Waterloo Action Centre, London, 18 August 2026

4 Sep 2026

In July and August, when education establishments take a long break between terms and even several informal art groups call time-out for a few weeks, London Drawing steps into the void with its Summer Schools.

I’d been booked for a ‘One Day Portraits’ summer school at Waterloo Action Centre with artist Kim Scouller. The course had sold-out (showing not everyone disappears at summertime), with sixteen people signed-up to sharpen their skills.

It was a two-day course and I was one of two models (Santosh, the other) posing for the second day. We sat back-to-back with a colourful fabric-draped partition between us and each with eight artists standing at easels arranged in an arc before us.

There’s not much to say about the actual business of modelling for classes like these as it’s just sitting… sitting… zero movement… only sitting… fending off drowsiness… sitting… sitting… breaks every 20 minutes… hour for lunch… sitting… sitting…

There was a 10-minute warm-up then a demo of charcoal sketching by Kim, followed by 20 minutes’ practice time with charcoals for the artists. Next, a demo by Kim using oil paints, which led into the meat of the course: artists oil-painting small portraits.

The nuggets of joy for us models come largely from sharing this creative process; the highs and lows; magic and redemption; satisfaction and achievement. It’s the people, of course. Characters. Nice people. It was a privilege to be their focus.