1985.  I remember that it had an immediate affect on me - not in the shocking way that you would think, but I was just interested in how amazing this machine is that carries us around all our lives.  I drew some small drawings in my sketchbook for a couple hours while Mike was going over notes and dissecting a shoulder joint.  So amazing.  I don't have those drawings anymore ... wish I did.

Teaching figure drawing is one of my favorite subjects to teach.  I use the figure almost exclusively in my own work, for reasons that I will go into towards the end of this entry, and I teach a section in anatomy for at least a couple weeks at the beginning of the course.  I've acquired about four books on anatomy, and every time I go into Strand Books in NYC, I drool over the Taschen encyclopedia on anatomy that costs $150 and weighs about 40 pounds.  So, I use my books, as well as some of my drawings form the figure, and I have the students learn all of the bones and muscles in the human body.  When I was teaching at Syracuse University, I would take my class over to the University Hospital anatomy lab at the beginning of every semester to draw from the cadavers.  (The doctor who ran the anatomy lab grew up with my father, and so when I went in one day and introduced myself, he said "y'know, I knew McKaig's from Jordan, NY," and when I explained that one of them was my father, I had an in).  After the class would leave the lab after the drawing session, it was as if they had seen alien beings, or witnessed some historic archaeological discovery right before their eyes.  Often, the drawings they created from that experience were some of the most sensitive and focused of the semester.

I teach anatomy because I feel that a heightened understanding and EMPATHY for the human figure is essential when creating images of the human form.  Too often students seem to be frustrated at the beginning of an attempt to draw the figure, but as soon as they understand what lies beneath what they are looking at - the inter-connectedness, the complexity, the structural elements - then their drawings gain a new richness and sensitivity.  When a model is posed in a certain manner, I can then talk to them about how the "rhomboid, teres-major and Infra and supra-spinatus muscles" are stretched out to extend the arm, etc., and they understand and pick up on subtleties that now are supported by their knowledge of anatomy.

I also teach anatomy, because the understanding of the all the inter-connected parts of the body also relate to all other structures and arrangements in the natural world.  Depicting the human form in space on a two-dimensional format is one the most difficult tasks that a student can undertake, and so if they gain in their mastery of this skill, then it empowers them to tackle almost anything else.  Kenneth Clark said: “The nude human figure does not simply represent the body, but relates it, by analogy, to all structures that have become part of our imaginative experience.”  I find that when my students understand the "science" of the body, as well as the expressive potential of the human form, then they tend to be much more fearless.  I'm all for that.

Printmkaing critique

Figure drawing

Finishing a self-portrait.

Figure drawing critique

Critiques

I conduct critiques in several different ways, and on a regular basis, and I conduct critiques that are geared toward different situations, as follows:

-       When students are working steadily on a painting, print or drawing, I conduct what basically becomes a quick personal critique throughout the class session.  I ask open questions like “what are you doing next?”, “What are you working on now, and why?”, “How will what you’re doing in this area affect the other areas of the image?”, etc.  A common encouragement I present to them is to “be honest” about what the image needs.  This requires focused analysis, not generalizations or defeatist attitudes on their part.  I hope that this question has an empowering influence on them.  I want them to assume that all they have to do is quietly consider what is a challenge in the image. Then, they almost always inevitably go right to the area that we both agree needs to be addressed in the image (mostly because it is obvious that the particular area chosen is being avoided), and they also know almost immediately what steps they might take to resolve those issues that are presented to them.  I want to emphasize, I don’t expect them to come up with a clear plan that will definitely resolve the issue – I just want them to be empowered to TRY something, and to work toward the resolution, not to pre-conceive it before trying.  Like I say to my students – avoiding your problems doesn’t make them go away.  A quick personal critique can often be away of regaining focus on what the student needs to do, as well as a way for me to encourage them with pointing out other areas that have worked, due to their focused effort.

-       Preliminary group critiques are conducted after maybe two or three weeks on a longer painting or print project, in order for the students to take a break from the focused work, step back, and get reactions from their fellow students on what they are doing.  I often ask each student to come into the studio the night before a group critique and to write about one other student’s piece, to be read at the critique the next day.  This allows the students alone time with the work, so that they don’t feel pressured to come up with quick analysis in front of their peers, to give them time to express what they really want to say.  I also ask them to answer three simple questions in their written analysis – “What do you see?”, “What are the strong parts, or strong directions in the piece?”, and, “what are the challenges, or things that need to be changed, in your opinion?”  The first question concerning “what they see,” seems simple, but spending time and analyzing all aspects of what is seen can be very revealing, as opposed to a casual, quick analysis.  Answering this question after thoughtful and focused looking reveals much to the artist about how affective their approach is (mark-making/brush work, color scheme, space, composition, built up or lightly considered areas, etc.).   After the written comments are presented, I then allow the rest of the class to present their comments and ask questions of each other, not the artist.  I do this because I don’t want the rest of the class to take the easy way out by getting the answers directly from the artist – I want them to go through the process of critical thinking and discussing.  This prolonged discussion sometimes seems to drag on, but I feel that it’s important in terms of encouraging them to think in this focused, critical manner when they are working on their own painting/print/drawing.

-        At the end of the assignment, or at time that the piece is presented for viewing, I conduct a final group critique.  This takes on a very similar character as the previously discussed critique situation, with one change – I expect that each student needs to speak about each piece, and … that I don’t speak during the critique.  I do this so that they acquire the skill and sensitivity of concentrating on what is being said by everyone in the room, and so that they gain the ability of formulating their own decisions based on input presented on the spot.  I think that encourages them to think more on their feet, and it forces them (somewhat) to not let too much that’s said left open.  Decisions and determinations need to be made, even if the determination is that some aspect of the piece is not supposed to be pinned down.

The importance of process.

Talking with students about the different aspects of process is what I spend most of my classroom time with.  Many students have to be encouraged to not take shortcuts, to not expect the answers given to them, and to not focus on having the answers before going through the process of developing an image or object from the very beginning.  You will notice in the images in the previous post, that the students are expected to be fully independent with even the most mundane aspects of art-making: building frames for stretching canvas, grinding their own stones for working in lithography, mixing their own paint, maintaining the studios, developing fully resolved preliminary drawings, etc.

This emphasis on process and nuts-and-bolts work has several results.  It encourages the student to become acutely aware that ALL aspects of art-making (formal, technical and conceptual decisions) have an effect on how the image or object is read by the viewer.  It also forces the student to become aware of the subtle aspects or inherent qualities of each media.  Using the progressive grains of carborundum when grinding the stone, and following the process exactly in order to end up with a surface that affects the drawing that is to be completed - this is a perfect example of the student becoming aware of the inherent quality of stone lithography.

Having the students become proficient in all aspects of the process also has a more practical result - each student can act on their ideas more independently.  They won't need to ask for permission or to ask for guidance in all aspects of ... building frames, cutting wood for woodblock prints, sharpening their tools, stretching canvas, etc. - and so then they will be able to work towards where their ideas take them.  In other words, much fewer limitations.

I have each student completed well resolved drawings from life for each painting for several reasons:
- Extending the process this way causes the student to realize that resolving the image as a painting can be a long process in general.  The painting looks the way it does because of this gradual development.  The richness, range and sensitivity that occur are a result of this preliminary step.
- This also makes the development of the finished "product", so to speak, much less frustrating.  Problems and challenges have been worked out in the preliminary drawing, so the student has a much more positive direction to the work at hand.  Basically, it helps build a "library" of experiences to draw from.  Having resolved related drawings in the preliminary drawing format informs what the solutions might be in a related situation in a slightly different format/media.

The importance of process

Grinding limestone to prepare the surface for printing. 

Demonstrating assembly of wood frames for stretching canvas.

demonstrating completed assembly of canvas frame. 

process of developing an image from life and from preliminary drawings.

process of developing an image from life and from preliminary drawings 

Life drawing conducted in the dance studio.

drawing on the prepared limestone surface.  Note the covered "border" of the stone, in order to enable accurate printing.

My Teaching Philosophy

-       I encourage my students to develop strong formalistic and aesthetic understanding as a basis for expressing their own personal vision.  I encourage my students to be aware of all that is going on around them in terms of visual and cultural stimuli, but inevitably, to be manipulated by none of it.  I do feel, however, that a keen knowledge of art history and the traditions and techniques that have been developed through the ages is a necessity in analyzing and developing their own expression.  Because of that, I integrate a thorough curriculum of pre- and post-modern art history into all of my courses.  I do this by introducing material from my own library of books, as well as the resources from out institution’s library into the class session as regularly as possible.  I also have worked with the Interlochen librarian towards building the art resources in the library, and have stayed informed about current publisher’s catalogs of books from all areas of the visual arts, so that I can help build that resource for our students.  In addition, I am a voracious reader of contemporary periodicals that deal with art, culture, history, etc., and so I also incorporate that material into my classes as well.  I have consulted our librarian about how to broaden the scope of that periodical literature available to the students, and this has informed much of how I have grown my curriculum as well.

-       I encourage my students to experiment with all the media and technical apparatus available – in order to understand the limitless possibilities available in manipulating the inherent qualities of each media.  I encourage each of my students to aggressively grow in their understanding of the inherent qualities of a variety of media in order for them to be able to also grow conceptually.  I integrate methods learned through the Project Zero program at Harvard University, which I use towards having the students become more sensitive about specific formal decisions they are making, as well as becoming more sensitive to the essential quality of the process, and how this sensitivity promotes in them a more thorough understanding of the how the process informs their art-making.

-       I consider myself a hands-on teacher, but I feel that I encourage each of my students to grow on their own – to explore and to be free to make “mistakes,” to push themselves in ways that their work takes them.  I feel that the self-directed education is inevitably the best way to guide the student in their education as students of art. To this end I constantly encourage each student by asking open, active questions that then direct each of them towards active responses as shown in their work. I conduct classes in a way that allows me to approach each student individually, so that they can articulate their progress in ways that alludes to concepts and techniques that have been presented in preceding classes.  I also conduct regular structured critiques, and have developed a series of questions so that each student is required to become a part of the critique process, as well as so that each student has to become sensitive, empathetic and thorough in their responses to those questions.  I ask them to look forward towards how they use the media and process, not backward (at their so-called “mistakes”).

-       I feel that gearing instruction to each individual student is important, and so I strive to know each student’s concerns and strengths, so that they hopefully learn the importance and validity of drawing, painting, printmaking, etc. as it relates to almost every creative discipline.  In closing, I encourage – and expect – my students to be knowledgeable, dedicated, positive, aggressive, analytical, passionate, alert, confrontational towards themselves as well as towards what they are seeing, to always question – never settle, and to be aware of the wonder that can be revealed by the creation of a work of honesty, passion and empathy.