Upcoming Workshops and Courses

10 day workshop
2025-03-24 to 2025-04-04

Expressive Portraiture - An Anatomical Approach

In this 10-day workshop, we will work from a live model to study the anatomical forms of the face and neck. These forms are essential in creating a dynamic and expressive portrait. One half of the portrait will be modeled naturalistically, following traditional portraiture methods based on observation. The other half will be concept-based, featuring an écorché of the model—showing the skeleton with superficial muscles visible, without skin, fat, or hair.

The goal is to help you understand the underlying structure of the skull and how the muscles and soft tissues of the face contribute to the surface expressions. We will focus on building a solid anatomical foundation. This foundation will then be used to explore various facial expressions, ranging from subtle to highly exaggerated.

Each day will include six hours of sculpting from the model, with guided demonstrations and technical discussions. These will deepen your understanding and improve your artistic skills. By the end of the workshop, you will have the tools and knowledge to create portraits that are both anatomically accurate and emotionally expressive.

This course is ideal for artists who want to enhance their figurative work with a deeper understanding of human facial anatomy and expression.

Materials and Tools

Basic tools are available for use in the studio but I strongly recommend bringing your own personal favourites.

You are welcome to keep your sculpture after the course for a small fee of €60 to cover the cost of the armature. It's possible to have the clay sculpture shipped but there are no guarantees that the work will arrive intact. The safest option would be to have a mold made (with optional cast left inside the mold) for an additional cost and have that shipped to you at a later date.

Summary

Price: 2.000,00 €
Start date: March 24th 2025
End date: April 4th 2025
Duration: 10 teaching days (no teaching March 29th and 30th)
Group size: 6 participants
Teacher: Maudie Brady
Organiser: Maudie Brady Art
Address: Via Galileo Chini 14, 50142 Firenze, Italy
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