My very first life drawing session
Content warning: tasteful illustrated nudity ahead!
I’m trying to fight the doom and gloom by doing things that I like, or at the very least things that I can see myself enjoying. Life drawing (or figure drawing—I’m still not sure if there’s a difference between the two terms) is one of those things I’ve been meaning to try for quite some time, and when I found an event in my area, I thought, great, now’s the chance! I asked a friend if she wanted to come with, and she said yes and brought another friend, and so we went.
We arrived five minutes before the event start, which was… a choice. We had underestimated the amount of people attending, and so we struggled a bit to find seats. Materials were provided by the organiser, but I brought my own pad and an additional, tinier sketchbook. The light was a bit dim, and because of my eye disease, I struggled a bit to see, or rather I found myself squinting more often than I would’ve liked… When the model arrived in the room and took off her robe, I immediately felt a bit embarrassed. It’s not that I’m fussed by nudity; it was just the suddenness of the gesture, marking a clear boundary between clothed and naked. I was like, Oh, okay! It’s starting, then! The model started doing some quick poses, which got increasingly longer and longer. Here’s the first sheet I filled: you can tell which ones were the quicker ones!
The quick poses were a great way to get my hands moving, and even if I don’t love the end result for all of them, I can pinpoint some artistic decisions I really like. Drawing from life forces you to observe really intently, not taking anything for granted. It felt more like an exercise in observation rather than one in illustration. Initially, I imagined I would stylise my drawings, make them look cartoony. My background is in manga-style illustration, so it’s the style I usually default to. As I was drawing, though, I found myself wanting to depict what I saw with immediacy and as much accuracy as I could muster. After this quick poses, I did one on my tinier notebook; forcing myself to work with less space was a great way to focus on some details instead of the model in her entirety.
One thing I should mention is that I haven’t drawn anything in ages. Literally years. This was my first time seriously picking up a pencil and having a go at it in so long, and I was happy to say that I still got it, I think. I felt quite proud too. My drawings are not perfect and I know that I did not capture the model’s likeness when it comes to her face, but something about drawing the body made me feel curious, energised and contemplative at the same time. My trick, when it comes to drawing, is to pay attention to the negative space. Rather than thinking, Now I’m drawing the arm, now the hand, now the finger, etc., I ask myself: What is the relationship between this element and this other one? How does the shape of the negative space affect the elements around it? It’s a fairly simple suggestion that I found dazzling when I discovered it, and it helped immensely with this session.
The last pose I want to share was one of the more challenging, because the model was lying on the floor, creating a sort of perspective that isn’t easy to recreate if you’re not used to drawing all that often. But I really like how this drawing turned out:
All in all, I loved the experience. My favourite thing was, I think, the moment in which stuff started to make sense and I could draw somewhat freely (still within the confines of representing the person ahead of me). Something liberating about it. But most importantly, I was surprised by that moment in which I thought: This is something I can totally see myself getting better at if I just keep doing it consistently. An intoxicating thought, because the idea of progress seemed so tactile and within reach. So exciting! I already signed up for the next session, and I intend to go back whenever I get the chance.