Figuration life drawing events at The Sparrowhawk are held just once a month, so I considered it something of a rare treat to get this booking. I met Figuration co-founder, animator and artist, Leo Crane on the first floor preparing the room for a 7pm start. We chatted about the session and life in general until, at the appointed hour, he asked me to commence with five poses of 2-minutes and three poses of 5-minutes.
© Leo Crane, Figuration
© Leo Crane, Figuration
© Leo Crane, Figuration
When Leo’s Figuration co-founder partner and professional model, Roy Butler booked me for this evening he asked me what music I enjoy. Figuration playlists are designed with the model in mind! After some thought I replied: “For life drawing, I tend to favour mellow. Maybe think ‘Teardrop’ by Massive Attack, that kind of thing.” Teardrop duly opened a superb assemblage of tracks. Next up for me: 10 and 15-minute poses…
© Leo Crane, Figuration
© Leo Crane, Figuration
After a short break for refreshments we finished the session with poses of 15-minutes, 20-minutes and 18-minutes. Temperatures were falling but Roy’s playlist was warming up nicely: ‘Pure Morning‘ by Placebo was followed by a little Portishead, DJ Shadow and – such a treat – The Beta Band, ‘B + A‘. Well it was a treat for me anyway. Great intuition, Roy! For the full collection, check out Spotify: Drawing Steve.
© Leo Crane, Figuration
© Leo Crane, Figuration
I had expected to enjoy this session and wasn’t disappointed. Leo and Roy are two of the nicest guys anyone could meet; the artists here were very friendly and easy-going too. Attention to detail in the organisation, messaging, promotion and materials for the room was exemplary. These events come around only once each month so it could be years till I get another chance to model here, but I’m grateful to have had this one.
On my fifth visit to Rhodes Avenue Primary School, I found myself life modelling for parents in a third different space. After two sessions in the art room and two sessions in the large hall this was our first time in the small hall. We began with three poses of 3 to 5 minutes (fluid times), which our eight artists captured using loose scribbly lines. Next came poses of 6 and 10 minutes in front of the gym climbing frames, and then a 20-minute pose in a crucifix stance, holding the frames while artists drew the negative spaces around me.
There isn’t a half-time interval in these sessions, but there’s often time between poses for the artists to appreciate each other’s work and for group organiser Rosie to explain different techniques. For this evening’s final pose lasting 40-minutes, Rosie suggested drawing big. Huge rolls of paper were brought out, from which each artist cut a strip of about two metres and taped it to the floor. Further tape was glued onto the paper as a representation of the gym frame. Then each artist took a brush fastened to one end of a thin pole and commenced floor painting whilst standing directly over their sheet.
I watched with detached curiosity from my perch on top of a vaulting frame. It’s highly unusual for me to be able to see artworks being produced. Usually the paper is either angled away from me or beyond the limits of my short-sightedness. Rosie shared out Turkish delights and – apart from one artist who preferred sticking to traditional pencil drawing – everybody threw themselves into the challenge with great spirit. At the end, one artist said she struggled to draw me when I’d first modelled for the group but now she felt she’d got the hang of me. Loose lines and lots of fun can do that.
A hectic month is ahead of me. On top of my Monday to Friday full-time day job, I’m usually content with just one or two life model bookings each week to help sustain a sensible work/life balance… yet somehow I find myself with nine bookings in the first fifteen days of October, evenings and weekends, taking me to all corners of London.
Day 1: the insanity begins in Kentish Town, at a corporate booking arranged through City Academy. I’ve modelled at this workplace a couple of times previously, and am familiar with the terrain, even if their main door is now on another side of the building. Five colleagues were staying after hours to draw me on this occasion.
The session unfolded in an ultra-modern multi-media production space – no windows, minimal furnishing and an enormously expensive collection of dark technology at one side. We work in complete silence, exacerbating the overall eeriness, yet the energy is high as poses are very rapid: five of 1-minute, five of 2-minutes, five of 5-minutes…
We finish the first half with a ‘long’ pose of 8-minutes. I’m then left alone in the space during a break for refreshments (yes, I’m offered water). When we resume, we closed the evening with two 20-minute poses. Amid all the computers I found a wooden pole, so I made use of that. And then I dressed and left; October’s journey has begun!
I’ve been booked many times by Adrian Dutton but always to life model for one of his own groups. This evening, however, would be different as Adrian was tutor and I was his model at a company’s life drawing session in modern offices near Tottenham Court Road. Seven colleagues had stayed after-hours to make art at the end of their working day. We began with one pose of 10-minutes, five of 1-minute, then 5 and 20-minutes.
It was a pleasure to be working with Adrian again and also a relief as he arrived a few minutes late, having been involved in a vehicle collision while on the road into London. Mercifully nobody was injured and, after dealing with the immediate aftermath, he was able to drive on. Such is his natural serenity and composure that we would never have suspected something serious had happened if we were not told.
After a short break we resumed the session with another 10-minute pose, followed by three more of 1-minute, and finally 25-minutes to the end. Camaraderie, good humour, natural talent, and a willingness to learn were all present in the room, which made for an atmosphere that was relaxed yet focused in all the right places. Both my unusual physique and style of poses were respectfully appreciated, so… nice work!
I arrived quarter of an hour early at The Star by Hackney Downs and glanced around for Drawing the Star organiser Catherine Hall. Failing to find her in the bar or at the seats outside, I went up to the first floor. No joy there either but the function room was immaculately prepared for life drawing, and the evening’s soundtrack already playing. I decided it was best to stay put and get changed into my dressing gown.
Meanwhile, somewhere downstairs, Catherine was waiting for me to arrive. No alarms however, just ships in the night. Come our 7:30pm start time she sailed into the room surrounded by an ocean of artists. Everybody grabbed art materials and chose a seat. Some had been here earlier, using boards and paper to reserve their favourite vantage point – the art equivalent of beach towels on hotel sunbeds. We started at once.
5-minutes, 4, 3, 2, three of 1-minute, three of 30-seconds, then 10-minutes and lastly 8-minutes rounded off a first half of quick-fire poses. When the artists returned from a drinks break, they voted on their pose-time preference for our final half-hour: 10-10-10, 15-15, 10-20, or a single 30-minute pose. Unexpectedly they opted for one long pose. Possibly unprecedented! So I sat on a stool and rewarded them with lots of angles.
I felt confident the resulting artworks would justify a few extra aches and pains. This is still a great venue. I’d last posed here in July, but my most recent visit was a fortnight ago when Sky News came to film superb model Leonora ‘JiggleChick’ at work, and interview Esther about her Spirited Bodies campaign promoting life drawing to young people as a way of developing body positivity in the social media age. Here’s the clip:
With thanks to Sky for supporting #ScrollFreeSeptember, an initiative by the Royal Society for Public Health to encourage healthier relationships with social media.
It is at least heart-warming, if not entirely room-warming, to enter a life drawing studio and find a single fan heater already purring at the heart of the space. Temperatures in London had plunged over the past three days, so this gesture by The Conservatoire was appreciated. In due course a second heater was switched on, then at 7:30pm we warmed-up properly with opening poses of 1-minute, 1, 1, 5 and 10-minutes.
So to our 2-hour pose. “Are you feeling energetic?“, asked tutor Victoria Rance when she arrived, “We haven’t had a long standing pose yet this term.” It is entirely possible that enthusiasm wasn’t etched vividly across my face; duly the idea evolved to see me perching upright on a high stool instead. I didn’t feel too guilty as I had volunteered the last term’s only long standing pose during my previous visit. I made my perch…
Preliminary study in a notebook.
Quick end-of-evening sketch from the rear.
Rest breaks took the actual pose time below 2-hours but I was still sitting motionless from 8:05 to 8:45, 9:05 to 9:30, and 9:35 to 9:55. It was far from the least comfortable position I have sustained and whilst I was never quite bathed in heat, the temperature remained satisfactory. How gladdening at the end to see so many artists on form and working with colour. They should all be well pleased with a good evening’s work.
Lochaber Hall in Hither Green has had a make-over; a new floor and removal of a low false ceiling to reveal a greater window area above the main entrance that allows more natural light to flood the room. All in all, improvements conducing to good life drawing.
This 3-hour session opened with seven poses of 5-minutes each, followed by a single pose of 20-minutes. I hadn’t reckoned on this being the first chilly day of autumn. Not a problem for the 5-minuters, but I felt the bite of bitter cold whilst standing for 20.
The remainder of the session would be occupied by one 2-hour pose, split into halves of an hour each. I accepted the offer to recline, and even more gratefully accepted the warm air blowing from heaters that were switched on at either end of my twisted form.
Before the interval for tea, masking tape was placed all about me to help me get back exactly into position. I’m sure this wasn’t quite achieved but, despite me asking twice, the artists didn’t seem fiercely concerned. They refocused and drew me very well.
steve ritter 