Figure study

Studies may be sketches completed in a relatively short length of time, or very detailed depending upon the artist's preferred methods.

[6] Experienced artists continue to practice drawing the figure long after their formal education is completed by attending informal groups with no instruction that meet, often weekly, to share the cost of hiring a model.

; the format is similar to beginning or intermediate drawing classes, being three hours in total that start with a number of gestures and proceed to slightly longer poses, but rarely more than 20 minutes each, only time enough for studies.

Such open drawing groups can be found in many locals in the United States,[7] and in other countries that share the Western tradition of figure studies.

[8] During the 16th to the 19th centuries, painters did numerous drawings and color studies in preparation for large works that might take a year or more to complete.