For the many of the 12 Hillsdale College students attending the art department’s upcoming figure-drawing workshop Jan. 6-10, the last week of break will be their first exposure to depicting a nude model.
The Studio Incamminati will present the workshop on campus the week before classes resume for the rest of campus.
In this program, students promptly begin an intensive study of the geometric shapes of the human body, lasting up to eight hours each day. Studio Incamminati will provide a local nude model so that students can acquire a more comprehensive understanding of proportions and linear construction.
“We study structural points,” instructor JaFang Lu said. “My lecture talks about what’s under that, so students can correlate abstract information with specific information. It trains their seeing. A competent artist learns to see and knows what they see, what they know, and what they want.”
A typical day during the workshop begins with a demonstration, and a lecture. It concludes when students complete a number of exercises to practice drawing with charcoal.
“The goal is for them to see exact shapes. They have to have an idea of what they see as far as what the form is like under the skin,” Lu said. “Once they acquire a certain amount of proficiency, we move on.”
Lu adjusts the amount of information that she teaches in one lesson to the degree of student experience and how quickly students apply the material to their artwork.
“The most difficult thing I observe in my students’ art is that they get distracted by details. If they are doing a portrait, they get caught up in the features instead of understanding the structure of the head as a simple form,” she said. “They need to ignore all of that. It’s like a house: you get distracted by doors and curtains, but the most important thing is the foundation.”
Lu has taught drawing workshops for 10 years. The course she will be teaching at Hillsdale College has been condensed from 18 weeks into one week, and she aims to hone the skill of artists who have an interest in drawing realistically.
“It’s 1/18 of the time that students have compared to what we do in a regular class. I won’t be able to cover everything in a crash course,” Lu said. “This gives them an idea of how to see and approach art from a more holistic point. People tend to think the way to go about it is to just copy everything.”
The workshop is designed off of a class taught at the Studio Incamminati, an Italian-style school that teaches contemporary realist art in Philadelphia.
“We just celebrated our 10th anniversary this past year. At first it was more or less an informal thing, but our program has really grown in the past year. For those certain people who are not going to get to come to Philadelphia, we thought we would bring it to them,” said Bill Wedo, communications manager at Studio Incamminati.
The workshop has been capped at 12 students and costs $550. Currently, there are no seats available; however, cancellations occur regularly and interested students may call 215-592-7910 for more information.
“We are really looking forward to having this opportunity for students to develop their skill,” Professor of Art Barbara Bushey said. “We have alumni who have attended this school after graduating from Hillsdale and speak very highly of it. This is, in a word, quite exciting.”
