The Star by Hackney Downs, 5 March 2019

After a week recharging in Jandía on sunny Fuerteventura, I resumed life modelling with Drawing the Star. It was my first time back at The Star by Hackney Downs in 2019. New brighter lights had been fitted but otherwise all was comfortingly familiar.

We opened with short pose times getting ever-shorter: 5-minutes, 4, 3 and 2-minutes, three of 1-minute, three of 30-seconds. The first half ended with two 10-minute poses starting with a dramatic one-arm-raised, other-arm-pointing stance.

When the pointing was done, I pulled up a low stool and perched upon it with one leg folded beneath me, the other extended and my torso leaning to the right. The primary consideration was to offer variety, both on the night and across all recent visits here.

After the break, organiser Catherine Hall asked the artists whether they would favour one 30-minute pose, two of 15-minutes, three of 10-minutes, or a 10 and a 20. After a little haggling, the consensus settled on 10-minutes and 20-minutes.

I believe the choice of 10 and 20 meant that I’ve now had the complete set of possible second half permutations over various visits… or maybe it happened ages ago and I’d lost track. It doesn’t matter; I hope I’ll get to do them all again many times to come.