Waterloo Action Centre, London, 23 July 2025

28 Jul 2025

Even before I arrived for this London Drawing session at Waterloo Action Centre, my torso muscles felt tender. After the previous evening’s exertions, for animators at Framestore, I’d begun my day with a morning yoga class that concentrated on back bends. Then a few hours later came this; I was starting to feel my age.

But one learns to compensate. In life modelling as in yoga, the wisest approach is to follow each pose with a counterpose. It helps to restore balance within the body and, most importantly, avoids continually straining the muscles in the same direction. So I prioritised this consideration when deciding my poses.

Of course, in an opening hour comprised entirely of short poses in a room that fizzes with the energy of 30+ artists, one inevitably gets carried away and makes a few bad choices, but in the main it felt great; no damage done. After the break, two 20-minute seated poses – a bit twisty, naturally – slowed the pace nicely. Full-ish recovery.