Figure painting

Figure painting is a form of art in which the artist uses a live model as the subject matter of a two-dimensional piece of artwork.

In most cases the live model is nude and the painting is a representation of the full body of the model.

The term is mostly used in the context of art instruction to describe a class in which the student artist will spend the class painting a representation of a nude model posing for the entire class. The teacher will often teach students about such anatomical subjects as skeletal and muscular features that an artist should know about in order to better represent the live human model in a two dimensional space.

Outside of the classroom, 'figure painting' usually refers to an artist's work in progress. It is rarely, if ever, used to refer to an artist's finished work. More specific terms such as 'nudes', portraits, or even figure studies are used to describe the actual works of art that an artist produced while figure painting.

Some artists very well known for figure painting are Rubens, Degas, and Manet.