This course is an online beginning figure drawing course for degree credit. This course is offered to our first-year students and it is recommended that you also take an intro to animation class.

Life drawing is one of the most important skills you will learn as an aspiring artist, especially for animation training. Figure drawing is taken every quarter for all three years of our diploma course, this is one of the very first figure drawing classes in our diploma course. If you haven’t taken the intro to figure drawing course I highly recommend you take that course first.

For those working without visual reference (or as a means of checking one’s work), figure drawings can be made from photos and youtube. Firstly draw from life. Secondly, draw from live video. Most importantly, try not to draw exclusively from photos. You should build up a good eye for drawing from life. Afterward, you can draw from pictures. 

• An average person is generally 7-and-a-half heads tall (including the head).
• An ideal figure, used for an impression of nobility or grace, is drawn at 8 heads tall.
• A heroic figure used in the depiction of gods and superheroes is eight-and-a-half heads tall. Most of the additional length comes from a bigger chest and longer legs.

These figure drawing proportions are most useful for a standing model. Poses that introduce foreshortening of various body parts will cause them to differ.

Most importantly you should draw from life.

Some of the focus topics of this course are:

• One minute quick sketch
• 3-minute quick sketch
• 5-minute drawing
• 10-minute drawing
• 20-minute long pose
• Key poses
• Changing awkward poses
• Tonal study of the figure
• Expression in figure