Homerton library, London, 1 June 2023

For many a moon Bruce Thomas has supported Adrian Dutton’s groups both as a life drawing artist and, for want of a better way to say it, technical assistant. Now he’s applying his skills to a project of his own: lifedrawing.art. This includes Thursday life drawing sessions in-person and via Zoom at Homerton library. I was his model #14.

The first floor space in the library is ideal, with plenty of room for all. Bruce sets up an array of lamps, even using a red filter where low-level lighting would otherwise be too bright for artists when in their line of sight. We began with a 10-minute standing pose, followed by four poses of 90 seconds each, then poses of 5, 5, 10 and 15 minutes.

Bruce is keen on my idiosyncratic hand gestures when posing so I tried to keep them interesting throughout. At the half-time break those same hands harvested crisps and chocolates from the complimentary buffet, washed down by a mug of tea made using the library’s on-tap boiling water. We finished with poses of 20 and 25 minutes.

This group is quite new so artist numbers are relatively low, but its potential is high. It was nice to see some familiar faces from Adrian’s group (no conflict of timing), plus a few first-timers. Book your ticket at the summertime special rate – £10 in-person, or £5 via Zoom – and tell all your friends you were there in the early days! 🙂

Of course, this being Bruce’s project he’s made an Instagram Reel of my efforts…