Don't Hold Still: Life Drawing Through Ideas of Bodily Movement A 3-day Intensive Workshop with Randy Melick
Don't Hold Still: Life Drawing Through Ideas of Bodily Movement June 27-29, 2025 MANIFEST DRAWING CENTER | 3464 Central Parkway, Cincinnati Ohio. This life drawing workshop redefines the practice of “working from the model” by shifting the focus from replicating appearance to seeing the figure through the language of drawing itself. Rather than striving to make drawings look more like figures, participants will explore how figures come into focus by looking more like drawings. Through careful study of select figure drawings and guided exercises, artists will engage with alternative ways of seeing natural forms—modes that even contemporary figurative artists have largely overlooked. This approach places the idea of natural movement at the center of life drawing, allowing participants to break away from rigid, lens-based observation. Artists will learn to recognize the unique qualities of life drawings that prioritize bodily movement over photographic accuracy, construct drawings through comparison rather than direct transcription, and convey the position and direction of the body’s major masses. By embracing this dynamic method, participants will “choreograph” their drawings, allowing each major form to move along its own trajectory, resulting in expressive and compelling figure studies. Randy Melick is an accomplished artist and educator specializing in figure drawing and artistic anatomy. With over 35 years of experience teaching life drawing at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, he has instructed students at numerous institutions including the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts where he was the Deane G. Keller Endowed Chair of Classical Drawing and Figurative Art, and Chair of the Drawing Department. Melick's drawings have been exhibited in prominent galleries and venues around the world, including in Paris, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Cincinnati. His extensive teaching background and artistic practice have established him as a respected figure in the field of figure drawing. Randy currently lives and works in Michigan. |
