This workshop presents the demands of drawing from direct observation of the model. Issues of anatomical structure, figure-ground integration, and value organization are incorporated into works developed in the academic tradition. There will be focus on the anatomical structure underlying the human form. We will also develop figure drawings which express as sense of light, form, space, and atmosphere. There will be discussion of simplifying, balancing and designing the abstraction of shapes in order to build a more dynamic composition. We will work in a variety of drawing materials to develop drawings that have a sense of the underlying structure of the human form.

Aaron Michael Thompson is a full-time Professor at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. He is also one of Gamblin Artist Colors Educational Representatives and has given lectures on color at Museums and Institutions of Higher Education for seven years. He received his M.F.A. from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and his B.F.A. from Savannah College of Art and Design. He was recently published in Observational Drawing, and among his most recent awards include the Premier Coup Award from a national juried exhibition, the Nude, at the Wayne Art Center and the Barnes Artist residency in Umbria, Italy.