The Conservatoire, Blackheath, 4 December 2017

This was the last Monday evening life drawing session of term at The Conservatoire. Judging by the amount of sparkles on the floor of the life room, I guessed the previous class had been making Christmas decorations… though I’m not sure what accounted for the peculiar sandy texture underfoot. The broad square platform on which I usually work had gone missing, so I would begin upon a carpet of cushions and sheets in the round of easels, opening with three 1-minute poses.

A mini menagerie of man-shapes made up the middle poses. For 5-minutes I became a monkey – think six-foot-four spider monkey rather than chimp – stalking across the forest floor on fingers and toes. Next, for 10-minutes, I was a penguin: straight-legged and straight-armed, leaning forward to inspect some curious object on the ice; a long-limbed, plucked penguin. A single pose would occupy the rest of the session, and for this I acquired frog legs.

Tutor Victoria Rance often favours getting me into poses that are either symmetrical or compact, or both. This one was all the above as I perched upon portable steps and a cubic box, with my heels near to my buttocks and hands with interlinking fingers on top of my head. I sat like this for four innings of 20-minutes each. It wasn’t particularly uncomfortable – numb fingers were my only affliction – but some great drawings were the result. It has been another very good term in a superb art space.