Not a day goes by that someone somewhere doesn’t wonder just what is going on in their partner’s head—but drawing it?
Local artist Jane Everett’s intensive drawing workshop at the Kelowna Art Gallery starts from just such a premise.
“We will be drawing a skull so we understand the bones and what’s going on beneath the surface. To get the outside right, you have to get the inside right on the human body. It’s pretty complicated,” she said.
Everett contends that very element of complication is what makes drawing the human form so fascinating.
“A few years ago I spent about a year drawing race horses…In it’s gallop, a horse stretches out and pulls together and after a while you’ve done all the poses that you’re actually capable of doing. A human body is more complicated. We have an enormous range our body is capable of—even one joint can rotate a number of ways. So it’s an on-going challenge.”
With joints twisting in every direction, people will also get quite creative with the ways they place themselves, performing all manner of contortions, she pointed out.
It’s one of the reasons sketch artists learn to do exercises much like musicians do their scales, though with quickly timed drawings of a model striking a (generally highly energetic) pose.
Anyone can learn from an intensive drawing workshop like the one Everett will offer this weekend, whether beginner or well into a specific practice.
Where Everett herself is currently working on a series of drawings of the Port Mann Bridge in the Lower Mainland, she says intensive practice sessions working with a life model, like this one, still teach her techniques she will then use on her more inanimate muses.
Jane Everett’s Life Drawing Intensive runs Saturday, Feb. 4 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 5 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and costs $95 for members and $125 for non-members. Registration is still open and can be done by calling 250-762-2226.
jsmith@kelownacapnews.com
