Through interpretation and critique, Concord Academy's visual arts program fosters empathy, skill development, individual voices, and respect for the creative process. While all 2D studio art courses strengthen students’ understanding of visual language, the most advanced drawing offering, The Figure, taught by CA’s new drawing instructor, Ashley MacLure, challenges students to deepen their observational skills and artistic expression.
As its name suggests, The Figure provides students with the opportunity to study human structure by analyzing the human skull, skeleton, and live, nude figures. Despite the fact that figure study has been a cornerstone of all art disciplines throughout history, it is rarely offered in high schools. Thus, The Figure is a unique class at CA, allowing for student artists to develop technical skills and a deeper understanding of the human form they might not receive at another institution.
The Figure classroom is a phone-free zone, and students always begin class by greeting the models. After that, MacLure gives a brief presentation on the focus of the day—either the contours of the body or the values—which are the lightness and darkness of the color. Students will then begin with drawing minute gestures, which are quick sketches of the body, in materials of their choice, such as charcoal and ink. What follows the minute gestures are longer poses that may range from 15 to 40 minutes.
Although figure drawing sounds tedious, it helps artists improve their foundational skills. Figure drawing student Elyn Tao ’27 mentioned, “Having to draw with different types of charcoal has improved my perspective skills and drawing the human body.” While for many classes, MacLure has the models come in, there are also days when students go outside to draw people. Tao remarked, “One of my favorite projects was [when] we went to the library and sketched out people through observation.”
Though The Figure is an advanced drawing class, MacLure tries to bring freedom and creativity into the classroom. In one of the projects, called drawing on unconventional surfaces, she provided students with maps and cardboards, introducing them to new mediums. In another project, she brought in full-body ratio size papers for students to draw on the floor. “I think it’s important for students to have the freedom, the ability, and the space to make mistakes and to experiment so that they can grow and try new things they’ve never tried before because their work can only get better when those things happen,” explained MacLure.
Through MacLure’s encouragement for the students, The Figure classroom has a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Once students begin to draw, the classroom becomes a quiet, focused workspace. This combination of support and discipline allows students to push out of their comfort zones, take creative risks, and grow as artists.