Online Drawing Course

Half Figure. Hand Gestures

August 21 – October 09, 2025

SIGN up FOR this COURSE

What You Will Learn

In this course you will learn how to draw hand gestures for half-figures. The course consists of 6 pre-recorded assignments (professionally filmed and edited Full HD video tutorials) with homework instructions, published in a certain order according to a schedule. The assignments can be watched at any time during the course and remain available afterwards.

The course begins on October 24 and ends on December 12, 2024; within this time frame you can study at your own schedule and pace. We use a unique Google Classroom for the whole period of the course to share the assignments and answer quesions. We also invite our students to upload photographs of their drawings and paintings to the classroom so we can provide individual feedback to each of your drawings / paintings and see how the group is doing.

Each of the assignments is dedicated to a certain kind of gesture, one at a time. Preparing this course, we selected 50+ icons of Christ Pantocrator. We will use them all as references to teach the logics and universal principles of hand drawing in iconography. The goal of this course to provide students with necessary knowledge and skills to draw different kinds of hand gestures on their own.

Details

FOR WHOM

Anyone, interested in learning how to draw different hand gestures used in iconography. It is equally good for individuals with little to no iconography or drawing experience and for professional iconographers, willing to learn drawing hand gestures properly.

PRICE

260 USD for 6 assignments with personal feedback. Payments are non-refundable. Students are accepted on a first come - first served basis.

DURATION

  • 7 weeks 6 assignments:
    August 21 – October 09, 2025.
    Drawings are accepted for corrections no later than October 07, 2025

    • RESOURCES PROVIDED

    Each of the 6 assignments includes:
    1 pre-recorded HD video tutorial
    1 PDF file with lecture summary, historical information and homework,
    1 folder with drawings,
    1 folder (or folders) with medieval models.
    All video tutorials remain available after the end of the Course.

    LEARNING SUPPORT

    Learners are expected to share photographs of their drawings in Google Classroom Stream. Personal corrections / comments / recommendations from the instructors are given within 48 hours (weekends excluded). Feedback is guaranteed for the whole period of the course either written in words or/and drawn directly on the uploaded photograph.

    NECESSARY SUPPLIES

  • Paper: A4 or Letter format
  • Pencils: 2H and 2B (or 4B)
  • Eraser
  • Compass with two needles (caliper)
  • Ruler
  • Thick paper for templates
    (1-2 A4/Letter size sheets)

    • WILL I HAVE ENOUGH TIME

    We made this program as extensive as possible. Complex tasks are split into manageable parts, making the assignments squeezable between routine work and family duties. We hope it will allow everybody to study at their own pace. Please put about 40-50 minutes for watching the video tutorials & at least 2 hours for drawing practice per assignment.

    Practical Matters

    Our online courses allow to study iconography at your own schedule and pace. Every course is made as a series of assignments - pre-recorded video tutorials with homework instructions, which can be watched at any time during the course and remain available afterwards. We launch a new Google Classroom for each course and encourage our students to share photographs of their drawings and paintings as often as they wish. From our side we do our best to provide individual feedback for every students' drawing within 48 hours from the moment of publishing (weekends excluded).

    Online Iconography Drawing Course Half Figure Hand Gestures starts on October 24, 2024. It consists of 6 assignments. Each of them explains, demonstrates and suggests drawing a certain hand position or blessing gesture. After the last assignment is published on November 28, you will have two more weeks to submit your homework for checking.

    Access to the Google Classroom and the videos is for the online course participants only and must not be shared with anyone else in any form

    Online Iconography Drawing Course

    Assignments

    ASSIGNMENT 1. Ancient Meaning of Gestures and the Main Hand Structure: August 21, 2025
    ASSIGNMENT 2. How to Draw a Two-Fingered Blessing: August 28, 2025
    ASSIGNMENT 3. How to Draw an Abbreviated Jesus Christ Blessing: September 4, 2025
    ASSIGNMENT 4. How to Draw a Back of the Hand Gesture: September 11, 2025
    ASSIGNMENT 5. Christ’s Hand under the Gospel: September 18, 2025
    ASSIGNMENT 6. Christ’s Hand Holding a Scroll: September25, 2025

    Learning Process

    Each of the 6 weekly assignments includes:

  • a tutorial video
  • a PDF file with homework, historical information, lecture summary
  • a folder with drawings
  • a folder (or folders) with medieval models

    • Start each assignment by watching a video, taking notes and making sketches. They will help you to memorize all the new information. In order to master new skills and make them become your hands on experience you need a lot of drawing practice.

    The homework for each assignment is given at the end of the last video and also in description of each assignment. In the folders for each assignment, you will find all the drawings and medieval models. We expect you to do your homework on paper of A4/Letter format and post it in the Google Classroom Stream.

    If you are not satisfied with your drawings and have not finished them, share your drawings at least once a week. Constructive feedback will help you to move on. If you are stuck and don’t understand how to proceed, post your drawing(s) with question(s) in the Stream. We are always ready to give a hand.

    The advantage of using the Stream is that you see other students' homework and teachers' feedback as well. You can spot a lot of interesting comments and suggestions that help in your work.

    We kindly ask you, take a photo of your drawings without distortion. When taking a photo, hold your cell phone or tablet parallel to the drawing. It will help a lot with your homework correction.

    We hope that at least for these one or two hours of drawing you will switch off or put your cell phone on “silent mode”. We also recommend asking people around not to disturb you and provide some peace for concentrated work. We insist on this because the learning process is more intense and effective if performed with a complete immersion in the process, thoughtfully and carefully.

    If you experience any technical difficulties with Google Classroom, please let us know via email. We will answer you as quickly as we can.


    Ready to Enroll?

    Online Iconography Drawing Course Half-Figure Hand Gestures consists of 6 assignments, lasts for 7 weeks (August 21 - October 09, 2025) and costs 260 USD or 245 EUR .
    This course is for anyone, interested in learning how to draw blessing gestures and hands in most common positions. It is equally good for individuals with little to no iconography or drawing experience and for professional iconographers, willing to learn drawing hand gestures properly. Making your registration payment, please provide a valid email address, - it will also be used to send you a personal invitation to Google Classroom and all the further communications.
    We accept payments with Interactive Online Iconography Drawing Course: Half Figure. Garments. Theory and Practice.
    Unlike Paypal, it allows you to freely choose the currency of your payment on the top of the payment page. We kindly ask you to let us know if you experience any difficulty. We kindly ask you to let us know if you experience any difficulty.



    Interactive Online Iconography Drawing Course: Half Figure. Garments. Theory and Practice


    If within 80 days from the purchase date you experience health issues forbidding you to participate in the chosen course, we will fully refund the cost of your order.

    Making your reigistration payment, please provide a valid email address. It will be used to send you a personal invitation to Google Classroom and for all the further communications. The Assignments are emailed on Thursdays at 00:00 AM Moscow time (GMT+3). Please, let us know if you have any further questions. If you wish to be informed about our future courses and other events, get in touch with us (top-right of this page) or subscribe to our regular Newsletter at the bottom of this page.