Studying the figure: The Long Pose

Without the long pose, there is no real academic training. It's an essential and non-negotiable part of the academic program.

But, what exactly is a long pose? and what makes it so essential?

In short terms, the Long pose is a 5 week study of the human figure done from life. The model poses for the students every day, three hours a day, Monday through Friday, for five weeks.

When I started training academically, I'd never spent so much time working on one drawing and my conclusions on such process were the following:

• Time is key. Having the time to push a drawing further than you have ever pushed anything before is key to discovering how far you're actually able to take a drawing.

• Each week has a purpose - The point of having such a long time to develop a drawing is to take each step of development slowly and competently. A beautifully rendered drawing that is anatomically incorrect will never have the impact we're looking for. So the first two weeks of drawing are all based in construction. The study of anatomy, body type, gesture, the understanding of how the set pose is gravitating as time progresses, developing the ability to track movement in live subjects and making conscious decisions about the pose we want to capture.

• The last three weeks are all based in the rendering of form and evoking the effect and feeli

  
  
  
  

  ng of light. During this process we have a chance to further our understanding of value relationship, color (if the student is painting), line quality and the perfect balance of all of this components in the beautiful art of mimicking life.

• The Long Pose is the one academic project that has an expiration date. When in the drawing/painting program the projects are developed indefinitely, until the student "gets it right", the Long pose ends every 5 weeks, giving way to the subsequent start of a new 5 week study. This cycle of studies allow the student to witness their skills flourishing right in front of their eyes. It's hard to verbalize how the brain learns through this process, but being able to see it, through undeniable results, is encouraging and inspiring. The fuel of motivation is made by being able to see the progress of our efforts, and gets us excited by the infinite potential of our commitment.

• The exposure to the human figure intensively and on a daily basis, leaves you with such a deep understanding of the tendencies of our movements, the constitution of our bodies, that you will be unable to create a figure drawing without anatomical logic. We are complex, but predictable as well in our need to maintain balance, in the specific ways our joints can or can't move, in the set length of our bones, and may other aspects that through repetition we internalize.

Understanding is power. The most beautiful way to create, to break the rules, to bend reality, is to understand reality deeply first. Happy accidents exist, but intentional and deliberate creation is the literacy of the soul.

The countdown is on... with a little over two months to start our first trimester in Loveland, Colorado.

We hope this unique (around this side of the world) approach to art classes and skill development will be discovered by those whose souls crave it, and our art family continues to grow and thrive in knowledge, commitment and excellence.