A life drawing (or figure drawing) is a drawing of the human form in various poses and postures. Female life drawing refers to drawing the female form. The objects of the drawing are nude so that anatomical features can be easily seen, although sometimes drawings are loose and expressive and even abstract representations of the body.
The human body is regarded as the most difficult subject an artist can attempt to represent and artists return again and again to life drawing during their artistic practice. It can be the subject of illustrations, portraits, sculpture and engravings among many others and artists take a variety of approaches: some focus on the interplay of light and dark on the surfaces of the body, others seek to represent anatomical features while some loosely construct the body out of geometric shapes then refine those shapes to more closely resemble the human form.