Portfolio Clinic: Drawing and Painting the Figure

    Saturday, October 17, 2026 at 10:00 AM until 3:00 PMEastern Daylight Time UTC -04:00


    OCAD University
    100 Mccaul Street
    Toronto On
    Toronto, ON M5T 1W1
    Canada

    Portfolio Clinic: Drawing and Painting the Figure
    Instructor:     Par Nair

    Drawing and painting skills can be applied to an extensive range of art and design disciplines. 

    This workshop introduces students to skills and techniques for observational figurative drawing and painting from a live model. Through demos and timed exercises, students will explore a range of approaches to represent the human figure while developing their understanding of proportion, form, composition, colour, and observation. 

    Students will work with both wet (acrylic paint) and dry (soft pastels) mediums and use a viewfinder as a tool to understand perspective, cropping, scale and foreshortening.This workshop will encourage students to experiment with different approaches to representing the figure while developing confidence in both quick gestural studies and more sustained poses, through a variety of mediums. 

    This workshop is suitable for all levels and will be adjusted to accommodate student needs. Whether it's your first time trying, or you want to practice more observational drawing, all levels are welcome!
     

    What you will learn:

    • Develop technical skills in observational figurative drawing and painting to incorporate in portfolios

    • Gain knowledge of working from a live model and work with short gestural poses as well as long sustained poses 

    • Explore a combination of both dry and wet mediums 

    • Develop understanding of colour mixing and colour theory 

    • Use perspective, foreshortening, cropping and composition to effectively to render figures 

    • Use a viewfinder to strengthen compositional decision making 

    • Identify and develop visual language, style, and strengths while receiving feedback and guidance


    Materials will be provided by OCAD U. However, we always encourage students to bring:
    • Your sketchbook to document sketches and ideas
    • A phone or digital camera to document photos throughout the process

    Policies: 

    Portfolio Clinic workshops may be subject to cancellation in the case of low enrolment.

    Participants are eligible for a full refund if a cancellation request is received at least 10 calendar days prior to their registered Portfolio Clinic date. This 10-day notice period allows us sufficient time to offer the spot to another student on the waitlist. All refund requests must be submitted directly via email to portfolioclinics@ocadu.ca. 

    Package Deal:

    If you are interested in taking all 3 Portfolio Clinic workshops (Drawing and Painting the Figure, Window Packaging Design, & Fabricating a Metal Pencil Box), please see the Package Deal details here.
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