This Newsletter is nothing if not a committed advocate for drawing from life. I believe that you can’t “learn to draw” anything properly (and certainly artistically) if you never ever draw from life – whether in a life drawing session with a model, or simply sketching someone at home… or even sketching a houseplant.
There is a small problem with life drawing though… and it is the root cause for why so many amazing artists and drawers, beginners or advanced, feel stuck and frustrated with the practice.
It is that there is no tuition, direction or structured advice on how to draw the model.
In nearly every life drawing session, folks just show up with their supplies, the model takes a pose and everyone silently starts drawing. The only anchoring voice in this space (competing at any rate, with your own inner critic) is the person nominated to keep time of the poses.
The Problem Everyone Faces
For a complete beginner, how are you supposed to know what to do in short 1 minute poses? Or how are you supposed to know that intermediate poses can be used for experiment? Or that longer poses are enormously difficult for everyone, not just you?
And for seasoned artists, and people who attend life drawing every week…. How are you supposed to progress and develop your work, if there is no critical feedback and advice for how to change things up.
Going home, and studying anatomy or simplification of forms rarely helps with your drawing the next week. All that goes out the window when you are confronted with the individual and unique live model, and with timed poses.
There are certainly a few life drawings sessions that do have instruction or facilitation, but it is rare to find proper tuition and individual guidance outside formal education settings like art courses, or animation courses. I recently learned that even 3rd level fine art institutions don’t always offer “Life Drawing” as a taught subject. Or even as an open session during class hours. Students need to take it up themselves as an extra curricular option.
There are obvious plusses to an open life drawing session that has no tuition: it is a space for artists, by artists in which to work, alongside each other and to have the freedom of 3 hours un-interupted drawing time with a model. This is priceless. And a privilege. I don’t suggest that every life drawing session should be a “taught class” by any means.
But, I do think for beginners or anyone who feels stuck, it would be amazing to have some direction, or explanation, or at the very least some critical feedback to steer them in their weekly drawing.
My Own Struggle Was Just as Real
I used to go along to life drawing every week for years. (Hands up anyone who drew at the Tuesday and Thursday night life drawing sessions at the back of Trinity College, in Dublin? 🙌 )
I made the same stiff, and stylized figures week after week, always feeling out of my depth and insecure.
Until one day I found myself in an animation program in Ballyfermot and in a life drawing class with a brilliant and gifted teacher (anyone who went to Ballyfermot will know who I’m talking about!)
The first day in her life drawing class changed everything and opened a path for me that I would never have found otherwise. She told me to stop “phoning in” my drawings, to look directly at the model, and to draw from observation. She taught us techniques that developed mark making, line work and the language of drawing; and techniques that developed seeing with an artist’s eye.
So, I know exactly what it’s like to struggle with life drawing when you don’t have a clear process or plan. And I know exactly how high the stakes are for never breaking through that. I know the difference it makes to simply feel like you know what you’re doing. All of this to say, if you go to life drawing and feel unsure of what you should be doing, or do not know how to approach this difficult subject within the context of timed poses… Know that you are not alone! Everyone feels that way, and it is a factor of life drawing that is part and parcel of the challenge. But I can certainly help you.
If you do need any help, direction, or would love 1:1 feedback, let me know I would be more than happy to be your guide and help you to clarify your process and approach to life drawing. Simply reply to this email, or read more about my masterclass and coaching program below.
Curious about working with me in my Masterclass?
Read more here →
The Gesture Drawing Masterclass and Coaching Program
Throughout the month of June, you can join the Gesture Drawing Masterclass and Coaching program with this coupon: SUBS100 which gives you $ 100 off.
There is an option to pay monthly as well as in one installment.
Apart from the 4-module course, you will have access to the community page, a dynamic and supportive space where we share drawings and have weekly live sessions.
