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Dynamic Draftsmanship: Rhythm, Structure, and Expressive Drawing

In this course, Danny Galieote guides you through a progressive series of drawing lessons that build your understanding of rhythm, structure, and expressive form. Starting with quick sketching and basic construction, you'll gradually take on more complex poses, angles, and tonal challenges across the head, torso, and full figure.

Using a variety of materials—including graphite, toned paper, and colored pencil—you’ll learn how to build solid, dynamic drawings through clear demonstrations and structured practice. Throughout the course, Danny emphasizes how rhythm unifies the figure, how structure supports clarity, and how drawing can serve as both study and art.

  • Gesture and Quick Sketch Foundations (Lessons 1–4): Learn to capture movement and energy through rhythm and gesture in quick figure and head studies.

  • Structure in the Head and Torso (Lessons 5–8): Build your understanding of form, proportion, and construction for the head and torso.

  • Drawing the Head from Different Angles (Lessons 9–11): Practice drawing the head from 3/4, above, and with the help of a 3D reference viewer.

  • Tonal Drawing and Technique (Lessons 12–15): Apply tone, color, and texture using hatching, toned paper, and limited palettes.

  • Advanced Application and Studies (Lessons 16–19): Combine all previous skills in more complex figure poses and a preparatory study for a finished artwork.

19 Lessons 20h 35m 5s of videos

In this lesson draftsman and painter Danny Galieote will demonstrate drawing a variety of heads from many different angles, giving you a consistent approach to drawing the head. You will learn how to relate the structural alignments of the brow to the ears, nose, mouth and chin to help orient your heads in space. Once […]
Master draftsman and painter, Danny Galieote demonstrates techniques and concepts on how to approach drawing the male and female torso. First you will see how the anatomical landmarks can help you find the major structural planes within the torso. Then you will build on the structural components as you begin to see how the tonal […]
In this lesson, master draftsman and painter Danny Galieote will demonstrate a variation on the traditional trois crayons, or three-color chalk drawing technique. You will learn how to block in a gesture of the figure, establish three-dimensional structures, and add core shadows and rhythms using your primary color. Next, you will discover how to work […]
Danny Galieote will demonstrate how to draw a reclining female figure using the NMA Reference Image Library. You will start by seeing how to draw your lay-in with your opposing rhythms, action and spirit of the pose and finish with line, tone and final highlights on the toned-paper. Materials CarbOthello Pencil – Burt Sienna and […]
In this lesson, master draftsman and painter Danny Galieote demonstrates a technique for creating preliminary drawing studies for his personal work for fine-art galleries. You will learn how to use a combination of vine charcoal, kneaded eraser, black conté and white charcoal on a mid-toned paper. First, you will learn how Danny begins with a […]