Figure Painting with Anastasia Pollard (May 2024)

Date: Thursday 8 May, 2025 – Saturday 10 May, 2025

Time: 10am – 5pm

Tutor: Anastasia Pollard

Cost: £360

Location: Raw Umber Studios, 16 Nelson Street, Stroud GL5 2HN

Painting the live figure can be a daunting task. In this three day course, Anastasia Pollard will guide you through the process, explaining how to capture the gesture of the pose before blocking in its general impression and then adding information to capture its specific characteristics and details.

You will start each day with a handful of quick, warm up oil sketches. Following that, you will paint a sustained pose that will last all three days. This will let you practice how to start a painting, a fundamental part of figure painting, but also give you a chance to see a painting through to completion.

This three-day workshop is ideal for artists of all levels who would like to gain experience in painting the figure from life in oils. No experience is necessary.

What will I learn?

• How to create a figure from start to finish
• How to achieve a realistic likeness
• The importance of gesture and anatomy in figure painting
• The importance and principles of drawing, values, edges and colours
• How to mix colours and paint realistic flesh tones
• Which brushes to use when, and how

Depending on your experience and goals you will have the choice of one of the following:

a) using a limited palette (the ‘Zorn’ palette). This constraint of using only red, yellow, black and white lets you create surprisingly accurate flesh tones, while simultaneously reducing the complexity of colour mixing

or

b) using a full colour palette

“Great setting, great teacher, great support; hard to fault. I would have loved it to go on longer… As it is, it’s challenging yet accessible to all. I couldn’t be happier. Even the couches are great!” – Christopher Ronus

Who is the tutor?

This course is taught by Anastasia Pollard. Anastasia studied at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Florence Academy of Art. Her work has been included in the annual exhibitions of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and has featured in the BP Portrait Award in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2017. Anastasia is a member of The Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

How many students will there be?

There is a maximum of 12 participants and the tutor will customise the course according to your individual needs.

You can find the materials list for this course here. If you have any questions, please see our frequently asked questions or contact us.