The Star by Hackney Downs, 28 January 2020

Ah, a rotating a mirror ball hanging from the ceiling at The Star by Hackney Downs! In all my years posing for Drawing the Star, I couldn’t recall noticing that before. So for my opening 5-minute pose, I stood at full stretch, reaching up towards it. And then we continued: 4-minutes, 3, 2, three of 1-minute, three of 30-seconds.

Two poses each of 10-minutes would complete the first half. First I sat on a low stool, one leg extended and body tilted back, then I rotated and stood with elbows high and hands curled down on shoulder tops. A reliable playlist and flawless timekeeping took me through comfortably to our drinks break. A large red wine awaited.

It was a busy night, with about seventeen artists seated about the walls of The Star’s upstairs function room. A show-of-hands vote for our second half pose times seemed to have resulted in a tie between three of 10-minutes and two of 15-minutes… that is, until a latecomer returned, one hand holding his pint, the other held aloft for fifteens.

I lay down crookedly, then sat in such a way as to attempt square proportions. Alas, I didn’t succeed with the square, although it was still a nice shape. After the merriment of admiring artworks, I would have loved to stay for another drink but I had a late one the night before and would be late the next night too. Never mind! I’ll be back soon!