Have you always wanted to know how to draw a female figure accurately?

Drawing and painting a female figure has a long-lasting tradition. No wonder it can be challenging to get started with it. There are so many great examples of women depicted by Baroque and Renaissance artists, impressionist and expressionists.

It’s interesting that when we start drawing still life and landscape, we can do so roughly, make mistakes and our mistakes might not be so visible, but when we draw a female form, inaccuracies in how we place body parts or facial features can be immediately visible. It can be frustrating to figure out how to get it right.

In our lessons, we will break through this barrier!

We will focus on sub-skills of drawing a female form:

Drawing facial features
Working out how to place facial features accurately
Working out relative sizes of the head and the body and the body parts
Referring to the skeletal and muscular systems

What materials will I need for the first class?

I recommend bringing:

A3 drawing paper, 220 gsm
Pencil HB or B1 or B2
Soft eraser

GSM is how thick paper is
B1 and B2 are softer and darker pencils

You can practise how to draw a female figure online or face-to-face in Cambridge, UK.

Online classes

For online classes, I use two cameras to demonstrate how to draw. You can show me your drawing any time during the lesson and I can give you feedback.

Face-to-face classes

A face-to-face class is run in my office in Cambridge, close to the city centre.

To find out more about the classes and to show me your previous artworks, you can book an initial chat with me.

Learn how to draw with Arina

First consultation is free

Drawing techniques

Using a ruler

You can practise taking exact measurements of facial features to draw them with extreme precision. In our sessions, we will use a reference image or a 3D animation to make these measurements and draw according to that.

Reference image was sourced in Pinterest

Measuring proportions

I use a technique of measuring proportions that I learnt in art school in Russia as a child. It’s hard to explain how this technique works in words. It’s easier to show it! So come to my lesson, and I will show you how to use this technique.