Bridge House, London, 31 October 2016

Having posed for Halloween-themed life drawing events during the preceding week, the time had come for me to get into character on the day itself. I left work, changed, and set out again on the stygian streets of south London to catch a train bound for Penge. All around me, parents were encouraging gangs of small creepy-costumed children to harvest sweets from every household that put a candle-lit pumpkin head outside…

I’d arrived early at Bridge House to allow plenty of time for getting ghoulish before the artists of Anerley and Penge Life Drawing began joining us. Tatiana – the group’s organiser – had already prepared the pose space and piled trick-or-treat sweets on all the tables. With a sponge and brush she applied white and black Snazaroo paints to my face, taking care that the resulting design would be more skull than panda.

And so to work. Just like my last booking at the venue, this was to be a short pose session – always my favourites. Two poses of 2-minutes, three of 5-minutes and three of 10-minutes took us to our break. I tried to look bony throughout, which meant either extended bent limbs, or a thrust-out ribcage, or being twisted and knotty while seated. In the second half, my three poses of 15-minutes were: seated; standing; reclining.

I enjoyed the evening. The theme and circumstances provided a good opportunity for settling into some thoughtful poses that could either be interesting and varied in their own right, or offer suitable inspiration for the drawing of skeletons. After we’d packed away and enjoyed a post-session drink and chat, I headed back north on the London Overground… while still painted skull-like. Sometimes it’s nice to take work home.