Amrita Sher-Gil Mastercopy: An online figure drawing session

Join tutor Lydia Cecil for this week’s figure session, a master copy drawing based on Sleep (1933) by Amrita Sher-Gil. In this session, you’ll learn how to approach a complex painting through drawing, focusing on diagonal composition, proportion, and a calm, controlled value design rather than lots of detail.

Lydia will guide you through blocking in the large shapes, refining forms and edges, and making small value shifts to keep the drawing balanced and readable. Working on brown toned paper, you’ll see how charcoal can be used to establish structure and shadow, with white chalk added sparingly, mainly for the white sheet, so the paper does much of the work as a midtone.

Alongside the practical drawing, Lydia will also talk through Sher-Gil’s life and influences, her training in Paris, and how these connect to broader themes in her work.

Materials:

• Nitram charcoal

• White chalk

• Brown toned paper

This session mimics the structure of a traditional life drawing class. You will see one or more photographs to draw or paint from. Tutor Lydia Cecil will be doing an online demonstration next to the video and will be giving hints and tips in the live chat.

Once you have registered you will be sent a link to a private web page where you will be able to access the live stream at the date and time of broadcast. You will also have access to the video for 30 days after the session, and will be able to download the photographs used in the session so you can continue to work in your own time.

If you're planning on watching more than one session a month then you will save money with a subscription. If you already have a Raw Umber Subscription then you can access this session from your account.