Drawing the human figure—called lifedrawing—is a time-honoured way for artists to hone their skills. And there’s a good reason for that: lifedrawing allows artists to practice their ability to observe and then render those observations in a way that is meaningful and expressive. Artists throughout history have drawn the human body to express ideas about beauty, and also about human experience and human potential.

Drawing the human body presents a challenge: although we all share the same underlying structure in terms of bones and muscles, every single body is unique. And that, in a nutshell, is why lifedrawing can be so compelling. The human body is universal—it’s “where we live” and comes within everyone’s knowledge and realm of experience—and yet despite that sense of being universal and common to everyone, there is the fact that the figure portrayed is an individual, and unique.

I’ve had people ask me why I draw nude models. To me, it’s a very positive statement to look at a person—bereft of all material things, and social indicators like clothing—and see that person just as he or she is. From that viewpoint, drawing the human body is an affirmation.

The human body represents one of the greatest challenges to the artist. It is complex and various—every body is different. The time-honoured art of drawing the nude is an affirmation of the beauty of the human body.