This service is fully booked.

Beginners Portrait Drawing

with artist & tutor David Caldwell RP Thursdays 10 - 12.30pm

Starts Sep 26

320 British pounds

Great King Street

Service Description

This course will cover the basic principles of portraiture through drawing. Working directly from the live model, we will look at the proportions within the head and face, learn about the basic structure of the head -the skull, and study the nuanced forms within the head simplifying complex form into planes. We will also make acute analysis of individual features such as the eyes, nose, ears and mouth. Using both pencil and charcoal we will utilise line, tone, texture and directional marks to capture a likeness. We will reference portraiture from art history looking at examples both historical and contemporary. The structure of the class will be 4x2 week poses. Recommended materials: pencils, willow charcoal, charcoal pencil, rubber, eraser, putty rubber, EDS provides paper if you wish to bring in your own preferred paper you can, as well as basic/inexpensive paper/ sketchbook for sketching. David Caldwell was born in Helensburgh in the West of Scotland in 1977. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art (1994-98) and the Royal Drawing School (2003-05). He has won several awards and residencies including the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ Bulldog Bursary, the Founder’s Purchase Prize at the ING Discerning Eye (adjudged by the late Brian Sewell), and the Smallwood Architects Prize at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2019. He has twice been short-listed for the BP Portrait Awards, where in 2013 he displayed 77 miniature portraits at the National Portrait Gallery. He has recently been short-listed for various other major awards including the Seven Investments Management ‘Conversations’ Prize, the Ruth Borchard Self-portrait Prize, the Threadneedle Figurative Art Prize, the Lynn Painter-Stainers Award and the W. Gordon Smith Award. David lives and works as an artist and portrait painter in Glasgow. David paints from life in oils. His work reflects his immediate environment and features the people, landscapes and things that he directly engages with. David strives to make something permanent of the fleeting, to build layers of time and looking into one distilled image, he is a wonderful tutor and any student will be privileged to learn under his instruction.

Upcoming Sessions

Cancellation Policy

We will provide a 50% refund if you give written advance notice up to 30 days before the course start date. 0% refund 30 days before a course starts. Please note there is an administration fee of £5 payable in respect of such refunds to cover payment processing fees. You will need to inform a member of administration staff in writing by emailing EDS at info@edinburghdrawingschool.co.uk. Additionally, if you withdraw for any reason after the course has started you will not be entitled to a refund. We are a small business and we depend on every booking to ensure that classes can go ahead. If a student is unable to attend a class due to illness, then EDS must be informed immediately so that the tutor can be notified. If you are missing a class because you suspect that you have developed Covid-19, please let us know immediately so that we can alert fellow student and tutors. Non-attendance of classes/workshops does not automatically mean a refund, however EDS will assess the circumstance