The day was billed as “figure drawing” which was somewhat ambiguous as far as I was concerned, usually it would stated as “Portrait” or as “Life drawing” – one being a clothed model, the other most definitely naked. But, either way, I was going to go to the art workshop and would enjoy it, and more importantly would learn from the session.
I arrived at the venue, and found a lot of faces there that I knew, and as I greeted the ones I am closest to with pecks on the cheeks and smiles of greeting, I realised as I glanced around the room that there should have been two faces there that I didn’t know, and they weren’t. The fact that one of them would have been the model, and the other the tutor, was somewhat important I felt……. :)Â and when I enquired from the woman who was running the workshop she shrugged and professed she had no idea where they had got to, and presumed they would both be there shortly.
Five minutes later, one of them appeared, the model it turned out, and when asked had no idea where the tutor was either although they do work together regularly as a partnership. Whilst she waited with us, I smiled and asked “Are you posing clothed, or nude? I’m not quite sure what the arrangement is”. She replied looked slightly perplexed and said  “Nude, as far as I’m aware”. Ok, well, at least we know what to expect now!
The tutor arrived five minutes later, with tales of the sat nav taking a detour from North Derbyshire where she had come from, and the class started on time. There wasn’t much for the tutor to set up, since it was us who were drawing, and the model was the only thing we would be drawing. She went off to undress and returned in a robe, the usual attire for a life drawing model. The tutor said we’d do three 3 minute drawings on one piece of A3 paper, the artists grouped in a circle around the model, so she would do one pose, but rotate twice so we all got the chance to draw her from the front, the rear, and from the side. This was just a warm up for the artists, and I recognised it as such since I’ve done life drawing so many times, and since the tutor didn’t know any of us there, it gave her the chance to see what we were each capable of, and she went around each in turn, making a comment where it was needed regarding sizing, although I was gratified that she said nothing when she saw my work, other than a pat on the shoulder and one word “Good!” as she passed on to the next person.
And it was nice to hear one of the women there who knows my work well say “I want to see what Jackie has done!” since she knew that I am more used to erotic figure drawing than most of them.
After that, we did another pose as the model leant down on one leg, showing the way the weight of her body was resting on it.
And we did a pose drawing the model but not looking at the paper.
Next was a pose starting at the feet and working up the paper.
After that a pose made of tones instead of lines.
After that a pose made using our fingers dipped in charcoal, making the picture only with our digets and not with the charcoal.
After that the picture was to be done with charcoal for the darks, and white chalk for the lights, on a mid-tone paper – being the third tone accordingly.
And lastly, in this fun session, we all used our other hand – left in my case – to see what image we could create with the left (mostly) and most creative of our hands. And I was gratified we did this one, since I had requested that we could half an hour earlier when I could see what we were doing, as I know how much I enjoyed it last time I did it, and found the art much improved because of it.
That took us to lunch time, and after an hours break, we started again with the proper poses – two of them, of about an hour each, where we could use all of the techniques we had practiced in the morning. I enjoyed it, but at the end looked at the pictures I had created and was reminded of why I do erotic art! They were *just* life drawing poses, neither anything I want to frame, nor something I want to throw away, just useful drawings, as life drawing always is, most useful, due to the soft undulating curves of the body, and the way it has to be viewed, and captured on paper, and shown as a full figure, with the limbs the right length and looking like they are joined to the body and the neck is strong enough to hold the head up, and where the weight of the body is resting. All very useful for drawing practice, and a good art session, as I had expected.
I won’t show you what I did on the day, theyr’e just life drawing poses, but here is a drawing I did a few years ago that is a lovely life drawing I think, soft and sensual, a lovely pose, and a simplicity about it that I like very much.