Basics of Figure Drawing

Basics of Figure Drawing is happening at the Carnegie Museum of Art on Sunday, October 25, at 2 PM. It's part of Art School for Life, a series of studio art classes for adults that the museum puts on to get people back into creating. The whole idea is to use the museum's own collection and exhibitions as source material, so you're drawing from things you can actually see in the galleries rather than just working from a photo or a textbook.

Over the course of the class, you'll work on sharpening your observational skills and picking up techniques for understanding figural proportions. You'll experiment with line, gesture, value, and shading—the kind of fundamental stuff that makes a figure look like it's actually occupying space. The format pairs hands-on studio work with the museum's curatorial perspective: each session opens with a 50-minute presentation, followed by 25 minutes of questions and discussion. In this particular course, you'll draw first from the plaster figures in the Hall of Sculpture before moving on to work from a draped model in the final two sessions.

It's part of a six-week program that runs on Sundays from September 27 to November 1, 2026, so this is one session within a larger stretch of classes. The class is held in the Pink Studio, and the cost is $200, with a member rate of $175 for Carnegie Museums members and a senior rate of $150. It's listed as sold out, so you'll want to keep an eye on the museum's calendar for future sessions if you missed this one.