2 seats available
Figure & Portrait Drawing Workshop
Artist-Instructor: Alma Sinai
Location: Alma’s Studio
12045 Berlin-Neukölln (near Weichselplatz)
*important note: For inquiries about the workshop and if after registration the exact address wasn’t sent to you 3 days to the start of the workshop(also check spam folder), please contact a.sinai@berlindrawingroom.com
Language: English
Level: All levels are welcome, from beginners to more experienced.
Duration:
April 23-June 18 ( Skips May 14 ), 8x Thursdays, 18:30-20:30
Cost: 290€ (inc. VAT)
Materials
Materials to Bring: Various pencils from soft to hard (a set of at least 4 pencils between 2B to 9B), A4 or A3 drawing paper or sketchbook, soft graphite stick(6B or higher), kneadable eraser, hard white eraser, sharpener. Guide for where to buy art supplies.
What to Expect
In this Figure & Portrait drawing workshop, explore how the structure of the body shapes each pose. By mastering proportions, bones, and joints, you will capture the human figure with precision and confidence. Through short warm up exercises to long form poses we will practice drawing a wooden Mannequin and then move on to studying anatomy through life drawing. During the workshop we will also explore a variety of materials from pencil & charcoal to pastel & ink.
A deep understanding of anatomy is essential to figure drawing because it allows you to see beneath the surface of the body. Knowing how bones, joints, and muscles work together helps you accurately interpret the figure’s movement, posture, and balance. In this workshop, you will build your drawings from the inside out—using this anatomical knowledge to create lifelike, dynamic poses that capture both form and function.
As you work from both a wooden mannequin and a live model, you will learn to identify the figure’s line of action and flow—the imaginary line that defines the overall movement and energy of a pose. This helps you visualize the figure’s dynamic motion and balance, giving your drawings a sense of life and movement. By breaking the body down into basic shapes—cubes, cylinders, and spheres—you will establish a solid foundation for proportion and structure while capturing the rhythm and energy of the model’s gestures.
Throughout the workshop, Alma will encourage you to infuse your drawings with energy, emotion, and character, bringing each body and portrait to life. By experimenting with different materials, you’ll discover new ways to express mood and movement, transforming your sketches into dynamic works of art. In this workshop, we’re not just focusing on structure, but also on capturing the essence of the person in front of us. It’s about channeling their unique energy and mood, and through your own visual interpretation, translating that into your drawing. You’ll explore both the technical side of drawing and how to bring personal expression into your work. A true portrait captures more than just appearance; it incorporates context, posture, clothing, and symbolism to convey identity, with various materials highlighting different facets of expression, from emotion to character.
Topics Covered
- Breaking down the human body & face into simple geometric shapes and understanding proportions
- Capturing gesture, dynamics, and rhythm in a pose
- Identifying the figure & portraits main action lines
- Using tonality and contour lines
- Understanding how joints and limbs move in different poses
- Capturing mood and energy through tonal shading and contour line
This workshop deepens your understanding of the anatomy and provides the tools to create expressive, accurate drawings. It’s perfect for anyone looking to sharpen their figure drawing skills.
About Your Instructor:
Alma Sinai was born (1989) and raised in Tehran. After receiving an associate degree in Cinema from University of Art in Tehran she moved to the USA in 2010. She pursued a BFA degree at RISD followed by an MFA at Parsons. In the past decade alongside being active as an interdisciplinary artist she has also been working as a teaching artist.
Sinai primarily works in printmaking, drawing, video and installation and she usually focuses on binaries such as absence & presence, indoor & outdoor, visible & invisible. Alongside the repetition is one of the common aspects throughout her projects. In the process of recurrence in the print-motifs, patterns and looped video narratives with no exit points, meanings get lost, added and distorted.
She has had solo and group exhibitions internationally in venues such as Dastan Gallery, 009821 Projects, International print center New York (IPCNY), Slaturhusid Culture Center, Site:Brooklyn, University of Edinburgh and Pratt institute. In the past years Sinai has attended residency fellowship programs including Vermont Studio Center and Lunga School in Iceland. She’s been based in Berlin since October 2021 after doing an artist residency program at GlogauAIR.
