© Copyright Sandra Busby

There is an updated version of this post here

I can remember years ago at art college when I had my first life drawing class. Most of the class were between 16 and 20 years old (including me) and so there were a lot of nervous suppressed giggles. The classes were generally great, apart from a few odd or slightly inebriated life models.

One of my favourite classes was when we started off drawing a 20-minute pose, then 10minutes, then 5 minutes all the way down to a 30 second pose. When you get down to that limited amount of time you really have to decide what’s important. Another exercise we did, that you might want to try is to start with a shape, for example, a circle and distort the model to fit within the circle. It really gets you thinking what to emphasise and what to bend or warp. You end up with a semi-abstract figure, that has a charm of its own.

Having access to a life model when you’re not a college is not so easy, especially if there aren’t any classes in your area. So unless you’ve got a friend or partner who likes getting their kit off 🙂 and is prepared to stand still, here are some places to find figure pose references for drawing.

We’ve have created some playlists of some of the reference we’ve found below on our Youtube Channel. Why not subscribe while you’re there!

Royal Academy of Arts

found via Evelyn Oldroyd

In this Youtube video, the Royal Academy of Arts live-streamed one of their life drawing classes.

Life Drawing Videos (Non Nude)

New Masters Academy and Draw This have a series of clothed models that you can draw

Life Drawing Videos (Nude)

Both New Masters Academy and Croquis Cafe have a series of nude life drawing models with timed poses for you to draw.

Happy drawing. I need to get in some practice too, those art college days were a long time ago.