Wherever you are, connect with our expert tutors through the Digital Studio — live-streamed from our studios for an in-studio feel online. Using dynamic lighting, multiple camera angles, and creative set-ups, these sessions offer a unique approach to observational drawing that’s only possible in a digital format.
With no need to commit to a full course, you can drop in to our two-hour evening sessions to support your practice, explore new ideas, or simply unwind. These classes focus on the expressive potential of the life room, with tutors guiding you through varied exercises and approaches.
This session pass gives you access to all Evening Life Drawing sessions in the Autumn Term, at a 25% discount. Sessions included in this pass:
Monday 21 September, 18:30 - 20:30 - Drawing the Figure: Form and Flow
When drawing from life, a line can do more than describe an outline. It can help you search for the form of the figure and begin to build volume on paper. Led by tutor Dexter Orszagh, this class will help you develop foundational drawing skills through short warm-up poses and guided exercises. Working from a model, you will explore how loose, energetic marks can help you find volume and structure in the figure, building confidence as you move between quick studies and more sustained drawing. All levels welcome.
Monday 28 September, 18:30 - 20:30 - The Contemporary Portrait
In this two-hour life drawing class, tutor Rachel Mercer will take inspiration from artists who explore tragedy, comedy and theatrical character. Alongside well-known depictions of clowns and musicians by Watteau, Cézanne, Picasso and Beckmann, the class will also look at theatrical portraits by contemporary artists.
Working from a model, you will explore ways to embrace the difficulty and unpredictability of wet media. Through brushwork and bleeding techniques, you will consider how ink, watercolour or gouache can bring life and energy to the portrait, while also revealing the delicacy and expression of the face. All levels welcome.
Monday 5 October, 18:30 - 20:30 - The Dancer as Model
Join tutor Marcus Cornish for a two-hour live online drawing class exploring the dancer in motion. Through slide references and live demonstrations, he will introduce ways to capture movement through pose and mark-making, exploring the tension between clarity and blur. You will be guided through different approaches to drawing a dancer that is either moving or held in suspension.
The class will begin with short warm-up exercises, offering two approaches to capturing movement quickly. You will then work from a dancer moving through a repeated pattern, choosing moments within the flow to record through drawing. This part of the class will focus more on abstraction, exploring how rhythm and uncertainty can become a valid way of representing motion.
For the final sustained pose, the dancer will appear suspended in mid-air, using special technology to create the effect of a body floating in space. This longer drawing will give you time to look closely at the detail of the figure.
This class offers a rare opportunity to draw a dancer in motion, using the Digital Studio format to explore movement in ways that would not be possible in a traditional life room. All levels are welcome.
Monday 12 October, 18:30 - 20:30 - Transforming Art History
How can art history become a starting point for making something new?
In this online, live drawing session led by Katy Papineau, you will explore how to use an existing image as a way to engage in dialogue with the past. Focusing on The Spinners by 17th-century Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, you will look closely at the image’s construction and identify key techniques used by the artist. You will then draw from a set inspired by the painting, using drawing and collage to create expressive responses to the original composition.
Monday 19 October, 18:30 - 20:30 - Movement and Mind
This live, online drawing class, led by Aude Hérail Jäger, explores the connection between body, movement and mind through drawing. You will work in an expressive, meditative way to awaken creative abilities that are innate, direct and intuitive, but often lie dormant unless we consciously activate them.
You will explore simple strategies to deepen this connection: quieting the mind with breathing exercises, extending the eye–hand connection to the whole body, experimenting with different materials and mark-making, and drawing the model in movement. All levels welcome.
Monday 26 October, 18:30 - 20:30 - The Language of Horror
Join this special and spooky live, online drawing class, led by Fraser Scarfe. For centuries, artists, writers and filmmakers have developed the language of horror by controlling what audiences see and anticipate. Artists often create feelings of unease through composition and tone. Writers build suspense through descriptive detail or foreshadowing; encouraging readers to imagine hidden dangers. In film, framing becomes even more powerful, as directors use camera angles and lighting to guide the viewer’s attention and create uncertainty. Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock famously argued that suspense is created when audiences know more than the characters, allowing tension to build before a frightening event occurs.
During the class, you will explore these techniques and look at how they can be used within drawing. You will work from a spooky set and a live model, with Fraser guiding you through drawing exercises that consider framing, tone and the relationship between imagination and observation. Together, these elements will help you create a truly haunting drawing. All levels welcome.
Monday 2 November, 18:30 - 20:30 - Life Drawing in Colour
In this live, online drawing class led by tutor David Gardner, you will explore the creative possibilities of artificial lighting and how it can transform our approach to the human form. From Caravaggio’s dramatic chiaroscuro to Lucas Samaras’ staged photographs and Euan Uglow’s night-time paintings, you’ll consider how artists have used lighting in bold and inventive ways to illuminate and reimagine the figure.
Working with coloured spotlights and an elaborate set, you’ll experiment with contrasting tones and observe how they affect the body, shifting mood, depth and perspective. All levels welcome.
Monday 9 November, 18:30 - 20:30 - Observation and memory
In this live, online drawing class, tutor Mark Cazalet will guide you on how memory can become an active part of drawing. Working from the model, you will move between direct observation and remembered images, considering what happens when the figure disappears, reappears or changes over time.
Through guided exercises, Mark will encourage you to draw not only what they can see, but what they recall or project onto the figure. The class will show how drawing from memory can transform observation into something more personal and imaginative. It will also offer useful strategies on how to capture memories and fleeting moments through drawing. This class will be particularly useful for those who want to push their drawings further through memory and imagination. All levels welcome.
Details
- Please note our online models will not pose nude. Models will be semi-clothed.
- This session will be live-streamed through YouTube, link is available after purchase.
- Chat support available during the session.
- These sessions are designed so that students can engage with whatever materials they have to hand. Each session has a suggested material list that will allow you to get the most out of the classes.
Share your work on social media with the hashtag #RDSLiveStudio
