The Prince Regent, Herne Hill, 27 January 2016

“Sit in a comfortable pose on that stool – we’ll begin,” suggested Lisa. “Nonchalant, like?” I queried. “Yes, nonchalant.” Artists were still very much in the act of arriving, selecting a free easel in one of the two rooms upstairs at The Prince Regent, and adjusting it according to their preferences. Yet time was upon us, so without further announcement I stripped naked and perched upon said stool, atop two tables.

I had started in the main room where I would be specialising in dynamic work. In the adjacent ‘blue room’, Pip, a new model, would be holding longer poses. Both rooms continued to fill until it seemed there wasn’t an easel to spare; I think we must have had between 20 and 30 artists present in total. Lisa cleverly arranges the space and lighting so even on busy nights the layout feels natural and organic.

After my initial open-ended pose – probably 10 or 15 minutes – I moved on to brisker work. 5-minutes, 5, 3, 2, 1, 1, 3 and 5-minute poses followed, mostly standing on the table tops. To complete the first half I went 10-minutes seated with one arm wrapped around one knee, and 10-minutes kneeling as if about to start a sprint. I was pleased with the latter as I’d overheard a murmur of doubt about whether I could hold it.

After the break I swapped rooms with Pip and finished the session with a single long pose that probably lasted about three-quarters of an hour. There was no applause at the end, as sometimes happens in life drawing groups, but afterwards several artists approached me individually and complimented my poses – that meant an awful lot to me. Thank you, artists of SketchPad Drawing.