Life Drawing Workshop with Stewart Freshwater

An illuminating life figuring drawing class hosted by a prominent sketch artist in Las Vegas, Stewart Freshwater. Stewart's decades-long craft was honed inside courtrooms and workshops at the Contemporary Arts Collective and The Arts Factory. Enhance your observation skills and fine tune your lines in this 3-hour open studio. Professional models and chairs will be provided. Please come prepared with your favorite drawing surface, drawing boards, sketch pad and drawing utensil. Artists may bring their own easels. Each workshop will begin with short 2-minute poses. Poses will gradually increase in length reaching 25 minutes. This class is suitable for all experience levels, and is recommended for students aged 18+. Nude model will be present. No photography, please.

Q&A with Stewart Freshwater:

Curious about what makes life drawing so unique and valuable for artists of all skill levels? Stewart shares his insights:

Q. What makes life drawing such a unique and valuable practice for artists of all skill levels?

A. When thinking of what value a life drawing workshop is to an artist, I think of what author Sharon Allicotti says, “Just as a musician, dancer or athlete must practice and train to maintain a level of excellence, drawing from life on a regular basis, keeps the artist’s visual and spatial abilities in good form. Most importantly, it improves your overall drawing skills of gauging proportions, assessing space more accurately and understanding the anatomy, movement and expression of the human body.” Humans have a certain organic energy that sets them apart from inanimate objects. Drawing from a model helps the artist understand how the muscles and bones interact with each other, how the muscles look when tensed or relaxed in different angles. When working from a model, an artist creates a better understanding of facial expressions, foreshortening of the limbs, hand structure, movements and gestures. Drawing from a live model is much more insightful than working from a photograph. An artist acquires a better understanding and representation of depth and three dimensions when working live as apposed to when working from a photo. When working from life, an artist is able to see more detail in light and dark areas. Often a photograph will lack details in lights and darks.

Q. How do you structure the workshop to accommodate both beginners and more experienced artists?

A. The life drawing workshop is structured where beginners work alongside more experienced artists. There is no instruction, so we all learn and advance on our own and by observing and learning from each other. Most artists are understanding of the different levels of development and know that we all had to start at a beginning level and become more accomplished with more practice.

Q. Can you share a success story or transformation you've witnessed in a participant who regularly attended your life drawing sessions?

A. One satisfying aspect of facilitating the life drawing workshop is seeing the development and improvement of artists as they consistently attend and draw. Everybody improves with their drawing skills at different paces. Generally with instruction, progress does happen faster, but even with instruction practicing is still important. I had an artist attend that felt advancement wasn’t happening very fast. I saw the potential of the artist and suggested taking a drawing class at the college or university level would help. The artist did, and eventually acquired a degree and became a very accomplished artist. Another artist who had a strong desire to draw and paint, attended the workshop and because of his natural talent and drive, advanced on his own and became an accomplished, exhibiting painter.

Q. What unique techniques or approaches do you incorporate into your life drawing sessions that participants might not find elsewhere?

A. The life drawing workshop provides a setting where models take poses of different lengths of time on a modeling stand, enabling artists to work at different speeds and develop different techniques. Attempts are made in the workshop to have good lighting. A main light is set up on the model. Artists are free to change position if space and seating is available to work with different lighting situations. An incentive for being in the workshop is that the cost of hiring a model is shared by the group of artists.

Q. How do you create a comfortable and supportive environment for participants to express themselves through their artwork?

A. The workshop is made up of artists who are generally friendly, open and accepting of newcomers. There are breaks periodically enabling artists to get to know each other, talk about the drawing process or just have conversation. Beverages are available at a minimal charge.