Online: Classical Drawing with Charles Bargue

Classical Drawing for Adults & Teens 15+

with Charlene Collins Freeman

$125.00/month

Mondays 11am - 1pm (Pacific Time)

Sign up month to month - offered February through May

Online using Zoom.

(For more information about how to use Zoom, click here.)

Classes run from January to May. You can join at any time and you can register for classes month to month. You can stop and start up again as your schedule allows.

This class will build a solid foundation of drawing skills to strengthen your ability to draw using classical drawing methods and resource materials. This course is based on the famous drawing course by Charles Brague. Students start off copying drawings by Charles Brague using classical drawing techniques, then draw from plaster casts and finally draw from live models. Among the artists who studied drawing based on Bargue's work are Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. So you will be in good company!

Students will be guided step-by-step through drawings each week. A supply list will be provided upon registration.

For suggested art supplies, click here and scroll to the section on Drawing Supplies for Adults.

Intermediate & Advanced Skill Levels

The classical way to learn how to draw realistically as it used to be taught in art academies and ateliers was based on first copying two dimensional references, then drawing from plaster casts, and finally, drawing from life. That's the method I will use in this workshop 

Since the 19th century ateliers have often used drawings by Charles Bargue as the references to be copied.

The lessons learned from the Bargue exercises extend far beyond learning how to draw. They teach greater skills, such as how to actively observe the world and how to complete a project with painstaking accuracy, leading students to become competent and confident in their work, whether that work is drawing, painting, or something else entirely.

From The Bargue Method: Learning to Draw the Traditional Way by Fernando Freitas, The Drawing Magazine, Fall 2013

The Bargue Drawing method emphasizes copying the references as perfectly as possible. This teaches artists to see distances, lengths and angles as well as some seeing and depicting the light. The references are gorgeous and build up skills in a logical way.

For more information and to register, click here.