Was this session still going ahead? That’s what I pondered as I waited in the lift foyer on the 13th floor of London College of Communication – part of University of the Arts London (UAL) – hoping someone would let me through the security door to the classrooms. It was 5:59pm, we were due to start at 6pm, yet no-one was around.
At that point tutor Dolph van Eden arrived, but he shared my predicament. Neither of us are issued door passes by the college, so we have to rely on students to let us in. That’s a bit of a problem if the students don’t turn up. Fortunately a security guard on his rounds was able to open the door. Ten minutes later, the first student arrived.
The first student also turned out to be the only student – no idea what became of the rest. I was expecting maybe up to a dozen. Not a problem for me, though. One tutor, one student and one model is enough for a class. The primary focus was portraiture, but we started and finished with full-figure life poses.
Classroom sessions with only one person drawing tend not to be economically viable in the long run but there’s a nice intimate quality to them when they occur. As always, Dolph’s tuition made fascinating listening; no mental exercises necessary to the pass time. Most importantly, of course, our student seemed to take lots of positives.
Pose minutes, 6pm-8pm
Part 1 : 10, untimed demos, 15, 20.
— break —
Part 2 : 12, 14.
Artworks
Demo artworks by Dolph van Eden.
Sixteen weeks after a particularly cold evening of life drawing at Topolski Studio for one of Adrian Dutton’s groups, I was back… and so too was the ‘arctic blast’. I was rather unlucky as temperatures had been unseasonably high only a few days before, but then plummeted. Such is life. As per my November booking, I got on with it.
On the plus side, at least this time the three little fan heaters did not keep cutting out. All are so weak, however, that on their own they couldn’t possibly overload the studio circuits. The failures occurred last time when portable radiators were also plugged-in. This time no radiators were in use, so no failures, but also no prospect of extra heat.
As a model in these situations the key is to plan poses well in advance. I knew all the likely pose lengths for the whole session before I started, so mentally I planned how I would alternate between standing, sitting and reclining, constantly changing direction in the round, such that I could best avoid two successive ‘cold’ poses.
‘Cold’ poses are the ones that are too remote either from the proximity or direction of the heaters for them to provide any respite. A 20-minute standing pose at the start of the second half was my one truly shiveringly-cold position but I’d taken it on knowing that I would finish the session sitting with a heater close to my back. I survived.
Pose minutes, 7pm-9pm
Part 1 : 15, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 5, 10, 15.
— break —
Part 2 : 20, 20.
Artworks
With apologies to artists I’m unable to credit.
Artwork by Francesca Resta.
Part 1 had been and gone, so had my snacks for the half-hour interval. It was time to begin part 2 of this London Drawing double session at Waterloo Action Centre. As is often the case when our focus moves to longer poses, fewer artists were attending in total, but some came especially, and a few stayed on from the previous two hours.
As per part 1, artist Andrea Voisey was leading the session. Roughly the first third of our time was given over to warm-up work with poses not exceeding 10 minutes. After this we moved on to our two long poses. I was seated for both, albeit presenting very different attitudes and angles.
The last pose on a soft padded chair ought to have been the most comfortable but as is so often the case, I managed to make it painful. I’d perched on the very edge of the chair so its side arms wouldn’t obscure me, and I tilted my body forward but too much over to the right. Hours later I was still paying for those decisions in achiness.
Interesting feedback on that last pose from one artist, however, was they loved trying to capture the curve of my back. It’s fascinating that, despite all my efforts to create a pose with forward-facing limbs, lines, angles and spaces that offered equal challenge all around the room, it was a part of me I couldn’t see that caught the attention.
I’ve become a curvy model at last.
Pose minutes, 4pm-6pm
Part 1 : 10, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 5, 27.
— break —
Part 2 : 40.
Artworks
With apologies to artists I’m unable to credit.
Artwork by Andrea Voisey.
This double session at Waterloo Action Centre with London Drawing was an oasis of life modelling. Prior to this I’d been away travelling for over three weeks, and after I had to cancel all the next week’s bookings for personal reasons. This one day though was a joy. Back-to-back two-hour slots, starting with shorter poses.
There’s a lot of room to fill at Waterloo Action Centre, but filled it was. Every available space was taken by artists arranged in a double horseshoe, with the inner horseshoe sitting and the outer standing at easels. My own station was a short runway of carpet with heaters either side and a couple of seating options for later poses.
Maybe because it had been so long since I’d last modelled, I really got into this work. Both sessions were led energetically and insightfully by Andrea Voisey. I could pass the time quite happily just listening to Andrea’s artistic advice and guidance. Our two hours raced by, as did the half-hour break that followed, taking us to part 2…
Pose minutes, 1:30pm-3:30pm
Part 1 : 7, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 10.
— break —
Part 2 : 20, 20.
Artworks
With apologies to artists I’m unable to credit.
Artwork by Yoon-Kit Yong.
Artwork by Yoon-Kit Yong.
Artwork by Tim Daly.
Artwork by Yoon-Kit Yong.
Artwork by Yoon-Kit Yong.
Some professions seem to gravitate towards life drawing more than most. Animators, illustrators and digital designers are ubiquitous at drop-in sessions or organising their own groups. Less obvious, though often well represented, are architects.
Yet surely no profession potentially benefits more from honing hand-eye coordination through close observation of anatomy than surgeons. If they attend drop-in sessions, it’s perhaps understandably low-profile – off-Instagram – but I assume a few join-in.
It’s more usual, I suspect, for surgeons and medical institutions to organise their own dedicated life drawing classes. My first encounter with one was this informal ‘surgical life drawing’ meet-up for University College London (UCL) Surgical Society.
I believe this was their first such event. Bare Life Drawing sources models for them, and gave me the honour of getting them started. Organisers of the sessions are from the Surgical Society itself. I found them bursting with ideas and enthusiasm.
Their plan is to choose a particular skill as the theme of each event. Diving straight in at the deep end, they launched with ‘ambidextrous life drawings‘: draw conventionally with one hand while simultaneously drawing a mirror image with the other. Not easy!
What may have been a baptism of fire for life drawing newcomers actually resulted in laudable works. I kept my poses relatively uncomplicated. The challenge was already arduous without me making it even more knotty. It’s important to read the room.
Future themes are set to be ‘painting with scissors‘, ‘surgical movement and gesture‘, ‘joints and bends‘, and ‘flesh folds and skin‘. I wish them all the very best – especially when these skills translate to real life, holding a scalpel instead of a pencil.
Pose minutes, 7pm-9pm
Part 1 : 5, 5, 10, 10, 15, 15, 7.
Artworks
With apologies to artists I’m unable to credit.
I wasn’t quite feeling 100% as I returned to London College of Communication – a part of University of the Arts London (UAL). A curious array of mild cold symptoms had been taking turns to appear without ever manifesting sufficiently to be a big deal. Today it was the turn of slight snuffles.
I arrived to find tutor Anne Noble-Partridge of London Drawing sounding very husky courtesy of her own cold’s tail-end effects. Everybody seems to have had something. Worse than snuffles, however, I was also experiencing painful stomach bloating. The timing of this was regrettable as Anne wanted students to see me as a skeleton.
Mercifully, the whole session was to be one of imagination. Students were not tasked with drawing me as they saw me. Rather, they were to consider what lay beneath my skin and muscle (and bloat) to draw only my inner frame – pelvis solid, spine curving, ribcage twisted, shoulders tilted – either in stick-figure form or assembled bones.
After warm-ups and a demo, there was time for five poses. As I continued to manage stomach pains, I was relieved to be told two reclining poses were required at the end. I’m afraid the standing poses were not my best dynamic work, but maybe this was an accidental kindness to students struggling with the challenge. We all survived.
Pose minutes, 6pm-8pm
Part 1 : 5, 5, untimed demo, 10, 10-15, 10-15.
— break —
Part 2 : 20-25, 20-25.
Artworks
With apologies to artists I’m unable to credit.
Back at The Conservatoire, after the short warm-up poses apparently it was my turn to stand (as opposed to sitting or reclining) for the evening’s long pose. The last time I’d stood for the 2-hour pose – 90 minutes plus breaks – it was in the style of ‘Balzac, étude de nu C, grand modèle‘ by Auguste Rodin.
Tutor Victoria Rance asked me to recreate the Balzac pose once more, but this time with feet squarely aligned rather than one foot a step forward. Victoria always prefers symmetrical poses. I was happy to comply although I suspected the stance made me look less like a 19th century French novelist, more like a 20th century club doorman.
The pose itself was easy to maintain and heaters kept me sufficiently warm. The only ache was a stiff neck. Psychologically however, it was interesting to notice how much more ‘naked’ I felt in this pose. Maybe because it didn’t feel like a ‘pose’; I was simply standing, the same as in everyday life… but open, exposed, unshielded, vulnerable.
Pose minutes, 7:30pm-10pm
Part 1 : 1, 1, 1, 5, 10.
— break —
Part 2 : 45, (20-minute rest), 30 continuation, (5-minute rest), 15 continuation.
Artworks
With apologies to artists I’m unable to credit.
steve ritter 