Course Description

In this immersive five-day workshop, you’ll draw from a live model, building confidence in the fundamentals of depicting the figure with a focus on proportion, structure, and form.

The week begins with a series of shorter poses, helping you explore expressive gesture and effective abbreviation, before moving on to a highly resolved long-pose drawing. This extended 15+ hour session gives you the chance to capture the model’s unique character, anatomical structure, and three-dimensional presence through the careful rendering of light and shadow.

Patrick provides live demonstrations, individual critiques, and detailed discussions covering value range, anatomy, perspective, line quality, and the balance between sculptural, graphic, and atmospheric aesthetics. Instruction is customised to your personal goals, making the workshop suitable for beginning to advanced artists.

Mornings feature short lectures and narrated demonstrations to introduce key concepts, while afternoons are dedicated to drawing from the live model. Each participant receives substantial, in-depth personalized feedback per day, ensuring hands-on guidance and support throughout the workshop.

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Key Learning Concepts

• Strengthen your understanding of figure drawing fundamentals in proportions, structure, and form
  
• Develop expressive gesture drawing skills through dynamic short poses and effective visual abbreviation
  
• Create a fully-realised academic figure drawing that captures anatomy, character, and three-dimensional presence
  
• Enhance your technical control of value range, line quality, perspective, and light/shadow rendering
  
• Individualized feedback and mentorship helps to support your artistic goals, regardless of your skill level

Patrick Byrnes

Patrick Byrnes was born in Busan, South Korea in 1984 and raised in La Grange, Illinois. Patrick trained under Jacob
Collins at the Grand Central Atelier in New York City, and worked as a principal instructor in the atelier’s full and part time programs upon graduation.

In 2017, Patrick relocated to Paris, France, where he now lives and works, while traveling regularly throughout Europe and North America to offer short form workshops. His paintings and drawings are exhibited at galleries in Paris, New York, and Massachusetts.

​@armstid

Artist Bio >

​Traveling to DARA from far away? Visit our FAQ for travel tips like where to stay, and all you need to know before you book.

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Supply List

The following items are required to participate in class. We carry most supplies for sale directly in the studio (accepted students receive a detailed PDF with further information.)

GRAPHITE PENCILS
Pencils in a range from 2H to 4B (Patrick recommends Tombow and Staedtler brands)

DRAWING PAPER
3 sheets of smooth, white or cream-colored drawing paper, roughly between A3 or A2 size (Patrick recommends Strathmore, Stonehenge, Arches, and Canson brands.)

ERASERS
1 kneaded eraser
1 hard rubber eraser (Patrick recommends the Tombow brand “Mono Zero”eraser stick)

BLENDING TOOLS
One cotton blending stump or tortillon

SHARPENING TOOLS
Sandpaper pad
Utility knife

MEASURING TOOLS
Sturdy knitting needle or a long-handled paintbrush for taking measurements

MIRROR
A small handheld mirror, for seeing your drawings from a different perspective

Tuition Fee & What's Included

INCLUDED  |   The tuition fee includes 30 hours of studio instruction, model fees, complimentary lunch served daily, coffee / tea / light refreshments served during all hours, basic studio equipment (easels, stools, drawing boards), and an end-of-workshop borrel (alcoholic & non-alcoholic drinks and light bites.)

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NOT INCLUDED  |   Accommodation, airfare, transport costs, and drawing or painting supplies are not included with the tuition fee.

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WHAT'S FOR LUNCH?  |   We serve a complimentary light lunch, prepared daily in house with love. Typical lunches include sandwiches, soups, salads, wraps, and other light and healthy fare. Menus change daily. We are happy to accommodate vegetarian & vegan diets.

Payment Deadlines

Acceptance when there is more than 1 month before the start of the workshop:

To keep your place on hold, a deposit payment must be made within 14 days of your acceptance letter:

• Option 1: The entire tuition fee is paid in one sum.
• Option 2: You pay in two parts: the first half is the deposit, and the second half is paid one month before the first day of class.
• Option 3: You sign up via our ecommerce platform to pay in monthly instalments, of between 4 to 6 instalments total according to your preference. The first instalment is considered the deposit. A 5% surcharge is added when you select this option. Monthly billing is available for Spring workshops before March 2026, and for Summer workshops before May 2026.

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Acceptance when there are 4 weeks or less before the start of the workshop:

The full cost of tuition is due within 5 working days of your acceptance letter. Tuition fees must be paid in full before the first day of lessons in order to participate.

Discounts & Financial Aid

To support artists in our community, DARA has several discounts on offer for our 2026 workshop roster - please see terms and conditions below. Additionally, you may be eligible for third-party subsidies to help fund your education at DARA.

Please note that the following offers apply to our Workshop Programme only. Available discounts may differ for our Trimester Programme & Bootcamps.​

Early Bird Discount

You are eligible for this discount if you register between 10 to 30 November for any workshop scheduled between the months of April to September 2026 and you reserve your space by paying a deposit within 14 days of your letter of acceptance.

Terms & Conditions:

• If you enrol in multiple courses, this discount applies to the workshop with the lowest tuition fee.
• If you cancel your enrolment and then decide to join the course at a later time, the discount is void.
• If your deposit payment is not received by the deadline (within 14 days of your letter of acceptance), the discount is void.
• If you enrol in a workshop at the Early Bird rate, and then later decide to transfer to a different workshop, the discount is void.
• This discount does not apply to the workshop "Drawing the Portrait: Structure & Form" with Kevin Muller-Cisneros, scheduled in January 2026. Kevin's workshop has a separate special discount on offer - see here for details.

Artist Discount

Registering for multiple workshops? The more courses you take, the more you save!

As a show of gratitude to our dedicated students, DARA offers you a €50 discount for each additional workshop you join in 2026, for maximum savings of up to €200.

What you save:

• Any 2 Workshops: save €50 off the combined total of tuition fees;
• Any 3 Workshops: save €100 off the combined total of tuition fees;
• Any 4 Workshops: save €150 off the combined total of tuition fees;
• Any 5+ Workshops: save €200 off the combined total of tuition fees.

Terms & Conditions:

• You can combine this discount with the Early Bird discount. Register early and maximise your savings!
• If you cancel your enrolment in one or more workshops, the full discount will no longer apply.
• This discount only applies to our Workshop Programme. If you enrol in only one workshop, but also join some other type of course (a trimester course, bootcamp, etc.) you are not eligible for this discount.

Subsidies & Financial Aid

Career Development for Creative Professionals: Funding up to €2.000
If you work in the creative sector in the Netherlands, either for a company or as a ZZP'er, you may be eligible for third-party funding from Werktuig-PPO when you enrol in courses at DARA.

Please check terms & eligibility here.


Volwassenenfonds Sport and Culture
This fund provides support that enables those from low-income households to be involved in the arts. You must have a registered address within the Netherlands. You can apply to the fund in your own region through the website.

Please check terms & eligibility here.

Cancellation & Studio Policies

See all Studio Policies >

• Policies if I cancel >

• Policies if DARA cancels >

• Credit tuition fees to something else >

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• If you cancel your enrolment, you may be eligible for a full or partial refund. DARA is not liable for the cost of accommodation, airfare or travel, or any other student expenses associated with the workshop.
  
  Full Refund
  1) If you cancel within 14 days of paying your first instalment of tuition fees, you receive a full refund, even if the course already began.* (*In this situation, you are required to pay the cost of services rendered. This is calculated by the number of lessons that were completed at the time you cancelled, regardless of whether or not you attended class. The remaining balance is refunded.)
  
  2) If you cancel more than 6 months before the start of the workshop, you receive a full refunded.
  
  3) If you cancel at any time before the workshop, and either you or DARA is able to find someone else to take your place, you receive a full refund 14 days after the alternate student has paid to reserve the vacant space.
  
  Partial Refund
  1) If you cancel when there are more than 4 weeks, but fewer than 6 months, before the start of the workshop, DARA retains 50% of the total tuition fee. If you have paid more than 50% of the tuition fee, than the remaining balance is refunded to you.
  
  Please note that if we are able to find someone else to fill your place in the workshop, we will refund you in full 14 days after the alternate student has reserved the available space.
  
  Situations where you are not eligible for a refund
  1) You are not eligible for a refund if you cancel when there are fewer than 4 weeks before the start of the workshop. However, please note that we will waive this policy and refund you in full if we can find someone else to take your place before the workshop begins.
  
  2) You are not eligible for a refund if you are absent from class, or you withdraw from the workshop for any reason after the course starts. You are also not eligible to credit your tuition fee to a different course in this situation.
• If we have not reached sufficient levels of student enrolment for the course to go forward, we will notify you two months in advance of the scheduled start date.
  
  In this circumstance, you can opt to:
  
  

  • Keep a space reserved to attend the course at a postponed date;
  • Transfer your enrolment to another available course;
  • Receive a full refund of tuition fees.

  
  ​Please note that DARA is not liable for students' accommodation, airfare, travel costs, or other expenses affiliated with the workshop.
  
  If a single lesson is cancelled (for example, due to the instructor falling seriously ill or other exceptional circumstance), every effort will be made to schedule a make-up session at a time convenient for the majority of students. A refund for the lesson is offered to any students who cannot attend the make-up session. DARA reserves the right to substitute in another qualified instructor or model in a class if necessary.
• Crediting your tuition fee to a different workshop is permitted in the following circumstances:
  
  Conditions of eligibility
  1) There are more than 6 weeks before the start of the workshop you were originally accepted to.
  
  2) You will transfer to a specific course which is currently open for registration at DARA. We are not able to keep tuition fees on hold for a hypothetical course at some unfixed time in the future.
  
  3) The course you would like to transfer into has places available, and if there are any eligibility requirements, you meet them. (Please note that there are no entrance requirements for workshops or bootcamps, however there are requirements for our Trimester Programme.)
  
  4) If there is a price difference between the two courses, such that the tuition fee of the course you want to transfer into costs less than your original workshop, DARA will refund the difference in tuition fees up to €300. Any amount left over is retained by DARA.
  
  If all four conditions are not met, it is not possible to credit your tuition fee to a different course. Please refer to the Cancellation Policy.
  

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