Resources That Actually Help
I've spent years gathering materials that work. Not just pretty PDFs sitting in your downloads folder—actual references you'll use while drawing. Everything here comes from my own practice and what I've seen help people improve.
Reference Library
Most figure drawing resources fall into two camps: overly academic anatomy texts that put you to sleep, or oversimplified tutorials that skip everything important. I wanted something in between.
These materials focus on what you actually need when you're sitting there with a pencil, wondering why the shoulder looks wrong. They're organized by what comes up most often in my sessions with students.
Gesture Drawing Fundamentals
Short poses frustrate everyone at first. You're trying to capture movement in two minutes and it feels impossible. This guide breaks down what to look for first—the weight shift, the primary curve, how hands and feet anchor the pose. It's what I wish someone had shown me in 2019.
Proportion Without Measuring
Head-height systems work until you meet someone with unusual proportions. Then what? This material focuses on relationships—how the ribcage relates to the pelvis, where elbows fall naturally. You'll train your eye instead of relying on formulas that break down in real situations.
Anatomy for Artists (Simplified)
You don't need to memorize every muscle insertion point. But you do need to understand how forms connect. This covers the shapes that matter—the ones you actually see on the surface. Shoulders, spine, hips. The stuff that changes how someone stands or moves.
Lighting and Form
Light reveals structure. Or it confuses everything if you don't know what you're looking at. This guide covers core shadows, reflected light, and how to simplify complex lighting into something you can actually draw. Works for any medium.
Composition in Figure Work
A technically perfect figure can still feel awkward on the page. Where you place it matters. How much space surrounds it matters. This looks at framing, negative space, and visual flow. It's the part most people skip until their drawings feel off somehow.
Progressive Learning Path
People often ask me where to start. It depends on what you already know, but here's a sensible sequence if you're building from scratch. Each stage builds on the previous one. You can move through faster or slower depending on how things click for you.
Understanding What You See
Before drawing figures, you need to see them properly. This means training your eye to catch angles, recognize basic shapes, and understand proportion without thinking too hard. We start with simple exercises that feel almost too basic—but they build the visual literacy everything else depends on.
Building the Framework
Now we get into how bodies are put together. Not memorizing bones, but understanding the underlying structure that determines how someone stands or moves. You'll learn to see the skeleton and major muscle groups as simple forms. This is where anatomy starts making sense.
Capturing Life and Action
Static poses teach you structure. Moving poses teach you everything else. This stage focuses on gesture—capturing the energy and direction of a pose quickly. You'll do lots of short studies. Some will be terrible. That's expected. The goal is speed and confidence.
Adding Detail and Expression
With the basics solid, you can focus on subtlety. How light describes form. How small shifts in posture change meaning. How hands and faces convey personality. This is where your personal style starts emerging because you're not fighting fundamentals anymore.
Putting It All Together
The final stage isn't really final—it's where everything becomes intuitive. You're combining gesture, structure, and detail without thinking about it. You're solving problems on the fly. You're developing your own approach. This is when figure drawing stops feeling like a struggle and starts feeling natural.
Who Contributes to These Materials
These resources don't come from just me. Over the years, I've worked with other practitioners who know their stuff. They've contributed insights, reviewed materials, and helped me avoid the usual teaching pitfalls. Here are a few people whose expertise shaped what you'll find here.
Siobhan Kearsley
Anatomy Consultant
Siobhan spent twelve years working with medical illustrators before shifting to art education. She has this rare ability to explain skeletal mechanics without making it feel like a biology lecture. Her input on the anatomy materials made them actually usable.
Nadjia Vinterberg
Gesture Drawing Specialist
Nadjia teaches quick sketching and movement studies in Copenhagen. She's been drawing live models for twenty years and has forgotten more about gesture than most people ever learn. She reviewed the gesture fundamentals guide and added exercises I hadn't considered.
Elowen Pendry
Composition Advisor
Elowen works primarily in charcoal and focuses on large-scale figure work. She thinks about space and balance differently than I do. Her perspective on composition helped me articulate things I knew intuitively but couldn't quite explain before.
Sessions Starting July 2026
If you want structured guidance using these materials, I'm planning workshop sessions for next summer. They'll focus on practical application rather than theory. Limited spots because I prefer working with smaller groups.