Figure Workshop with PCAD Professor Jason Ward - May 9, 2026 10AM-4PM
May 9, 2026 10AM-4PM, $100 per person
This workshop, for both beginners and advanced artists, will focus on finding gesture and measuring the proportions of the human body. These are two crucial steps to understand if we want to grow as figurative artists. We’ll learn to look for key skeletal landmarks while thinking about the body's range of motion. This will help us tackle the figure in a variety of poses. We’ll cover how to use perspective in our figure drawing. This workshop will also touch on how far a strong silhouette goes towards bringing life to our figures. To achieve this we will be working with a simple single figure setup. Students should have their materials ready to work at the beginning of class. Class will begin with an introduction, then move to a brief demonstration, and the remaining time will be spent working from the model. This class is open to both drawing and painting mediums.
Materials list:
Painting oils/acrylics:
- Paints: Titanium White, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine BlueAll other colors are optional
-Brushes: A variety of brush sizes and shapes, as well as, both stiff and soft bristles are recommended.
-Palette Knife: I use a medium/small metal diamond shaped palette knife for both mixing and application of paint.
-Artist Palette: A proper wood or glass palette is recommended, palette paper will work fine for this workshop. Please avoid creative substitutes (such as watercolor palettes, paper plates, anything wrapped in tinfoil, etc.) as they tend to cause problems during the painting process.
-Surface: A primed and stretched canvas, or hardboard panel is best for painting. A heavy bodied paper, such as watercolor paper, will also work.
-Lint Free Rags or paper Towels
-(Optional) For oils -Turpentine, Odorless Turpiniod, or Mineral Spirits:Good for cleaning brushes, but I just use soap and water. For Acrylic- jar for water
Drawing:
-Pencils and Graphite Sticks: A range of leads from H-B’s is recommended, however a classic #2 pencil is hard to beat.
-Charcoal: Soft vine charcoal, compressed charcoal sticks, charcoal pencils, and charcoal powder are all recommended.
-Erasers: A kneaded eraser and a rectangular white eraser are both great. I often use pink pencil cap erasers.
-Artist Sandpaper Block or Stump: A great tool for toning a surface, and sharpening pencils and charcoal sticks.
-Surface: For graphite I recommend a heavy bodied hot press paper such as Bristol Vellum. For Charcoal, a heavy bodied charcoal or watercolor paper will work. My preferred paper for charcoal is Rives BFK.
-Paper Towels and Artist brushes: For blending.
May 9, 2026 10AM-4PM, $100 per person
This workshop, for both beginners and advanced artists, will focus on finding gesture and measuring the proportions of the human body. These are two crucial steps to understand if we want to grow as figurative artists. We’ll learn to look for key skeletal landmarks while thinking about the body's range of motion. This will help us tackle the figure in a variety of poses. We’ll cover how to use perspective in our figure drawing. This workshop will also touch on how far a strong silhouette goes towards bringing life to our figures. To achieve this we will be working with a simple single figure setup. Students should have their materials ready to work at the beginning of class. Class will begin with an introduction, then move to a brief demonstration, and the remaining time will be spent working from the model. This class is open to both drawing and painting mediums.
Materials list:
Painting oils/acrylics:
- Paints: Titanium White, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine BlueAll other colors are optional
-Brushes: A variety of brush sizes and shapes, as well as, both stiff and soft bristles are recommended.
-Palette Knife: I use a medium/small metal diamond shaped palette knife for both mixing and application of paint.
-Artist Palette: A proper wood or glass palette is recommended, palette paper will work fine for this workshop. Please avoid creative substitutes (such as watercolor palettes, paper plates, anything wrapped in tinfoil, etc.) as they tend to cause problems during the painting process.
-Surface: A primed and stretched canvas, or hardboard panel is best for painting. A heavy bodied paper, such as watercolor paper, will also work.
-Lint Free Rags or paper Towels
-(Optional) For oils -Turpentine, Odorless Turpiniod, or Mineral Spirits:Good for cleaning brushes, but I just use soap and water. For Acrylic- jar for water
Drawing:
-Pencils and Graphite Sticks: A range of leads from H-B’s is recommended, however a classic #2 pencil is hard to beat.
-Charcoal: Soft vine charcoal, compressed charcoal sticks, charcoal pencils, and charcoal powder are all recommended.
-Erasers: A kneaded eraser and a rectangular white eraser are both great. I often use pink pencil cap erasers.
-Artist Sandpaper Block or Stump: A great tool for toning a surface, and sharpening pencils and charcoal sticks.
-Surface: For graphite I recommend a heavy bodied hot press paper such as Bristol Vellum. For Charcoal, a heavy bodied charcoal or watercolor paper will work. My preferred paper for charcoal is Rives BFK.
-Paper Towels and Artist brushes: For blending.