Free Your Hand (and your art will follow)
A creative course exploring the possibilities of drawing
4 weeks, Thursdays 10-12
Begins October 2nd
Course cost: £90 (including materials)
In this course we will explore what drawing is, or could be. We will consider observation, response, technical skill and free expression, and we’ll probe the tensions between getting it 'right' versus letting loose.
The aim is to build your skills and give you the confidence to draw your own way. Each week we will take a staple art subject as a starting point - mark-making, the figure, the portrait, still life - and explore its possibilities.
Week 1: Sorry Not Sorry: Drawing unapologetically your own way
Week 2: In Your Face: Drawing faces, and exploring ideas of portraiture
Week 3: Pants Back On: Transferring those life-drawing skills to the real world.
Week 4: Unstill Life: Capturing the ‘~ness’ of objects
Materials provided. Beginners welcome
Digital drawers welcome, please bring along your device.
Life Drawing For Beginners
September 11, 2025
10am - 12pm
Tutor: chris blackburn
Course Cost: £22 (including materials)
Are you life drawing curious?
Come and join this friendly, non-judgy, easy-going session.
This small group class is ideal for giving life drawing a try.
It includes tuition on getting started and lots of supportive advice and encouragement.
The class includes a mixture of fun expressive exercises to explore the drawing process itself, along with traditional exercises to help with proportion and other tricky bits.
Chris has been teaching life drawing for many years and specialises in teaching beginners - she loves helping people get started. The classes take place in the relaxed Artpocket studio, and you will work from an experienced, unclothed model.
No previous art experience necessary, and you don’t even need to bring a pencil - all materials are provided.
Drawing From The Figure
Courses are currently full, please contact for a waiting list space, thanks!
Drawing from the Figure with Frances Martin
Fridays
25th April - 27th June 2025 (no session 30th May)
Morning session - 9.30am - 12 noon
Afternoon session - 13.00pm - 15.30pm
Cost: £195 for the term
Over the sessions we will be working from models, with suggestions for work in both b/w and colour drawing media.
The course is open to all levels of experience with tailored tutoring in a small group.
Life Drawing: Developing Skills and Confidence
4 weeks, Thursdays 10-12 noon
Begins 12 June 2025
Tutor: Chris Blackburn
Course Cost: £95 (including materials
This popular course is ideal for anyone who wants learn, practise or expand their life-drawing skills. The class will consist of a small group to allow for one-to-one tuition, tailored to suit you whether you are beginner, a bit rusty or more experienced.
There will be a mixture of expressive gestural exercises as well as traditional exercises focusing on some of the trickier challenges: foreshortening, heads, hands and feet.
The sessions will be led by the individual needs of the group, and we will choose together which subjects to cover, so you get what you need as to build your skills and develop confidence.
Along the way we will explore different approaches to drawing itself. We’ll take a look at how understanding anatomy can help us, and what we can learn from other artists who have portrayed the human figure in their work.
Basic paper and drawing materials will be provided, but you are welcome to bring along and experiment with materials and ideas of your own.
Sunday Portrait Intensives with Frances Martin
Saturdays
10th & 17th May 2025
Timing: 10am - 3pm
(including a short lunch break)
Cost: £90 for 2 sessions
Over these days we will be drawing or painting from a clothed model. An opportunity to have a prolonged chance to work from the figure, to create one work or a series of drawings.
You are welcome to have a whole body, or portrait focus.
Contact Details
telephone: 07944 205707
email: francesmartin67@gmail.com
About Frances Martin
Frances graduated from Wolverhampton University with a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art in 1990. After finishing her degree, Frances travelled and lived abroad for 5 years, gaining her teaching qualification (PGCE) from the University of Greenwich in 1997. She has taught art at a range of ages, levels and abilities, with a recent focus on expressive drawing from the figure.
Frances works from her Norwich studio with drawing and painting media to portray the human form in various stages of emotion. She has exhibited in group and solo shows in Norwich and London.