Figure Drawing From Life Using The Reilly Technique. (Udemy.com)

Actually, the course was much more than I expected from a free course. The artist illustrates a technique of breaking down a figure into manageable steps. He starts with a line of action, then big shapes and smaller shapes mimicking the principle parts of the body (head, shoulders, chest, stomach, legs, arms, etc.). He continues with light and dark values, foreshortening of body parts and then finishes with details. There's no elaborate tools required, just a charcoal pencil and a drawing pad. I watched stick figures turn into shapes and then watched as credible figures emerged. Thanks, Dan.

Pros: excellent instructor, course is well structured and really good explanations and breakdowns Cons; I almost hate saying this because you are such a good teacher but...suprisingly the drawings and paintings are very flat and lack structure and 3D dimensional quality...usually associated with the Reilly technique..Reilly was a student of Bridgman who focuses highly on 3 dimensional planes of the body Summary: Overall a valuable course for beginners, really good teaching methods, and breakdowns of shapes, contours and values...but lacking in developing structure and dimension...as evident in drawings paintings.... I really hope you don't take offense to this criticism because I think your an excellent teacher, and a fairly competent artist when it comes to proportion, gesture, and value ..but I would really like to see you improve on your structure and construction..and go into a little more depth of Reilly Abstraction Method in order toachieve the dimensional quality the Bridgman lineage is noted for (Reilly, Loomis, Frazetta etc)

The instructor is very talented. The information is good however there was no opportunity to practice during the course. I believe the intro said that you should watch the lectures then practice on the 5 demos. But , the demos went too fast, he was recreating drawings he did in 40 mins in 5 mins. Even if I could follow along that quickly his hand or arm was covering the picture most of the time and he did not provide any reference drawing so you had no idea what the finished product was going to be. He mentioned a book, but I dont think he said where to get it. Possibly, the book would've been nice to have in conjunction with this course.

This is a great course! It is a course for those students seriously interested in figure drawing. I am not an artist but took drawing courses in College and this course took me back to class (minus the models). The course takes you from a gesture to a completed drawing. It simplifies the complexities the human body poses to an untrained eye. All we need afterwards is to get a model to pose, apply the technique and with practice, practice, hope to master drawing figures as well as anyone. To the teacher: Thank you for offering this great course for free. You got the dormant artist in me thrilled.

so far its what i expected and what he explained in the intro i would see. he is easy to understand and he he has explained things very well i look forward to seeing more. Add at end of the course: I changed my original rating from 4.5 to 5. the half point deduction was based on the camera work which I was warned about in the intro. as the course went on the camera work got some better but more importantly it just became less annoying and because of the quality of the instruction i decided that the deduction was not appropriate. I have to admit that I was a little intimidated about taking this course. I had heard of the Reilly method and thought it might be a bit stiff and too academic. I was pleasantly surprised that it was neither although I think the instructors ease of delivery and knowledge of the material made the information more accessible and fun. I would highly recommend this course. As a matter of fact I already have.

I went ahead a changed my review to 5 stars; because there's a lot of invaluable information here; and I am getting it for free. but an unfortunate fact of the matter is that the camera work is quite distracting; in that the camera focal point keeps bouncing around; and most of the time the camera is zoomed in way closer than it needs to be; often cropping out key parts of what is being talked about. I've caught my self inadvertently crying out in despair at how infuriatingly bad the camera work is... It helps that I'm already fairly experienced with figure drawing. I think if I was a beginner and didn't have any idea what I was looking at... I would be extremely frustrated; and and miss out on absorbing the valuable information that is indeed being presented. My gratitude to the instructor for putting this together; but I deeply wish the camera work wasn't so... frankly atrocious.

This was a free course so I cannot judge too harshly as no matter how you slice it, I got my money's worth. As for the content, it was very informative on a specific technique. Be aware, this is not a general drawing instruction course. Presentation was fine, but not directed at the user as it is basically a compilation of videos taken during class time in a six week course that appears to have taken place in the 90's. I'd recommend if you're interested in learning the technique and perhaps less interested in paying for it.

I posted a 2 star review because of poor miking, poor camera work, no clue what medium. There are also no assignments for practice between sessions. Mr. DiMaria responded with an explanation that I found mostly satisfying though I stand by my contention that if something is worth doing it's worth doing right. The point within that point is that this is worth doing. Not to be lost is the fact that the teacher is an artist, is knowledgeable, and is a engaging, easy-to-listen-to instructor. I went through the videos once to listen/watch and a second time to imitate/practice what I saw. I will likely advance to a paid series by this teacher if I decide not to go to the Art Students League.

Don does a good job of hitting the high points of drawing in general and despite the video quality, which he explains in the comments section, there's much useful information here. I came across this course looking for more information on the Reilly method which I became aware of in books and other videos. Don clearly uses the Reilly method (or a variation) but I was looking for a more in depth explanation of the rhythms in the form and how to use them... sort of an entire class on the method itself. (To be honest, I still have 6 videos to watch, so I may get a surprise or perhaps I just missed it.) I would like to see him teach a series on painting. That's something I want to do but have no clue how to start. UPDATE* Don does have other paid classes I may explore later on these very topics. 5 stars to keep this in search, 4 stars for value (to me personally). For the price, the value is great. And you have to love the Kentucky shirt in his self-portrait. Go Cats!

I am 65 years old and enjoy this course so much because its informative, tutor is passionate and his clear teaching is so engaging I feel like I am in the class room with other students. Thank you so much for the pleasure of seeing the possibilities of being able to learn so many aspects of Art. This course have enhance all the other art lessons I'm enrolled in udemy. I have learned so much more than just taking a class because this tutor explains a variety of art interpretations and concepts that makes sense when I do my other art courses. My dream of learning how to draw started as a toddler and due to the expensive art course available i could not afford to follow my dream now its become a reality. I thank my tutor Donelli DiMaria for his wonderful art course and for this opportunity to make my dreams come true and for his amazing inspiration.