Rhodes Avenue Primary School, London, 1 May 2019

This had to be the most colourful life drawing session for which I’ve ever posed. Group organiser, Rosie had decided her artists could work with Brusho, and should need the first 10 minutes to prepare multi-hued sheets of paper. In fact they took a full half-hour; I’m sure these adults had more fun than the Rhodes Avenue Primary School kids!

The floor was a vivid kaleidoscope of water-spray and paint powder, not all of it hitting its intended marks. I simply stood at the sidelines and watched with awe. Eventually it was time for me to work, however. Each artists picked up their driest masterpiece and some black ink, then tried capturing me as I blazed through nine 20-second poses.

I was hugely impressed by how well the artists managed to reproduce my figure in so little time. The next challenge was to paint with the Brusho rather than painting onto it. Very short poses lengths again – 3-minutes, 5-minutes and 7-minutes – and again the artists excelled. I feel this is one of the most improved groups with which I work.

I was asked to make a longer pose next, 20-minutes, with a requirement that I include lots of angles and negative spaces – arguably my forte. I assumed a suitable position; the artists in turn began by capturing my outline on one of their Brusho’d sheets, then used black ink to fill the gaps – I probably could have rested while they filled-in…

Just 25-minutes remained, so I perched upon a stool for one final pose. Rosie allowed her group complete freedom to draw or paint my likeness in any way they preferred. A few opted for portraits while the rest went full-figure. Some stayed with Brusho, others reached for the comforting familiarity of charcoals and chalks.

This was the most creative fun I have shared with a life drawing group in a long time. I would recommend experiments with Brusho to anyone with a flair for colour. It may be quite messy but if that can be managed within the art space then certainly it’s worth a try. The possibilities are infinite, surprising, and very pleasing to the eye.