The Royal Drawing School believes that drawing is for everyone. Connect with our tutors and world-renowned drawing tuition wherever you are through our Digital Streaming Studio. Experience our varied range of exciting drawing sessions via live-streaming technology for an in-studio feel online.
Broadcast live from the RDS studios, these digital sessions allow our tutors to utilise the life room in new, creative ways to develop unique drawing tuition with engaging perspectives, dynamic lighting setups and on-screen support only possible online. With no need to commit to a whole day or a series of weeks you can drop-in to our tutor-guided one-hour lunchtime and two-hour evening drawing classes to support your art practice or studies, try out the RDS Digital Studio classes, unwind, and expand your vocabulary of drawing skills and ideas using our specialist digital technology.
Our one- and two-hour drawing sessions, broadcast live, are an opportunity for students to experience the dynamic and dramatic possibilities of the life room from home. Using a range of drawing practices and live model, our expert tutors will guide you through a series of exercises over the course of each session. All levels welcome.
Monday 20 April, 13:00 - 14:00 - Capturing the whole figure
In this session, led by Niki Gardham, students will begin the term with gestural life drawing, focusing on observation and movement to capture the whole figure and the weight of the pose rather than detail.
Monday 20 April, 18:30 - 20:30 - The Face as Landscape
This two-hour online life drawing session, led by tutor Marcus Cornish, focuses on close observation of the face, exploring the texture and structure of skin rather than traditional portrait shading. Working from very close views of the model, students will study small asymmetries, lines and irregularities that give a face its character. Rather than drawing the whole head, the session concentrates on fragments of the face — wrinkles, folds and subtle shifts in form — approaching the face almost like a landscape. Using a ballpoint pen or biro, students will build drawings through careful mark-making, using line to map the texture and topography of the skin.
Monday 27 April, 13:00 - 14:00 - Line: Balance and stability
In this session,with the aid of a grid, and using just line, we will look at the relationships of forms within the body that provide balance and stability. Led by Tara Versey.
Monday 27 April, 18.30 - 20.30 - Challenging Habits Drawing the figure from life is a practice rich in history and one that can develop your drawing skills like no other; however, we can often fall into the same habits when drawing from life, as well as forgetting to challenge our preconceived ideas. This session, led by Fraser Scarfe, aims to disrupt some of those habits and provide ways of looking at life drawing afresh. Through a series of different challenges, we will explore and reframe some of the fundamentals of drawing the model. Expect to re-examine some of the familiar components of drawing: line, tone and composition. Using camera and visual effects we will draw in new ways, supported by reference images from artists who have done the same in their own practices, helping to push boundaries in picture making further.
Monday 11 May, 13:00 - 14:00 - Tone – Relationships of form and space
In this session led by Tara Versey, we will de-saturate the scene digitally, allowing the chance to observe tone and different levels of contrast within the figure and the surrounding space.
Monday 11 May, 18.30 - 20.30 - Experimental Colour Printmaking
In this session, led by Tara Versey, students will explore drawing and printmaking from a live model using a direct trace-through monotype process with colour. Working through a series of short and longer poses, we will experiment with layering marks and tones to create expressive, painterly drawings. Surfaces will be prepared using oil pastels or thinly rolled-out colour grounds. By placing thin paper over these prepared surfaces and drawing directly onto it, colour and texture are transferred onto the reverse side of the paper, producing soft, rich lines distinctive to the monotype process.
Monday 18 May, 13:00 - 14:00 - Head and shoulders
In this session, led by Tara Versey, students will focus on drawing the human head and shoulders.
Monday 18 May, 18:30 - 20:30 - The Musician as Muse
This live, online session, led by tutor David Gardner, explores how the image of the musician can evoke sound, rhythm, emotion and narrative within drawing. We will look at the iconography of the musician as muse throughout art history and contemporary picture making — from depictions of Orpheus on ancient Greek pottery to Franz Gertsch’s hyperreal paintings of Patti Smith in the 1970s, from Caravaggio’s The Musicians to Peter Doig’s recent House of Music exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery. Working from a live model posed with a stringed instrument under colourful theatrical lighting, we will explore how gesture, colour and composition can suggest the atmosphere of musical performance.
Monday 1 June, 13:00 - 14:00 - The Torso
In this session, led by tutor Dexter Orszagh, students will focus on drawing the torso, examining the relationship between the clavicle, ribs, abdomen, and pelvis.
Monday 1 June, 18:30 - 20:30 - Movement and Mind
This session, led by Aude Hérail Jäger, explores the connection between body, movement and mind through drawing. We’ll work in an expressive, meditative way to awaken creative abilities that are innate, direct and intuitive, but often lie dormant unless we consciously activate them. Together, we’ll use simple strategies to deepen this connection: quieting the mind with breathing exercises, extending the eye–hand connection to the whole body, experimenting with different materials and mark-making, and drawing the model in movement.
Monday 8 June, 13:00 - 14:00 - The Body Interacting
In this session, led by tutor Dexter Orszagh, students will examine the model interacting with a series of objects, capturing both figure and item, to explore the dynamic nature of the body.
Monday 8 June, 18:30 - 20:30 - Capturing Light
In this life drawing session, tutor Katy Papineau will guide you through drawing a figure posed in different kinds of light. Using colour materials on coloured paper, you'll explore the qualities of sunlight throughout the day. From the vibrant intensity of midday sun to the soft hues of the evening's golden hour, you'll learn to portray the dynamic and ever-changing light of summer. Drawing inspiration from art and film, we'll illuminate our model in ways that evoke the joy and warmth of summer days.
You can also book all sessions with 25% discount:
The Lunchtime Life Drawing 6 Session Pass offers a 25% discount, granting access to all 6 sessions for £56.
The Evening Life Drawing 6 Session Pass provides a 25% discount, giving access to all 6 sessions for £104.
