1. GI's Anatomy:
Drawing Gender, Drawing Sex, Drawing Bodies
With London Drawing
Introduction:
London Drawing is a collaboration between professional artists, tutors and performers, led
by Anne Noble-Partridge and David Price. We offer life drawing and painting classes and
creative life drawing workshops and events, working with Tate Modern, Tate Britain, The
Design Museum, Battersea Arts Centre and Heatherleys School of Art. All our workshops are
hands on creative sessions, designed to be challenging, fun, informative and to encourage
confidence and inspire. Our Classes aim to be accessible and work on the premise that no
skills or drawing experience are needed to make strong and exciting work.
Our aims for these workshops:
These Four life drawing workshops have been designed to help participants develop practical
skills and awareness of the subject in equal measure. Our aim of these workshops is for
participants to have produced a piece of art work for exhibition based on these skills and
information. We understand that there are a range of abilities and experience within the group
with regard to drawing and making artwork. Therefore these classes address the needs of the
individual to develop drawing and making skills without loosing sight of the objectives; namely
to promote further awareness and encourage enquiry into Transgender Bodies and to aid
participants create work suitable for exhibition. To this end the class structure and activities
there-in will be suitable for those with a range of skill and experience.
General outline for the sessions:
Each of the 4 classes will have a slightly different focus. Beginning with basic drawing in the
first week and then developing throughout the remainder of the course to include other skills
such as collage and other simple art materials. The aim of the classes is to make sure that all
the participants possess the skills they need to make their own work. By the fourth week we
hope to know each of the participants well enough to be able to help them individually when
they make their choices and help them consider what they wish to create for the exhibition.
We hope to encourage as much individual development as possible within the time frame.
Session 1:
General Life Drawing Skills- Looking at different ways to approach drawing from the model
Session 2:
Collage and composition- using mixed media to simplify, layer and provide compositional

2. solutions.
Session 3:
Concepts- looking at ideas which are personal to you and how to express and develop them.
Session 4:
Finalising- working with you individually to finish your artwork
Collation of images and ideas:
Collection of ideas and images will form the the backbone to the workshops. You have an A4
sketch book in which you can use as a working scrap book of images and note down ideas, or
you can use digital mediums to collect information- anything that you see in the media, online,
advertising, film, books, magazines – you will need to research images and themes which you
find interesting and be aware of what is going on around you to find imagery and information
which inspires you or is personal to you. The GI blog will also be crucial to this process as it
will allow you to share ideas and imagery as well as building a bank of information for others
not involved in the workshop process.
Support:
The GI blog will be a place to share ideas and get inspiration from each other- we will also
organise art surgery times where you can talk to us about how you are getting on with your
project. At the end of each session we will set a task for you to have achieved by the next
session, in order for you to begin to make you work personal to you. The surgery times and
blog are places where you can ask for assistance with this if you need it, as well as uploading
images and ideas so you can share with others how you are progressing and give each other
support.

3. Life Drawing: An informal potted history
How is life drawing relevant today?
“A figure drawing may be a composed work of art or a figure study done in preparation for a
more finished work such as a painting. “
This, the first entry on the Wikipedia site for Life Drawing is typical of our understanding of the
subject; namely that Life Drawing is a prelude to a work of art, something to be practiced and
mastered by the student so that they can become an artist.
This attitude to drawing the body is still a part of current thinking with most people believing
that to draw from the naked body is to practice a fundamental rite of passage trod through the
centuries by artists. Yet visit an art college today, particularly in London and you won’t find a
great deal of life Drawing being practiced. In fact, drawing from the figure as a core part of the
program has been largely dropped from many of our major art colleges around the country
with most seeing such study as old fashioned and irrelevant to current artistic practice.
We wondered how this came about. How had something so imbedded in collective attitude
and understanding of what artistic practice might be have become so out of touch? How had
art academies and institutions forfeited such a stalwart of their own heritage? And more
importantly, for us, how can we make figurative work that is relevant today? Is possible to do
anything new within the practice? How can we make an intelligent and genuine contribution to
our cultural understanding of the body through art today?

4. Life drawing- how it began and developed as a discipline:
The human figure has been the subject of drawings throughout human history. An anecdote
related by Pliny, a first century Roman author, describes how Zeuxis reviewed the young
women of Agrigentum naked before selecting five whose features he would combine in order
to paint an ideal image.
The use of nude models in the medieval artist’s workshop is implied in the writings of Cennino
Cennini (c. 1370 – c. 1440) an Italian painter from Tuscany, influenced by Giotto. He is
remembered mainly for having authored Il libro dell’arte, often translated as The Craftsman’s
Handbook, the book is a “how to” on Renaissance art, confirms that sketching from life was
an established practice in the 13th century.
The Carracci, a powerful and influential family in 16 th century opened their Accademia degli
Incamminati in Bologna in the 1580s, and set the pattern for later art schools by making life
drawing the central discipline. The course of training began with the copying of engravings,
then proceeded to drawing from plaster casts, after which the students were trained in
drawing from the live model.
The École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) is one of a number of influential art schools
in France. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years, training many of the great
artists in Europe. Beaux Arts style was modeled on classical “antiquities,” preserving these
idealized forms and passing the style on to future generations.
The curriculum was divided into the “Academy of Painting and Sculpture” and the “Academy
of Architecture”. Both programs focused on classical arts and architecture from Ancient Greek
and Roman culture. All students were required to prove their skills with basic drawing tasks
before advancing to figure drawing and painting. Many of the most famous artists in Europe
were trained here, including Géricault, Degas, Delacroix, Fragonard, Ingres, Monet, Moreau,
Renoir, Seurat, Cassandre and Sisley. Rodin however, applied on three occasions but was
refused entry.
The Royal Academy Schools was the first institution to provide professional training for
artists in Britain. The Schools’ program of formal training was originally modeled upon that of
the French Académie de peinture et de sculpture, founded by Louis XIV in 1648, and shaped
by the precepts laid down by Sir Joshua Reynolds. In his fifteen Discourses delivered to
pupils in the Schools between 1769 and 1790, Reynolds stressed the importance of copying
the Old Masters, and of drawing from casts after the Antique and from the life model. He
argued that such a training would form artists capable of creating works of high moral and
artistic worth. The School’s impressive alumni includes J. M. W. Turner, Sir John Soane,

5. William Blake, John Constable, and Sir Edwin Landseer.
These schools all shared a belief in the nobility and authority of the past, where copying
directly from the casts of ancient Rome and the acquisition of traditional skills were
considered the artists finest inheritance. The figures from which they drew or sought to learn
their craft have had a greater impact upon our own cultural understanding of the nude and of
the human body generally than we might at first assume. It might prove interesting to step
outside of this history of the Life Room for a moment and review some of the works that have
been so influential throughout history.

6. Examples of the figure in art history:
Diskobolus
The Diskobolus of Myron is a famous Greek sculpture that was completed circa 460-450 BC.
The original Greek bronze is lost, though many contemporary and latter copies have been
unearthed. The version most familiar to the London sightseer is the Townley stone carving at
the British Museum. This variant, excavated at Hadrian's Villa in 1790, has been restored
incorrectly, the head facing away from the athlete’s body rather than looking back towards the
disc, leaving this unfortunate sportsman with an extra Adam’s apple. However, we can
examine this ideal body which itself was modeled upon the perfection of Greek statutory.
The Greeks typically were intent upon creating divine figures of superman proportions.
Caught in the frozen act of hurling the discus he is perfection for a brief moment. His muscles,
rather than being taut as we might expect for someone in the act of hurling a metal disc,
appear instead quite relaxed. His face too expresses none of the stain of the action, instead
he seems quite calm. He is the very model of manhood. Myron intends us to examine the
perfection of his muscular form without any hint of stain of effort. The athlete is at the height of
his powers and for a moment appears godlike. His nudity too seems natural. It was customary
to compete naked in Grecian sports, wishing as they did to appear as god’s who are also
represented naked and to stress their condition as free from affectation or advantage.
The lasting influence of Myron’s’ perfection stretches right into contemporary culture. Many of
the copies in collections around Europe were brought together under the Third Reich and
delivered into the private hands of one Adolph Hitler, who can been seen posing with the
statue prior to a rally. Such was his admiration for the work that it appears in the opening
scenes of the 1936 Leni Riefenstahl film commissioned to introduce the Berlin Olympics of
that year. As the camera encircles the statue, Myron’s’ figure appears silhouetted against
foreboding skies before appearing to awaken from stillness he becomes a real man ready to
compete and willing to lend his physic to the Nazi cause as the ideal Aryan type.

7. Antinious
Another sculpture found in great number in the garden’s at Tivoli was that of the beautiful
Antinious, the slave boy who so captured the heart of Hadrian. Though only a boy of
seventeen at the time of his death through accidental drowning the grief of the emperor knew
no bounds. The death was presented as an accident, but it was believed at the time that
Antinous had been sacrificed or had sacrificed himself, causing Hadrian to exersise the most
extravagant veneration to be paid to Antinous' memory. Cities were founded in his name,
medals struck with his likeness, and cities commissioned godlike images of the dead youth for
their shrines and sanctuaries. Hadrian had Antinous proclaimed a god. Temples were built for
his worship festivals celebrated in his honour and oracles delivered in his name. The city of
Antinopolis or Antinoe was founded on the site of Hir-wer where he died. Hadrian's even
attempted to create a constellation of Antinous being lifted to heaven by an eagle, though this
extravagant remembrance failed to be adopted.
Worship, of the idealised Antinous was widespread, although mainly outside the city of Rome.
As a result, Antinous is one of the best-preserved faces from the ancient world. Many busts,
gems and coins represent Antinous as the ideal type of youthful beauty, often with the
attributes of some special god. They include a colossal bust in the Vatican, a bust in the
Louvre (the Antinous Mondragone), and a bas-relief from the Villa Albani and many more may
be seen in museums across Europe. As a consequence his influence on historic and
contemporary ideas of male beauty are profound. He is particularly regarded as a gay icon
and there is even a modern sec which still worships his image. His facial type with brooding
gaze and near feminine features have influenced artists throughout the centuries. Could his
face be an early model for representations of a youthful Jesus? How closely his features
seem to resemble modern icons such as Brando and Presley.

8. David (Michelangelo)
The greatest icon of the male ideal that history has ever known is the David of Florence by
Michelangelo. Carved from a single piece of white marble the standing male nude reaches a
truly awesome seventeen feet in height. (5.17m) All the more remarkable is that Michelagelo
won the contract for the commission at the age of just twenty-six.
The stone from which the figure is carved had been roughed out by another artist working
under the direction of Donattello more than thirty years previously. Following Donatellos’
death, the stone remained surpine in the cathedral yard enduring the elements until another
artist was found to complete the project.
It took Michelangelo just two years to complete David. On completion, the statue, weighing six
tonnes was taken from the workshop to the Piazza della Signoria . On June 1504, David was
installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture
of Judith and Holofernes, which embodied a comparable theme of heroic resistance.
Michelangelo's David is a Renaissance interpretation of a common ancient Greek theme of
the standing heroic male nude. In the High Renaissance, contrapposto poses were thought of
as a distinctive feature of antique sculpture. In David, the figure stands with one leg holding its
full weight and the other leg relaxed. This classic pose causes the figure’s hips and shoulders
to rest at opposite angles, giving a slight s-curve to the entire torso. In addition, the head turns
to the left while the left arm is raised to his left shoulder with his sling flung down behind his
back. Michelangelo’s David has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance
sculpture, becoming a symbol of both strength and youthful human beauty.

9. David (Donatello)
Donatello's bronze statue of David (circa 1440s) is famous as the first unsupported standing
work of bronze cast during the Renaissance, and the first freestanding nude male sculpture
made since antiquity. The “lost wax” process used to create the work was a process thought
lost since ancient times. As such, later writers such as Vasari assumed that it must have been
made from life, so life-like it appeared. It depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed with his
foot on Goliath's severed head just after defeating the giant. The youth is completely naked,
apart from a laurel-topped hat and boots, bearing the sword of Goliath.
Though not strange that he is naked for battle, historian and viewers alike have long
pondered his hat and boots, unmentioned in the Bible and lending the youth a curios
femininity and softness. His delicate body and rounded stomach and chest contract with the
youths great sword and seem wholly incongruous with the implied narration of the recent
slaying and decapitation of the giant warrior Goliath. So much so that his appearance caused
the American critic and writer Mary McCarthy to call David "a transvestite's and fetishist's
dream of alluring ambiguity. The intention of Donatello is still debated among scholars. The
boy's nakedness might imply the idea of the presence of God, contrasting the youth with the
heavily-armored giant. David is presented uncircumcised, which is generally customary for
male nudes in Italian Renaissance art.

10. The Three Graces
If the ancient world took its lead from the Greeks and sort to represent the perfect man then it
might be reasonably argued that as we move toward the modern era we see a shift towards
representing the female body with increasing frequency. The Three Graces are a theme from
antiquity but we see their image re-imagined many times, each age giving new thought to the
female ideal according to its values.
Let us consider three very different examples.
The Three Graces- Peter Paul Rubens
In this 17th century (1639 version the women appear fleshy and well rounded. A woman today
might be described as Rubenesque should she be similarly built, such is the collective cultural
knowledge of this Dutch masters paintings. The women appear animated and happy, adorned
only in some delicate jewellery they dance in a landscape of rural plenty , re-enforced by the
presence of a stone putti at the fountain bearing a horn, and a swag of blossoms above their
neatly tied hair.
The Three Graces - Lucas Cranach
Painted one hundred years earlier in exquisite detail this tiny Renaissance masterpiece (24
x27cm) has something disconcertingly erotic about it. The background has been reduced
down to a simple dark space so as to draw out attention to the women’s elegant silhouettes
and fine features. Naked save for their gold and fancy hat these additions of gaudy bling see
at odds with their delicate feminine lines. Also we see that their eyes hold our own gaze,
inviting our scrutiny they a powerful and unashamed despite their state of undress.
The Three Graces – Antonio Canova
We might be forgiven for thinking this to be a piece of refined sculpture of Roman ancestry. In
fact the work dates from 1817, though its likeness to the works of antiquity was such that Lord
Byron remarked upon it and named it an equal to anything produced in the age. The three
goddesses are shown nude, huddled close together in embrace, their heads almost touching
in what many have referred to as an ‘erotically charged’ piece. They stand, leaning slightly
inward – perhaps discussing a common issue, or simply enjoying being close to one another.
Their hair-styles are all similar, with the hair braided and held on top of their heads in a knot.
This style of sculpture is now rather unfashionable and might even be called vulgar, such
have tastes changed. The idealised female form too has gone through a transformation. We
might imagine Playboy magazine running a reworking of the theme, with gym-fit ladies taking
their place in such a composition today.

11. Olympia (Edouard Manet)
Edouard Manet was one of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern and
postmodern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from
Realism to Impressionism.
His early masterworks, The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l'herbe) and Olympia,
engendered great controversy and served as rallying points for the young painters who would
create Impressionism. Today, these are considered watershed paintings that mark the
genesis of modern art.
With Olympia, Manet reworked the traditional theme of the female nude, using a strong,
uncompromising technique. Both the subject matter and its depiction explain the scandal
caused by this painting at the 1865 Salon. Even though Manet quoted numerous formal and
iconographic references, such as Titian's Venus of Urbino, Goya's Maja desnuda, and the
theme of the odalisque with her black slave, already handled by Ingres among others, the
picture portrays the cold and prosaic reality of a truly contemporary subject. Venus has
become a prostitute, challenging the viewer with her calculating look. This profanation of the
idealised nude, the very foundation of academic tradition, provoked a violent reaction. Critics
attacked the "yellow-bellied odalisque" whose modernity was nevertheless defended by a
small group of Manet's contemporaries. Never-the –less, so fierce were the attacks when it
was displayed in the Salon, that it was re-hung at a height out of reach of the critics
attempting to pierce the canvas with their sticks.

12. Pink Nude (Henri Matisse)
Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the
three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in modern art in the
opening decades of the 20th century
Pink Nude was created near the beginning of the relationship between Matisse and his muse,
studio assistant and, ultimately, lifetime carer, Lydia Delectorskaya.
She models for him here, dominating the canvas with Matisse exaggerating what he called
"the essential lines" to create a flat symbol of femininity.
Matisse's journey towards simplification and abstraction took a leap forward with his Pink
Nude (1935). Intricate patterns and naturalistic figures are discarded in favour of plain forms
and stylised surfaces. Matisse led the way towards total abstraction of the form and here the
body become subservient to the flat design of the whole composition. The woman cannot be
said to be idealised. In fact the painting isn’t really about her at all. It is the painting which is
the subject. Her body has become a motif, and object neither beautiful nor ugly, moral nor
immoral, sexual nor ascetic.
Next week we will be looking at life drawing and representation of the figure in the
modern era up to present day.