Sixth-form Art students benefited from their annual life-drawing masterclass from working artist John Close in the school theatre last week.
Learning to draw the human figure from life has been fundamental to artistic training since the Renaissance and, according to Harrodian Head of Art, Laura Caldecott, regular life drawing sessions remain as vital to art teaching as ever. ‘Life drawing teaches you to really look at what you’re drawing: the dimensions and proportions, the perspective, the light and shade,’ she says. ‘It’s an excellent way of developing technical skills which every artist needs.'
Lower and Upper Sixth Art students had the chance to practise these skills when they assembled in the school theatre earlier this month to take part in a life drawing session run by artist, John Close. According to Ms Caldecott, Mr Close is a brilliant teacher and a real expert in life drawing, with all sorts of great advice to offer both about how to approach life drawing as a whole and about aspects that are especially tricky such as drawing hands.
As you can see from the photographs, the quality of much of the work our students produced suggests that, alongside new insights into their craft, many of the young artists who took part will have some impressive life sketches to add to their A Level portfolios as a result of their weekend masterclass.