Fabric and the figure: Life drawing summer school
- Monday, 27 July 2026
- Tuesday, 28 July 2026
- Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Enrol
| Standard: | £540 |
| Concessions: | £486 |
Please book a ticket to attend this course which will take place in the Roden Centre for Creative Learning.
Tickets include entry to the National Gallery. Please arrive in good time to access the building and find the event.
Bookings close 10 minutes before the event begins.
Concessions are for full-time students, jobseekers, and disabled adults.
About
Calling artists of all levels. Refine your skills in this three-day summer school focused on form and fabric. Enter the dramatic world of Baroque art where the human figure becomes a powerful storytelling tool. Inspired by the National Gallery exhibition, 'Zurbarán', and his contemporaries like Diego Velázquez, this life drawing course explores how artists used light, shadow and restraint to create exciting and powerful paintings.
Across three days in the Clore Art Studio and in the Gallery, you’ll draw from a life model in carefully staged poses that reflect the theatre of Baroque painting. Through focused life drawing, close looking and discussion, you’ll explore how light directs attention and how the human body can convey drama through posture, gesture and presence.
This summer school prioritises slow looking and sustained making. With time to observe and experiment, you’ll explore the expressive possibilities of flesh and fabric using a variety of materials, from charcoal to ink.
This summer school is suitable for all levels, with all materials provided, and your work is yours to take home. Handouts with extra resources will be provided in advance of the sessions to enrich your experience.
Fabric and the figure: Life drawing summer school
We will begin day one in the art studio working from a life model in various poses, concentrating on proportion, structure and weight, and on how form can be suggested rather than fully described. We will later go into the 'Zurbarán' exhibition to explore how darkness is used to frame the figure, heighten stillness and focus attention.
Fabric and the figure: Life drawing summer school
Day two focuses on the expressive relationship between the body and drapery. We’ll explore how fabric interacts with flesh to create rhythm, tension and narrative emphasis, and how Baroque artists used clothing to guide the viewer’s gaze and articulate form. Studio sessions will concentrate on drawing fabric in relation to the body, folds, weight and compression, while maintaining anatomical clarity. Sustained poses will encourage careful observation and compositional decision-making, allowing you to explore how material and body together can suggest character and meaning.
Fabric and the figure: Life drawing summer school
The final day brings the course together through a focus on storytelling. Looking again at works in the Gallery, we’ll consider how Baroque artists conveyed emotion and narrative through gesture, pose and gaze. In the studio, you’ll develop a more resolved drawing from an extended pose, integrating anatomy, fabric and shadow into a final composition.
Your tutor
Emyr Williams is an abstract painter who has exhibited in the UK, Europe and North America. His work has won awards and is held in many public, corporate and private collections worldwide. He has taught in the UK, France, USA and Asia, including numerous courses at the Royal Academy and the National Gallery. Emyr has written about art for Abstract Critical, Instant Loveland, Abcrit and the Royal Academy Magazine