Life Drawing

Sometimes I like to think of myself as an artist... I studied art all through high school, and I paint something at least once a year. That qualifies me right?
The truth is, while I have always had a passion for art, I have gotten busier and busier and lazier and lazier over the years, to the point where I can hardly remember the last thing I painted. I used to always keep a blank canvas handy just in case.
As it stands the last thing I painted was a sign on some styrophome saying "Winehouse winter party" for a boozy party last July.

Give me some paint and a canvas and I can whip up a nice sign, or rose, or something abstract, but give me a pencil and ask me to draw or paint a person and you're going to have problems.

So this weeks challenge, not only to get me back into art, but to get me into drawing... Life drawing.
I took great care in researching the venue for this task. I looked at all the options. There were professional art classes... Life drawing hens night companies... up market bars in the city... and community college classes. They all had their pros and cons, but when I found out they did life drawing on Thursday nights at the friend in Hand at Glebe, all for the low price of $10... I knew I'd found my winner.

It's been at least seven years since I have done any drawing, so I had to raid the newsagent and the supermarket for "art supplies." Neither had the broad range of shades I was looking for, so I bought some HB and 2B pencils and hoped for the best.

The tools of a wannabe artist

I sat in the car outside for about 15 minutes before deciding I may as well go in since I'd driven all the way there.

While I ate my more-charcoal-than-medium-rare steak I looked around the room and was surprised by the range of people around. As I expected there were a few older gentlemen, but there were also couples - young and old, uni aged men and women.

Couches and tables and easels were everywhere and in the middle of the room was a raised platform covered I'm a blue patterned sheet with two red cushions up one end and a red ottoman to the side.

The model who was probably in her late twenties was sitting at the bar having a drink when I walked out and then went and changed into a robe.

I managed to find probably the last seat available which was up the back of the bar, but on a stool I had a pretty unobstructed view.

My drawing space

The model walked out to the platform in her robe and I got a little bit nervous... Being a female I have a pretty good idea of what a woman looks like naked. But i'm not exactly in the habit of looking intently at naked people for three hours. I don't have an issue with nudity, and back in my school days I looked at lot of nude renaissance and impressionist paintings.

As she took off her robe and the convener said go I wasn't sure where to look or where to start. I remember being taught to look for lines and shapes, and so I started with the most obvious shape, the V of her lady bits. By the time I had drawn three lines the convener said change and the model moved positions. Turned out I had missed the part where he said twelve one minute poses.

Almost a human, but more like a flower

My next few had a few more lines, but I didn't quite get the dimensions right! The size 8 model looks a lot closer to a size 18.

By the 12th one minute pose my drawing had little to no improvement and I was starting to think I should just bail and go home.

1 minute sketches slightly resembling a human being

Then we moved on to six two minute drawings and I gained a little bit more confidence. She looked less like a blob on a page and more like an actual person. Two minutes seemed just enough to get out a basic outline of a person.

I was still having trouble working out where to start, especially with the poses where I could mostly see her back, so I tried to look around at what everyone else was doing. The guy in front of me started with the bum cheeks every time, so I tried that method next.

2 minute sketches - looking a little more human

Then we had six 5 minute poses. 5 minutes was enough to get a semi decent shape of the model and get in a little bit more detail in the hands feet and the head. My first one looked a lot like one of those cavemen from those evolution of man pictures... That or the hunchback of Notre Dame! By number 5 and 6 I was starting to get the hang of it when then convener announced a break and the model out her robe back on.

Minus the caveman up the top - giving her some shape

If you've ever been to the friend in hand you'll know it's a quirky pub with memorabilia and signs everywhere, and a cockatoo that sits on a branch at the bar just inside the entrance. As everyone else (who seemed to all know each other) mingled during the break, the manager walked past me with the cockatoo and asked it to say goodnight. It let out a loud squawk and he took it out the back.

It was time to start again and we did four ten minute poses. This time I got some time to do some shading and make the model look a bit more three dimensional and was particularly happy with my last one, even though I still wasn't getting the face right.

Actual realism - adding in some shading and shadow

We had another break then moved onto the last two for the night, two twenty minute poses. I think due to the longer time we had to draw, the poses were gradually getting harder and this time when she lay backwards on the platform and I could only see half the head, I knew it would be harder.

I looked around at some of the other people's drawings for a bit. The guy to my left was using charcoal and had beautiful dark curves and lines.Another lady had broken out the coloured pencils and was focusing on the depth of colour. Another man behind the bar was using watercolor paints and the convener was using white chalk and pencil on black drawing paper (which was the coolest thing I've seen and have made a mental note to try myself!)

I started drawing and by the end of the forty minutes had two drawings that were more detailed and resembled a female as best as I could. Due to having more time I tried to focus on where the light was falling, and that's what I got.

20 minute number 1

20 minute number 2

As I walked out of the pub and back to my car one of the men asked me how I went, and I realised as I told him, that I really enjoyed it, especially once I felt I had gotten a handle on it. He said see you next week and walked back to his car. I think I will go back again, maybe not every week, but when I can. It felt so good to be doing something creative that I used to do on a weekly basis, even though it wasn't an art form I ever tried exploring myself. In my HSC year there was a girl in my class who had studied life drawing in Italy at the art gallery, so there was no chance I was even going to attempt it. I stuck very closely in my comfort zone with my slightly more abstract and personal body of work.
I would love to go back and try using other materials, different drawing styles or bringing some coloured pencils to experiment with. I looked in awe at those drawing and painting around me, and would love to learn to be that good!

Life drawing experience rating: 8/10

Here goes nothing...

I love a good challenge, especially if someone tells me I can't do something. Over the years it has not always been to my benefit... There was the time I wanted to show how much of a rebel I could be by climbing up the gutter pipe of the local school and on to the roof. Apparently it isn't so hardcore when you go running home to Mum wailing because you've sliced all the skin off your left hand.

Then there was the time I wanted to prove I wasn't scared and was indeed the toughest of my siblings by showing them I could jump off the roof of the house too... that was followed by a trip to the hospital for a wrist fracture. Then there was the time someone told me I couldn't jump higher than a few centimetres off the ground on my pogo stick. Within seconds I was jumping about a metre off the ground and couldn't be more proud of myself, when the pogo stick slipped from under me on the tiled balcony and I fell... hard. That resulted in wrist break number two.

While I hope I don't slice a hand or break a bone over the course of these 10 weeks, I do know that I can challenge myself and my comfort zone in at least 10 different ways.

If the results are disastrous... I'll embrace them... and even better, will have something good to write about!

Peace out! See you in 10 weeks!