The Figure in Colored Pencil
Instructed by Alexandra Franz
August 3-6, 2026
1-4pm,
Monday-Thursday
Registration Deadline: July 31, 2026
[ REGISTER HERE ]
Course Description
In this course, you will explore the nude figure through observational drawing with colored pencils, developing both technical skill and a deeper understanding of color relationships, form, and structure. Through careful study, you will learn to simplify complex subjects into planar shapes, using color, value, and temperature to create convincing and expressive representations of the human figure.
Working directly from the live model, you will practice measuring proportions, perspective, and spatial relationships while strengthening your ability to observe both positive and negative space. Particular emphasis will be placed on seeing beyond local color, discovering the subtle shifts in temperature and hue that bring the figure to life.
Using layered colored pencil techniques, you will develop skills in blending, color theory, mark-making, and building a drawing through successive applications of color. Historical and contemporary examples will provide context for the continued relevance of representational figure drawing within contemporary art practice.
While open to all, this course is especially well suited for high school and college students seeking to strengthen their portfolios for college applications, as well as current art and design students looking to develop rigorous observational skills that support their academic work. The class will instruct to your level, including basic accuracy with figure drawing all the way to more complex color use, mixing, and compositional planning.
Tuition: $250
Class Size
Minimum: 5
Maximum: 15
Materials List: (link to printable PDF)
Level of Study: Beginner to Advanced
This class will adjust to each student's needs, whether beginner needing instruction in basic figure drawing skills, intermediate needing new challenges and refinement, or advanced wanting to sharpen or explore approaches to the figure, color, and colored pencils as media.
LOCATION: Unless otherwise specified, all courses are hosted at Manifest's new facility at 'M1' in Clifton at 3464 Central Parkway (see map and directions below). Manifest's new facility provides multiple studio classrooms, private lesson space, a darkroom, a film processing room, a state of the art printmaking wing, and a multi-purpose lecture and class meeting space as well as on-site parking, grounds, and exterior spaces in which to relax, discuss, and make art. The studios are outfitted with professional equipment, furniture, and study aids.
Map to Manifest's M1 Studios | Studio Calendar | Darkroom Calendar
|
Two-hour Drawings from live models by Alexandra Franz
About the instructor:
Alexandra Franz is a representational painter of figures, portraits, and still lifes. She has served as an Open Figure Moderator at Manifest Drawing Center since 2023, and as Lead Moderator over the past year. She has also taught private lessons at Manifest for several years, and earlier this summer led a weeklong Drawing Intensive workshop focused on color at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning. She has exhibited nationally in competitive professional-level exhibitions, and in 2025 showed work in her first international exhibition, in London. In 2023 she was invited to attend an 18-day artist residency in southern Italy.
Franz is a 2025 Cincinnati MacDowell Society Artist Award grantee and a 2024 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grantee. She received her BA in Art History from the University of Cincinnati, where she also studied Fine Arts and earned a certificate in Museum Studies. Her work is held in private collections around the U.S. In May and June of 2026 she presented over twenty recent works in a solo exhibition at Buckham Gallery in Flint, Michigan, and she currently has work on view at First Street Gallery in New York City (June/July 2026), with work to follow at Bowery Gallery also in NYC (July/August 2026).
|
