Bridge House, London, 9 May 2016

Three months on from my first visit to Bridge House, I was back posing for Anerley and Penge Life Drawing. It being mid-springtime, our natural light lasted longer, the ambient temperature was well warmer, yet the ambience of the room was every bit as friendly as it had been in late winter. Ten artists had come along to draw, and I was to present them long poses. “Long” in this instance is a relative measure as, rather than lasting hours, these poses would range from a quarter to half an hour.

I began standing with hands behind my head for 15-minutes, then followed it sitting on the floor for 15-minutes with my face buried in the crook of my elbow upon a chair – a current favourite pose. After this I sat on said chair for 30-minutes, taking us up to the break. For the second half of the session I stood for 20-minutes with legs crossed and one hand on the back of neck, and closed the evening’s work with 25-minutes back in the chair, lounging with my legs across one of its arms.

There was just time for me to check out the artists’ efforts before having to dash away. It’s amusing, when one has sat fully naked in front of a crowd of people for almost two hours, to see nearly half the artworks created were portraits. In the group’s small side room, however, there’s barely a couple of yards between the model and those drawing so it’s understandable they might not capture the full figure. Most importantly, they all seemed to enjoy themselves. I certainly did.