“Open Up to Action” is a course — for beginner to intermediate artists — that is all about observation. In this workshop, you’ll learn to see the essence of a model’s pose in as little as one minute! This is gesture drawing.

“For those used to slow and calculated drawing only, it will be an extreme departure from your comfort zone. But with practice, you may find the approach to be exhilarating and satisfying, increasing your powers of observation and analysis!” teaching artist Jim Bradrick says. “We will work boldly, drawing with blunt tools such as crayons or graphite sticks, to discourage the temptation to get into too much detail. Beginning with poses of five minutes, we will work our way gradually to shorter poses. Class sessions will be intense and FUN!”

There will be a clothed live model at each of the four evening sessions. For more information, see https://northwindart.org and click on Courses.

The Jeanette Best Gallery in downtown Port Townsend is your classroom, and master animator Jim Bradrick is the teacher. Over a long career, Jim has had broad experience in 2D animation, illustration, comic books, advertising art, and video games. In addition to a great variety of freelance commissions, he as worked for Dark Horse Comics, Humongous Entertainment, Microsoft Research, Hidden City Games, Starwave Corporation, and Iwin Studios Division 90. With a particular passion for hand-drawn animation, he maintained an animation blog called Acme Punched!, creating nearly 200 instructional and informational posts over seven years. The blog was listed among the Top 100 Animation Blogs.